ArtCorner

In honor of National Women’s History Month, the popular online gallery, overstockArt.com, is hosting the “Women in Art” Twitter® sweepstakes. The sweepstakes commences on International Women’s Day on Monday, March 8, 2010.

To participate in our FREE Oil Painting Giveaway. All you need to do is include the #overstockart tag in any tweet on twitter. Three winners will be selected at the end of the sweepstakes period. You can be creative with your tweet or re-tweet of our message, don't forget to follow @overstockart to find out if you've won.

You can tweet #overstockart as often as you like. Each of these tweets will be eligible and a winner will be chosen at random using an algorithm. No bots or automated scripts please, this is meant to be a bit of fun!

Three (3) winners can choose from any of our 20"x24" inch oil paintings featured in our Women's Gallery. After the oil painting is selected, we'll deliver it to your door!

Don't forget to follow @overstockart to find out if you've won.

Checkout our official sweepstakes page for the complete set of rules and to see if you are one of three lucky winners!

A New Vincent Van Gogh masterpiece has been found! The painting is called “Le Blute-Fin Mill”, and dipicts a 19th century Paris mill. The painting was declared an original Van Gogh 25 years after the death of the man who originally bought it – Dirk Hannema. The painting was put on display in the Museum de Fundatie in Amsterdam.

The painting’s owner Dirk Hannema, who was born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies in 1895, bought the piece in 1975 in Paris from an antique and art dealer for 5,000 Dutch guilders ($2,700), and then immediately insured it for 16 times more than what he paid. Hannema claimed that he was “absolutely certain” that the work of art was an original, but, because of an earlier claim of having bought a Vermeer in 1937 that was later proven to be a forgery, the buyer’s declarations were discredited and went disregarded. Nevertheless Hannema, who was born to a wealthy art-collecting family, and was named art director of the respected Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam in 1921 when he was only 26, never gave up hope that one day his claims would be verified.

Since his youth, the brilliant art curator collected high quality pieces by lesser known artists and had a preference for looking for works of masters that were yet to be attributed to them, though not usually with great success as he was mistaken nearly all of the time. His claims included that he owned seven Vermeers and more than one Van Gogh, as well as a few Rembrant’s. Now 25 years after is death he seems to embody the famous quote of Marcel Proust…

“If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.”

The painting, whose genre is considered unusual for the impressionist, depicts large human figures in a landscape climbing both up and down wooden steps in front of an enormous wooden windmill in Monmartre, Paris.

Contrasting Van Gogh’s iconic starry sky pieces in rich blues and yellows that he is so well-known for, this painting’s sky is not only starless but also cloudless and it is so pale a blue that it seems almost an ivory white, suggesting perhaps that the weather is cold, which could be further established by looking at the barren trees with sparse leaves in tones of ochre, olive green, sienna, and suede grey.

The clothing of the ladies, are a rainbow of brusque, yet defined, brush strokes ranging from a rich cranberry, red, and dusty rose, to pale yellows, sea-foam greens and a striking brownish-grey ensemble adorned with a bright red sash and big bow, and the windmill’s wooden propeller, depicted from a view of its side, almost evokes thoughts of Don Quijote de la Mancha because of the shape of its wooden propellers.

The piece, that shares Van Gogh’s style through it’s bright colors that are lavishly slathered onto the canvas, was painted in 1886 when the artist was living in Paris and bears the stamp of an art store that he was known to buy materials and pigments from, said Louis van Tilborgh, curator of research at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to the Associated Press during an interview.

Vincent Van Gogh painted almost 900 works during his short lifetime before he committed suicide at the age of 37.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, home of some of the most amazing collection of artifacts from ancient history to modern times was caught off guard as one of its most treasured Picasso’s received a lethal blow by a clumsy student who stumbled onto the masterpiece and created a six inch gash on the hundred year old canvas.

