Art Auctions: Greco-Roman Statuary

Art Auctions: Greco-Roman Statuary

The ancient civilizations that have come before this present period of time have always left behind some truly unique pieces to others after them to gain some insight as to what that society may have been like.  We learn much from the artifacts collected by archeologists, and their attempts throughout the Mediterranean region of the world, where the peoples of Greece and Rome had originally found their home.  Though much of these items are priceless works that cannot be just bought and sold, there are versions of some famous works that can be much cheaper for the casual shopper to purchase.

Many pieces of the genuine article are sometimes found wherever the Greco-Roman styling of things has been prominently featured in architecture or artwork, and there are very many varieties that you might consider as being included in the category with statuary, such as ornately crafted vases and busts.  Some of these aspects are certainly more common than many other varieties of this kind of work, with replicas of all of these items is much more common then one may think before coming to understand the rarity of these things, and that genuine articles will be priceless artifacts in some cases.

With the auctioning of statuary from an era previous, though, you can expect the pricing to be an obvious obstacle.  Unless adequate replicas can be found in someone’s catalog for a much cheaper price, then the buying of these curious grouping of items should be left to those with skill to know what they are getting.  Though this opinion may seem conceited, a person determined to find and retain a piece of Greek statuary should never feel as though it is out of their grasp to do so, and one should always know the rules when coming to realize what it can take to get such a wonderfully preserved piece of work.

In this light, replicas can be a much cheaper and functional means of finding the many differently appealing styled pieces to complete your collection of Greco Roman objects, and there are many prints of Greco Roman artwork for sale to be had for those art collectors thinking within a budget.  The actual pieces can be too much for any collector to reasonably purchase, as many pieces of that nature are housed within established places like museums, and exclusively linked to one association or another of experts that collectively buys and cares for the pieces.

For some of the smaller pieces from the age have been passed between collectors for many, many years, and still retain some hint of the past that created them.  Art auctioning has the flavor for some peoples’ tastes in the expensive, but the point of an art auction does not have to exclude anyone excited by the items put up for sale, anyone that feels an urge to acquire pieces from an ancient past should be able to participate with a little research into auctioning.  Though it may seem overwhelming at first, the experience of an art auction can be a truly special event, and the pricing should never spoil an art auction for those new to it.

With statuary of as historic a nature as the Greco-Roman period, and you consider the history behind some of the pieces, you will better understand somewhat the reminders that float through to us from history’s fingers.  Much of what know of their culture has been passed down for many thousands of years, and it is remarkable to see how the themes and subject matter has evolved as it relates to the centuries gone by, as all manner of time period has broken down into our own present day settings.  Greco Roman statues give us a literal model of how they perceived the world around them, and though similar and plausible for making comparisons against our own culture, those cultures from a distant past can be great reminders for us to look to for inspiration.

PPPPP

659

Art Auctions for Vintage Posters

Art Auctions for Vintage Posters

Vintage posters are always available at art auctions.  I have found all kinds of vintage poster art auctions lately.  I really liked a vintage poster I found that was from the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.  The poster is rare because it is one of the only 500 of the 10,000 printed that is in French.

Another vintage poster I found in an art auction was from 1917.  It depicts French woman in war time performing various tasks.  The poster celebrates the contribution of French women in the workforce.  During war time, French women made up forty percent of the workforce.

I’m always a sucker for old vintage posters of rock bands.  I look for them in art auctions all the time.  I like ones that are autographed, like the one from The Who that I saw recently.  I felt like the starting bid was a little high and so I didn’t try to win it.

I have been leaning more and more lately toward French vintage posters.  I found a vintage poster for Orangina that was printed in 1970 at an art auction recently.  I thought that the art auction would only get to one thousand dollars, but I was wrong.  The vintage poster sold for twelve hundred dollars.

My older brother needed something interesting for the walls of his new apartment.  I started looking for vintage posters in art auctions and found the perfect poster.  The one that I found featured race cars and he loves race cars.  The poster was from the 1965 Nurbergring Grosser Preis Von Deutschland and looked fantastic for being forty years old.

French advertisements seem to make the best vintage posters.  I like finding art auctions for posters advertising products like Lu Biscuits.  I found a great vintage poster for less than a thousand dollars and it looks great in my kitchen.

Vintage posters that relate to travel always get a lot of interest at an art auction.  I saw a lovely poster that was advertising the English Lake District in France.  The poster was produced in 1905.  I like viewing them, but I do not personally collect posters in this style.

I found a vintage poster at an art auction that advertised shoe polish.  This was a French poster that was made in the 1930’s.  I framed it and put it in my dressing room.  It fits in there perfectly and really adds to the feel of the room.

My sister married a man with a cycling shop.  They have used a variety of cycling related items to decorate their home.  My favorite piece is an old fashioned tricycle they keep in the formal living room.  I found a vintage poster in an art auction that depicted an advertisement for Celtic Cycles and they loved it when I gave it to them.

