By now, news of the record-breaking sale of Edvard Munch’s The Scream (at nearly $120 million to an anonymous, private collector) has spread around the world, shaking the art auction universe. Smashing the previously-held record of $106.5 million in 2010 (at Christie’s) for Pablo Picasso’s work Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, the sale at Sotheby’s on May 2 drew global eyes and piqued interest in modern art and the art auction world.

Sotheby’s sale of The Scream was the highlight of their Impressionist and Modern Art auction, yes. However, that night brought in a record $330.6 million, Sotheby’s highest-ever for an auction of Impressionist and Modern Art, and the house’s second-best auction evening in its history. The old record – $286 million – had stood since 1990. Also included in the record-breaking evening were works from Picasso (Femme assise dans un fauteuil – sold for $29.2 million;  Deux Femmes at  $2 million, Baigneuse Au Pouf Fouge for $2.77 million), Dali Printemps necrophilique (sold for $16.3 million), Miro Tete humaine sold for $14.86 million (and his Peinture for $4.11 million), Gaugin (Cabane Sous Les Arbres for $8.48 million), Matisse (Nature Mortre Fougeres et Grenades at $2.88 million), Chagall’s Les Amoureux ($2.21 million) Claude Monet’s Champ A Giverny ($2.65 million) Renoir’s Portrait de Cezanne ($4.22 million) as well as many other Munch, Chagall, Picasso and Pissaro pieces.

At Christie’s Just a week after Edvard Munch’s The Scream broke art auction records in New York, a sunset-coloured oil painting by Mark Rothko helped to establish more records during another blockbuster sale that achieved the highest auction total for contemporary art.

Rothko’s “Orange, Red, Yellow,” which dates from 1961, was being sold by the estate of David Pincus, a Philadelphia clothing manufacturer and philanthropist who died last year. Pincus was actively involved with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A week before, Paul Cezanne’s rediscovered study for Card Players and Henri Matisse’s Fauvist still life Les Pivoines both sold for $19.1 million each, while Picasso’s Les Repos brought in $9.88 million. Other works by Monet (among them, Les demoiselles de Giverny sold for $9.6 million), Cezanne, Picasso, Degas and Schiele were on the block at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale.

But it hasn’t stopped there! Collectors are ravenous for fine art – and for masterpieces.

All eyes are on Sotheby’s once again this week for their Contemporary Art Evening. Works by Andy Warhol (many are on the block, but Double Elvis is the highlight, estimated to sell for $30-$50 million) and Roy Lichtenstein (Sleeping Girl, estimated to sell for $30-$40 million) are the pieces highlighted for the evening.

Sotheby’s American Art Auction happens May 17 in New York City. Some of the most recognized names in American Art will have pieces for sale, such as Norman Rockwell, George Bellows and Andrew Wyeth.  Martin Johnson Heade’s A Pair of Nesting Crimson Topaz Hummingbirds, a 14.75″ x 10” oil on canvas painted circa 1875-1883 is up at auction, expecting to sell for $400-600,000.  Edward Hopper’s Bridle Path (painted in 1939), a 23 3/8” x  42 1/8” oil on canvas is also up for sale, estimated to sell anywhere between $5-7 million.

Of course, this is only in New York! Many other auctions are slated to happen in London, Paris, Amsterdam and other major cities worldwide.

Without a doubt, it seems that The Scream has re-ignited an interest in art and masters from all points in history, propelling their names – and their works – into the public eye and psyche.

Mother’s Day dates back centuries. Celebration of the mother figure in the form of goddesses – especially the Earth goddesses such as the Egyptian Isis, the Roman Cybele, and the Greek Rhea – were paid special homage in thanks of bringing the Earth back to life every Spring (in the form of flowers).

In other forms and in other countries, Mother’s Day, was celebrated. For example, in 1600s England, on the fourth Sunday of Lent, it was decreed that “Mothering Sunday” be held in honor of mothers of all classes, and so families could gather without stress. It also meant that a one-day reprieve from fasting (during Lent) was given to families, so mothers could celebrate with their children in a large feast.

