"Books give me a great sense of personal and creative satisfaction. When I'm working on a book, I wish the phone would never ring. My satisfaction comes from real marks on paper."
American children's book illustrator Pinkney Jerry was born December 22, 1939 in Germantown. In high school, his love and talent for drawing was noticed by cartoonist John Liney, who encouraged him to pursue a career as an artist. After graduating from the Dobbins Vocational School, Pinkney received a full scholarship to study at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art. He later moved to Boston where he worked in design and illustration, eventually opening his own studio, Jerry Pinkney Studio, and later moving to New York. Pinkney Jerry still lives and works in New York, during the years of his creative career he taught seminars at the University, art schools throughout the country.
"I wanted to show what an African American artist can do in this country nationally in the visual arts. I want to be a strong role model for my family and for other African Americans."
In 1776, America declared its independence, and since that time, the development of national fine art, which was intended to reflect the history of the country, actually begins.
Artists of the 18th century most of them were self-taught and based on the style of British art.
And in the XIX century. The first school of painting, the Hudson River School, was already established.
Hudson River School
The Hudson River School was the name of a group of American landscape painters. Their work developed in the style of romanticism. The paintings depicted the Hudson River Valley and its environs. Artists most often depicted the American wilderness and questioned the feasibility of technological progress.
Thomas Cole "Oxbow" (1836). Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
The Hudson River School was not a homogeneous phenomenon in the painting of the time: for example, there was an offshoot in the style of Impressionism, which was called luminism. Luminism paid great attention to the artist's perception of light. Luminism differs from Impressionism in that more attention is paid to details, a hidden brushstroke is made. But in general, these two styles are similar.
Fitz Henry Lane "Ship in the Fog" (1860)
The founder of the School was the artist Thomas Cole. He went to the Hudson River in the autumn of 1825. Then his close friend Asher Brown Durant joined him. Other artists of the School:
Albert Bierstadt
John William Casillier
Frederick Edwin Church
Thomas Cole
Samuel Colman
Jasper Francis Cropsey
Thomas Doughty
Robert Scott Duncanson
Sanford Robinson Gifford
James McDougal Hart
William Hart
William Stanley Haseltine
Martin Johnson Headey Dr.
The painting of the artists of the Hudson School was distinguished by its simplicity and spontaneity.
Thomas Cole (1801-1848)
Thomas Cole was born in England. In 1818 his family emigrated to the United States. Cole received the basics of the profession from the itinerant portrait painter Stein. But portraiture was not successful for him, and he began to paint landscapes. He also succeeded in allegorical paintings, for example, the Journey of Life series, consisting of paintings about four periods of a person’s life: childhood, youth, maturity and old age. This cycle is kept in the National Gallery of Art (Washington, USA)
T. Cole "Childhood"
In the first picture, the artist depicted a child in a boat that floats on the river of life. This boat is driven by an angel. The child is not yet capable of independence. His horizons, as in the picture, are limited. The figure on the prow of the boat holds an hourglass, symbolizing the time.
T. Cole "Youth"
The same boat, but there is already a young man in it. He already controls the boat on his own, but the angel still does not leave him - he is watching him from the shore.
The angel continues to watch the man, but he is immersed in his problems that overcome him - this is emphasized by the gloomy color of the picture, the trees felled by the storm...
T. Cole "Old Age"
And now the life path of a person is coming to an end. There is no longer an hourglass figure on the boat - the time of earthly life is over. And the boat is all decrepit ...
The guardian angel came down to him to direct his further path to another world, and other angels are visible in the distance. Cole said of this picture: "The fetters of bodily existence fall away, and the mind is already able to see glimpses of eternal life."
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
Photo from 1880
American painter and graphic artist, founder of realistic painting. He is best known for his seascapes. He painted in oils and watercolors. His work influenced the entire subsequent development of American painting.
Homer was influenced by various artistic movements, but was based primarily on purely American subjects.
His painting of the early period is light and serene, while the latter period is characterized by dark tones and tragic themes.
W. Homer "Fog signal". Boston Museum of Fine Arts (USA)
The theme of the picture is the struggle of man with the sea, the ratio of fragile human life and eternal nature.
Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins (Aikins) (1844-1916)
American artist, photographer, teacher, the largest representative of American realistic painting.
T. Eakins. Self portrait (1902)
He graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, further improved his skills in Europe, mainly in Paris under the guidance of Jean Leon Gerome. He taught at the Academy of Fine Arts, was its director.
He paid great attention to the study and depiction of the nude, showing free-thinking, for which he was fired. In Eakins' painting and photographs, the naked and semi-nude body occupies a central place. He owns many images of athletes. Of particular interest to Eakins was the transmission of the movements of the human body.
T. Eakins "Swimming" (1895)
He painted portraits in a multi-figured environment.
The most famous work is the Gross Clinic.
T. Eakins "Gross Clinic" (1875)
The painting depicts the famous Philadelphia surgeon Samuel Gross, who directs the operation in front of the students of the medical academy. The artist depicts Dr. Gross as a genius of human thought, but the picture shocked his contemporaries with its realism.
T. Eakins is also known for a number of significant portraits, including a portrait of the American poet and publicist Walt Whitman (1887-1888), which the poet himself considered the best.
T. Eakins. Portrait of Whitman (1887)
James Abbot McNeil Whistler (1834-1903)
Anglo-American painter, portrait painter, etching and lithographer. Forerunner of Impressionism and Symbolism.
D. Whistler. Self-portrait. Art Institute (Detroit)
Born in Lowell, Massachusetts. His father, George Washington Whistler, a well-known railroad engineer, was invited in 1842 to build roads in Russia, he designed the Nikolaev railway. In Russia, James attended the Academy of Arts. In the United States, he studied at a military school, but was expelled for poor performance.
D. Whistler “Arrangement in gray and black. The Artist's Mother (1871). Musee d'Orsay (Paris)
This is the most famous work of James Whistler.
He studied painting in Paris, then in Venice (he was engaged in watercolor sketches and etchings).
In the first period of Whistler's work, the desire to capture the first impression of an object - a landscape or a person - was close to impressionism. But on many issues, he disagreed with the Impressionists: he did not approve of the plein air cult, he thought over the color tonality in advance. In later works, Whistler uses extremely diluted, watercolor-like transparent colors that convey a sense of the unsteady mobility of the atmospheric environment.
D. Whistler "Symphony in the Gray and Green Ocean" (1866-1872)
household genre
Great development in American painting of the XIX century. got a household genre. At first, this genre was based on the depiction of provincial life with cards, dances, etc.
Eastman Johnson, The Happiness of an Abandoned Stagecoach (1871)
But after the industrial revolution and urbanization began in the United States, artists began to depict the life of residents of large cities.
John Gast "American Progress" (circa 1872)
The painting depicts an allegorical Colombia with a textbook in her hands. She leads civilization to the west along with the American settlers, stretching the telegraph line along the road. The picture shows different types of economic activities of the first settlers, the history of transport. Indians and wild animals are depicted as fleeing from settlers.
"Trash Can School"
At the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. The United States experienced rapid growth in large cities. The cameras of that time could not yet be used to quickly capture incidents, so news newspapers hired artists to illustrate. Thus was formed the "Trash Can School", which included Robert Henry, Glenn Colman, Jerome Myers and George Bellows. The main objects of the studio sketches were the streets with their typical representatives: homeless children, prostitutes, street performers and immigrants. The origin, education and political views of these artists varied. But Robert Henry believed that the life and activities of the poor, the proletariat and the middle class are worthy of embodiment in painting - these are the realities of the time.
