ArtCorner

How well do you know your Art? Below are images of paintings from overstockArt.com currently available in our online gallery.  If you think you can identify the artist and title of each work, please submit your answers by leaving a comment on this post. We will provide the correct answers  in one week (on Friday, Sept. 3rd), along with our next ReproduceTHIS: Know your Art challenge.

Congrats to… <drum role>  No one?
Gold star goes to Amitai. The only person brave enough to make a guess.

Did I stump everyone with that first game?
Lets see if we can get a few more players to take a crack at this new game board.
Good Luck!

Inc. Magazine recognized overstockArt.com (www.overstockArt.com) as one of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The Wichita-based online art gallery ranked 1,106th on the 2010 Inc. 500|5000 list.

overstockArt.com also ranked 55th out of a multitude of other companies representing the retail sector. The company’s 271% percent growth rate from the past three years was one of the largest contributing factors to its high ranking. This is overstockArt.com’s first appearance on the prestigious list.

“We are incredibly honored to be recognized among the nation’s elite private companies,” said Sasson. “overstockArt.com’s growth is directly attributable to the talent and commitment of our team, the high quality of our art and the degree of confidence customers have as they shop with us.”

Co-founded by David Sasson and Amit Yaari in 2002, overstockArt.com began as a small home-based business with only a handful of unframed oil paintings to choose from. Today, overstockArt.com is one of the web’s most successful online art galleries. Headquartered in Wichita, Kan., the company has more than 20 employees in 3 continents. overstockArt.com offers the most comprehensive selection of oil paintings and frames to choose from in the online oil painting industry — currently more than 100,000 decorating combinations — including works by Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Klimt, O’Keeffe, Munch, Dali and much more.

As an Inc. 5000 honoree, overstockArt.com shares a prestigious pedigree with such notable alumni as Intuit,
Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Jamba Juice, Timberland, Visa, Clif Bar, Patagonia, Oracle, and scores of
other powerhouses.

The 2010 Inc. 500|5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2006 through 2009. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2006, and be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies. The top 10 percent of companies on the list constitute the Inc. 500, now in its 29th year.

How well do you know your Art? Below are images of paintings from overstockArt.com currently available in our online gallery. If you think you can identify the artist and title of each work, please submit your answers by leaving a comment on this post. We will provide the correct answers  in one week (on Friday, August 27th), along with our next ReproduceTHIS: Do you know your Art? challenge.

Good Luck! We will also be posting a congratulations to one weekly winner.

You could argue that a center of the online, retail art world is in Kansas. That’s where overstockArt.com is located, and in nine years it has grown to be a leading, online retailer of original art reproductions. The founder and CEO, David Sasson, has grown the business from inception to where it is today, and he joins Practical eCommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss it all.

Listen to the full podcast: 

Edgar Degas certainly had an artistic fetish for dancers in his paintings, and his recently discovered plaster sculptures are no different. There are original wax sculptures and those that are bronze cast. The original waxes sculpted by Degas were cast and shown in Athens at the Herakleidon Museum back in April, which cannot be compared in reputation to the recently completed showing at Tel Aviv Museum of Art in June. There is much acclaim about this discovery, which is heralded as one of the greatest art finds of the century.

The Discovery

Were the sculptures gathering dust in some antique store or library? Actually, the plasters were found in a storeroom at the Valsuani Foundry on the south-western outskirts of Paris. The proprietor, Leonardo Benatov, sold the plasters to Art dealer Walter Maibaum who shipped them to New York in 2007. Of the 73 sculptures, 22 are still in residence at Maibaum’s. The others were sold, including various recasts of the plasters creating a percentile of shrinkage. The Little Dancer, the most valuable original, will be shown, but its recast sold at Sotheby’s in 2009 for 13.3 Million euro. Another 46 recasts were created to be sold for 2 million U.S. dollars a piece.

Shrinkage and Aesthetic

The less rare an item becomes the more of a coffee table conversation piece it becomes. A two million dollar conversation piece certainly raises many questions.