This isn’t the first time that this happens to a Picasso. Casino Mogul Steve Wynn pocked a whole in Picasso’s Dream oil painting. As the owner of such a creation and due to an hereditary deteriorating eye disease at least he has a good excuse.

So the next time a guard at the museum asks you to step away from the masterpiece please oblige…

overstockArt.com, released today a list of the top 10 oil paintings featured in the media in the last decade. Topping the list is Leonardo Da Vinci’s internationally revered Mona Lisa. Oil paintings by master artists Frida Kahlo, Gustav Klimt, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, and Johannes Vermeer also made the list.

The list was composed according to appearances of the art in newsstands, television shows and motion pictures. The data was gathered using media aggregators and public Google trends statistics.


“Oil paintings were featured across all media platforms throughout the last decade – the most memorable being Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com. “Da Vinci’s iconic masterpiece was at the heart of ‘The Da Vinci Code’ craze and we might see a revival of that as the next Dan Brown thriller comes out in the coming decade.”

The oil paintings that received the most media attention in the last decade are:

1. The Mona Lisa, Leonardo Da Vinci – featured in the #1 best selling book of the decade and the 2006 blockbuster movie “The Da Vinci Code,” starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou.
2. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, Gustav Klimt – according to Forbes magazine, Adele is the most expensive oil painting in history. The painting was purchased by Ronald S. Lauder, the cosmetics tycoon, in 2006 for a record breaking $135 million. Today it is proclaimed as Manhattan’s Mona Lisa as it hangs in the Neue Galerie in New York City.
3. Girl with Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer – subject of the 2003 film “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson.
4. Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh - according to overstockArt.com’s statistics, Starry Night was the most popular and best-selling oil painting of the last decade.
5. Le Rêve (The Dream in French), Pablo Picasso – In an accident witnessed by a group that included Barbara Walters and screenwriters Nora Ephron and Nicholas Pileggi in 2006, casino magnate Steve Wynn accidentally created a 6-inch tear in Picasso’s 74-year-old painting. Before the incident, he had agreed to sell Le Rêve for $139 million to Steven A. Cohen, thus making it the most expensive sale of all time. Needless to say Wynn kept the painting and has had it restored.
6. Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress, Frida Kahlo – featured in the 2002 biopic “Frida,” starring Salma Hayek and Mía Maestro.
7. The Café Terrace, Vincent van Gogh – according to overstockArt.com’s statistics, The Café Terrace was the second-highest sold oil painting of the last decade. The small coffee shop in Arles has become one of Southern France’s most sought after attractions.
8. Untitled, Mark Rothko – has become the talk of the town ever since it has been featured on the AMC’s Emmy® and Golden Globe®-winning series “Mad Men.”
9. The Scream, Edvard Munch – In 2004, the most treasured Modern Art Nordic piece, The Scream, by Edvard Munch, was stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. The painting was later recovered in 2006. The Scream sustained considerable damage and had to be restored before going back on display in 2008.
10. Poppies near Vetheuil, Claude Monet – one of the four paintings stolen from the Buehrle Foundation museum in Zurich in 2008. The painting was later recovered by Swiss police.

According to Sasson, there is a connection between sales and media placement, “A lot of people like to keep up with the latest trends in design, and the media is a key influencer in what is deemed hip and desirable.” In 2007 The Mona Lisa was named overstockArt.com’s seventh top-selling oil painting of the year. “This is a prime example of the correlation between sales and media placement of oil paintings. The Mona Lisa did not make the annual Top Ten list until after ‘The Da Vinci Code’ film was released and the renowned work of art was featured in it.”

In the past decade overstockArt.com sold more than a million oil paintings. They are one of the Web’s most successful distributors of wall décor items with over 10,000 daily visitors and 100,000 loyal customers.

This is a great channel to get information on the greatest artists of the 20th century. Explore the amazing life stories of Picasso, Rothko, Frida, O’Keeffe and many more!

