Damien Hirst, the world's most expensive living artist, is going green in a major way: he recently placed an order for Britain's second largest solar panel system. The system will be used to switch his Gloucestershire country home and studios over to total solar power. I can imagine he's got a lot of electricity needs for his entire estate, but I'm wondering if a 310 watt system (enough power to supply electricity to the equivalent of over 150 homes and will account for 2% of the entire country's solar power) isn't a bit overkill?Posts with tag artist
Damien Hirst Orders Serious Solar Power
Damien Hirst, the world's most expensive living artist, is going green in a major way: he recently placed an order for Britain's second largest solar panel system. The system will be used to switch his Gloucestershire country home and studios over to total solar power. I can imagine he's got a lot of electricity needs for his entire estate, but I'm wondering if a 310 watt system (enough power to supply electricity to the equivalent of over 150 homes and will account for 2% of the entire country's solar power) isn't a bit overkill?Damien Hirst Painting Sells For Just £200
Do you think a serious art collector would recognize the work of Damien Hirst if it was presented, unsigned and anonymous, at an art auction? Apparently, at least one would. Film producer Allan Maloney managed to snap up Hirst's Spin for a mere £200 at an anonymous auction at the Flatlake Arts and Literary Festival in Ireland.Festival organizer Kevin Allen came up with the idea of offering up Hirst's painting of concentric circles alongside 41 other anonymous works. In attendance were some of Ireland's most prestigious art dealers and media types - they knew there was a Hirst on the block, but didn't know which one it was. The other pieces were deliberately misleading, painted in Hirst's style. In trying to guess which one was 'the one', buyers paid up to £5,000 for works they mistook as being Hirst's, including a sculpture entitled Two Rats in a Drainpipe, made by some A-level students in London.
Hirst donated the painting, which he created for his 'Spin' series, hoping it would go to someone who really liked it. I wonder how he feels about the fact that Maloney immediately offered up the painting for auction again, selling it for £95,000 to Irish gallery owner Kevin Spillane.
The Most Expensive Birthday Card
70 year old Joan Hardee got quite the birthday greeting in the mail when she received a painting from artist Damien Hirst. Joan had been Hirst's college secretary, so when her son was planning a surprise birthday party he asked Hirst if he wouldn't make a special card for her. Hirst, though, took it a step farther and sent her an entire painting instead with the words "Happy Birthday Joan" written on it. At the time the painting had an estimated value of £30,000.Joan Hardee had attempted to sell the painting back in 2001 (rumors are she couldn't afford to insure it) but was unsuccessful, so assuming she still has it how much to do suppose it's worth now?
Sarah Hood Five Spice Necklace
Jewelry artist Sarah Hood has many interests and hobbies and she strives to combine them all in her one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces. Her love of gardening, botany, literature, children's toys, eastern philosophy, and travel all find a place in her creations. In her Spice Series, she combines the natural simplicity of whole spices with silver and glass, to "blur the lines between studio, kitchen, and laboratory." This piece is called Five Spice and consists of just that: five spices sealed in hand blown glass bottles suspended from a gently curved sterling silver bar. This necklace would certainly make an interesting conversation-starter. $780.
[thanks, Rae Ann]
Damien Hirst Is Most Expensive Living Artist
Damien Hirst is now the world's most expensive living artist, which is quite a title considering the price many pieces are going for at auction these days. America's Jasper Johns held the honor previously, on and off since the 1980s, along with Willem de Kooning from 1989-1997. Damien Hirst officially took the title when his Lullaby Spring pill cabinet sold for $19.1 million at Sotheby's, but he didn't take it directly from Jasper Johns. Just 24 hours earlier artist Lucian Frued had the title (yep, for just one day) after his "Bruce Bernard" portrait sold for $16.5 million in London.Rothko Painting Sets Record in New York
A painting by artist Mark Rothko broke the record for postwar art by more than a little at an auction at Sotheby's in New York when it sold for $72.8 million dollars on Tuesday. Although "White Center (Yellow, Pink, and Lavender on Rose)," was expected to go for high dollars (presale estimates had put it around $40 million), the over-the-top boost can most likely be attributed to the big name of owner and seller David Rockefeller Sr. -- who says he plans to donate the proceeds of the sale to charity.