While these reclaimed plasters may be a true art find of the century, some of our art museums seem to be exploiting the aesthetic of a so-called “greatest art find of our century.” While the average consumer and art lover certainly cannot afford an original Degas plaster or its recasting, it can be understood as to why reproductions and museum showings provide us the opportunity to admire and explore the aesthetic the artist intended to communicate with his viewer. Yet, who would suppose that Degas’ dancers be sold as if they are red hot irons impersonating golden statues of pharaohs or vital organs on the black market?

With bronzes set to show in New Orleans in 2011, and considerations for viewing in Boston, Seattle, and other major cities, curators and art lovers may be getting ahead of themselves. Some claim that the bronzes have not been appropriately studied, while others like John Bullard, New Orleans Museum director and curator of the show at his venue, is convinced of the sculptures’ authenticity. “No internationally recognized Degas sculpture experts have publicly voiced concern over them. If they have problems, they should speak out,” he shared with the Art Newspaper.

Concern is currently controversial, and controversy always surrounds the greatest discoveries of our time, whether some of them are fakes or true works of Degas. Regardless, controversial subjects intrigue and create a mystique inside an audience, and our curiosity is piqued. The sculptures are dancers and move with the fluid grace of Degas’ paintings. The artist’s fetish remains timeless and unchangeable. Whether you seek to preserve aesthetics in art through originals or  any of its recast incarnations, what the viewer takes away is unchanged and priceless.

In 2005, viewers had the opportunity to experience Van Gogh works from the Kröller-Müller Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. The Kröller-Müller Museum is pairing with the Van Gogh Museum for a second time to showcase the artist’s works in three locations in Japan from 2010-2011.

The exhibition will show in the following three locations in Japan:

01.10.2010/20.12.2010 Tokyo The National Art Center
01.01.2011/13.02.2011 Fukuoka Kyusyu National Museum
22.02.2011/10.04.2011 Nagoya Nagoya City Art Museum

Radiography, infrared reflectography, pigment analysis, and other methods of research will reveal a more in-depth look at Van Gogh’s process. Van Gogh’s works are characterized by strong use of line, muted and vivid palette colors, swirling strokes, and somewhat distorted perspectives inside seemingly fantastical works of art. Though perhaps viewed as fantastical as a post-impressionist, Van Gogh also relied on realism.

Van Gogh’s Influences

Van Gogh will not show alone. Many works of the artist’s contemporaries and predecessors will be shown alongside Van Gogh in the tour. Viewers will have the opportunity to see works that directly influenced Van Gogh, (Rembrandt and Rubens) while getting to know the works of his contemporary painters (Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Signac, Emile Bernard and Paul Gauguin). Van Gogh worked at Cormon’s studio for months, where he met students who would also become renowned contemporaries. Neo-Impressionism also made its debut around the time that Van Gogh became a serious practicing artist, having not taken up painting until his late twenties.

The show will provide a rare opportunity to study Van Gogh’s work in-depth and, alone, is worth the trip to Japan

ArtistBe.com, also called ‘Artist Become’, is the new online community for contemporary artists around the world. ArtistBe.com is the latest venture by the popular online art gallery overstockArt.com, which announced its public beta launch last week.

ArtistBe.com is an online platform providing tools and resources to enable emerging and established artists to pursue their artistic and professional goals. ArtistBe.com membership is free and open to all. Members can create a profile and upload an unlimited quantity of their artwork. ArtistBe.com allows artists to exhibit, promote, share and sell their artwork via the online gallery. The actual launch date of ArtistBe.com has yet to be determined.

ArtistBe.com is looking for talented contemporary artists of all levels to join the community and become founding members of the site. The first 80 artists who join ArtistBe.com during its beta test will be able to list on ArtistBe.com for free.

“We are looking for early adopters to join us for the launch of what promises to be an expansive, vibrant community of contemporary artists,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com. “ArtistBe.com will give its member artists the unique opportunity to share and sell their work to art enthusiasts around the world – something they cannot do by simply displaying their artwork at a local gallery.”

Artwork on ArtistBe.com can be purchased as an original piece of art, fine-art print or affordable poster. There is a large variety of framing options for all of the artwork sold on the site. Like overstockArt.com, ArtistBe.com has arranged its content into a variety of different galleries. Galleries are specified by artist, subject, style and type. The site is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate.