George Bellows Nurse Edith Cavell's Help (1918)
The "Trash Can School" revolutionized the visual arts of the United States, it was the forerunner of
American artists are very diverse. Someone was a clear cosmopolitan, like Sargent. He is an American by origin, but has lived in London and Paris for almost his entire adult life.
There are also authentic Americans among them, who portrayed the life of only their compatriots, like Rockwell.
And there are artists out of this world, like Pollock. Or those whose art has become a product of the consumer society. This, of course, is about Warhol.
However, they are all Americans. Freedom-loving, bold, bright. Read about seven of them below.
1. James Whistler (1834-1903)
James Whistler. Self-portrait. 1872 Art Institute in Detroit, USA. Whistler can hardly be called a real American. Growing up, he lived in Europe. And he spent his childhood at all ... in Russia. His father built a railway in St. Petersburg.
It was there that the boy James fell in love with art, visiting the Hermitage and Peterhof thanks to his father's connections (then they were still palaces closed to the public).
Why is Whistler famous? In whatever style he paints, from realism to tonalism*, he can almost immediately be recognized by two features. Unusual colors and musical names.
Some of his portraits are imitations of old masters. Like, for example, his famous portrait "The Artist's Mother".
James Whistler. The artist's mother. Arranged in gray and black. 1871 The artist has created amazing work using colors ranging from light gray to dark grey. And some yellow.
But this does not mean that Whistler liked such colors. He was an extraordinary person. He could easily appear in society in yellow socks and with a bright umbrella. And this is when men dressed exclusively in black and gray.
He also has much lighter works than "Mother". For example, Symphony in White. So the picture was called by one of the journalists at the exhibition. Whistler liked the idea. Since then, he called almost all his works in a musical way.
James Whistler. Symphony in White #1. 1862 National Gallery of Washington, USA But then, in 1862, the public did not like the Symphony. Again, because of Whistler's idiosyncratic color schemes. It seemed strange to people to write a woman in white on a white background.
In the picture we see Whistler's red-haired mistress. Quite in the spirit of the Pre-Raphaelites. After all, then the artist was friends with one of the main initiators of Pre-Raphaelism, Gabriel Rossetti. Beauty, lilies, unusual elements (wolf skin). Everything is as it should be.
But Whistler quickly moved away from Pre-Raphaelism. Since it was not external beauty that was important to him, but mood and emotions. And he created a new direction - tonalism.
His nocturne landscapes in the style of tonalism really look like music. Monochrome, viscous.
Whistler himself said that musical names help to focus on the painting itself, lines and color. At the same time, without thinking about the place and the people who are depicted.
James Whistler. Nocturne in blue and silver: Chelsea. 1871 Tate Gallery, London 
Mary Cassat. Sleeping baby. Pastel, paper. 1910 Dallas Museum of Art, USA But she remained true to her style to the end. Impressionism. Soft pastel. Mothers with children.
For the sake of painting, Cassatt abandoned motherhood. But her femininity was increasingly manifested precisely in such delicate works as Sleeping Child. It is a pity that a conservative society once put her before such a choice.
3. John Sargent (1856-1925)
John Sargent. Self-portrait. 1892 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York John Sargent was sure that he would be a portrait painter all his life. Career was going well. Aristocrats lined up to order him.
But once the artist crossed the line in the opinion of society. It is now difficult for us to understand what is so unacceptable in the film "Madame X".
True, in the original version, the heroine had one of the bralettes omitted. Sargent "raised" her, but this did not help the case. Orders have come to nothing.
John Sargent. Madame H. 1878 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York What obscene saw the public? And the fact that Sargent portrayed the model in an overconfident pose. Moreover, translucent skin and a pink ear are very eloquent.
The picture, as it were, says that this woman with increased sexuality is not averse to accepting the courtship of other men. Moreover, being married.
Unfortunately, behind this scandal, contemporaries did not see the masterpiece. Dark dress, light skin, dynamic pose - a simple combination that can only be found by the most talented masters.
But there is no evil without good. Sargent received freedom in return. He began to experiment more with impressionism. Write children in immediate situations. This is how the work “Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose” appeared.
Sargent wanted to capture a specific moment of twilight. So I only worked 2 minutes a day when the lighting was right. Worked in summer and autumn. And when the flowers withered, he replaced them with artificial ones.
John Sargent. Carnation, lily, lily, rose. 1885-1886 Tate Gallery, London In recent decades, Sargent got so into the taste of freedom that he began to abandon portraits altogether. Although his reputation has already been restored. He even rudely dismissed one client, saying that he would paint her gate with great pleasure than her face.
John Sargent. White ships. 1908 Brooklyn Museum, USA Contemporaries treated Sargent with irony. Considering it obsolete in the age of modernism. But time put everything in its place.
Now his work is worth no less than the work of the most famous modernists. Well, let alone the love of the public and say nothing. Exhibitions with his work are always sold out.
4. Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
Norman Rockwell. Self-portrait. Illustration for the February 13, 1960 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. It is difficult to imagine a more popular artist during his lifetime than Norman Rockwell. Several generations of Americans grew up on his illustrations. Loving them with all my heart.
After all, Rockwell portrayed ordinary Americans. But at the same time showing their lives from the most positive side. Rockwell did not want to show either evil fathers or indifferent mothers. And you will not meet unhappy children with him.
Norman Rockwell. The whole family to rest and from rest. Illustration in the Evening Saturday Post, August 30, 1947. Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA His works are full of humour, juicy colors and very skilfully captured expressions from life.
But it is an illusion that the work was given to Rockwell easily. To create one painting, he would first take up to a hundred photographs with his models to capture the right gestures.
Rockwell's work has had a tremendous impact on the minds of millions of Americans. After all, he often spoke with the help of his paintings.
During the Second World War, he decided to show what the soldiers of his country were fighting for. Having created, among other things, the painting "Freedom from Want". In the form of Thanksgiving, on which all family members, well-fed and satisfied, enjoy the family holiday.
Norman Rockwell. Freedom from want. 1943 Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA After 50 years at the Saturday Evening Post, Rockwell moved to the more democratic Look magazine, where he was able to express his views on social issues.
The brightest work of those years is “The Problem We Live With”.
Norman Rockwell. The problem we are living with. 1964 Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, USA This is the true story of a black girl who went to a white school. Since a law was passed that people (and hence educational institutions) should no longer be divided along racial lines.
But the anger of the inhabitants knew no bounds. On the way to school, the girl was guarded by the police. Here is such a "routine" moment and showed Rockwell.
If you want to know the life of Americans in a slightly embellished light (as they themselves wanted to see it), be sure to look at Rockwell's paintings.
Perhaps, of all the painters presented in this article, Rockwell is the most American artist.
5. Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
Andrew Wyeth. Self-portrait. 1945 National Academy of Design, New York Unlike Rockwell, Wyeth was not as positive. A recluse by nature, he did not seek to embellish anything. On the contrary, he depicted the most ordinary landscapes and unremarkable things. Just a wheat field, just a wooden house. But he even managed to peep something magical in them.
His most famous work is Christina's World. Wyeth showed the fate of one woman, his neighbor. Having been paralyzed since childhood, she crawled around the area around her farm.
