Art Miami Gears Up for December Run

Just as much of the country begins to brace from the first chill of winter, devotees of international art and design will be grabbing the sunscreen as the 19th annual Art Miami fair gears up for its December 3-7 run.

Billed as the city’s longest running contemporary art fair, Art Miami will highlight works from more than 115 national and international galleries throughout a 100,000-square-foot pavilion in the Midtown Miami Arts District. The event is held concurrently with Art Basel Miami Beach and Design Miami.

Participating galleries include Barry Friedman Ltd., Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Edelman Arts, Fay Gold Gallery, Galerie Renate Bender, Hackett-Freedman Gallery, Jackson Fine Art and Pace Prints.

"We are thrilled with the depth, the diversity and the quality of our Art Miami 2008 exhibitors," says Art Miami director Nick Korniloff. "The combination of exhibitors, comprised of the world's leading contemporary art galleries and the emerging Midtown Miami Arts District location, will guarantee Art Miami's continued success."

Prison Paintings fetch £16,550

The Kray Twins

Eight landscape paintings painted by the gangster Ronnie Kray in Parkhurst prison in the 70s were sold at an auction for £16,550 on 27 July, 2008. These paintings were painted on prison cards measuring 7 inches by 10 inches and were showcased by four buyers at prices ranging between £1,550 and £2,650

Reggie Painting

Majority of the paintings of Kray - carrying his prison number 327416- depict the same white cottage and a river. Auctioneer James Mander opines, “They are very naïve paintings, but they are an important piece of modern social history. Seeing these many examples of his work gives you a feel for it, and it can be very dark at times. Apparently Ronnie always painted a white cottage because that was his idea of a dream house - a place in the country.”

Ronnie Painting

Ronnie Kray and his identical twin Reggie Cray loomed large over the crime scene around London’s East End in the 50’s and 60’s. The two nightclub owners were jailed for life for murder in 1969.

John McEnroe- The Artist

Tennis legend John McEnroe recently donated a 1976 Andy Warhol portrait of himself with his former wife Tatum O'Neal to Sotheby's, which sold for £241250.

It’s been a pleasant surprise to how that McEnroe shares a passion for art. "It was really my friend Vitas Gerulaitis who got me looking. He was four years older than me, someone I looked up to," McEnroe explained in an interview. Gerulaitis introduced him to photorealism (Chuck Close, Richard Estes, Audrey Flack, and Tom Blackwell).

McEnroe’s first rapport with art was also prompted by Gerulaitis who introduced him to the SoHo galleries and clubs like Studio 54, where he became acquainted eminent artists like Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Keith Haring, Eric Fischle (who exchanged his art with McEnroe for tennis lessons in 1992), and Francisco Clemente.

McEnroe prefers “art with energy”: a work which vividly reflects manual skills. He now owns a notable collection of art works. In 1993, he unveiled his own gallery on Greene Street.

"I always liked it when people called me an artist on the court," McEnroe says. "It was as if they were saying my style was something they couldn't really relate to and they had to look at the game through me."

Lover’s Portrait by Bacon clinches Record Deal

A portrait Francis Bacon painted of his lover has been sold for 13.7 million pounds (US$27 million) at a London auction.

Sotheby's auction house spokeswoman Poni Ujlaky said Tuesday that "Study for Head of George Dyer" was painted by Bacon in 1967 when he was at the height of his powers.

Another painting — "Untitled (Pecho/Oreja)" by the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat — was sold at the auction for 5.08 million pounds (US$10.1 million) on behalf of the rock band U2.

In another bidding, an iron sculpture by artist Antony Gormley, was sold for a record 2.28 million pounds (US$4.55 million).

Sotheby's and the rival auction house Christie's both say the market for contemporary art remains strong, despite global economic problems.

Roman Recollection in the Louvre

The genealogy of the four major Roman dynasties- Claudians, the Antonines, the Severans, and the family of Constantine- has been traced in the exhibition put up by the Louvre through an investigation of works between the 1st century B.C. and the early 4th century A.D. These works of art represent the evolution of aesthetics along with the changing influence of social and religious powers of the Roman emperors.

Check out this portrait titled “The Emperor and His Surroundings” which focuses on the evolution of taste, aesthetics and society under the Roman emperors like Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, Septimus Severus, and Maxentius.

This urn reiterates the faith of the Romans in religion and life after death. The cult of mystery deeply influenced religion in imperial Rome.

Which Art-ism are you?

Hi Guys! This blog is for all you art lovers and especially for those who love a particular art tradition. Help us know which artistic school of art you cherish the most.

Why did ancient Egyptians adhere to a particular style of images?

Art in ancient Egypt was chiefly religious in nature and created for temples or royal tombs. Ancient Egyptians equated king with a god or demi-god. Artistic imagination was confined by rules of proportion as they were to represent ideas of power and eternity. For instance, images of objects on the wall of a king’s tomb had to be properly proportioned; else, they would not later become the actual items needed by the king in what, he believed, would be his afterlife. This system of strict proportion ensured that all images were basically of the same quality and consistency even if, the artists had been trained in different workshops.