The Picasso Complex by Tony Bulmer

The Picasso Complex/Art for Arts Sake: by Tony Bulmer

The Picasso Complex is finished! Juicelings may notice the artist changed and added a number of elements.
This original painting is Acrylic on canvas 36"X 48"

Plein Air Painter Ethan Jack Harrington

http://ethanjackharrington.blogspot.com/

Ethan Jack Harrington Golden Gate Bridge SanFrancisco California

Plein-air painting, is the new catchphrase in the world of West Coast art. There are many astonishing Plein air painters around, some of whom Creative Juicings will feature in future posts, but one of our favorite artists, is the highly original Ethan Jack Harrington.


Ethan hails from SanFrancisco and Juicings particularly enjoys his twisted, somewhat psychedelic take on the world around him. In addition to this Ethan has a particularly unique and well developed sense of color, distilling the natural world in to a vibrant and acidic vision, that is both compelling and highly original.


His signature Plein-air views of America and in particular the American West are his strongest and most engaging work, but Juicings invites readers to check out his site  and discover this truly original talent for themselves.

KAWS Holds the line, at Honor Fraser Gallery

http://www.kawsone.com/blog
http://www.honorfraser.com/

KAWS:not the Messiah he’s a very naughty boy

Jersey Boy KAWS AKA Brian Donnelly is returning to The Honor Fraser Gallery for a a show of his sculptures and paintings that take a gonzo look at the cartoon worlds of Micky Mouse, Sponge Bob Square Pants and The Simpsons. 


Kaws who started out in the world of Graffiti art, is now a high rolling corporate commodity, who has created work for the likes of Nike, and clothing brand Comme Des Garcons. His famous nutso action figures are a must have, for disaffected teens and kidult collectors alike. Be warned however that KAWS has now entered the artistic mainstream, a recent sculpture having sold for a reputed $400,000.


Honor Fraser Gallery
2622 South La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034-2604
(310) 837-0191

Van Gogh Murdered

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7384908n&tag=contentMain;contentAux
http://www.amazon.com/Van-Gogh-Life-Steven-Naifeh/dp/0375507485/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319059741&sr=1-1

Murder? Juiclings may have just got over the shock revelations last year, that internationally famous artistic nut job Vincent Van Gogh did not chop his own ear off in a state of a schizoid angst, but rather he lost it in absinthe fueled  sword play with his buddy and sometime drinking partner Paul Gauguin, whom we have learned was an accomplished swordsman.

Van Gogh Murdered?

Pulitzer prize winning authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith  have a thousand page tome on the World’s most famous Post-Impressionist released tuesday, and this well researched master-work is creating quite a stir. Entitled “Van Gogh: The Life,” The book states that Van Gogh did not shoot himself in a wheat field as previously thought.


The authors conclude that Van Gogh would not have been able to stumble back to the inn in Auvers-sur-Oise with a serious gunshot wound to the stomach, as the wound was too serious and the journey too arduously long. They also state that the trajectory of the gunshot was highly unusual and the shot fired from an angle  and distance  inconsistent with suicide.  Also cited  is Van Gogh’s uncertainty as to how he received the gunshot, and his insistence that no one else should be questioned in relation to the shooting. Then there is the gun, which was never found.


So how did Van Gogh get shot? The authors state that the great man was shot by a cowboy obsessed local youngster, part of a gang of youths, who had been tormenting the troubled painter for months. A gunshot was heard in a farmyard close to the inn, which would explain  how the artist managed to stumble home, there is conjecture that one of the boys may have been the inn keepers son—a man who kept a gun. A teenage thug with a gun kills by accident? sounds like a very modern scenario,.


But was Van Gogh suicidal?  Naifeh & White Smith reckon not. They cite his diaries, to which they have been given unprecedented access,  by the Van Gogh family. In the diaries the artist discusses, but ultimately rejects the idea of taking his own life. They also state that Van Gogh felt the need to protect his child killers, because one of their fathers was his landlord…


One thing is certain, ugly rumors have been circulating in Auvers-sur-Oise for a hundred years. Now the main figures in this sorry tale are all dead, the real truth can never come out.