It was a big night for record breaking sales, as earlier that night Francis Bacon's "Study From Innocent X" broke all previous records selling for $52.7 million, only to be outdone by the Rockefeller's Rothko moments later.
Banksy Auction Sets Record
Even though Angelina Jolie paid nearly $400,000 for a few pieces from the graffiti artist Banksy last month in Los Angeles, his works have never reached a price that high at conventional auctions. But the prices are creeping up as his works gain a wider audience. At a Sotheby's auction in London, a set of six pictures of Kate Moss, done in the style of Andy Warhol, sold for about $94,000 (£50,400) and a sketch of the Mona Lisa, "sprayed green and with paint dripping from her eyes," went for almost £109,000 (£57,600). The prices were much more than double their estimates, setting new records at auction for the artist's work.Angelina Buys Banksy Art in LA
At guerilla artist Banksy's Los Angeles show this week, Angelina Jolie spent nearly $400,000 on three pieces. One painting, called Picnic, shows a "white family of four lunching under an umbrella while 15 starving Africans look on," and another is a portrait of a man who was hit in the head with a pie. The last item was a "bullet-ridden bust." Picnic alone cost $226,000, while the other two pieces sold for $75,000 each.
You can see a photo of Picnic on Flickr, as well as more photos from the exhibition.
More Klimt Paintings For Auction
After her Klimt painting sold for a record price earlier this year, ninety year old Maria Altmann has decided to sell her remaining four paintings by the same artist. All five were returned to her after having been confiscated from her family by Nazis in 1938. The four paintings have a combined value of somewhere from $100-$150 million, according to Christie's auctioneers, and include "The Kiss," "Adele Bloch-Bauer II" - a portrait of Altmann's aunt and, it is speculated, the artist's long-time lover - "Houses in Unterachon Lake Atter" (pictured), "Apple Tree I" and "Birch Forest." All five of the paintings are currently on display at the Neue Gallerie in New York and will remain there until at least September 18th.
A Hummer Made of Candy
Artist Heidi Heiss must be even more upset by the discontinuation of the Hummer H1 than we are - just kidding. She made this candy-coated Hummer as a tribute to "the soldiers who gave candies to children during the war." It is a life sized HumVee that is made of gumballs, steel and wire mesh. This one was on display at the MOCA Tucson in Arizona, but it's easy to imagine it ending up in the car collection of someone who really wants something different.
There's another picture, for perspective, after the jump.
[via OMG Blog]
Warhol Wig Fetches $10K
A Christie's auction on Thursday was full of celebrity memorabilia. Marilyn Monroe's black cocktail dress from the movie The Misfits, sold for $66,000, and an address book owned by the star sold for $31,200. A gold linked bracelet given to Carole Lombard by Clark Gable went for $7,800. The Andy Warhol lots, which were offered by the artist's nephew, attracted some of the most attention, though they were not the most expensive items there. A Polaroid of Mick Jagger, taken by Warhol, went for $15,600, while a photo of Muhammad Ali that Warhol had autographed fetched $19,200. And Andy's famous, silver wig sold for $10,800.
I Dream of Cake Purses, (Edible) Handbag of the Day
I Dream of
Cake is a bakery that excels in producing the most exquisite cakes you can imagine. Of course, many of the cakes are
intended as wedding designs, but there isn't a single occasion that can't involve a cake of some sort. Mother's Day, for
example? Some of the very unusually shaped cakes done by I Dream of Cake are actually made to look like purses - designer purses, no less. They have done Louis Vuitton more than once, Chanel and many others.
Prices vary and all the cakes are made to order, so if you're interested, you'll have to call for pricing.
Reebok Basquiat Sneakers
I saw these on The Stylephile and decided they were a
must-have for my favorite artist who has a birthday coming up. Reebok has made a new collection of sneakers that are
designed based on the unique designs of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat, whose works were recently shown in a
comprehensive retrospective at the MOCA here in Los Angeles, was famous for his
graffiti-inspired art. The sneakers have Basquiat's name on back, his signature crown and a Basqiuat design on the
sole. The sneakers come in just a few colors and are made in limited runs of 500. The Stylephile says you can get them
at%uFFFD Sportie L.A. or Barneys for $140 but I found my pair for $120 at Karmaloop.