“Since its inception in 2002, overstockArt.com has established itself as the go-to source on the web for purchasing art reproduction oil paintings,” stated Sasson. “Our goal for ArtistBe.com is in the same vain – to become the web’s go-to source for purchasing artwork from contemporary artists around the world.”

June 20 is approaching. That means Father’s Day. That also means that I have ten secrets to tell. Here are the top ten oil paintings to consider for Father’s Day:

10. The Martha McKean of Wellfleet, Edward Hopper (1944)

If Dad can’t yet afford the boat but is an art lover, this might be the perfect match. The painting depicts a memorable excursion across the sea on a bright, serene day. The piece would suit a room with a sailing or sea theme. The artist, Edward Hopper, had a talent for depicting classic scenes of urban and rural life, arousing nostalgia as timeless as his art.

9. The Card Players, Paul Cezanne

Sometimes it is really nice to have a weekend with the guys, to sit around, play cards, watch a game, and have a few drinks. Whether this piece evokes a few good memories or Dad is just a fan of Cezanne’s work, it stays with the viewer and makes for a likely candidate for Father’s Day.

Cezanne produced a series of card players, most of which were men who worked on the family estate. Though the title is The Card Players, Cezanne’s focus is on the peasant men playing cards, revealing a love for his culture and heritage.

8. The Tartan ‘El Son’, Salvador Dali

A son takes to the wild sea in a small boat with destination in sight. A father’s son following his dreams, an honest depiction of a sailor’s love for the sea… The painting is one that will certainly inspire association and the creation of a narrative, especially as Dali employed symbolism in his works.

Though Dali is known today as an active member of the Surrealist art movement, this work has an impressionistic realism in the vein of Cezanne. Dali’s imagination and expression extended to many movements and media, including but not limited to photography and film. Perhaps such a daring and expressive piece would be a well-suited match.

7. Violet, Green and Red, Mark Rothko (1951)

Rothko’s works were innovative, even for abstract Expressionism. Rothko used few colors, but they make an impact. The artist strove to communicate emotion through color and simplistic composition, rather than form. Violet, Green and Red seem to create a complete composition, yet beckon the viewer to look through a window of red, to ask if the colors are divided or cohesive. Each color is illuminated. This piece has the quality of an attention grabber that renders one speechless. Sound like Dad?

6. Soft Watch At The Moment Of Explosion, Salvador Dali

A true Surrealist work of Dali. For those unfamiliar with the Surrealist movement and Dali, the first question a viewer may ask is, “What?” Soft Watch At The Moment of Explosion is a satyrical pun as much as it is a Surrealist painting. Dali is certainly recalled for his use of soft, melting watches. Most interpret this as  the rejection of time having constraints. Surrealism, an art movement of the 1920s, employs non sequitur humor in his use of seemingly meaningless objects to make his audience think, as well as laugh. If Dad has a satyrical sense of humor and an appreciation for the eccentric, he may know the perfect place this work of art should hang in order to baffle his guests.

5. Girl With Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer (1665)

I once overheard a married man discussing this painting over coffee. He said that it reminded him of his wife and how they met, the look she gave him. This painting isn’t meant to be a classic portrait, but truly has the look as though the viewer or artist has been captured by a moment from across the room.

Known as the “Mona Lisa of the North” this mysterious woman is certainly reminiscent of her named sister. The pearl earring, instead of a smile, is the focal point of one with attention to the seemingly insignificant details of our lives. Categorized as a Dutch Baroque painter, Vermeer’s works depict many figures interacting in a near classical sense with their environments. Yet, his works depicting a girl with a seemingly simple object, her attention on the viewer, makes one feel alone in the room with her.

4. Rhytmus, Piet Mondrian

Black lines on white, some blue and yellow. A prime mover of the De Stijl, or The Style, Dutch art movement, Mondrian’s works explore order and spirituality through the use of line and color. His works utilized primary colors and black lines. To Mondrian, the use of double lines gave his work a more dynamic expression. A pattern forms and is explored by the viewer. An artistic tetras, this work would suit a home with a similar decor and holistic exploration as its composition. Mondrian was just as particular with his studio, recreating his art on the walls and furniture of his studio, interchanging the patterns to better suit his creative mood.