Perhaps now is a time for Juiclings to reinvestigate the work of one of the greatest painters of the 20th Century. Read “Van Gogh: The Life,” Certainly, better still, visit the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.


But how do you pronounce the name?
Americans pronounce it Van Go, as in snow
The British pronounce it Van goff, as in cough
The Authoritative Dutch pronunciation is Van Gock as in Clock


So now you know.

Gordon Collett: Award winning Portraiture & Murals

http://www.muralartist.co.uk/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gordon-Collett-painter/161621453908067
http://www.youtube.com/user/gordoncollett

Gordon Collett is an award winning portrait painter and mural artist from  The United Kingdom, he also lives down the road from the Queen of England’s famous castle in Windsor, So you would be right in thinking that tradition is an important part of Gordon’s work.

Ellie-by Gordon Collett

Not only is Gordon an accomplished portrait painter, check out the picture of Ellie left, but he also has an international reputation as a muralist. He is epecially known for his trompe l’œil murals, as juiclings may know, this is a specialized style of painting, where the artist literally ‘tricks the eye’ into believing  there is, for example, a door in a wall leading to a sun kissed landscape, when really it is the magic of the paintbrush that is creating this effect.

This talent for creating space through artistic magic, has led the artists skills to be in big demand and he frequently travels the world completing trompe l’œil mural projects for a roster of prestigious clients.

Gordon has appeared on British Television, on a number of occasions, to both discuss and demonstrate his considerable talents, checkout the youtube link above, to see him at work.

Two Girls/Summer in Encino Painting by Tony Bulmer

Is Los Angeles really like this? On occasion. The Scenario: Summer in Encino 105 in the shade The renaissance Palette is a strict exercise. The movement and fine detail in the background brush work was achived after the artist saw a work by Chagall in London and came to the realization that every inch of the work was a microcosm of a masterpiece, meaning that Chagall never covered canvas unthinkingly, he worked up every hard fought thumbnail section: the result a glorious synergy. The artists motivation as ever is fun. You want objective truth? Watch CNN.

Two Girls /Summer in Encino Acrylic on Canvas 12"X40"

Art for Art’s Sake/The Picasso Complex by Tony Bulmer

The Picasso complex refers to the idea that all art is created in a state of madness. The Van Goughian swirls which reflect this idea were an unconscious addition demanded by the composition. The Picasso influenced painting in this work is based on a rarely seen Picasso original, though the colors and composition have been substantially exaggerated. The colors in general were influenced by Cezanne. The limited Palette Involves Payne’s Grey, Cobalt Blue , Phthalocyanine Green,  earthy Ocres and Umbers. The artist does not use black and rarely uses white. At the time this photograph was taken the piece remained unfinished.

Art For Art’s sake/The Picasso Complex By Tony Bulmer work in progress Acrylic on Canvas 36"X 46"

DE DAME DE FAME By TONY BULMER

De Dame De Fame Tony Bulmer

De Dame De Fame is the latest Painting by Tony Bulmer. Acrylic on Canvas 24"X30" For Bill Ward

Museo Reina Sofia

Picasso, Guernica, Museo Reina Sofia Madrid

Juiclings who find themselves in  Spain this summer, must visit The National Museum of Spain in Madrid. The museum is open 10am–9pm weekdays, Sundays it closes at 2.30 and is shut Tuesdays. Prices start at €6 for entry, but you can buy a really cool Madrid art pass for €17.60  that also allows entry to the Prado and the Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Picasso fans will know that the Reina Sofia is home to Guernica, Picasso’s most famous work. Whilst living in France during World War Two, Picasso received a visit from the Nazis, who’s loathing of modern art is legendary. On seeing the Guernica canvas a Nazi officer asked Did you do this? to which Picasso’s legendary reply was: No, you did. Those of you familiar with the subject matter of Guernica will know that it depicts a famous massacre in the Basque city of Guernica, where the Nazis bombed the town to aide their ally, Spanish Fascist dictator General Franco. If the story is true, we are lucky not only that the painting survived, but that Picasso did too.