I found set of vintage posters of The Beatles that were made in 1967.  The posters were for sale an art auction I attended.  I have seen vintage posters designed by Richard Avedon before and I really liked his vision of The Beatles.  These vintage posters were well worth the two hundred dollars each I paid for them.

The vintage poster that I have my eye on right now is up for sale at an art auction coming up.  It is an Andy Warhol advertisement for Chanel perfume.  I want to win this vintage poster and frame it and hang it on the wall of my master bathroom.  It would be perfect there and would absolutely complete the look I was going for.

PPPPP

592

Art Auctions For Sculptures

Art Auctions For Sculptures

Art auctions for sculptures are a great way to find new art for your home or office.  I like to peruse the online auction sites for nice sculptures.  I have found some very interesting items when I’ve looked.

There was a sculpture sold on eBay recently that was entitled Love.  The art auction for this sculpture went above the estimated value.  The piece was red and blue and made of polychrome aluminum.  The French artist’s name was Robert Indiana.  The art auction listed the item as six feet tall, six feet wide and three feet deep.

I liked a hall stand that was carved from wood that I found in an online art auction.  The carving depicted a playful bear climbing a fir tree.  There was a young bear cub carved into one of the branches.  The branches were there to serve as garment hooks and there was even a mirror on the piece in a carved oak leaf designed frame.

There was an exquisite sculpture by a Russian artist that was sold recently in an art auction.  The subject of the sculpture was a Bar Mitzvah boy and the medium was marble.  I think that marble statues seem so timeless and elegant.  It is an excellent medium for a sculpture.

The wife of artist Yitzhak Danziger signed a certificate for the brass sculpture her husband completed in 1969.  Danziger is an Israeli artist.  The piece looked very abstract to me.  It did not do very well in the art auction and sold for less than it’s estimated worth.

I found a lot of bronze sculptures in the online art auctions.  Most of them were of people, but the ones I liked best were abstract.  My absolute favorite was a Harry Bertoia bronze sculpture called Bush.  This piece is also known as a Brain or Coral.  The bidding for this piece of art in the art auction was started at thirty nine thousand dollars.  It didn’t get a bidder.

I saw little interest in the bronze sculpture art auctions for animal figures.  I’m not sure if the reasons they didn’t get bidders were because of subject matter or because of price.  Bronze is an expensive medium for an artist to work in and it takes a lot of training to be proficient.

I have a favorite glass sculptor.  His work goes for so much in online art auctions that I will probably never own a piece of his work.  Dale Chihuly is magnificent.  There are permanent installations of his tremendous work all over the world.

Crystal sculptures look more like paperweights to me.  Online art auctions for glass representations of animals and sea life are really neat.  My favorite art auction recently was for a hand blown glass jellyfish.  It was magical.

I liked another online art auction for optical crystal that had been turned into a work of art by artist Christopher Ries.  The piece was small and called Lotus.  It would look so pretty in a well lit display case.

I’m jealous of the buyer that gets to call this sculpture their own.  They won the piece in the art auction for just under a thousand dollars.  This artist uses blocks of pure, clear lead crystal cast from Schott Glass Technologies of Duryea, Pennsylvania.  It is truly amazing art.  His work is prominently displayed in numerous galleries and even in the Columbus airport in Columbus, Ohio.

PPPPP

568

Art Auctions for Drawings

Art Auctions for Drawings

Art auctions for drawings are categorized into antique, modern and contemporary.  Antique drawings are any drawings that were produced before 1900.  Modern drawings have to have been created between 1900 and 1949.  Contemporary drawings are drawings that were created from 1950 until the present.

There are a lot of contemporary drawings listed in art auctions that never get a bidder.  There are many reasons for this.  One of the main reasons is that the starting bid is set so high that it discourages interest.  There was an art auction for a drawing that was created in 2000 that depicted James Dean welcoming Elvis Presley into heaven.  The starting price for this art auction was twelve million dollars.  I am not surprised that it did not get a bidder.

I found another pen and ink drawing in an art auction that was listed for a lot more than it was worth.  The original listing started at $825,000.00 and when it didn’t sell, the artist lowered the price to $545,000.00.  He offers the copywrite to the design, which he thinks would translate well for prints, posters or greeting cards.

There was an art auction for a drawing that was purchased in 1971 London that did very well.  The seller of the drawing inherited it from his grandfather, who was the original owner.  He started the bidding at a reasonable $599.00 and the drawing ultimate sold in the art auction for over twelve thousand dollars.  He did a great job describing and picturing the drawing.

Antique drawings in art auctions can garner a lot of interest.  I saw a drawing of two men in the nude that was drawn in the 1800’s go for more than eleven thousand dollars.  This drawing was pen and ink and had a brown wash and traces of charcoal on lines of black pencil.