Julia Ward Howe (born 1819), a New York city-bred poet and activist in the suffrage and abolitionist movements, was the woman who sowed the seeds of Mother’s Day in the United States. It was Howe who, during a visit to a Union army encampment during the Civil War, heard soldiers singing, “Jim Brown’s Body.” This inspired her to write a poem that went along to the music. This poem was published as the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” becoming the patriotic anthem of the Union army – and one that lives on today. In 1870, it was Howe who introduced the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” in honor of mothers and women everywhere – an outgrowth of her involvement in the Suffragist movement as a leading voice in the earliest of Women’s Right Movements.

Although the holiday she wanted failed, Howe had planted the idea of a Mother’s Day that took root and blossomed into the Mother’s Day known today throughout the world. Anna Reeves Jarvis, who lead a West Virginian woman’s group, decided to celebrate a form of Howe’s holiday, a day where war-divided families could come together: and Mother’s Friendship Day was born. Upon her death, her daughter, Anna M. Jarvis, campaigned for a day dedicated to mothers and to peace. On May 10, 1908, the first official Mother’s Day was adopted and celebrated by Andrew’s Methodist church in West Virginia, and by a church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two carnations – Anna Jarvis’ favorite flower – were given out to every mother.
Today, white carnations are given to honor deceased Mothers, while pink or red carnations honor those Mothers who are still alive.

Today, over 75 countries around the world celebrate Mother’s Day on the same day as the United States, while many more have Mother’s Day celebrations on different days throughout the year.
Flowers are the most popular Mother’s Day gift (inspired by the ancient goddess celebrations and the precursor gifts of honor in carnations), followed by chocolates and jewelry, and accompanied by cards. In fact, Mother’s Day is the second most popular gift-giving holiday behind Christmas!

But flowers fade. Instead, preserved beauty can be given to mothers as a symbol of honor, respect and love in exquisite artwork. Pairing paintings of roses, tulips, and mixed bouquet of flowers such as irises, daisies and poppies, can elevate Mom’s senses: the fragrance of flowers coupled with the never-ending beauty of eternally-preserved floral art.

The online art gallery overstockArt.com, revealed today its official top five list of most popular oil paintings for Mother’s Day 2012.

Topping the chart for the third consecutive year is Claude Monet’s maternal masterpiece “Poppy Field in Argenteuil.” Other artists named on the 2011 Mother’s Day Top 5 Most Popular Oil Paintings for Mom list include Gustav Klimt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh.

The oil paintings that made the 2012 Mother’s Day Top 5 Oil Paintings for Mom list are:

• “Poppy Field in Argenteuil,” Claude Monet – In this colorful oil painting, originally created in 1873, Claude Monet painted his wife and son strolling together among the poppies.
• “Le tre eta della donna (Mother and Child),” Gustav Klimt – Mother and Child is part of Klimt’s famous oil painting Three Ages of Woman. The painting depicts an image of a mother cradling her young son. The original was created in 1905, three years after the death of Klimt’s baby son, Otto.
• “Oriental Poppies,” Georgia O’Keeffe -This masterpiece, depicting two giant poppy flowers, features an explosion of brilliant hues of red and orange. Without any background to the painting, the focus is on the oversized detailing of the flowers.
• “Water Lilies (pink),” Claude Monet – Brand new to the gallery, the pink rendition of Claude Monet’s famous series of paintings is already a best seller. This unique rendering of one of Monet’s most beloved paintings features vivid shades of pink, purple, blue and red.
• “Luncheon of the Boating Party,” Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Recognized as one of the most significant paintings of the Impressionist period, Renoir’s captures an idyllic atmosphere as his friends share food, wine, and conversation on a balcony overlooking the Seine at the Maison Fournaise restaurant in Chatou. This work of art serves as an icon of an age, a place, and an ideal way of living.