So there is nothing romantic in this picture, as it might seem at first. If you look closely, then the woman has painful thinness. And knowing that the heroine's legs are paralyzed, you understand with sadness how far she is still far from home.
At first glance, Wyeth wrote the most mundane. Here is the old window of the old house. A shabby curtain that has already begun to turn into shreds. Outside the window darkens the forest.
But there is some mystery in all this. Some other look.
Andrew Wyeth. Wind from the sea. 1947 National Gallery of Washington, USA So children are able to look at the world with an unblinkered look. So does Wyatt. And we are with him.
All Wyeth's affairs were handled by his wife. She was a good organizer. It was she who contacted museums and collectors.
There was little romance in their relationship. The music had to appear. And she became a simple, but with an extraordinary appearance Helga. This is what we see in many works.
Andrew Wyeth. Braids (from the Helga series). 1979 Private collection It would seem that we see only a photographic image of a woman. But for some reason, it's hard to break away from it. Her eyes are too complex, her shoulders tense. We, as it were, are straining internally with her. Struggling to find an explanation for this tension.
Depicting reality in every detail, Wyeth magically endowed her with emotions that cannot leave indifferent.
The artist was not recognized for a long time. With his realism, albeit magical, he did not fit into the modernist trends of the 20th century.
When museum workers bought his works, they tried to do it quietly, without attracting attention. Exhibitions were rarely organized. But to the envy of the modernists, they have always been a resounding success. People came in droves. And they still come.
6. Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Jackson Pollock. 1950 Photo by Hans Namuth Jackson Pollock is impossible to ignore. He crossed a certain line in art, after which painting could not be the same. He showed that in art, in general, you can do without boundaries. When I laid the canvas on the floor and spattered it with paint.
And this American artist began with abstractionism, in which the figurative can still be traced. In his work of the 1940s "Shorthand Figure" we see the outlines of both the face and the hands. And even understandable to us symbols in the form of crosses and zeros.
Jackson Pollock. Shorthand figure. 1942 Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) His work was praised, but they were in no hurry to buy. He was as poor as a church mouse. And he drank shamelessly. Despite a happy marriage. His wife admired his talent and did everything for her husband's success.
But Pollock was originally a broken personality. From his youth, it was clear from his actions that early death was his lot.
This brokenness as a result will lead him to death at the age of 44. But he will have time to make a revolution in art and become famous.
Jackson Pollock. Autumn rhythm (number 30). 1950 Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA And he did it in a period of two years of sobriety. He was able to work fruitfully in 1950-1952. He experimented for a long time until he came to the drip technique.
Laying out a huge canvas on the floor of his shed, he walked around it, being, as it were, in the picture itself. And sprayed or just poured paint.
These unusual paintings began to be bought from him willingly for their incredible originality and novelty.
Jackson Pollock. Blue pillars. 1952 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Pollock was stunned by fame and fell into a depression, not understanding where to go next. The deadly mixture of alcohol and depression left him no chance of survival. Once he got behind the wheel very drunk. Last time.
7. Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Andy Warhole. 1979 Photo by Arthur Tress Only in a country with such a cult of consumption, as in America, could pop art be born. And its main initiator was, of course, Andy Warhol.
He became famous for taking the most ordinary things and turning them into a work of art. That's what happened to Campbell's soup can.
The choice was not accidental. Warhol's mother fed her son this soup every day for over 20 years. Even when he moved to New York and took his mother with him.
Andy Warhole. Cans of Campbell's Soup. Polymer, hand-printed. 32 paintings 50x40 each. 1962 Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) After this experiment, Warhol became interested in screen printing. Since then, he has taken images of pop stars and painted them in different colors.
This is how his famous painted Marilyn Monroe appeared.
A myriad of such Marilyn acid colors were produced. Art Warhol put on stream. As expected in a consumer society.
Andy Warhole. Marilyn Monroe. Silkscreen, paper. 1967 Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) Painted faces were invented by Warhol for a reason. And again, not without the influence of the mother. As a child, during a protracted illness of her son, she dragged him packs of coloring books.
This childhood hobby grew into something that became his calling card and made him fabulously rich.
He painted not only pop stars, but also the masterpieces of his predecessors. Got it and.
Venus, like Marilyn, has done a lot. The exclusivity of a work of art is "erased" by Warhol to powder. Why did the artist do this?
To popularize old masterpieces? Or, conversely, try to devalue them? To immortalize pop stars? Or spice up death with irony?
Andy Warhole. Venus Botticelli. Silkscreen, acrylic, canvas. 122x183 cm. 1982 E. Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, USA His painted works of Madonna, Elvis Presley or Lenin are sometimes more recognizable than the original photos.
But the masterpieces are unlikely to be overshadowed. All the same, the primordial "Venus" remains priceless.
Warhol was an avid party-goer, attracting a lot of outcasts. Drug addicts, failed actors or just unbalanced personalities. One of which once shot him.
Warhol survived. But 20 years later, due to the consequences of a wound he had once suffered, he died alone in his apartment.
US melting pot
Despite the short history of American art, the range is wide. Among American artists there are Impressionists (Sargent), and magical realists (Wyeth), and abstract expressionists (Pollock), and pioneers of pop art (Warhol).
Well, Americans love freedom of choice in everything. Hundreds of denominations. Hundreds of nations. Hundreds of art directions. That's why he is the melting pot of the United States of America.
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"Card Players"
Author
Paul Cezanne
Country France
Years of life 1839–1906
Style post-impressionism
The artist was born in the south of France in the small town of Aix-en-Provence, but began painting in Paris. Real success came to him after a solo exhibition organized by the collector Ambroise Vollard. In 1886, 20 years before his departure, he moved to the outskirts of his native city. Young artists called trips to him "a pilgrimage to Aix".
130x97 cm
1895
price
$250 million
sold in 2012
at private auction
Cezanne's work is easy to understand. The only rule of the artist was the direct transfer of the subject or plot to the canvas, so his paintings do not cause bewilderment of the viewer. Cezanne combined in his art two main French traditions: classicism and romanticism. With the help of colorful texture, he gave the form of objects an amazing plasticity.
A series of five paintings "Card Players" was written in 1890-1895. Their plot is the same - several people are enthusiastically playing poker. The works differ only in the number of players and the size of the canvas.
Four paintings are kept in museums in Europe and America (the Musée d'Orsay, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Barnes Foundation and the Courtauld Institute of Art), and the fifth, until recently, was an adornment of the private collection of the Greek billionaire shipowner George Embirikos. Shortly before his death, in the winter of 2011, he decided to put it up for sale. Potential buyers of Cezanne's "free" work were art dealer William Aquavella and world-famous gallery owner Larry Gagosian, who offered about $220 million for it. As a result, the painting went to the royal family of the Arab state of Qatar for 250 million. The largest art deal in the history of painting was closed in February 2012. This was reported to Vanity Fair by journalist Alexandra Pierce. She found out the cost of the painting and the name of the new owner, and then the information penetrated the media around the world.
In 2010, the Arab Museum of Modern Art and the Qatar National Museum opened in Qatar. Now their collections are growing. Perhaps the fifth version of The Card Players was acquired by the sheik for this purpose.