3.  From The Lake I, Georgia O’Keefe

Most of us think of Georgia O’Keefe’s flowers, and also the fact that somewhere in every painting is a representational depiction of female fertility. The more serious reason to consider purchasing this painting is that it has a lot of blue. A poll gathered in various countries reveals that blue is the world’s favorite color. This color is often painted in rooms to calm, soothe, and increase the spiritual vibe in a room. This piece is modern and abstract, and would flatter a home furnished with curving, contempo furniture, specifically art deco.

2. Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh (1889)

Name a man, woman, or child (in at least elementary school) who does not know or dislike this painting. To reiterate an earlier point, apparently blue makes humanity happy. Van Gogh, himself, was not known as a commonly happy man, and his works often reflect his emotions. Yet, Starry Night utilizes striking primary colors, barely diluted in shade from their true hues. The stars shine big and bright against the small town, swirling and changing, almost alive. The stars arch toward the upper right of the canvas, a positive direction. This work is classic and a favorite of art history. If it is Dad’s favorite, why not indulge him?

1. Night Hawks, by Edward Hopper (1942)

Another classic representation, this top selection is about atmosphere. The nostalgia of that old downtown, when everything is closed down for the night and the viewer is at their favorite haunt, like a classic noir… Think China Town, The Maltese Falcon, A Cry in the Night, Strangers on a Train, The Big Sleep… just to get started. The guy may or may not get the girl, but he almost always solves the case.

The diner extends across the length of the composition and the viewer watches from across the street, taking in the atmosphere. This piece is a must have for Dad.

Buy Original Art For Dad

The best part? These are not prints, but carefully hand rendered reproductions. Hang a bit of the artist that suits Dad in his favorite spot with original, stylish, and affordable artwork. You can also request a custom size. Find these paintings and more at overstockArt.com: Gifts For Dad.

On June 23, 2010, if you have a few million dollars and happen to be in New York at Shotheby’s-Christie’s Auction House, perhaps you will go home with a Monet in your collection. To be more specific, Lot 254, or Giverny, La Roseraie De Monet. According to reporters, the painting was not seen by the general public since a 1936 exhibition in Paris. The painting has remained in the Monet family for decades since the artist’s son, Michel, purchased the painting in the twenties.

Like the other lilies, this Nymphèas was painted in Monet’s garden in northern France as a part of 250 works the artist painted nearing the end of his life.

The Water Lilies Series

These 250 works of water lilies are also known as Nymphèas. The works were painted during the last generation of his life. The subject matter reveals Monet’s flower garden and pond in Giverny, France, which was constructed by Monet himself. Though Monet was a true purveyor of Impressionism, it is known that he suffered from cataracts in old age, obviously affecting the execution of his artwork. The growing loss of his eyesight, however, assisted in the creation of one of the most treasured painting series in art history. Yet, the revolutionary brushstrokes, when compared to Monet’s earlier paintings, cannot be attributed to the classic interpretation of Impressionism or the artist’s deteriorating eyesight alone.

The viewer must remember that Monet’s series came not only from vision, but expression and execution of memory and emotion. To some degree Monet’s series is in the vein of Expressionism. Monet, through each brushstroke and palette color, re-envisions the garden that he cared for over the course of thirty years. In noting the true impression of each color, Monet integrates a bit of post-impressionist Pointillism in terms of technique but not style.

An artist will often squint at an artwork to dilute the object itself into a basic form or series of shades to better discern a color or to not impose definitive restrictions. Monet, though losing his eyesight, no longer squints. He uses a scientific approach and an emotional approach to execute the series, resulting in a revolutionary body of work that evokes a style-identity crisis in the art world, giving birth to supporting and opposing movements of art.

“The rush to live and to produce was alien to a period where calmness prevailed. M. Claude Monet belongs to quite a different age, one in which dizzying speed is the rule, where the creative person wants instant awareness of the universe and himself through quick and violent impressions…. He causes us to know and love beauty everywhere,” said art critic Roger Marx in a1909 article for the Gazete des Beauxes.