The painting is way cooler when you see it for real, many details that printed reproductions hide are revealed, and the painting is surprisingly big too, check it out Juiclings, Spain rocks!

http://www.museoreinasofia.es

Jaques Moitoret

Modigliani by Jaques Moiret

Jaques Moitoret is from Seattle Washington. He studied at the University of Washington and the Academy des Beaux Arts Avignon France He has been painting over forty years. Jaques specializes in Portraits. Creative Juicings think his paintings of famous Artists such as Picasso and Modigliani are fantastic. Juiclings can experience these awesome works at his website where you can check out many of his paintings. You can also see his work at the Microsoft collection and the City of Seattle collection Washington.

http://www.jacquesmoitoret.com/html/biography.html

Earrings on the Terrace by Tony Bulmer

Earrings on the Terrace/ Une nuit a Paris by Tony Bulmer

This painting is a giant 48"X 48" Acrylic on Canvas. It is executed on a one and a half inch thick stretcher and can be hung unframed if required. The painting continues seamlessly over the edges of the canvas.

The artist has traveled to Paris many times and Parisian subjects are a personal favourite. Juiclings will spot the famous Eiffel Tower, but notice also, the domes of the Sacré-Cœur riding atop the hill of Montmartre and the roof of the Musée d'Orsay. 

Bags by Chanel. hair by Retro and style by Tres outré, Martinis are extra dry, naturally. This painting was almost entitled War on the Terrace, but those unfamiliar with the game of soccer might not appreciate the subtle irony. The earrings are, of course, extra fabulous for your delight and delectation.

http://artbytonybulmer.com/?preview=1

Lucian Freud Dead

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping. By Lucian Freud: Yours for £17.2 million

The Artist Lucain Freud has died aged 88. Freud, is famed for his intense realist portrayal of people, particularly nudes. He will be remembered as one of the greatest portrait painters of the twentieth century. He had a strongly idiosyncratic style of painting and he tenaciously adhered to his personal artistic vision, as artistic trends came and went.

Freud was a productive, if methodical artist, working long, hard hours in the studio, even as he approached his late eighties. His work has often been described as disturbing. A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II the reigning English Monarch was described by Robin Simon of the British Art Journal as: Making her look like one of the Royal Corgis who has suffered a stroke.

The grandson of Sigmund Freud the pioneer of modern Psychoanalysis. Freud was born in Berlin Germany in 1922 and moved with his parents to London England in 1933 to escape the Nazis. He became a naturalized british citizen six years later. 

Freud lived and worked in London’s exclusive Holland Park, where he was pals with and painted such luminaries as model Kate Moss. As the grand old man of English art, Freud’s work is highly collectible. A recent painting of an overweight woman on a couch sold for £17.2 million. Freud’s artistic legacy is assured. Funeral arrangements have not been released at the time of writing

Warholian Soup for Los Angeles

Soup tonight?

Warhol is back in town. Marking the 49th anniversary of their controversial public debut in LA  Warhol’s suite of 32 Canvases, depicting Campbell’s soup, are now showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Controversial as ever, the arrival of Warhol’s pop art masterworks has led an over wrought LA Times to suggest that Warhol got the idea of painting soup from William De Kooning. This view originates in De Kooning’s comments in Sketchbook No.1 Three Americans a 1960 movie by Oscar winning filmmaker Robert Snyder. Apparently soup was a common artistic metaphor of the time, used by De Kooning to describe the artistic process. “Everything is already like art—like a big bowl of soup you just stick your hand in and you find something…” Interesting, if nebulous evidence, suggesting that De Kooning was somehow responsible for Warhol’s deification of product as Art.

So what is the true answer? The argument over whether Pop art is a “Joyful celebration of popular culture or a sharp critique of it.” has, as the LA times quite rightly points out, been at the center of the Warholian debate for over fifty years. However the suggestion that Pop Art is: a pointed appraisal of the art establishment’s entrenched status quo and a critique of high cultures supercilious conceits, is as fatuous as Warhol’s suggestion that he painted soup cans because he: “ate it for lunch every day for twenty years.”