The mostexpensive picturein the world
Owner
Sheikh Hamad
bin Khalifa al-Thani
The al-Thani dynasty has ruled Qatar for over 130 years. About half a century ago, huge reserves of oil and gas were discovered here, which instantly made Qatar one of the richest regions in the world. Thanks to the export of hydrocarbons, this small country recorded the largest GDP per capita. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani seized power in 1995, while his father was in Switzerland, with the support of family members. The merit of the current ruler, according to experts, is in a clear strategy for the development of the country, creating a successful image of the state. Qatar now has a constitution and a prime minister, and women have gained the right to vote in parliamentary elections. By the way, it was the Emir of Qatar who founded the Al Jazeera news channel. The authorities of the Arab state pay great attention to culture.
2
"Number 5"
Author
Jackson Pollock
Country USA
Years of life 1912–1956
Style abstract expressionism
Jack the Sprinkler - such a nickname was given to Pollock by the American public for his special painting technique. The artist abandoned the brush and easel, and poured the paint on the surface of the canvas or fiberboard during continuous movement around and inside them. From an early age, he was fond of the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti, the main message of which is that the truth is revealed during a free "outpouring".
122x244 cm
1948
price
$140 million
sold in 2006 year
on the auction Sotheby's
The value of Pollock's work is not in the result, but in the process. The author did not accidentally call his art "action painting". With his light hand, it became the main asset of America. Jackson Pollock mixed paint with sand, broken glass, and wrote with a piece of cardboard, a palette knife, a knife, a shovel. The artist was so popular that in the 1950s there were even imitators in the USSR. The painting "Number 5" is recognized as one of the strangest and most expensive in the world. One of the founders of DreamWorks, David Geffen, bought it for a private collection, and in 2006 sold it at Sotheby`s for $140 million to Mexican collector David Martinez. However, the law firm soon issued a press release on behalf of its client stating that David Martinez was not the owner of the painting. Only one thing is known for certain: the Mexican financier has indeed recently collected works of contemporary art. It is unlikely that he would have missed such a "big fish" as Pollock's "Number 5".
3
"Woman III"
Author
Willem de Kooning
Country USA
Years of life 1904–1997
Style abstract expressionism
A native of the Netherlands, he emigrated to the United States in 1926. In 1948, a personal exhibition of the artist took place. Art critics appreciated the complex, nervous black-and-white compositions, recognizing in their author a great modernist artist. For most of his life he suffered from alcoholism, but the joy of creating new art is felt in every work. De Kooning is distinguished by the impulsiveness of painting, broad strokes, which is why sometimes the image does not fit within the boundaries of the canvas.
121x171 cm
1953
price
$137 million
sold in 2006 year
at private auction
In the 1950s, women with empty eyes, massive breasts, and ugly features appear in de Kooning's paintings. "Woman III" was the last work from this series participating in the auction.
Since the 1970s, the painting has been kept in the Tehran Museum of Modern Art, but after the introduction of strict moral rules in the country, they sought to get rid of it. In 1994, the work was taken out of Iran, and 12 years later, its owner David Geffen (the same producer who sold Jackson Pollock's "Number 5") sold the painting to millionaire Stephen Cohen for $137.5 million. It is interesting that in one year Geffen began to sell his collection of paintings. This gave rise to a lot of rumors: for example, that the producer decided to buy the Los Angeles Times.
At one of the art forums, an opinion was expressed about the similarity of "Woman III" with the painting by Leonardo da Vinci "Lady with an Ermine". Behind the toothy smile and shapeless figure of the heroine, the connoisseur of painting discerned the grace of a person of royal blood. This is also evidenced by the poorly traced crown crowning the head of a woman.
4
"Portrait of AdeleBloch-Bauer I"
Author
Gustav Klimt
Country Austria
Years of life 1862–1918
Style modern
Gustav Klimt was born into the family of an engraver and was the second of seven children. Three sons of Ernest Klimt became artists, and only Gustav became famous all over the world. He spent most of his childhood in poverty. After the death of his father, he was responsible for the entire family. It was at this time that Klimt developed his style. Before his paintings, any viewer freezes: under the thin strokes of gold, frank eroticism is clearly visible.
138x136 cm
1907
price
$135 million
sold in 2006 year
on the auction Sotheby's
The fate of the painting, which is called the "Austrian Mona Lisa", could easily become the basis for a bestseller. The work of the artist became the cause of the conflict of the whole state and one elderly lady.
So, the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” depicts an aristocrat, the wife of Ferdinand Bloch. Her last will was to transfer the painting to the Austrian State Gallery. However, Bloch canceled the donation in his will, and the Nazis expropriated the painting. Later, the gallery hardly bought out the Golden Adele, but then the heiress appeared - Maria Altman, Ferdinand Bloch's niece.
In 2005, the high-profile trial "Maria Altman against the Republic of Austria" began, as a result of which the picture "left" with her to Los Angeles. Austria took unprecedented measures: loans were negotiated, the population donated money to buy the portrait. Good never conquered evil: Altman raised the price to $300 million. At the time of the trial, she was 79 years old, and she went down in history as the person who changed the will of Bloch-Bauer in favor of personal interests. The painting was purchased by Ronald Lauder, owner of the New Gallery in New York, where it remains to this day. Not for Austria, for him Altman reduced the price to $135 million.
5
"Scream"
Author
Edvard Munch
Country Norway
Years of life 1863–1944
Style expressionism
Munch's first painting, which became famous all over the world, "The Sick Girl" (exists in five copies) is dedicated to the artist's sister, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 15. Munch has always been interested in the theme of death and loneliness. In Germany, his heavy, manic painting even provoked a scandal. However, despite the depressing plots, his paintings have a special magnetism. Take at least "Scream".
73.5x91 cm
1895
price
$119.992 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's
The full name of the painting is Der Schrei der Natur (translated from German as “the cry of nature”). The face of either a person or an alien expresses despair and panic - the viewer experiences the same emotions when looking at the picture. One of the key works of expressionism warns the themes that have become acute in the art of the 20th century. According to one version, the artist created it under the influence of a mental disorder, which he suffered all his life.
The painting was stolen twice from different museums, but it was returned. Slightly damaged after the theft, The Scream was restored and was ready to be shown again at the Munch Museum in 2008. For representatives of pop culture, the work became a source of inspiration: Andy Warhol created a series of its prints-copies, and the mask from the movie "Scream" was made in the image and likeness of the hero of the picture.
For one plot, Munch wrote four versions of the work: the one in a private collection is made in pastel. Norwegian billionaire Petter Olsen put it up for auction on May 2, 2012. The buyer was Leon Black, who did not spare a record amount for the "Scream". Founder of Apollo Advisors, L.P. and Lion Advisors, L.P. known for his love of art. Black is a patron of Dartmouth College, the Museum of Modern Art, the Lincoln Art Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has the largest collection of paintings by contemporary artists and classical masters of past centuries.
6
"Nude against the background of a bust and green leaves"
Author
Pablo Picasso
Country Spain, France
Years of life 1881–1973
Style cubism
By origin he is a Spaniard, but in spirit and place of residence he is a real Frenchman. Picasso opened his own art studio in Barcelona when he was only 16 years old. Then he went to Paris and spent most of his life there. That is why there is a double stress in his last name. The style invented by Picasso is based on the denial of the opinion that the object depicted on the canvas can be viewed from only one angle.
