The online art gallery, overstockArt.com, revealed today its annual Top 10 Oil Paintings rankings for 2011. Topping the list is Vincent van Gogh’s masterpiece, “Starry Night.” Other artists named on the 2011 list include Salvador Dali, Wassily Kandinsky, Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso.

Van Gogh had a spectacular year with his art taking the top three spots in overstockArt.com’s annual list of the top best-selling oil paintings of the year. “Starry Night” is back to reign supreme as the most popular oil painting of 2011 after a short relinquishment of the title to another of the artist’s masterpieces, “Branches of an Almond Tree in Blossom” in 2010.

The top 10 oil paintings sold online in 2011 according to overstockArt.com’s statistics are:

1. “Starry Night” – Vincent van Gogh
2. “Café Terrace at Night” – Vincent van Gogh
3. “Branches of an Almond Tree in Blossom” – Vincent van Gogh
4. “The Kiss” – Gustav Klimt
5. “Garden Path at Giverny” – Claude Monet
6. “Poppy Field at Argenteuil” – Claude Monet
7. “The Dream” – Pablo Picasso
8. “Farbstudie Quadrate” – Wassily Kandinsky
9. “Persistence of Memory” – Salvador Dali
10. “The Old Guitarist” – Pablo Picasso

“Van Gogh consistently remains the most popular artist in the world,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com. “While ‘Starry Night’ and ‘Café Terrace at Night’ have been staples on our top 10 lists throughout the years, we credit the continued popularity of ‘Branches of an Almond Tree in Blossom’ to the unique interpretations of the painting we introduced last year.” In 2010, overstockArt.com debuted several renditions of the painting featuring different colored backgrounds. The online art gallery trademarked the red rendition, which according to Sasson, was an instantaneous best-seller and remains one of the gallery’s most popular paintings.

Picasso has two oil paintings in the Top 10, a testament to the wonderful year he had in the limelight as his art was featured in museums across the United States and has been stolen and recovered several times throughout 2011 alone. In addition to commissioning thieves to try and steal a Picasso, private collectors have given Picasso art the highest bids in auction in 2011 and his mass appeal has been fueled by international press coverage.

Woody Allen’s film, “Midnight in Paris,” has given the artists of the roaring Paris scene in the 1920′s a surge that is visible in the year’s top 10 list: Dali, Picasso, Monet and even Kandinsky are all mentioned in the film and aptly included in this year’s Top 10.

The Top 10 list is released annually due to popular demand, “Consumers and companies strive to keep up with the latest interior décor trends to maintain a modern appeal,” said Sasson. “Just like they care about Pantone’s annual ‘it’ color, they want to know what décor accessories are hot. Our annual top 10 list makes it easy for consumers to stay on top of the trends and find out which oil paintings are most desirable in the marketplace.”

In 2011 overstockArt.com sold more than 60,000 oil paintings. They are one of the web’s most notable distributors of wall décor items with the most comprehensive selection of hand painted reproduction oil paintings, frames, and ceramic art tiles to choose from in the online decor industry.

Inc. Magazine just recognized overstockArt.com as one of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The Wichita-based online art gallery ranked 840th on the 2011 Inc. 500|5000 list, moving up nearly 266 spots from its placement on the 2010 Inc. 500|5000 list.

The nine-year-old company specializes in home décor with the most comprehensive selection of hand painted reproduction oil paintings, frames, and ceramic art tiles to choose from in the online oil painting industry. overstockArt.com also ranked 33rd out of the 204 companies representing the retail sector. The company’s three year growth rate of 368 percent was one of the largest contributing factors to its high ranking. This is the second year in a row the 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.”

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 2011 Inc. 5000 list measures revenue growth from 2007 through 2010. More than seven million businesses applied for selection. Winners are awarded a listing with other leading companies at Inc.com, a feature in the September 2011 issue of the magazine, and an invitation to an honoree ceremony. For more information about Inc. 5000 please visit www.inc.com/inc5000.

overstockArt.com released today a major update to its overstockArt.com Oil Paintings iPhone application, adding a customizable gallery option. The application, first released in May, already gives users the unique opportunity to decorate their walls with its interactive “View in a Room” feature customized for mobile devices. The update allows users to save their favorite art to a personal art gallery and create masterpieces from their favorite photos.

overstockArt.com Oil Paintings is a free iPhone application. The update is now available to current users, and new users can download the app from the App Store. iOS 3.1.3 or later required.