Warhol was an obsessive voyeur, a graphic designer and  a supreme scenester  with a overproof sense of irony. As a designer he loved product and yet paradoxically loathed it. As an artist and astute observer of the modern age, he mirrored culture and the reflected image wasn’t always pretty, as those who have seen his films will attest. The most delicious irony is of course, that soup, like art, is open to interpretation and you can either love it or loathe it. Creative Juicings like L.A. loves Warhol. You want soup with that?

http://www.moca.org/

Tom Wolfe: Rockwell is the new Picasso

Tom Wolfe: Norman Rockwell will soon be recognized
as the Picasso of the second half of the Twentieth century.

Tom Wolfe is perhaps America’s greatest living writer. He is certainly an astute social observer, so it is unsurprising that the great man thinks “illustrators will be considered the great American artists of the second half of the Twentieth century.” An opinion that Juicings has voiced for some years and which is now being borne out in the high prices being paid for collectable illustrators such as Norman Rockwell and Gil Elvegren.

Wolfe, perhaps better know for books such as The Right Stuff, Bonfire of the Vanities and Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, certainly knows how to put pen to paper, but it will be a surprise for many Juicelings to learn that he is also a talented illustrator himself.

The National Museum of illustration in Newport R.I, is currently paying homage to Wolfe,  with an exhibition of 37 of his pen & ink illustrations.

The exhibition contains the illustrations from his book, In our time,which were originally reproduced in Harpers magazine. The exhibition runs through labor day. The great satirists unique insights into the world of modern art can be found in his excellent book, Painted Bird. Wolfe’s latest novel, Back to Blood is due next year.

Sappho at the Beach

Sappho on the beach by Tony Bulmer

Lyric poet Sappho was born on the Greek island of Lesbos around 630 BC. Subsequently exiled to Sicily for her beliefs, the true nature of Sappho’s life and work has been the subject of much conjecture, as most of her work has been destroyed.

In 1877 Charles August Mengin painted Sappho as a romantic outsider. He pictured her on the beach looking wistfully homeward, with her lyre, the famed symbol of lyric poets. It is from this point that Sappho became a popular symbol of the romantic outsider. The sexuality of Sappho, from which we get the terms lesbian and sapphic, have also been the subject of much discussion.

Sappho at the Beach was inspired by the mournful Mengin and Santa Monica Beach in Los Angeles.

Sappho on the Beach by Tony Bulmer, 20"x16" Acrylic on canvas

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/sappho.html 

Dangerous Curves

This painting  concerns Beverly Hills. If you have ever driven Sunset Boulevard to Beverly Hills, especially at night, you will know that the road is a racetrack where every supercharged drunk in town tempts fate on the winding turns. Hence the dangerous curves, or Rotondité Dangereux, as our friends on the riviera, with a penchant for double entendre, might say.

The young lady is inspired by Grace Kelly, film star and Princess. A woman who was the epitome of the high living glamor that runs through Beverly Hills to this day.

Dangerous curves, (Rotondité Dangereux) by Tony Bulmer, Acrylic on Canvas 24"X30" Private Collection, Beverly Hills, California.

PICASSO STOLEN

Pablo Picasso's Tete de Femme was stolen
from the Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco 

A thief has stolen a $200,000 Pablo Picasso from the Weinstein Gallery on Geary Street in San Francisco.

The pencil drawing, titled Tête de Femme - Head of a Woman was stolen in the middle of the day and the thief A well-dressed man wearing dark glasses escaped in a waiting taxi.

Police are  appealing to the public for help in catching the crook. Police spokesman Albie Esparza told the San Francisco Chronicle: 'We're hoping someone in the public might recognize this piece, if they see someone walking around with it or trying to sell it.' He described the subject as a 30-to-35-year-old male who is about six feet tall, wearing 'a dark jacket, white shirt, dark pants and loafers without socks'.

Gallery President Rowland Weinstein said the stolen piece was part of a collection that Picasso had given to his driver but the gallery has been showing it since May. Though the piece was insured, Mr Weinstein said he is more worried about preserving it: 'My greatest fear is that, with all this attention on it, the person will realize it's unsellable and will dispose of it in a less-than-proper manner.' The drawing is only about the size of a standard piece of paper so was easy for the thief to steal.’