130x162 cm
1932
price
$106.482 million
sold in 2010 year
on the auction Christie's
During his work in Rome, the artist met the dancer Olga Khokhlova, who soon became his wife. He put an end to vagrancy, moved with her to a luxurious apartment. By that time, recognition had found a hero, but the marriage was destroyed. One of the most expensive paintings in the world was created almost by accident - out of great love, which, as always with Picasso, was short-lived. In 1927, he became interested in the young Marie-Therese Walter (she was 17 years old, he was 45). Secretly from his wife, he left with his mistress for a town near Paris, where he painted a portrait depicting Marie-Therese in the image of Daphne. The painting was purchased by New York dealer Paul Rosenberg and sold in 1951 to Sidney F. Brody. The Brodys showed the painting to the world only once, and only because the artist was 80 years old. After her husband's death, Mrs. Brody put the work up for auction at Christie's in March 2010. In six decades, the price has risen more than 5,000 times! An unknown collector bought it for $106.5 million. In 2011, a “one-painting exhibition” was held in Britain, where it saw the light for the second time, but the name of the owner is still unknown.
7
"Eight Elvises"
Author
Andy Warhole
Country USA
Years of life 1928-1987
Style
pop Art
“Sex and parties are the only places where you need to appear in person,” said the cult pop artist, director, and one of the founders of Interview magazine, designer Andy Warhol. He worked with Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, designed record covers, and designed shoes for I.Miller. In the 1960s, paintings appeared depicting the symbols of America: Campbell`s soup and Coca-Cola, Presley and Monroe - which made him a legend.
358x208 cm
1963
price
$100 million
sold in 2008
at private auction
Warhol's 60s - the so-called era of pop art in America. In 1962, he worked in Manhattan at the Factory Studio, where all the bohemia of New York gathered. Its brightest representatives: Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Truman Capote and other famous personalities in the world. At the same time, Warhol tried the technique of silk-screen printing - multiple repetitions of one image. He also used this method when creating "Eight Elvises": the viewer seems to see frames from a movie where the star comes to life. Everything that the artist loved so much is here: a win-win public image, silver color and a premonition of death as the main message.
There are two art dealers promoting Warhol's work on the world market today: Larry Gagosian and Alberto Mugrabi. The first in 2008 spent $200 million to purchase more than 15 Warhol works. The second buys and sells his paintings like Christmas cards, only more expensive. But it was not them, but the humble French art consultant Philippe Segalo who helped Roman art connoisseur Annibale Berlinghieri sell the Eight Elvises to an unknown buyer for a Warhol-record $100 million.
8
"Orange,Red Yellow"
Author
Mark Rothko
Country USA
Years of life 1903–1970
Style abstract expressionism
One of the creators of color field painting was born in Dvinsk, Russia (now Daugavpils, Latvia), in a large family of a Jewish pharmacist. In 1911 they emigrated to the USA. Rothko studied at the art department of Yale University, achieved a scholarship, but anti-Semitic sentiments forced him to leave his studies. Despite everything, art critics idolized the artist, and museums pursued him all his life.
206x236 cm
1961
price
$86.882 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Christie's
Rothko's first artistic experiments were of a surrealist orientation, but over time he simplified the plot to color spots, depriving them of any objectivity. At first they had bright hues, and in the 1960s they were filled with brown, purple, thickening to black by the time of the artist's death. Mark Rothko warned against looking for any meaning in his paintings. The author wanted to say exactly what he said: only the color that dissolves in the air, and nothing more. He recommended looking at the works from a distance of 45 cm, so that the viewer is "dragged" into the color, like into a funnel. Caution: viewing in accordance with all the rules can lead to the effect of meditation, that is, the awareness of infinity gradually comes, complete immersion in oneself, relaxation, purification. The color in his paintings lives, breathes and has a strong emotional impact (sometimes it is said to be healing). The artist said: "The viewer should cry looking at them" - and there really were such cases. According to Rothko's theory, at this moment people live the same spiritual experience that he had in the process of working on the picture. If you managed to understand it at such a subtle level, then do not be surprised that these works of abstractionism are often compared by critics with icons.
The work "Orange, Red, Yellow" expresses the essence of Mark Rothko's painting. Its initial cost at Christie's auction in New York is 35-45 million dollars. An unknown buyer offered a price twice the estimate. The name of the happy owner of the painting, as is often the case, was not disclosed.
9
"Triptych"
Author
Francis Bacon
Country
Great Britain
Years of life 1909–1992
Style expressionism
The adventures of Francis Bacon, a full namesake and, moreover, a distant descendant of the great philosopher, began when his father disowned him, unable to accept his son's homosexual inclinations. Bacon went first to Berlin, then to Paris, and then his traces are confused all over Europe. Even during his lifetime, his works were exhibited in the leading cultural centers of the world, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery.
147.5x198 cm (each)
1976
price
$86.2 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's
Prestigious museums strove to possess paintings by Bacon, but the prim English public was in no hurry to fork out for such art. The legendary British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said of him: "The man who paints these horrific pictures."
The starting period in his work, the artist himself considered the post-war period. Returning from the service, he again took up painting and created the main masterpieces. Prior to the participation of "Triptych, 1976" in the auction, Bacon's most expensive work was "Study for a Portrait of Pope Innocent X" (52.7 million dollars). In the "Triptych, 1976" the artist depicted the mythical plot of the persecution of Orestes by the furies. Of course, Orestes is Bacon himself, and the furies are his torments. For more than 30 years, the painting was in a private collection and did not participate in exhibitions. This fact gives it a special value and, accordingly, increases the cost. But what is a few million for a connoisseur of art, and even generous in Russian? Roman Abramovich began to create his collection in the 1990s, in this he was significantly influenced by his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova, who has become a fashionable gallery owner in modern Russia. According to unofficial data, the businessman owns works by Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso, bought for amounts exceeding $100 million. In 2008, he became the owner of the Triptych. By the way, in 2011, another valuable work by Bacon was acquired - "Three sketches for a portrait of Lucian Freud." Hidden sources say that Roman Arkadievich again became the buyer.
10
"Pond with water lilies"
Author
Claude Monet
Country France
Years of life 1840–1926
Style impressionism
The artist is recognized as the founder of impressionism, who "patented" this method in his canvases. The first significant work was the painting "Breakfast on the Grass" (the original version of the work of Edouard Manet). In his youth, he drew caricatures, and took up real painting during his travels along the coast and in the open air. In Paris, he led a bohemian lifestyle and did not leave it even after serving in the army.
210x100 cm
1919
price
$80.5 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Christie's
Besides the fact that Monet was a great artist, he was also enthusiastically engaged in gardening, adored wildlife and flowers. In his landscapes, the state of nature is momentary, objects seem to be blurred by the movement of air. The impression is enhanced by large strokes, from a certain distance they become invisible and merge into a textured, three-dimensional image. In the painting of the late Monet, a special place is occupied by the theme of water and life in it. In the town of Giverny, the artist had his own pond, where he grew water lilies from seeds specially brought by him from Japan. When their flowers bloomed, he began to paint. The Water Lilies series consists of 60 works that the artist painted over almost 30 years, until his death. His vision deteriorated with age, but he did not stop. Depending on the wind, season and weather, the view of the pond was constantly changing, and Monet wanted to capture these changes. Through careful work, an understanding of the essence of nature came to him. Some of the paintings of the series are kept in the leading galleries of the world: National Museum of Western Art (Tokyo), Orangerie (Paris). The version of the next "Pond with water lilies" went into the hands of an unknown buyer for a record amount.
