A couple of weeks ago we posted about a Fabergé egg that had been recently discovered and sold at auction for $18 million dollars. That was an amazing price.
This even tinier piece of art - albeit much older - also was expected to bring in $18 million dollars, but - surprise! It brought $57 million to the auction block.
This lion is 3 1/4-inch limestone masterpiece that originated from ancient Mesopotamia - the land of Gilgamesh and the place of original writings - and that could fit in the palm of your hand. It was found at a site near Baghdad and had been on loan from Alastair and Edith Martin to the Brooklyn Museum of Art for nearly 60 years. It is thought to be about 5,000 years old.
Based on this inflated price, the “Standing female figure with clasped hands,” Early Dynastic IIIA, ca. 2600–2500 B.C. and standing 9″ high would be worth more than 200 million dollars. That is more than the Gross National Income of most countries, such as Guinea-Bissau, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Dominica and many more
I am perplexed and certainly one should take a step back and ponder the value of art at the expense of humanity and starving people.
Posted by Russell at 9:29 PM PST
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I’ve spent many an hour online searching for a wall sculpture. So far I’ve refused to purchase any pieces as they seem cheesy and churned out like so many cogs on a wheel. Then, I found this Haitian Oil Drum Art site last week, and I was thrilled. The designs are chalked out on flattened steel oil drums and then cut out with a mallet and chisel. So, each piece is unique, and the prices are comparable with mass produced wall art. Now to decide which piece I like most…
Posted by Linda at 8:00 AM PST
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Above: A close-up from Callesen’s “Alive But Dead” image, seen in full at right.
Peter Callesen is a talented artist and definitely a fellow fanatic at creating magnificent, sometimes bewildering art from paper. His work encompasses beauty and fragility and is truly one of the creators of unique art.
Most recently he has started making white paper cuts/sculptures inspired by fairytales and romanticism exploring the relationship between two and three dimensionality, between image and reality. Callesen states, “I find the materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form as an almost magic process - or maybe one could call it obvious magic, because the process is obvious and the figures still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in most of the cuts.”
Below: a Large Scale Papercut Installation entitled, “Erected Ruin.”
Posted by Russell at 8:00 AM PST
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In an earlier post we showed some amazing Origami spheres and balls. If you’re hooked on this paper art, you know how easy it is to become an origami fanatic. So this link is for you…dozens and dozens…nay - hundreds of drawings in PDF to help you quench your Origami fever!
Posted by Russell at 8:00 AM PDT
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