More than 2,400,000 page views to overstockArt.com’s Mother’s Day gallery were tracked. According to the click tracking, “Poppy Field in Argenteuil,” was the most sought after painting clicked at almost 27 percent, and Klimt’s “Le tre eta della donna (Mother and Child)” garnered 18 percent of the clicks to grab second.

For overstockArt.com, data mining their vast amount of information grants them a unique perspective on the market. “While maternal images are understandably more popular around Mother’s Day, this year’s top five list also reflects today’s design trends which are driven by bright, bold colors and large floral patterns,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com. “We love sharing our unique insights with the art world and our ability to forecast what people love on their wall is what enables us to offer paintings that will be cherished for years to come.”

It took 12 nail-biting minutes and five eager bidders for Edvard Munch’s famed 1895 pastel of “The Scream” to sell for $119.9 million, becoming the world’s most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction.

Bidders could be heard speaking Chinese and English (and, some said, Norwegian), but the mystery winner made the winning bid over the phone.

Gasps could be heard as the bidding climbed higher and higher, until there was a pause at $99 million, prompting Tobias Meyer, the evening’s auctioneer, to smile and say, “I have all the time in the world.” When $100 million was bid, the audience began to applaud.

The price eclipsed the previous record, made two years ago at Christie’s in New York when Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” brought $106.5 million.

There were other notable pieces in the evening sale at Sotheby’s, but it was the record price for “The Scream” that captured everyone’s imagination. As soon as the hammer fell, rumors began circulating about who the buyer could be. Among the names floated were the financier Leonard Blavatnik, the Microsoft tycoon Paul Allen and members of the Qatari royal family.

While some were surprised at the price, one Munch enthusiast was not: “It’s nice to see the centrality of Norway in the mainstream of western culture,” said Ivor Braka, a London dealer. “The scream is more than a painting, it’s a symbol of psychology as it anticipates the 20th-century traumas of mankind.”

Don’t have $120 Million laying around? Get a hand painted reproduction of the Scream.

In an unprecedented event, Sotheby’s is holding an Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale today on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 in New York City. Why is this unprecedented? Because of the lead and featured work in the sale, as Sotheby’s describes it: “the defining image of the Expressionist movement”: Edvard Munch’s THE SCREAM.

When the auction news broke in February, it spread like global wildfire, igniting the art world, THE SCREAM is one of the most famous and haunting masterpieces in the world, the Impressionist image of a person, mid-scream, is the most recognized image of any piece of artwork (and also the most stolen), save for, perhaps, the MONA LISA. For a little over three months, art lovers, collectors and patrons have been waiting in anxious anticipation of this day.

And now, it’s nearly here.

On display at Sotheby’s since April 27, officials at the auction house estimate that the piece could garner more than $80 million, one of the highest prices paid for any piece of art anywhere in the world. Experts across the world suggest that THE SCREAM could break the art auction record held by Pablo Picasso’s “Nude, green leaves and bust” in 2010, which sold for an auction record of $106.5 million. The final sales price speculated? Anywhere between $125 – $150 million dollars, smashing any price paid in the history of the auction art world.

It’s an image ingrained within our culture, recognized globally. From posters and prints, from tea pots to t-shirts, from mugs to magnets to mousepads, THE SCREAM’s popularity perhaps stems from a visual representation of universal human emotions: modern anxiety, angst and dread.

Edvard Munch created four versions of THE SCREAM:

• An 1893 version was made with crayon on cardboard.
• Another 1893 version was made with tempera and crayon on cardboard.
• The 1910 version was made with tempera and oil on cardboard.
• And this version, dated 1895, is pastel on board.

The version for sale is the only version still in its original frame, “hand-painted by the artist to include his poem detailing the work’s inspiration.” It’s also the most vibrant, and it’s also the only version “in which one of the two figures in the background turns to look outward onto the cityscape,” according to Sotheby’s.