11
False Star t
Author
Jasper Johns
Country USA
Year of birth 1930
Style pop Art
In 1949, Jones entered the design school in New York. Along with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and others, he is recognized as one of the main artists of the 20th century. In 2012, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
137.2x170.8 cm
1959
price
$80 million
sold in 2006 year
at private auction
Like Marcel Duchamp, Jones worked with real objects, depicting them on canvas and in sculpture in full accordance with the original. For his works, he used simple and understandable objects for everyone: a beer bottle, a flag or maps. There is no clear composition in the False Start picture. The artist seems to be playing with the viewer, often “incorrectly” signing the colors in the picture, turning the very concept of color upside down: “I wanted to find a way to depict the color so that it could be determined by some other method.” His most explosive and "insecure", according to critics, painting was acquired by an unknown buyer.
12
"Seatednudeon the sofa"
Author
Amedeo Modigliani
Country Italy, France
Years of life 1884–1920
Style expressionism
Modigliani was often ill from childhood, during a feverish delirium, he recognized his destiny as an artist. He studied drawing in Livorno, Florence, Venice, and in 1906 he left for Paris, where his art flourished.
65x100 cm
1917
price
$68.962 million
sold in 2010 year
on the auction Sotheby's
In 1917, Modigliani met 19-year-old Jeanne Hebuterne, who became his model and later his wife. In 2004, one of her portraits sold for $31.3 million, the last record before the sale of Seated Nude on a Sofa in 2010. The painting was purchased by an unknown buyer for the maximum price for Modigliani at the moment. Active sales of works began only after the death of the artist. He died in poverty, suffering from tuberculosis, and the next day, Jeanne Hebuterne, who was nine months pregnant, also committed suicide.
13
"Eagle on a Pine"
Author
Qi Baishi
Country China
Years of life 1864–1957
Style guohua
Interest in calligraphy led Qi Baishi to paint. At the age of 28, he became a student of the artist Hu Qingyuan. The Ministry of Culture of China awarded him the title of "Great Artist of the Chinese People", in 1956 he received the International Peace Prize.
10x26 cm
1946
price
$65.4 million
sold in 2011
on the auction China Guardian
Qi Baishi was interested in those manifestations of the surrounding world, which many do not attach importance to, and this is his greatness. A man without education became a professor and an outstanding creator in history. Pablo Picasso said about him: "I'm afraid to go to your country, because there is Qi Baishi in China." The composition "Eagle on a Pine Tree" is recognized as the largest work of the artist. In addition to the canvas, it includes two hieroglyphic scrolls. For China, the amount for which the product was bought is a record - 425.5 million yuan. Only the scroll of the ancient calligrapher Huang Tingjian was sold for 436.8 million dollars.
14
"1949-A-#1"
Author
Clifford Still
Country USA
Years of life 1904–1980
Style abstract expressionism
At the age of 20, he visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was disappointed. Later, he signed up for a student arts league course, but left 45 minutes after the start of the class - it turned out to be “not his”. The first personal exhibition caused a resonance, the artist found himself, and with it recognition
79x93 cm
1949
price
$61.7 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's
All his works, which are more than 800 canvases and 1600 works on paper, Still bequeathed to the American city, where a museum named after him will be opened. Denver became such a city, but only the construction was expensive for the authorities, and four works were put up for auction to complete it. Still's works are unlikely to be auctioned ever again, which raised their price in advance. Painting "1949-A-No.1" sold for a record amount for the artist, although experts predicted the sale of a maximum of 25-35 million dollars.
15
"Suprematist composition"
Author
Kazimir Malevich
Country Russia
Years of life 1878–1935
Style Suprematism
Malevich studied painting at the Kyiv Art School, then at the Moscow Academy of Arts. In 1913, he began to paint abstract geometric paintings in a style that he called Suprematism (from Latin “dominance”).
71x 88.5 cm
1916
price
$60 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's
The painting was kept in the city museum of Amsterdam for about 50 years, but after a 17-year dispute with Malevich's relatives, the museum gave it away. The artist painted this work in the same year as The Manifesto of Suprematism, so Sotheby`s even before the auction announced that it would not go into a private collection for less than $60 million. And so it happened. It is better to look at it from above: the figures on the canvas resemble an aerial view of the earth. By the way, a few years earlier, the same relatives expropriated another "Suprematist composition" from the MoMA Museum in order to sell it at Phillips for $17 million.
16
"Bathers"
Author
Paul Gauguin
Country France
Years of life 1848–1903
Style post-impressionism
Until the age of seven, the artist lived in Peru, then returned to France with his family, but childhood memories constantly pushed him to travel. In France, he began to paint, was friends with Van Gogh. He even spent several months with him in Arles, until Van Gogh cut off his ear during a quarrel.
93.4x60.4 cm
1902
price
$55 million
sold in 2005
on the auction Sotheby's
In 1891, Gauguin arranged a sale of his paintings in order to use the proceeds to go deep into the island of Tahiti. There he created works in which one can feel the subtle connection between nature and man. Gauguin lived in a thatched hut, and a tropical paradise blossomed on his canvases. His wife was a 13-year-old Tahitian Tehura, which did not prevent the artist from engaging in promiscuity. Having contracted syphilis, he left for France. However, Gauguin was cramped there, and he returned to Tahiti. This period is called the "second Tahitian" - it was then that the painting "Bathers" was painted, one of the most luxurious in his work.
17
"Daffodils and a tablecloth in blue and pink"
Author
Henri Matisse
Country France
Years of life 1869–1954
Style Fauvism
In 1889, Henri Matisse had an attack of appendicitis. When he recovered from the operation, his mother bought him paints. First, out of boredom, Matisse copied colored postcards, then - the works of great painters that he saw in the Louvre, and at the beginning of the 20th century he came up with a style - fauvism.
65.2x81 cm
1911
price
$46.4 million
sold in 2009
on the auction Christie's
The painting "Daffodils and a Tablecloth in Blue and Pink" belonged to Yves Saint Laurent for a long time. After the death of the couturier, his entire collection of art passed into the hands of his friend and lover Pierre Berger, who decided to put it up for auction at Christie's. The pearl of the sold collection was the painting "Daffodils and a tablecloth in blue and pink", painted on an ordinary tablecloth instead of canvas. As an example of Fauvism, it is filled with the energy of color, the colors seem to explode and scream. Of the well-known series of tablecloth paintings, today this work is the only one that is in a private collection.
18
"Sleeping Girl"
Author
RoyLee
chtenstein
Country USA
Years of life 1923–1997
Style pop Art
The artist was born in New York, and after graduating from school, he went to Ohio, where he went to art courses. In 1949, Liechtenstein received his Master of Fine Arts degree. Interest in comics and the ability to be ironic made him a cult artist of the last century.
91x91 cm
1964
price
$44.882 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's
Once, chewing gum fell into Liechtenstein's hands. He redrawn the picture from the insert on the canvas and became famous. This plot from his biography contains the whole message of pop art: consumption is the new god, and there is no less beauty in a gum wrapper than in Mona Lisa. His paintings are reminiscent of comics and cartoons: Lichtenstein simply enlarged the finished image, drew rasters, used screen printing and silkscreen printing. The painting "Sleeping Girl" belonged to collectors Beatrice and Philip Gersh for almost 50 years, whose heirs sold it at auction.
19
"Victory. Boogie Woogie"
Author
Piet Mondrian
Country Netherlands
Years of life 1872–1944
Style neoplasticism
His real name - Cornelis - the artist changed to Mondrian when he moved to Paris in 1912. Together with the artist Theo van Doesburg, he founded the neoplastic movement. The Piet programming language is named after Mondrian.
