Painting
With 2014 behind us, it's time to look at some records made in the past year. 2014 was a year of records for many things; one of which was for items sold at auctions. Prices for artworks skyrocket into the millions. Here is an interesting read and details on some of the jaw dropping prices for the past year.
READ MORE HERE - ARTICLE FROM NY OBSERVER MAGAZINE
No matter where you travel, there is always some great art to see. So many talented artists are working with different media, different circumstances, different cultures... but is the modern world of art and it's art enthusiasts giving the emerging artists enough chance to show what they are capable of? or are we getting to the point where Art is losing its artistic value and just its good as long as its bringing in more cash... Banksy - who's a pseudonymous UK based graffiti artist, political activist, film director and painter - makes a point in NY by setting up a stall of his own original signed art work, each for 60$. Now mind you, the stall included small and large canvases, including a version of "Love is in the air". A limited edition of that work sold for $249,000 at auction this past summer.
By the end of that day, only few artworks were sold, some pieces were even bargained for lower than $60. Banksy described his motivation later as below:" I know street art can feel increasingly like the marketing wing of an art career, so I wanted to make some art without the price tag attached. There's no gallery show or book or film. It's pointless. Which hopefully means something."
I can't help but wonder, are we losing our interest in art for the sake of art? are we looking at it only as a financial investment? Is Banksy right proving in below video that if an amazing piece by a great artist - known or unknown - is not shown to us in a high-end gallery and/or with proper marketing, or better said, through the necessary connections, we might not look at it the same way or not even like it for that matter?
Feel free to watch Banksy's video on this :-
There are so many amazing cities to visit within Spain . As for me, I always wanted to go to Bilbao for one and only reason ; to visit Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum up close and once I was in front of it, I found it even more mesmerizing than the images we all have seen. The amazing Canadian/American architect has created a masterpiece using titanium, limestone and glass and has designed the seemingly random curves of the exterior in a way to catch the light and react to the sun and the weather. In fact, the building is more easily read than it first appears, to the south, the dialogue is with the city, stones, rectangles windows alined, to the north there is empathy with water; fluid shapes. When volumes are separated figurative silhouettes appear and although the metallic form of the exterior looks almost floral from above, from the ground the building resembles a boat, evoking the past industrial life of the port of Bilbao. Make sure to visit this amazing building on different time of the day. My favorite is by far when the sun is setting. You will be able to see the magic of Frank Gehry with lights and the way he plays with them... Make sure to watch "Sketches of Frank Gehry" - An inspiring documentary by Sydney Pollack.