Picasso did many works titled Tête de Femme. Sharon Flescher, an art historian who heads the International Foundation for Art Research, a non-profit that deals with issues of art authenticity said about the theft: 'Picasso is one of the artists whose works are most stolen and most faked. That's because of the name recognition of Picasso - everyone has heard of Picasso.' She also said it will not be easy to sell, due to the publicity surrounding the theft.

In a Post script to this story Mark Lugo 31 from New Jersey  is being held on grand theft burglary and drug charges. He denies the charges. The artwork has been found stripped from its frame but otherwise undamaged.

Pablo Por Favor

Tony Bulmer: Pablo Por Favor Pen & ink detail (After Picasso)

Do You Mean Me?

Tony Bulmer: Do You Mean Me? Acrylic on Canvas

Three (Dis) Graces, Or Real Housewives of the Lost Temple of Artemis

Tony Bulmer: The Three (Dis) Graces, or Real Housewives of the Lost Temple of Artemis
Acrylic on Canvas 36"X 48"

Tony Bulmer Valley Girl

Tony Bulmer Valley Girl

A Weekend with Pablo Picasso

Herbert Siguenza as Picasso, in A Weekend with Picasso

Fancy a weekend with Pablo Picasso? More accurately it will be ninety minutes in the company of Herbert Siguenza in his one man show A weekend with Picasso, now at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

The show is a masterful presentation of stories jokes and insights into Picasso’s life, work and philosophy.

Set one weekend  in 1957  when the great artist is commissioned to crank out six paintings and three vases in the space of just one weekend. The audience play the part of art students that the great artist has grudgingly allowed to visit him at work in his studio.

Siguenza is convincing as Picasso and does an admirable job painting live on stage. Some of the paintings are completed in real time, others in advance. An extra dimension is added to the show as paintings evolve via projections. Video montages  by Victoria Petrovich provide an insight to historical and biographical events and Picasso’s dreams.

Co-founder of the Latino comedy troupe Culture Clash, Siguenza is both charismatic and entertaining. as he provides an endless commentary to the evolving weekend, and the show is to be recommended to juiclings in the Los Angeles Area.

Los Angeles Theatre center, 514S Spring Street., Los Angeles.  tickets $10-$35  (866) 811 4111 

The show ends May1 2011.

Art in the Streets?

LA Graffiti artist Risk: Wildstyle master at MOCA

Art in the Streets is the latest brainchild of Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Director Jeffery Deitch.   Juiclings may remember the mural by Blu that MOCA commissioned for the side of their prestigious Geffen Wing. And the ensuing debacle that resulted, when the aforementioned work of art proved to be (ahem) politically unsuitable (cough).

The new graffiti show at MOCA opening April17th is a historical retrospective of graffiti spanning four decades. The show features work by more than 100 leading graffiti artists.  The latest mural adorning the Geffen wing was a team effort, coordinated by NYC Artist  Lee Quinones. At time of writing the mural was unfinished, but it appears to be a nice picture of a choo choo train. Hopefully this will not offend any former railroad workers who are living close by, but this remains to be seen.

The exhibition is obviously a bold  step for Deitch, as it lays him personally and MOCA as an institution open to criticism about the validity of Graffiti art as a true art form.

Graffiti, love it or loath it, is a cultural phenomenon and as such it is valid that Deitch should have commissioned this far reaching retrospective. Some of the artists are naturally more talented and personable than others. LA. native Risk for example, has spent years developing the Wildstyle form of graffiti, that melds almost illegible graphic forms, in a psychedelic melange of swirling movement and color. Risk is an artist who has taken his art out of the subway into a gallery context and is to be commended for doing so.

Graffiti’s unsavory roots are never far from the surface however. Artist Chaz Bojorquez has been quoted as saying: ‘you tag your neighborhood because you are proud of it, to protect it.’ here in lies the problem, because graffiti does not protect anything—and neither do gangsters with guns. But it is presumably this heroic myth that Mr Bojorquez seeks to defend. At 62 years of age one would expect Mr Bojorquez to know better.