I especially love the power of art documentary with Simon Scharma. He makes everything so interesting and really gives you the feeling as if you enter into the soul of the artist as you view the documentary.

overstockArt.com, the leader in handmade oil painting art reproductions, has officially released its Top 10 list of the most popular oil paintings from the past decade. Topping the list is Vincent van Gogh’s irrefutable magnum opus, Starry Night.

“We release an annual Top 10 list and thought it would be interesting to look back over the past decade to determine the trendiest and most sought after hand painted oil painting reproductions,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com. “Not surprisingly, the notoriously eccentric artist, Van Gogh, leads the list with his masterpieces Starry Night and Café Terrace at Night.” According to overstockArt.com’s statistics, Van Gogh’s total sales numbers have far exceeded those of any of the other great masters.

TOP 10 OIL PAINTINGS OF THE DECADE Most popular art on the planet:   courtesy of overstockArt.com

RANK ARTIST MASTERPIECE #1 Vincent Van Gogh Starry Nightt #2 Vincent Van Gogh Cafe Terrace at Night #3 Gustav Klimt The Kiss #4 Claude Monet Poppy Field at Argenteuil #5 Leonardo Da Vinci The Mona Lisa #6 Pablo Picasso Le Rêve (The Dream) #7 Pierre Auguste Renoir Luncheon of the Boating Party #8 Edvard Munch The Scream #9 Georgia O'Keeffe Red Cannas #10 Salvador Dali Persistence of Memory

In the past decade overstockArt.com sold more than a million oil paintings. They are one of the Web’s most successful distributors of wall décor items with over 10,000 daily visitors and 100,000 loyal customers. “As the Modern Art movement was conquering the auction floors getting record breaking numbers in Sotheby’s and Christie’s, we slowly became the destination for art lovers who could not afford the high price tags of galleries, but wanted to enjoy the hand painted art of the great masters in their homes,” explained Sasson.

One of the interesting points that the top 10 oil paintings of the decade presents is that the modern artists from the turn of the last century such as Van Gogh, Monet and Klimt are still the most desirable artists in the world. “Our numbers indicate that as the years turn and our world evolves some things remain consistent,” said Sasson. “People are still captivated by the elegance and beauty that the classic artists bring to their home. It will be interesting to see when, if ever, this trend begins to fade.”

She was a rare blend, born to an Hungarian Jewish immigrant and a Mexican woman of Spanish and Indian decent. Her short life was full of turmoil and artistic creation.

Only years after her death when the Movie “Frida” staring Salma Hayek came out did the story of Frida Khalo’s tumultuous life was brought to the attention of the public and over night she became an iconic female figure of the art world in the 20th century.

Her agony was drowned many a times with her favorite drink the Tequila. In honor of her life and her passion, the Khalo family has started a Tequila brewery that bares the Khalo name and Frida’s own portrait on the label.

Her cousin Izevelda Khalo who published a book in 2004 commemorating the 50th anniversary of Frida Khalo’s death, was also the person behind the Khalo Tequila endeavor. In a statement to the Mexican press she said:

Tequila was her favorite drink, it was apart of Frida’s life in good times and in bad times…

The prestigious auction house Sotheby’s in its last Impressionist & Modern Art Sale has seen an awakening of the international art collectors market.

“It is a real shot in the arm for the art market…” says Simon Shaw, Director of Impressionist & Modern Art for Sotherby’s New York. “There is great apettite out there for the right works as long as they are estimated at an attractive level…”
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The popular online art gallery, overstockArt.com, revealed today the annual Top 10 Oil Paintings rankings for 2009. Topping the list is Vincent van Gogh’s irrefutable magnum opus, Starry Night.

Van Gogh’s Starry Night reclaims its title as the world’s most popular oil painting a year after Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss snatched the title away. According to overstockArt.com’s statistics, van Gogh has the top two most popular oil paintings in the world, with Starry Night in first place and Café Terrace at Night in second. “Van Gogh consistently remains the most popular artist in the world, his total sales numbers have left everyone well behind,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com.