27x127 cm
1944
price
$40 million
sold in 1998
on the auction Sotheby's
The most "musical" of the artists of the 20th century made a living with watercolor still lifes, although he became famous as a neoplastic artist. He moved to the USA in the 1940s and spent the rest of his life there. Jazz and New York - that's what inspired him the most! Painting "Victory. Boogie Woogie is the best example of this. "Branded" neat squares were obtained through the use of adhesive tape - Mondrian's favorite material. In America, he was called "the most famous immigrant." In the sixties, Yves Saint Laurent produced the world-famous "Mondrian" dresses with a large colored check print.
20
"Composition No. 5"
Author
BasilKandinsky
Country Russia
Years of life 1866–1944
Style avant-garde
The artist was born in Moscow, and his father was from Siberia. After the revolution, he tried to cooperate with the Soviet authorities, but soon realized that the laws of the proletariat were not created for him, and emigrated to Germany not without difficulties.
275x190 cm
1911
price
$40 million
sold in 2007
on the auction Sotheby's
Kandinsky was one of the first to completely abandon object painting, for which he received the title of genius. During Nazism in Germany, his paintings were classified as "degenerate art" and were not exhibited anywhere. In 1939, Kandinsky took French citizenship, in Paris he freely participated in the artistic process. His paintings “sound” like fugues, which is why many are called “compositions” (the first was written in 1910, the last in 1939). “Composition No. 5” is one of the key works in this genre: “The word “composition” sounded like a prayer to me,” the artist said. Unlike many followers, he planned what he would depict on a huge canvas, as if writing notes.
21
"Study of a Woman in Blue"
Author
Fernand Léger
Country France
Years of life 1881–1955
Style cubism-post-impressionism
Leger received an architectural education, and then was a student at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. The artist considered himself a follower of Cezanne, was an apologist for cubism, and in the 20th century he also had success as a sculptor.
96.5x129.5 cm
1912–1913
price
$39.2 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's
David Normann, president of Sotheby's International Impressionism and Modernism, believes the huge sum paid for The Lady in Blue is entirely justified. The painting belongs to the famous Leger collection (the artist painted three paintings on one plot, the last of them is in private hands today. - Ed.), and the surface of the canvas has been preserved in its original form. The author himself gave this work to the Der Sturm gallery, then it ended up in the collection of Hermann Lang, a German collector of modernism, and now belongs to an unknown buyer.
22
"Street scene. Berlin"
Author
Ernst LudwigKirchner
Country Germany
Years of life 1880–1938
Style expressionism
For German expressionism, Kirchner became a landmark person. However, local authorities accused him of adherence to "degenerate art", which tragically affected the fate of his paintings and the life of the artist, who committed suicide in 1938.
95x121 cm
1913
price
$38.096 million
sold in 2006 year
on the auction Christie's
After moving to Berlin, Kirchner created 11 sketches of street scenes. He was inspired by the bustle and nervousness of the big city. In the painting, sold in 2006 in New York, the artist's anxiety is especially acute: people on a Berlin street resemble birds - graceful and dangerous. She was the last work from the famous series, sold at auction, the rest are kept in museums. In 1937, the Nazis brutally treated Kirchner: 639 of his works were seized from German galleries, destroyed or sold abroad. The artist could not survive this.
23
"Restingdancer"
Author
Edgar Degas
Country France
Years of life 1834–1917
Style impressionism
The history of Degas as an artist began with the fact that he worked as a copyist in the Louvre. He dreamed of becoming "famous and unknown", and in the end he succeeded. At the end of his life, deaf and blind, 80-year-old Degas continued to attend exhibitions and auctions.
64x59 cm
1879
price
$37.043 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Sotheby's
“Ballerinas have always been for me just an excuse to depict fabrics and capture movement,” said Degas. The scenes from the life of the dancers seem to be peeped: the girls do not pose for the artist, but simply become part of the atmosphere caught by Degas's gaze. Resting Dancer sold for $28 million in 1999, and less than 10 years later it was bought for $37 million - today it is the artist's most expensive work ever put up for auction. Degas paid much attention to frames, he designed them himself and forbade changing them. I wonder what frame is installed on the sold painting?
24
"Painting"
Author
Juan Miro
Country Spain
Years of life 1893–1983
Style abstract art
During the Spanish Civil War, the artist was on the side of the Republicans. In 1937, he fled from fascist power to Paris, where he lived in poverty with his family. During this period, Miro paints the painting "Help Spain!", Drawing the attention of the whole world to the dominance of fascism.
89x115 cm
1927
price
$36.824 million
sold in 2012
on the auction Sotheby's
The second name of the painting is "Blue Star". The artist wrote it in the same year when he announced: “I want to kill painting” and mercilessly mocked the canvases, scratching the paint with nails, gluing feathers to the canvas, covering the work with garbage. His goal was to debunk the myths about the mystery of painting, but, having coped with this, Miro created his own myth - a surreal abstraction. His "Painting" refers to the cycle of "pictures-dreams". Four buyers fought for it at the auction, but one incognito phone call settled the dispute, and "Painting" became the artist's most expensive painting.
25
"Blue Rose"
Author
Yves Klein
Country France
Years of life 1928–1962
Style monochrome painting
The artist was born into a family of painters, but studied oriental languages, navigation, the craft of a gilder of frames, Zen Buddhism and much more. His personality and impudent antics were many times more interesting than monochrome paintings.
153x199x16 cm
1960
price
$36.779 million
sold in 2012
at Christie's auction
The first exhibition of solid yellow, orange, pink works did not arouse public interest. Klein was offended and the next time he presented 11 identical canvases, painted with ultramarine mixed with a special synthetic resin. He even patented this method. The color went down in history as the "International Klein Blue". The artist also sold emptiness, created paintings by exposing paper to rain, setting fire to cardboard, making prints of a human body on canvas. In a word, I experimented as best I could. To create the "Blue Rose" I used dry pigments, resins, pebbles and a natural sponge.
26
"Looking for Moses"
Author
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Country Great Britain
Years of life 1836–1912
Style neoclassicism
Sir Lawrence himself added the prefix "alma" to his surname in order to appear first in art catalogs. In Victorian England, his paintings were so in demand that the artist was awarded a knighthood.
213.4x136.7 cm
1902
price
$35.922 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's
The main theme of Alma-Tadema's work was antiquity. In the paintings, he tried to depict the era of the Roman Empire in the smallest detail, for this he even engaged in archaeological excavations on the Apennine Peninsula, and in his London house he reproduced the historical interior of those years. Mythological stories became another source of inspiration for him. The artist was in great demand during his lifetime, but after his death he was quickly forgotten. Now interest is reviving, as evidenced by the cost of the painting "In Search of Moses", seven times higher than the pre-sale estimate.
27
"Portrait of a sleeping naked official"
Author
Lucian Freud
Country Germany,
Great Britain
Years of life 1922–2011
Style figurative painting
The artist is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. After the establishment of fascism in Germany, his family emigrated to the UK. Freud's works are in the Wallace Collection in London, where no contemporary artist has previously exhibited.