It is this kind of thinly disguised menace, that will have the blue stockinged patrons of MOCA quivering in their Brooks Brothers suits. Big Jeff will tell us of the new creative blood he is seeking to invite into the artistic mainstream. There is much to be said for this argument.

But for many graffiti exponents, the art form is about ego and anarchy. A barely rationalized tribal impulse, to stake out turf, like an attack dog urinating on neighborhood lamp posts. So what if the world doesn’t understand? What is there to understand about rebellion?

Graffiti is all very well, but no one wants it on their doorstep. Many of the ‘artists’ who are showing at MOCA are career vandals, who have perfected their art via decades of defacing public property. Many have evolved into accomplished exponents of the form. Others haven’t. And for every good graffiti artist, there are seemingly thousands of very bad ones.

Perhaps we should send Jeffery Deitch into the ‘hood’ with an arm full of Jack Vettriano prints to glue on the front gangsta’s houses, see how they like it when the tables are turned.

The Steins Collect, an exhibition at SFMOMA

The girl with green eyes

Fans of Creative juicings will already know that we are huge fans of Matisse, Cézanne, and Picasso. It is with great excitement therefore, that we can exclusively reveal that there is an exhibition encompassing all our favorite artists coming to  San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art.

The exhibition runs  from May 21 to September 06, 2011 and focuses on the collection  Gertrude Stein and her family made in Paris during the early years of the 20th century.

As regular readers of Creative juicings will know Ms Stein lived in an apartment at 27 Rue de Fleurus, Paris France from 1904 to 1913. Her collection included Gauguin’s sunflowers and three of his Tahitian paintings, a number of Cézanne’s including ‘the bathers’, Delacroix’s Perseus & Andromeda, Matisse’s Woman with a hat, various Picasso’s including a portrait of Ms Stein that now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Other artists she collected include: Toulouse Lautrec, Henri Manguin, Pierre Bonnard and Honoré Daumier.

Woman with hat

Gertrude Stein also hosted saturday evening art soirées in her apartment where such notables as Henri Rousseau, Georges Braque, Andre Derain, Max Jacob, Guillaume Apollinaire and Ernest Hemingway could be found.

The San Francisco exhibition will  certainly include Matisse’s legendary Woman with a hat, the painting that kick started the Fauvist movement, as well as the the more pleasing, if less iconoclastic The girl with green eyes. A number of Picasso’s will also be on display, including his famous portrait of Stein. What is not clear at this stage is how many of the more novel works, such as the Delacroix will be shown.

http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/410

Glue Society

Hot with the chance of late storm,

Statement Sculpture. Instalation Art. To some genius, to others kings new suit of clothes frippery. Do such works bring alive the worst indulgences of an age of internet idleness? Or perhaps they are an affirmation of creative thought on a grand scale that encourages us to do, rather than be?

The Glue Society are an Australian art collective who create big statement sculpture and films. These are the guys who created a plastic-stacko-chair rainbow on a frozen mountain side for 42Below Vodka and all manner of crazy art-event antics, including the Gods Eye View Project, a series of aerial photographs that recreate biblical events including the crucifixion and the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites.

Creative juicings loves originality and creative naughtiness in all its forms, so we just had to share with you the Glue Society’s piece: Hot with the chance of late storm, which is a sculpture of an ice cream van melting on a beach. Art or indulgence? Discuss.

http://www.gluesociety.com/

Pedro Campos Superrealist master

Super-realism is back. It never really went away, but the airbrushed seventies have now given way to a new breed of obsessives, whose sole objective is to focus on technique. The Coke can is a design classic in itself and painting one is the yardstick by which any super-realist is judged. Coke is the the super-real thing after all. 


But seriously juiclings, it is refreshing to see that painters such as Pedro Campos are using oil on canvas to such technically stunning effect. Contemporary art has in recent years become obsessed by the bold artistic statement. But bold artistic statements  are often not enough, especially when they are ugly and meaningless.


