Any Art Colllectors Here?

[itschris]

This past weekend Nancy and I got invited to a small private VIP aucton at the Ritz Carlton in Sarasota for a few days. Making it especially nice was the fact that all four days were comped... except for lunch. It was fun to live like a rock star for a few days.

Anyway... we had three auctions and got to meet and spend time with three very important artists in their respected niche's. The first was Duaiv. He's sort of the artist's artist I guess. A highly decorated French artist who's recognized all over the world. Interestingly, he loves high end sports cars and brought his 458 Spyder that Ferrari commissioned him to paint. (not my thing, but appreciate it for what it is)



The second day was with Peter Max. He actually spend out 2 hours with us. He spoke for about an hour telling stories about him and Andy Warhol and other cool stuff like that. We got to ask questions and talk about his work. He hung out during the auction and talked with those of us who had gotten some of his works. He also, signed books that were given to us. It was pretty cool.

That night, Dominic Pangborn came in and had dinner with us. He told the story of how he got where he is today coming over from Korea by himself when he was just 10 years old. He's very interesting because his career started out more so as a designer for marketing campaigns. It's an epic story. I wasn't very familiar with him other than with his Art In Motion art (which is simply something you have to see to believe and appreciate) but he's actually involved in and very good at all sorts of styles.. still life, abstract, impressionism, etc. He sort of does it all. I had breakfast with him the morning of his auction... just the two of us by some odd chance since we were both a little late to breakfast after a very long evening having fun (open bar from 11am to whenever each night) It was pretty cool to just to sit there and talk with guy. To my surprise, he's very conserative politically.

If any of you are fan of these artists, I'd be happy to share some personal insight that I gained. We had some serious access and I learned 10 fold about these guys and art in general from the weekend.

It was a pretty epic weekend. I was actually kinda dredding it to be honest, but it turned out to be one of the best outing I've had in a long while. They canvased my area so we met people that live near us and will probably end up being long time friends.

Post up some pics if you like to collect.

 

[itschris]

What a bunch of uncultured neanderthals playing your damn rock n' roll drug music.

 

[Adam]

Niki is a very talented new age artist. I'll try to take some snapshots for you of her next carpet masterpiece...before I clean it.

 

[itschris]

Molly our St. Bernard was quite talented as well. She had an entire series of works... variation of a theme if you will... she called it "Piles"

 

[Adam]

Niki calls hers, "Scoot and Sniff." I don't get it, but I'm just an uncultured neanderthal...

 

[itschris]

Here are some my favorites from the weekend...



This was an absolutely beautiful painting. I really really wanted to try and get this one, but we pulled the trigger on a Peter Max the day before which pretty much made me physically sick after the bidding was over. Once I recoup a bit, this is something I'd really like to get. I think the cool thing about the classic flower arrangement is that you can have several, but they're always so different so they don't look out of place together. I'm not a fan of Pangborn's abstract work, but his classic stuff like this is really nice. He's just really good at everything unlike most artists who are solely one style or the other.



Anatoly Metlin is one of the reasons why I went to this auction. He's more known for doing sort of like village scapes... think Greek fishing villiage.. or at least that what I take from it. But the past couple years he went 180 and starting doing beautiful paintings like this. There are about 5 other versions of this one and another series of a woman in a red dress... they're all really stunning pieces. One of these are also on the short list.



The bottom one is from Melkin. I don't know a lot about him, but I first saw these birch tree paintings on our cruise. They are stunning. The contrast and the color is quite amazing. You can look at it for a long while and not get tired of seeing it.



This was one of my favorite Peter Max paintins at the event. This is one of his iconic images that he always paints. This one went for $40K I think. This was a bigger painting.. about 3' x 3' (canvas size). For me, Peter Max is not so much about the art but who he is. I try to justify our purchase as an investment of not just money, but culture maybe? I don't know... if you could go back 50 years and meet, talk to, and buy a work from Andy Warhol... would you? Knowing what I know now? I would. He's a cultural icon, not so much an artist icon. For both of them, their art is a segment of their cultural impact. We got one of his other iconic images... the Umbrella Man. I can't wait for it to be delivered.

We've got a couple or so major pieces now and it's amazing the impact it has on the inside of our house. But you know, we have "unspecial" art too... one of our center pieces in the breakfast area is from Pier One which I think we paid $150 for and I doubt I'll ever get rid of it. I dig that painting just as much as any other. It's amazing how art transforms the inside of your home.

If you have any cool pictures or paintings, post them up.

 

[darien87]

The only thing I really collect are................. don't laugh, Patrick Nagel paintings. He was HUGE in the 80's. Even his litho prints sold for hundreds or thousands in his hey-day. Now that no one's really into his art anymore you can find some great deals on his stuff on eBay and other sites. I actually got a signed print of his Duran Duran Rio cover for a couple hundred.

This isn't mine but this is the one I have that's signed and framed.

When I was in college there was a local gallery that represented Steve Leal, a guy that had a very similar style to Nagel. I got a very cool poster of his signed and personalized to me. I still love that one.

My wife thinks they're stupid and totally 80's but I love them. I have tons of both of their work just sitting between a couple pieces of foam core separated by glassine paper under the bed in the spare room. I don't have enough wall space in the house to hang them all up, (not that the wife would even let me). But art is so subjective anyway. I'm sure most people think Nagel's are lame these days but I still love them.

 

[darien87]

This is another one of my favorites of Nagel's, Grey Lady. I got a print of this one about 5 years ago.

I think just about every college dorm room in the 80's had this poster on the wall.

 

[darien87]

This was my very first Nagel. Bought as a gift by my then girlfriend, now wife that can't stand Nagel's anymore.

 

[itschris]

The only difference between you and I is that I bet you didn't have orange hair and own those at the same time! I was quite the ladies man because of those. I had the Rio, the grey lady and that last one in my room... which was painted mauve and grey. I had an orange new wave mullet cut hair like Nick Rhodes. Add to that a waterbed with a mauve crushed velvet bedspread, "Save a Prayer" playing in the background... it was on!!!!!!!!

 

[darien87]

The only difference between you and I is that I bet you didn't have orange hair and own those at the same time! I was quite the ladies man because of those. I had the Rio, the grey lady and that last one in my room... which was painted mauve and grey. I had an orange new wave mullet cut hair like Nick Rhodes. Add to that a waterbed with a mauve crushed velvet bedspread, "Save a Prayer" playing in the background... it was on!!!!!!!!

Ahhhh... the memories.

You're right I never had orange hair but I did rock the curly Prince-do for a while.