The first three versions (1893 and 1910) all hang in Norwegian museums, while the version for sale at Sotheby’s on Wednesday evening was the only one still in private hands. Current owner, Norwegian businessman and shipping heir Petter Olsen’s father Thomas was a neighbor, friend and patron of Munch. Owning such an iconic piece became “a huge responsibility,” and the decision to sell was made.

Next year, 2013, is the 150th anniversary of Edvard Munch’s birth, with THE SCREAM proof of his legacy in Expressionism and the impact of art on history, pop culture and modern society.

What do you think the Scream will fetch at Auction? We will know tonight!

overstockArt.com unveiled the new overstockArt.com Oil Paintings application (app) for the Apple iPad. Users of the app can decorate their walls with its interactive “View in a Room” feature customized for iPad, create personal art galleries and turn their favorite photos in to masterpieces. The overstockArt.com Oil Paintings app is available free to download from the iTunes App Store.

The app is an extension of the gallery’s iPhone app, “We designed our iPad app to take full advantage of the iPad’s rich display features, so the user can get the most enriching experience on their device,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com. “With iPad traffic accounting for 88 percent of our mobile traffic and 68 percent of all mobile revenue coming to the site, we were driven to ramp up our mobile strategy and create an app that makes it easier for this audience to browse, decorate and shop for our art.”

The full features of the overstockArt.com Oil Paintings iPad app allow users to:

• Decorate on-the-go with the “View in a Room” feature. Using the built-in camera, users can take a snapshot of their space and visualize oil paintings hanging on their own wall. This tool is an adaptation of the retailer’s augmented reality web application, “In Room View.”
• Create a personal gallery with the new “My Gallery” feature. Select fine art from overstockArt.com’s collection or import images to create a personal gallery.
• Turn photos into hand painted art masterpieces with the retailer’s “Turn Photos into Art” service, now available to use directly on the application.
• Browse overstockArt.com’s robust collection of art and search by artist, subject, style or size.
• Share images and personal galleries via e-mail, Facebook or save images to your photo gallery.

“We have seen a significant jump in mobile sales for 2012 so far,” Sasson stated. In fact, overstockArt.com reports that in the first 3 months of the year iPad traffic to overstockArt.com has increased by 114 percent, revenue has increased by 370 percent and transactions have increased 409 percent versus the corresponding months in 2011.

“We credit our mobile technologies in part for pushing m-commerce to account for 10 percent of our total sales in 2011,” said Sasson. “I believe that by continuing to create ways to make shopping for our art a unique, personalized and easy process we will see m-commerce accounting for a higher percentage of our sales in 2012.”

The overstockArt.com Oil Paintings iPad app is the latest mobile offering from overstockArt.com. The mobile app for iPhone was released in June 2011 and the mobile app for Android was released in November 2011. An updated version of the iPhone app was released at the start of this month, it features more paintings and interiors and better navigation between the galleries. To learn more about overstockArt.com’s mobile offerings, visit www.overstockart.com/iphoneapp.html.

Dancing With The Stars, Black Swan, High School Musical, Glee. What do all of these movies and television shows have in common? Dance, of course! Dance of all types has been in the movie public gestalt for years:

In the 1950s: Singin’ In The Rain
In the 1960s: West Side Story
In the 1970s: Saturday Night Fever and Grease
(yes, both featuring ex-Sweat Hog, John Travolta)

In the 1980 (probably the most dancing of all decades):
White Nights – featuring two of the greatest dancers of all time: Mikhail Baryshnikov (Ballet) and Gregory Hines (tap)
Flashdance
Footloose
Dirty Dancing

In the 1990s: Strictly Ballroom

In the 2000s: Billy Elliott (2000)
The Company (2003)
Black Swan (2010)
(Interestingly enough, these three are all ballet movies)

The popularity of Dancing With the Stars has ignited the public’s imagination in all sorts of dance for the last 14 years! Yes, that’s right for nearly a decade and a half, Dancing With the Stars has showcased previously-non-dancing celebs every week. Sports and soap stars, actors, talk show hosts, grown-up child stars, reality show personalities, pop culture heroes, any and all types of celebrities are tapped for the competition.

