Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Modigliani nude fetches record price

A painting of a nude by Amedeo Modigliani fetched nearly $US69 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York, setting a new record for the Italian painter.

The circa 1917 canvas, titled Nu Assis Sur Un Divan (La Belle Romaine), had been estimated to go for more than $US40 million.

Five bidders competed over what Sotheby's called the "iconic" and "stunning" nude, driving the final price to $US68,962,500.

The sale marked the first of the autumn art auctions in New York at Sotheby's and rival Christie's, with both houses predicting a surge in demand this season.

Another highlight of Tuesday's auction was $US24.7 million paid for a Claude Monet from his iconic water lilies series.

The worldwide economic downturn has dampened the seasonal face-off between Sotheby's and Christie's for the past two years, but all signs are pointing to the return of big spenders and an ever-more international clientele.

On Wednesday (US time), it is Christie's turn, with works by Matisse, Joan Miro, Picasso and Georges Seurat among the highlights.

The auction house estimates sales exceeding $US200 million.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Film : Modigliani (2005) Andy Garcia (Actor), Elsa Zylberstein (Actor), Mick Davis





Director: Mick Davis | Producer: Philippe Martinez | Writer: Mick Davis | Cast: Andy Garcia, Elsa Zylberstein, Omid Djalili, Hippolyte Girardot, Eva Herzigova, Udo Kier, Susie Amy, Peter Capaldi, Louis Hilyer, Stevan Rimkus, Dan Astileanu | Editor: Emma E. Hickox | Music: Guy Farley |Cinematography: Emmanuel Kadosh | Language: English | Genre: Biography, Drama | Format: DvdRip, Color, NTSC, Avi | Runtime: 128 min | Countries: USA, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, UK | Company: Lucky 7 Productions LLC | Distributors: Bauer Martinez Studios

IMDB

The story of Amedeo Modigliani's bitter rivalry with Pablo Picasso, and his tragic romance with Jeanne Hebuterne.

Synopsis: Set in Paris in 1919, biopic centers on the life of late Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, focusing on his last days as well as his rivalry with Pablo Picasso. Modigliani, a Jew, has fallen in love with Jeanne, a young and beautiful Catholic girl. The couple has an illegitimate child, and Jeanne's bigoted parents send the baby to a faraway convent to be raised by nuns. Modigliani is distraught and needs money to rescue and raise his child. The answer arrives in the shape of Paris' annual art competition. Prize money and a guaranteed career await the winner. Neither Modigliani, nor his dearest friend and rival Picasso have ever entered the competition, believing that it is beneath true artists like themselves. But push comes to shove with the welfare of his child on the line, and Modigliani signs up for the competition in a drunken and drug-induced tirade. Picasso follows suit and all of Paris is aflutter with excitement at who will win. With the balance of his relationship with Jeanne on the line, Modigliani tackles this work with the hopes of creating a masterpiece, and knows that all the artists of Paris are doing the same.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Barnes Foundation

Address:
300 North Latch's Lane,
Merion, PA 19066 (610) 667-0290 Map This
The Barnes Foundation is an educational art institution in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1922 by an American physician Dr. Albert C. Barnes, who collected art after making a fortune by co-developing an early antimicrobial drug marketed as Argyrol.

With the enormous profits from the sale of the drug, Barnes accumulated a large collection of mainly French Impressionist art works, which today form the holdings of the Barnes Foundation, an educational art institution established by his will. The paintings were valued in March, 2010, at $25 billion.

Today, the Foundation possesses more than 2500 objects, including 800 paintings. Among its collection are
  • 181 works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
  • 69 by Paul Cézanne,
  • 59 by Henri Matisse,
  • 46 by Pablo Picasso,
  • 21 by Chaim Soutine,
  • 18 by Henri Rousseau,
  • 16 by Amedeo Modigliani,
  • 11 by Edgar Degas,
  • 7 by Vincent Van Gogh,
  • 6 by Georges Seurat,
  • as well as numerous other masters, including Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Gauguin, El Greco, Francisco Goya, Edouard Manet, Jean Hugo, Claude Monet
more info

More facts about Albert C. Barnes:
  • The son of a poverty-stricken Civil War veteran, he grew up in the verminous, squatter slums of Philadelphia, with a burning determination to get rich.
  • Argyrol was an instant and worldwide success, and Barnes was a millionaire before he was 35. In 1928, with superb timing, Barnes sold out Argyrol for an estimated $4,000,000, not long before the discovery of antibiotics, which largely replaced it.
  • Guided by his lifelong friend, Artist William Glackens, Barnes began to buy up French impressionist paintings by the boatload.
  • Although many of his early purchases were mistakes, he showed taste and a fine instinct for good investment. He was one of the discoverers of Modigliani. In one moment of sound judgment he bought 60 Soutines for $50 apiece—long before Soutine was well known.
  • In time Barnes assembled the world's greatest collection of Matisses, the largest group of Cezannes outside the Louvre, and over $50 million worth of art by Picasso, Braque, Gauguin, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, John Marin, Georgia O'Keeffe and Ben Shahn.
  • When his collection outgrew his home and factory, Barnes built a marble temple to house it in suburban Merion, surrounded the place with ferocious police dogs and a ten-foot "spite wall."
Book - Art Held Hostage: The Battle over the Barnes Collection