The app is an extension of the gallery’s innovative “View Art in Room” web application. “Our application provides a fresh new way to access overstockArt.com’s vast collection of oil paintings,” said David Sasson, CEO of overstockArt.com. “The new addition brings the world of art right into the palm of your hand.”

The full features of the overstockArt.com Oil Paintings mobile application allow users to:

• Create a personal gallery with the new “My Art 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.
• Using the built-in camera, users can take a snapshot of their space and visualize oil paintings hanging on their own wall-.
• Browse overstockArt.com’s robust collection of art and learn more about the fine art and artists featured on the site.
• Share images and personal galleries via e-mail, Facebook, text or Twitter.

“We were driven to ramp up our mobile strategy when site analytics showed that 15 percent of our overall traffic is from mobile users, specifically iPhone users,” Sasson stated. “Our application not only gives people a fresh new way to browse through our collection, but it gives mobile users an advantage by allowing them to see the art in their home right on their phone and makes it easy for them to access their favorite paintings with the customizable gallery feature.”

The overstockArt.com Oil Paintings application is available now as a free download from the App Store.

Artist Become (ArtistBe.com), the new online community for creating, selling and buying artwork online, today announced its launch. ArtistBe.com is the latest venture by the popular online art gallery overstockArt.com, the go-to source on the web for purchasing art reproduction oil paintings.

ArtistBe.com is an online platform providing tools and resources to enable emerging and established artists to showcase and sell their artwork. The online community focuses solely on original art and its growing amount of artist members.

“With ArtistBe.com we are doing more than creating a place for up and coming artists to display original art online, we are creating a new social platform for artists and art lovers alike,” stated David Sasson, overstockArt.com’s president and CEO.

Some distinctive features of ArtistBe.com include:

• Connecting artists and art aficionados around the world – Fellow artists and art lovers can connect and communicate with other community members, comment and rate each other’s artwork and become fans of other members. The site utilizes the latest in social networking features such as sharing via Facebook and other social networking sites. Artists can create their own galleries for free and have a dedicated URL to showcase their art, biographies, exhibitions and more.
• Art purchasing options – Artwork can be purchased as an original piece of art directly from the artist, or as an affordable canvas transfer painting. Artists get royalties for every reproduction sold.
• Easy site navigation – Like overstockArt.com, ArtistBe.com has arranged its content into a variety of different galleries specified by artist, subject, style and type – artists will dictate how this online art community will look in the future. The site is extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate.

ArtistBe.com provides a unique means for emerging artist to be discovered, and to assist established professionals in finding new clients without relying on agents. There is no cost to join and members can sell their art without commission fees. Artists receive royalties for every canvas reproduction sold. Reproductions come in a variety of sizes; pricing is dictated by the individual artists.

“Our commitment to art and the art world started with overstockArt.com,” said Sasson. “Now we want to branch out and give art lovers around the world a chance to find the next great artists of our generation. ArtistBe.com gives artists the ultimate platform to become recognized for their work and to make a living out of their creations.”

Art is not an easy thing to sell, let alone online, but ArtistBe.com will have the unique ability to leverage itself with its parent company, overstockArt.com. Sasson stated, “This relationship allows ArtistBe.com to introduce and promote its member artists to overstockArt.com’s network of thousands of art lovers, which will help them grow awareness and ultimately sales.”

ArtistBe.com’s founding members come from around the world, with artists hailing from the company’s Wichita, Kan. headquarters to Calgary, Canada; Warsaw, Poland; Oberhaid, Germany; Sherman Oaks, Calif.; and Brooklyn, N.Y., to name a few places.

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.

overstockArt.com, the leader in handmade oil painting art reproductions, released today its Mother’s Day Top 10 list. This year’s list names the top 10 oil paintings featuring images of motherhood.

Topping the chart is Claude Monet’s masterpiece Poppy Field in Argenteuil. Oil paintings by master artists Mary Cassatt, Gustav Klimt, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir also made the list.

“Many master artists depicted images of motherhood in their oil paintings,” said Stacy Sasson, co-founder of overstockArt.com. “No other art form better exemplifies the tender, timeless bond between a mother and a child.”