With grace or clumsiness, with success or failure, we watch in fascination at the exploits of some of these dancers. Some are surprises, showing more talent than we expect. The rest? Sent home packing, costumes – and shoes – retired.

Is it a talent competition or popularity contest? Bits of both. But it’s fun. It gives viewers a chance to see some of their favorite celebrities perform intricate dance moves, changing the type, from week-to-week. Make no mistake. Dance isn’t easy. Physically grueling, dancers need to be in top shape, developing stamina and strength and mental muscle, to deliver top performances in a competition weekly.

Especially if the contestants have had little-to-no experience in dance!
It’s no wonder, then, when Black Swan was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, with Natalie Portman winning for best actress, bringing ballet back into focus. Definitely a different style than the Dancing With the Stars, it’s still a study in discipline and madness.

Dancers – especially ballet dancers – were favorite subjects of painters.

One of the founders of Impressionism, Edgar Degas, was fascinated by ballet and ballerinas. His paintings: Star Dancer (On Stage), Dancer Making Points and The Dance Class are classical studies in beauty and form. Degas captured solitary snapshots of dancers, but also gave the viewer a glimpse of a dancer’s backstage life. Although we as a public love to see the performance, we are equally fascinated with the behind-the-scenes drama – voyeurs in the process of art. In Degas’ age, life – and people – were no different!

Edgar Degas’ visions of the ballet are still as beautiful and captivating today as they were in the 19th century.

Artistic inspiration comes from a variety of sources: nature, people, other works of art, a piece of music and dreams.  Dreams, especially, are the diamonds mined from the unconscious.

For the father of the Surrealist movement, Salvador Dali, dreams, visions and symbols supplied fantastical images for his work.

Dali described his paintings as “hand-painted dream photographs.”  One of his favorite recurring images, bent and flowing watches, look as if they’re made of wax, melting away on a hot summer day in the desert.

Dali’s The Persistence of Memory (1931) is one of the best known surrealist pieces, and the piece utilizing this type of watch.  For Dali, his inspiration for this came to him in two ways: from Einstein’s theory that time is relative, unfixed, and fluid.  This idea, in turn, was demonstrated by a piece of cheese melt in summer heat, transforming into a runny mess.

His Soft Watch at the Moment of Explosion also showcases a squishy watch. In this piece, perhaps the constraints of time and space are shattered, where impossible scenarios and infinite opportunities become possible.

When asleep, the conscious brain disappears, and the sub- and un-conscious takes over. Images from myth and movies, from work and waking morph into odd, awe-inspiring or awful. Dali was able to harness his dream landscape and hallucinogenic imaginings – without psychotropic drugs.  His Sleep appears to be the dreamer dreaming the dream, supported by surreal crutches, the waking world far off in the distance, just an echo of memory.

If the artist is focused, in tune and aware, they can awake and capture the dream. Oftentimes, the dream is elusive.  In its stead, a waking meditative state can harness the subconscious.  When an artist, whether a painter, writer, sculptor is deep within the creative process, it produces a trance-like meditative state, where the “real” world falls away. It is replaced with a state of hyper-awareness, focusing the artist’s mind and intent, propelling the brain and body forward.

Like Dali’s The Meditative Rose, the petals of the process open, one by one, letting the fragrance of imagination in.

Eccentric, strange and bizarre, Salvador Dali’s genius was recognized by master in other disciplines. Dali was sought-after in the movie-making process. Famous filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock thought Dali perfect, employing him to create the dream sequence in his film, Spellbound, providing the perfect atmosphere for the film.

With their metaphysical leanings, Dali’s paintings invoke the mystical and mythical – the very things that resonate with the human soul.

From landscapes to lighthouses, from cottages to cabins, from mountains to Main Street, Thomas Kinkade captured the essence of nature and glimpses of Americana.

However, Kinkade is best known for his ethereal works of lush landscapes and colorful cottages with a fairytale feeling. His stone cottages nestled within a forest surrounded by secret gardens and sparkling streams invite the viewer in.