I was very taken with an antique drawing made by Sir Francis Grant in 1832.  The drawing in the art auction was of a woman and her daughter in Scotland.  The drawing was a signed original and sold for two thousand dollars.  I hope that it ends up framed and hanging in a collection of similar pieces.  It was really nice.

Another reason that art auctions for drawings don’t sell is that they are listed in the wrong categories.  I found several contemporary pieces that were listed in the antique category.  With so much competition in art auctions, it is important to make sure every detail is noticed.

Modern drawings are by far my favorite art auctions.  I wanted the stamped Degas I saw up for auction, but it was way out of my budget.  I’m sure that the person that ended up with the highest bid at the art auction will love and treasure it.

Well known artist’s drawings can fetch a lot of money in online art auctions.  If the title of the art auction contains the words original Picasso, for example, it is sure to go over two thousand dollars.  If the item is signed, it can go for much more.

I really liked a drawing I found in an art auction from an artist that I was unfamiliar with.  The artist was Patrick Caulfield and he titled his drawing Grapes.  He used colored pencils on black paper in the late 1980’s.  This drawing sold for the opening bid, $4,250.00.

PPPPP

559

Art Auctions: Early American Art

Art Auctions: Early American Art

There are many very good examples of what you could call early American artwork that has survived to this day, and as time passes to create particular movements in style throughout the world, fundamental ideas change with a variation in locale and timeframe when it comes to the individual artists and their brilliant visions.  Each artist certainly contributing something to the overall picture of the world as it shapes and changes around them, it takes an artistic will strong enough to transcend any particular era to convey the feeling of the period in such a condensed format, and the various forms that this artwork can take is numerous.

There are many styles and mediums from which to choose your vintage piece of artwork, and when you do the adequate amount of research on the subject, then you will be better prepared to find that ideal painting or work by an artist that you can relate easier to.  With early American artwork, it can be a much shorter time to find and acquire a print of the piece that you would wish to own, and this can also be a more cost effective way of getting those works that can best be appreciated by your tastes in artwork and artist.

Early American art runs the spectrum from Native American art to the modernist painters and artists we can see presently, and their artwork can all be summed up under the category of early American art, creating a totally unique perspective on the American landscape.  When you wish to see a museum-quality piece in your own living room, there can be multiple ways to acquire the ideal artwork you find, and not all of them have to cost an arm or a leg.  If you think that the buying experience has to be an expensive one, then you are sorely mistaken, but any museum piece can be considered priceless in some hands.

There are various ways to deal with finding the bargain that suits your needs, and it does not always affect you to find a print and put a frame around it, the worth of many prints can be a way to bypass the expense of trying to buy one of these improbably affordable pieces.  If you happen to be cautious about buying a piece of questionable value, then perhaps purchasing an art print of such works can make it more worthwhile, and especially if you find yourself to be a novice in the art scene.  There are many places where you would be able to find printed reproductions, and can have them bought right on the premises of the location.

There is still much American artwork being produced that is quite relevant a reflection on the state of affairs as they stand throughout time, and no matter the period, there is certainly a way to find an example of what you are looking for whether the artist happens to be involved in a particular movement or otherwise at the time.  There are many various definitions that American art falls under depending upon when the work was made, though only after the nineteenth century did movements begin to be started in America, and it was then that artists like Jackson Pollack were given the freedom to express themselves.

This lead to the outgrowth of the Abstract Expressionist movement in art, came up out of the colliding of influences between Ashcan artwork and the modernists from Europe like the Cubists and abstract painters, and appeared in the years after World War II.  Within the mindset of this movement, the abandoning of formal composition gave way to arrangements that concentrated on space and color to represent the physical act of painting on the canvas, and created works based around instinct instead of representation of real objects.  These works would eventually affect the works of pop art that would come to prominence later in the century.

PPPPP

652

Art Auctions: Contemporary Art

Art Auctions: Contemporary Art

It is truly a wonderful thing when you consider how much we gain from our appreciation of art, what volumes it speaks about our own culture, and among cultures that make up the world besides our own.  It is highly fashionable to understand something of what art is, how it tries to reinterpret our own scope of the world on an artistic level, and yet reveals so much of the human nature behind its creation.  Today’s artistic minds are no different in the outgrowth of ideas onto a canvas’ surface, and some are possessed with similar qualities that those artworks considered classics have had in the past.

There is particularly unique insight coming from a lot of contemporary art, or so the label seems to include today’s works of art, with certain vagueness stemming from the lack of a dominant school of thought or ideology.  Most date contemporary art beginning towards the late 1960s, most artwork could be defined easily by particular details prior to this, and there were trends of these preferences even through to the 1980s.  After the Modernistic period of art was confirmed, much of the direction came to be rather disparate during periods of socio-political change, and many of the distinctions within art have been loosened dramatically.