The top oil paintings sold online according to overstockArt.com are:

TOP SELLING OIL PAINTINGS Most popular art on the plannet:   courtesy of overstockArt.com © 2009 All Rights Reserved

RANK ARTIST MASTERPIECE #1 Vincent Van Gogh Starry Nightt #2 Vincent Van Gogh Cafe Terrace at Night #3 Gustav Klimt The Kiss #4 Claude Monet Poppy Field at Argenteuil #5 Pierre Auguste Renoir Luncheon of the Boating Party #6 Claude Monet Garden Path at Giverny #7 Pablo Picasso The Rest #8 Georgia O'Keeffe Red Cannas #9 Wassily Kandinsky Farbstudie Quadrate (Color Study of Squares) #10 Pablo Picasso The Dream

According to Sasson, the Top 10 list is released annually due to popular demand. “A lot of people want to know what’s selling best because it helps them stay up to speed with the latest trends and allows them to know which paintings are the hippest and most desirable on the market.”

“In the business world especially, where image is everything, many companies strive to keep up with the latest interior décor trends to maintain a modern appeal that will impress customers and clients,” said Sasson.

Van Gogh’s masterpiece, Starry Night, was created in 1889. To celebrate the 120th anniversary of the creation, overstockArt.com developed a special rendition of the masterpiece in deep oil paint. This special version of Starry Night was created by overstockArt.com over the course of a year, it took seven months to dry and weighs over 18 pounds. This distinctive one-of-a-kind 36″ X 48″ reproduction of Starry Night is available to purchase for $2,458. The conventional 20″ X 24″ reproduction is $119.

In 2009 overstockArt.com sold more than 45,000 oil paintings. They are one of the Web’s most successful distributors of wall décor items with over 10,000 daily visitors and 100,000 loyal customers.

The value of creativity has been discussed by many of today’s and yesterday’s business visionaries. Michael Dell said “It’s through curiosity and looking at opportunities in new ways that we’ve always mapped our path at Dell”. And the great Bill Gates said “I’ve always been an optimist and I suppose that is rooted in my belief that the power of creativity and intelligence can make the world a better place”. Also one of the worlds most noted scientists Albert Einstein wrote “Imagination is more important then knowledge”. We all hear people mention the value of “being creative”, “thinking out of the box”, and the all too common “let’s brain storm on this”. So if business people are looking for creativity so hard why is so hard to find? And if it’s so important why do large and small companies leave it to be completely by chance?

Successful businesses and business leaders do things with intent. The development of creativity needs to be approached in much the same way. The organization needs to create an atmosphere that fosters creativity. Walking into large and small business offices one sees gray cubicles, bare walls, small conference room. Semi-isolated employees in small areas covered by creativity removing colors, visions, and sounds.

So what can companies do to improve this most critical element called creativity. It is amazing how much can be done with such a small investment. First a company can replace the standard corporate in machinery posters in the conference rooms, hall ways and offices with beautiful oil paintings. Hand painted reproductions of great masters such as Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, and Klimt stimulate the creative juices of employees. The inspiration of these great visionaries have a unique affect on our creative mind. Investing in hand painted art as oppose to just a flat print is surprisingly inexpensive and the added life and impact is priceless.

The next stage is to invest in a simple sound system to play classical music. If it is inappropriate in some work zones then designate break rooms and conference rooms for music. A study by the university of California, Irvine demonstrated that IQ scores rise significantly, although temporarily, when subjects are tested while listening to Mozart.

Finally if you can designate a room that becomes your company’s (or branch if you have multiple locations) thinking room. It can be a conference room or a break room. It can be called the brain storm room, the think tank, the creativity center, or any other creative name. Incorporate the ideas listed above and add some comfortable furniture. Place some small toys, crayons, markers and paper. Let employees express themselves a few times a day. You can even have a mandatory “10 minutes thinking time”.

It is important to enjoy this process and let your own creativity dictate some of your steps.