His paintings vibrate with a stillness and quiet magic, providing a respite, a place to hide away from world weariness and worries of everyday life. Delicate and dreamy, Kinkade’s works are eye candy for the spirit, with a lightness that lifts the spirit.

All artists derive their inspiration from somewhere, something or someone, whether conscious or unconscious. For Kinkade, he consciously mined his inspiration from his faith, from nature, from the world around him.

There are striking similarities between Thomas Kinkade and the great Impressionist master Claude Monet.  Perhaps unconsciously Kinkade’s greatest stylistic influence was distilled from Monet’s masterpieces.  Both painters provide a paradise, a peaceful retreat for the observer, and a serene majesty that soothes any irritation.

With gardens bursting in colorful blooms, to the shimmering ripple of reflection on the water’s surface, how could one not draw the conclusion that Kinkade was influenced by Monet? Some might think it heresy to invoke the two names together, but like it or not, Kinkade’s modern works are an expression of Monet’s lightness.

Rather than anesthetizing the senses, the saturated pastels, multi-colored hues and an evanescence to both Monet’s and Kinkade’s works provide a soft glow of soul.

Parallels between Monet’s Artist Garden at Giverny and Kinkade’s many garden paintings such as Garden of Grace, while not exact, can be drawn. Both display purple and pink hues bathed in soft light.

Other examples of similarities?
Monet’s Japanese Bridge and Kinkade’s bucolic Blossom Bridge. While the latter does not have the fine composition of Monet, both exude warmth, of immersing oneself in the waters under the bridge.

Monet’s Garden Path at Giverny and Kinkade’s Savannah Romance both take the viewer by the hand to lead them down a pathway, through nature, towards a final focal point with a sense of direction, but completely unhurried.

There are other examples exhibited if one opens up the mind and lets down any sort of inherent prejudice against Kinkade as kitsch. Instead, if one views Kinkade as paying homage to Monet the master, a tiny crack in the psyche widens to allow the possibility of a kinship in light

With the death of Thomas Kinkade, the stories and scandals surrounding the artist are unavoidable As with any public figure, all eyes are trained on the lone personality in the spotlight, the one who stands center stage.

In a way, we as a society secretly wish for public figures to stumble or fall. We delight in scandals. We gasp in mock horror when tales of infidelity or other stories of excess are cracked wide open, scrambling our preconceived notions of what our artistic heroes are or should be. Jealousy fans the flames of fallen fame.

Darkness is the underbelly of light. Most would say the opposite, and one cannot exist without the other. To get light, we must have darkness; without bad, there cannot be good. But, rather than standing in opposition, it’s more of a continuum, a spectrum.

Kinkade is not the first artist, nor will he be the last, to channel darkness and turn it into light. Demons of addiction or mental illness torment many artists whether painter or poet, writer or renaissance person. Many artists eventually succumb to their afflictions, drowning in alcohol or drugs, or surrendering to the darkness, allowing it to overtake and consume them.

But here’s the thing:
Tapping into the darkness and bringing forth hidden thoughts, impulses and secrets into the light, is a difficult talent. It’s not for the faint of heart. It’s frightening. So frightening, in fact, the average person either cannot or will not do it. It takes an artist to skillfully convert the darkness, or at the very least, express it in a way that makes the viewer think or feel at the most primal level.

Darkness can be harnessed and tamed, sublimated to the background, yet hovering just below the surface. This creates shadows, captured darkness that undergoes a metamorphosis, creating a surreal sensory experience.

Vincent van Gogh is the artist who comes to mind when ruminating upon the play of light and dark, a tortured soul. This is the artist who battled the demons of depression for years to transform his darkness into beauty. His Starry Night is luminosity within the darkness. For no matter how dark it gets, there is always light waiting on the other side. His Starry Night Over The Rhone reflects the light upon the still, dark waters.

Light is always there, no matter how faint or scattered, to shine its brilliance upon a soul.