The oil paintings that made the 2010 Mother’s Day Top 10 list are:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Breakfast in Bed 1897, Mary Cassatt – The subject of mothers and children recurred in many of Cassatt’s works. In this piece, a child’s attention wanders as she is held in her mother’s loving embrace.
4. First Steps, Vincent van Gogh – From late 1889 to 1890, while van Gogh was a voluntary patient at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, he painted twenty-one copies of Jean-François Millet’s works. In January 1890, van Gogh transferred a photograph of Millet’s First Steps to canvas.
5. Maternity, Pablo Picasso – This stunning oil painting, originally created in 1905, depicts the intimate bond of mother and child.
6. Madame Monet and her Son, Claude Monet – This masterpiece, originally painted in 1875, depicts Monet’s first wife Claude and their eldest son, Jean.
7. Summertime, Mary Cassatt – Although never a mother herself, Cassatt principally painted children and scenes of motherhood. Summertime illustrates a mother and daughter enjoying a leisurely summer day boating. The original masterpiece was created in 1894.
8. Woman with a Parasol and Small Child on a Sunlit Hillside, Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Originally painted in 1874, this masterpiece depicts a mother relaxing in the grass while her young child wanders off in behind her in the tall grass.
9. Hope II, Gustav Klimt – Although images of women and children are frequent in the history of art, depictions of pregnancy are rare. In Hope II a woman lowers her head toward her swelling belly. The original masterpiece was created in 1907-08.
10. Pieta, Vincent van Gogh – Originally created in 1889 while van Gogh was staying at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, Pieta is the agonizing depiction of Mary in sorrow over her dead son.

The Mother’s Day Top 10 List was composed by pulling overstockArt.com sales data from April 2009 to March 2010. “Mother’s Day is our third busiest selling period of the year,” said Sasson. “People love giving their moms the gift of art for Mother’s Day – it is a wonderful expression of love that will last a lifetime.”

It’s a big season for Picasso in the northeast. MoMA has a show, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is doing a Picasso & Friends show. Later this spring the Metropolitan Museum of Art will exhibit 300 of its Picassos…

The Guggenheim is also taking part in the Picassopalooza by showing two great still-lifes as part of a seventh-floor collection portraying the importance of Picasso on the Modern Art World.

For some reason Picasso is back as the most popular artist of the past century. Picasso’s popularity is on the rise a trend that just does not seem to fade.

I ran across these recreations of Gustav Klimt‘s work on the Behance network and simply had to share them with you.

This collection of beautiful and artistic photos is called “La Esencia de Klimt” which translates to “Klimt’s Essence”.

As a long time admirer of the Austrian Art Nouveau painter, these fashionable, real-life recreations of his works captured my immediate attention. A group of talented folks have combined their photography, digital art, illustration, make-up, hair and styling (all found through Kattaca) to recreate some of Gustav’s most famous paintings.

I’ve added Klimt’s original paintings for contrast:

A new production called Red is set to debut on Broadway on April 1st, the play is about none other than the Abstract Expressionist Painter – Mark Rothko.

Red was written by screenwriter John Logan, maker of Gladiator, The Aviator and the Sweeney Todd movie, among others. The play focuses mainly about the discussions regarding abstract expressionist aesthetics that Rothko had with his studio assistant while the famous painter was working on some of the most revolutionary canvases of his generation.

Red is set in 1958 as New York artist Mark Rothko (Alfred Molina) receives the art world’s largest commission to create a series of murals for The Four Seasons restaurant in the new Seagram building on Park Avenue. Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant, Ken and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, Rothko faces his greatest challenge yet: to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting. Red is a moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing.

Rothko is played by Alfred Molina – a rare actor who conveys intelligence with visceral intensity. He makes you believe that what Rothko says, no matter how abstract it is, is of mortal importance to the painter. Molina has developed a specialty depicting 20th century artists as he already played another formidable painter, Diego Rivera, in the movie “Frida” along side Salma Hayek.

The actors in the play get their hands dirty throwing paint around on stage, the moment you step into the theater you are struck by the smell of oil paint in the air. The smell of the oil and the rage of the painter makes Red an extremely powerful theatrical experience.

So, if you are in New York in the following weeks, stop by the Golden Theater on 45th Street and enjoy a glimpse into the mysterious world of the 1950’s Abstract Expressionism.