With some critical opinions decrying the current of contemporary art to be devoid of "true beauty", critic Donald Kuspit was known to say that art had left the studio and found its’ way into the street, and that may not be that much for the worse with the blurring of many lines presently.  Today, contemporary art seems to reflect those issues being faced by the world, and the emphasis on politics seems to have intensified of late.  The shift drawing away from an ideal of beauty and purity to a complete opposing force of inspiration from socially oriented art, and often crosses the bounds of proper medium.

Though that is where the argument stops and conjecture begins as critics and artists alike clash in opinion over where the line is particularly between the various categories of thought, and it has been pieces of every different art movement being reevaluated in a similar way, in order to find that place that crosses over between art, artist, and audience, and creates a means for all of them to share space in the comprehensive concept to the artwork.  Making the gaps in the points between art and life smaller and smaller, and creating new ways in which to comprehend the ways of the things we view around us.

Engaging mass culture with affecting the boundaries of perception through the means of the relevant issues shaping the world as we know it, and today there are many schools and studios of contemporary art that try to help shape the practice of contemporary art that will translate to the future, allowing us introspective glimpses into the artist’s thoughts.  Creating interconnectedness that defies and defines what laws and life may continue to restrict, to analyze, and further define itself as multiple entities within one completely distinct from the sum of its’ parts.

When considering all of this information, at may seem overwhelming at first, but art is not impossible to understand if you concentrate on understanding what your tastes happen to be.  When not thinking about these things, it is easy to overlook the value of what you are purchasing, and you may not be able to get the most for what you wish to spend.  There are few lessons to learn that do not involve somewhat self-explanatory terms, but one must approach what appeals them with a frugal yet open state of mind, it can be much easier to find a good bargain with this mental state at hand.

Timing can sometimes be necessary to make the deal more lucrative for the buyer, and with some art auctions, it may be difficult to find some grounds on which to begin bidding.  However, with studious attention to what you wish your end goal to be, and you will have found a way to acquire at least some kind of facsimile to show for your efforts.  Depending upon how deeply you would wish to involve yourself in activities such as local viewings of artwork from contemporary artists, and perhaps you would even find a way to see the stirrings of the creativity from within, by becoming friends with local artists and networking.

PPPPP

736

Art Auctions: Art Deco

Art Auctions: Art Deco

In the field of modern art, art deco plays a large and impressively lavish role. The strong colors and sweeping curves lend art deco the trademark boldness that expressed much of the progress and modern advances of the twentieth century. Art auctions around the world still move many art deco pieces of various kinds. If you’re interested in collecting art deco, there are many art auctions both online and off that deal primarily in art deco.

In the twentieth century the decorative arts converged in what is known as the art deco movement, which grew to influence architecture, fashion, the visual arts as well as design. The term ‘art deco’ was derived from a World’s Fair held in Paris, France, called the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in the year 1925.

Though the movement and term comes from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the term was not widely used until the late 1960s. Especially pre- World War I Europe influenced the art deco movement, though many cultures influenced and were influenced by this art movement. Much of the world was experiencing similar shifts in modern technological advances.

For the most part, the art deco movement was brought about and inspired by the rapid advances of technological and social facets of the early twentieth century. As culture responded to these increasingly changing times, the art deco movement was an outgrowth of these modern phenomena.

Art deco is considered generally to be an eclectic type of decorative modernism that was influenced by a variety of artists and particular art forms. Art deco includes furniture, metalwork, clocks, glasswork and screens as well as paintings and other fine art types of pieces.

The art deco style is known for its lavishness and epicurean flairs that are attributed to the austerity of culture brought about by World War I. Strong patterns and bold colors and shapes were used, as were many particular motifs used universally.

For example, the sunburst motif was used in everything from the Radio City Music Hall auditorium, images of ladies’ shoes, the spire of the Chrysler Building and several other pieces of art, architecture and design. Other ubiquitous motifs found in art deco were stepped forms, the zigzag, chevron patterns and sweeping curves.

In the West, art deco lost its steam around the Second World War, but continued to be used all the way into the 1960s in colonial countries such as India, where it served as a gateway to Modernism. Then in the 1980s art deco made a comeback in graphic design. Art deco’s association with 1930s film noir led to its use in both fashion and jewelry ads.

Today art deco is revered by many and dismissed as old news and overly gaudy by others. Though it undoubtedly played a major role in art history, as with most art, individual taste frames the individual’s interpretation and like or dislike of art deco styles.

Art deco is one of the most well known art movements. This is mostly due to its wide base of influences and influenced art forms and cultures. Since much of the world was experiencing many of the same advances in technology and mass production, many of the same ideas and symbols were relevant in various parts of the world.

PPPPP

550