Marx adds, “M. Claude Monet pleases himself….his experience directed at recording the pleasures he experiences during the course of the day as he works in a single place…. The value of the theme lies in the potential for increasing the number of sensations aroused in the viewer and enriching their quality. His system is a familiar one, but M. Claude Monet has not heretofore undertaken to push its consequences quite so far.”

Monet’s Garden

Among the many flowers and trees in his garden were yellow irises, tulips, roses, and water lilies, as well as holly, maple, weeping willows, sycamores, apple, and chestnut trees. The pond was handcrafted by Monet himself.

A Gift From France To Monet

Only months after Monet’s death, France constructed two oval rooms to showcase eight mural pieces. The show opened in May of 1927. Since this time, different pieces of the series have been scattered in exhibitions across the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Carnegie Museum of Art, among others.

Monet’s Influence

Monet’s Water Lilies certainly enrich the sensations of the viewer lucky enough to see the Nymphèas series in person. His use of color and stroke communicate the visual look and feel of the garden, but more importantly, animate the garden in a way never before experienced in art. This impact places Monet as a favorite among many, influencing artists such as Degas and Renoir.

If you cannot make it to Christie’s for the auction, you can have a Monet of your own from overstockart.com. Yes, there are a few Nymphèas. Now, get your canvas, get into your garden, and start painting!

Few paintings make the transition from museum circle legend to pop culture icon. We have our favorites, be it by Degas, da Vinci, or Duchamp.

Mona Lisa and The Scream

The above listed paintings are two examples of famous paintings that have achieved pop culture icon status. What else do these paintings have in common? The latter, The Scream, is a “study of my soul,” according to Munch, a universal expression of human anxiety according to others. Mona Lisa is supposed by some scholars to truly be da Vinci himself. But aside from being supposed or literal interpretations of the artist, these two artistic icons have something else in common – music.

Mona Lisa Inspires Nat King Cole

Not yet another rigid profile painting of nobility by a notable painter, Mona Lisa is a girl who captured the world by her secretive smile. As a painting, we can impress upon her any of our experiences and imagine who Lisa del Giocondo was, what her life might have been like. We can suppose what his life might have been like, for those who favor the theory that da Vinci disguised himself in her. For those who do favor the theory, it may interesting to note Marcel Duchamp, among others, created L.H.O.O.Q. as an artistic parody of the original, including a mustache, goatee, and flattering inscription of “Elle a chuad au cui,” translated as “She has a hot ass.”

“Are you warm, are you real, Mona Lisa? Or just a cold and lonely lovely work of art?” Nat King Cole asks this of the painting in a song that topped Billboard’s charts for eight weeks as the number one song in 1950. “Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep. They just lie there and they die there.” Mona Lisa is the woman the viewer can’t have, by her expression as much as she is a painting which inspired a chart topping song.

The Scream and Screamo?

Before creating his 1893 masterpiece, Edvard Munch was taking a stroll down 76th Drive in Forest Hills (Queens, New York) only to be struck down by a most invasive muse. Munch said that the painting was a study of his own soul, describing the moment of inspiration thusly,

“I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature.”

At this particular point in his artistic career Munch was struggling with a major bout of madness, and in the coming years underwent therapy which brought upon a new era in Munch’s art.

According to Bob Olson, a professor of contemporary music at Texas State University, it was a revolutionary moment in music heard from a nearby apartment that gave Munch more than an anxiety attack. “It’s just another example of great art begetting great art,” said Olson in a CNN.com article, “A genius in one medium inspiring a genius in another.”

Whatever Munch heard that day is not yet clear. Given the era, it certainly was not Screamo, but the sound incurred a similarly unique expression in Munch. Art begets art. Great art begets great art, and art changes lives.

We each have our favorite paintings, be it a part of a museum collection, a favorite of popular culture, or a local creation. It will be exciting to see what new revolutions in music inspire art and what artists we know today, be they locally or nationally recognized, who will create the next great art icon. Who knows what Jimi Hendrix or Lady Gaga may have secretly inspired?

Until we find out, explore Mona Lisa, The Scream, and other iconic favorites at overstockart.com.