219.1x151.4 cm
1995
price
$33.6 million
sold in 2008
on the auction Christie's
While the fashionable artists of the 20th century created positive "color spots on the wall" and sold them for millions, Freud painted extremely naturalistic paintings and sold them for even more. “I capture the cries of the soul and the suffering of withering flesh,” he said. Critics believe that all this is the "legacy" of Sigmund Freud. The paintings were so actively exhibited and successfully sold that the experts had a doubt: do they have hypnotic properties? Sold at auction, "Portrait of a sleeping naked official", according to the Sun, was acquired by connoisseur of beauty and billionaire Roman Abramovich.
28
"Violin and Guitar"
Author
Xone gris
Country Spain
Years of life 1887–1927
Style cubism
Born in Madrid, where he graduated from the School of Arts and Crafts. In 1906 he moved to Paris and entered the circle of the most influential artists of the era: Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, Matisse, Leger, also worked with Sergei Diaghilev and his troupe.
5x100 cm
1913
price
$28.642 million
sold in 2010 year
on the auction Christie's
Gris, in his own words, was engaged in "planar, colored architecture." His paintings are precisely thought out: he did not leave a single accidental stroke, which makes creativity related to geometry. The artist created his own version of cubism, although he had great respect for Pablo Picasso, the founding father of the movement. The successor even dedicated his first Cubist work, Tribute to Picasso, to him. The painting "Violin and Guitar" is recognized as outstanding in the artist's work. During his lifetime, Gris was known, favored by critics and art critics. His works are exhibited in the world's largest museums and are kept in private collections.
29
"PortraitFields of Eluard»
Author
Salvador Dali
Country Spain
Years of life 1904–1989
Style surrealism
“Surrealism is me,” Dali said when he was expelled from the Surrealist group. Over time, he became the most famous surrealist artist. Dali's work is everywhere, not just in galleries. For example, it was he who came up with the packaging for Chupa-Chups.
25x33 cm
1929
price
$20.6 million
sold in 2011
on the auction Sotheby's
In 1929, the poet Paul Eluard and his Russian wife Gala came to visit the great provocateur and brawler Dali. The meeting was the beginning of a love story that lasted more than half a century. The painting "Portrait of Paul Eluard" was painted just during this historic visit. “I felt that I was entrusted with the duty to capture the face of the poet, from whose Olympus I stole one of the muses,” the artist said. Before meeting Gala, he was a virgin and was disgusted at the thought of having sex with a woman. The love triangle existed until the death of Eluard, after which it became the Dali-Gala duet.
30
"Anniversary"
Author
Marc Chagall
Country Russia, France
Years of life 1887–1985
Style avant-garde
Moishe Segal was born in Vitebsk, but in 1910 he emigrated to Paris, changed his name, and became close to the leading avant-garde artists of the era. In the 1930s, when the Nazis seized power, he left for the United States with the help of an American consul. He returned to France only in 1948.
80x103 cm
1923
price
$14.85 million
sold in 1990
at Sotheby's auction
The painting "Jubilee" is recognized as one of the best works of the artist. It has all the features of his work: the physical laws of the world are erased, the feeling of a fairy tale is preserved in the scenery of petty-bourgeois life, and love is in the center of the plot. Chagall did not draw people from nature, but only from memory or fantasizing. The painting "Jubilee" depicts the artist himself with his wife Bela. The painting was sold in 1990 and has not been bid since. Interestingly, the New York Museum of Modern Art MoMA keeps exactly the same, only under the name "Birthday". By the way, it was written earlier - in 1915.
draft prepared
Tatyana Palasova
rating compiled
according to the list www.art-spb.ru
tmn magazine №13
(May-June 2013)
Each country has its own heroes of contemporary art, whose names are well-known, whose exhibitions gather crowds of fans and curious people, and whose works are distributed among private collections.
In this article, we will introduce you to the most popular contemporary artists in the United States.
Iva Morris
The American artist Iva Morris was born into a large family far from art and received her art education after school. She received her bachelor's degree in art from the University of New Mexico in 1981. Today, Iva has been engaged in art for more than 20 years, her works are known both at home and abroad, and have repeatedly brought her prizes and awards. They can be found in the galleries of Albuquerque, Sante Fe, New Mexico, Madrid.
Warren Chang
Artist Urren Cheng was born in 1957 in California, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Pasadena College of Design and worked as an illustrator for various companies for the next 20 years, starting his career as a professional artist only in 2009. Cheng's style of painting is rooted in the work of the 16th-century artist Jan Vermeer - Warren Cheng works in a realistic manner, creating two main categories: biographical interiors and paintings depicting working people. He currently teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
Christopher Traedy Ulrich
Los Angeles-based artist Christopher Ulrich is a surrealist with an iconographic bent. His work was greatly influenced by ancient mythology. Ulrich's first solo exhibition (jointly with artist Billy Shire) took place in June 2009.
Michael DeVoreMichael DeVore
A young artist, Oklahoma City native Michael Devore works in the classical realist tradition. He entered the arts with the help and support of his family, and won numerous awards in his home state before starting to study fine arts at Pepperdine University in Malibu. Then the artist continued his studies in Italy. Currently, his work is exhibited around the world and is in private collections. Michael Devore is a member of the Oil Painters of America, the International Guild of Realism, the National Society of Oil and Acrylic Painters, and the Portrait Painters of America.
Mary Carol Kenney
Mary Carol Kenny was born in Indiana in 1953. By education, she is very distantly related to the visual arts, but since 2002, driven by the desire to become an artist, she began taking sculpture and ceramics classes at Santa Barbara City College, and after that she began to study with Ricky Strich. She is currently a member of The Santa Barbara Art Ass, the Santa Barbara Sculptor's Guild, and the recipient of numerous awards in sculpture and painting.
Patricia Watwood
Realist artist Patricia Watwood was born in 1971 in Missouri. She graduated with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts, studied with Jacob Collins and Ted Seth Jacobs. The artist's style is modern classicism: mythology, allegories and modern life are intertwined in the paintings. For the past few years, Patricia has been lecturing on classicism across the country and now lives with her family in Brooklyn.
Paula Rubino
Paula Rubino is a contemporary American artist and writer born in 1968 in New Jersey and raised in Florida. He has a doctorate in law. In the 90s she moved to Mexico and focused on painting. She studied the art of drawing in Italy, where she finished her first novel. A series of her short stories has also been published. Currently lives in Florida.
Patssy Valdez
Born in Los Angeles in 1951, Patssy Valdez studied fine art at the Otis Art Institute, where she received the Distinguished Alumnus of 1980. In 2005, Valdes received the "Latina of Excellence in the Cultural Arts" award and title from the US Congressional Latin American Forum. She rose to prominence early in her career while working with the avant-garde art group ASCO. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including those awarded by the J. Paul Getty Visual Arts Trust Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Received a Brody Fellowship in Visual Arts. Valdes' paintings are part of several major collections.
Cynthia Grilli
Artist Cynthia Grilli received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992, and by 1994, a Master's degree in painting from the New York Academy of Art. Her work has been published in numerous US publications, exhibited throughout the country, and is included in private and corporate collections in America and Europe. Cynthia is a two-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.
Eric Fischl
Eric Fischl was born in New York in 1948. In 1972 he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a bachelor's degree. After graduation, he worked for some time as a security guard at the Chicago Museum of Modern Art. After moving to Scotland, Fischl began teaching at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and took up painting directly. In Scotland, his first solo exhibition took place. The genres of his work are very diverse, but mainly figurative painting, episodes from contemporary American life.