Pedro’s work offers us the juxtaposition of the workaday object, executed in paint, with space age precision. Such wow-bang contrasts are what make these paintings successful. Check out his work.


http://www.pedrocampos.net/

SEBASTIAN KRÜGER new pop realism

Keef by Sebastian Kruger

When it comes to iconic modern portraiture there really is only one artist who encapsulates the full gamut of emotion, from madcap fun to dark angst and that man is German artist Sebastian Krüger.

Krüger likes to paint iconic figures who define the modern age and fill our collective consciousness with high art mystery and lowbrow cult of personality pervasiveness. Kruger loves musicians, actors and iconic media figures. He is literally obsessed with the Rolling Stones in general, and Keith Richards in particular, having painted many iconic portraits of the band.

Getting his start as a magazine illustrator Krüger did much work for Stern, Speigel and Rolling Stone magazine. More recently he has transcended the world of the illustrative hamster wheel, breaking out into the lucrative world of commissioned portraits. He is a close friend of Rolling Stones Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood and paints a yearly portrait of Richards.

Krüger paints freehand in acrylics. His technique can be observed at the Utube link below, in which he paints a tortured view of the late, great Michael Jackson. Krüger’s work owes much to the art of caricature, he borrows the distortion and the immediacy of the genre, often incorporating jokes or visual gags into his work. But the artistry and strength of technique places Krüger firmly in the realm of the artisan craftsman. This guy knows how to paint. His works look as if they have been projected or otherwise doctored in Photoshop, but he uses neither.

The artists work is highly valuable and collected. Limited edition prints of his work run at several thousand dollars, original artworks much more. He has to date completed several hundred paintings.

http://sebastian-kruger-exhibitions.blogspot.com/
http://www.sebastian-kruger.com/
https://www.artifactsgallery.com/art.asp?!=A&name=Sebastian%2520Kruger&ID=619#LINKS
http://sebastian-kruger-news.blogspot.com/2010_12_01_archive.html
http://sebastian-kruger-news.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b18LOHBjyuc
http://www.limelightagency.com/Sebastian-Kruger/News/news.html
http://www.sebastiankruger.org/

The comic my Mom threw away

Money speaks volumes. It defines modern art. This is why the world of comics and art have finally collided. Detective Comics #27 has sold  at Heritage Auctions in LosAngeles for an astonishing $657,250 breaking the world record price paid for a comic book. Comic fans will immediately recognize that this edition of Detective Comics boasted the very first appearance of Batman. The Status of this comic book is rivaled only by Action Comics #1

The seller of the comic bought it in Hawaii in 1974 for $1,200 from the original and only owner.

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=7023&Lot_No=91055

Glamorous Art in Beverly Hills

Alberto Vargas Esquire Cover

Psst, wanna make some money? You ever wish you had been one of those lucky people who got in on at the modern art bargain basement and bought a Picasso, Matisse or Warhol for a few thousand dollars? Well now is your chance to invest in the artists who will be worth big money in the future. Heritage auctions of Beverly Hills is holding an Illustration Auction on February 11-12 2011 and the signature artists on sale will be worth millions in the future.

The artists in question are Alberto Vargas, Gil Elvgren and Haddon Sundbolm. These three artists are the main players in the pin-up art of the Forties and Fifties. Vargas is famed for the Varga girl  pin ups he did for  Esquire and Playboy magazine. His works are age defining icons and represent the very zenith of airbrush art. Gil Elvgren is the master of stocking top sauciness from an era when the world of advertising  believed it could get away with such things. Sundbolm is the man who invented Santa Claus. Not really, he reinvented the concept of Santa Claus in the famous red and white livery of the Coca Cola company. He also redefined the American dream with a soft drinks focus. His work is all pervasive and slickly desirable.

These three artists fulfill all the investment criteria  for the serious collector. All three are leaders in their fields. All three helped to define an age of glamour that has passed into the realms nostalgic desirability. All three are artists of exceptional talent and they are all dead. Get collecting.

Expect work by these artists to fetch $20,000–$30,000 at current prices.

http://comics.ha.com/c/index.zx?ic=Tab-Home-041408

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=44227