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Woody Allen: That’s quite a lovely Jackson Pollock, isn’t it?
Woman: Yes it is.
Woody Allen: What does it say to you?
Woman: It re-states the negativeness of the universe. The hideous lonely emptiness of existence. Nothingness. The predicament of man forced to live in a barren godless eternity like a tiny flame flickering in an immense void with nothing but waste, horror and degradation forming a useless bleak straitjacket in a black absurd cosmos. Play It Again, Sam 1972 starring Woody Allen & Diane Keaton & Jerry Lacy & Tony Roberts & Susan Anspach et al, director Herbert Ross
Palestine: In 2005 … he travelled to the Middle East to paint the West Bank barrier, a controversial wall erected by the Israeli government … The collection of paintings that resulted by Banksy met with international acclaim. Banksy & the Rise of Outlaw Art, Sky Arts 2021
Just what is the link between art and money? Alastair Sooke, The World’s Most Expensive Paintings, BBC 2011
Value isn’t only linked to quality. Something that can send the price of a painting rocketing is what’s known in the art world as provenance. ibid.
Including Commission:
10) Mark Rothko: White Centre $72,840,000, Sothebys, New York 2007;
9) Peter Paul Ruben’s Massacre of the Innocents, $76,529,058, sold 2002;
8) Renoir: Au Moulin de la Galette, $78,100,000;
7) Claude Monet’s Water Lily Pond, $80,379,591;
6) Vincent van Gogh: Portrait Of Dr Gachet, $82,500,000;
They leapt to their feet, they cheered, they yelled ... My feeling was one of, I have to admit it, really great distaste ... They weren’t applauding for Van Gogh, they weren’t applauding for the work of art, they were applauding for money. Christopher Burge, Christie’s Auction House
Whatever Saito’s motives were for buying the Van Gogh and the Renoir he faced financial ruin soon afterwards. Extraordinarily, he threatened to burn the paintings rather than sell them. In 1996 he died. And the paintings haven’t been seen since. Alastair Sooke
5) Francis Bacon: Triptych, $86,281,000, Southerby’s New York, 2008;
4) Gustav Klimt: Adele Bloch-Bauer II, $87,936,000 2006;
Additional: Neue Galerie 5th Avenue New York another Adele Bloch-Bauer: One of the most famous pictures in the world ... Ultimately, it’s a portrait about infatuation, not just infatuation with a beautiful woman, infatuation with high society ... Paid the notorious price, reportedly, of $135,000,000 for this painting alone in a private transaction. Alastair Sooke
3) Picasso, Dora Maar au Chat, $95,216,000, Southerby’s 2006;
2) Picasso, Garcon a la Pipe, $104,168,000, 2004;
1A) Picasso, La Reve, Christie’s New York ... In 2006 he [Steve Wynn of Las Vegas] agreed to sell La Reve, which means The Dream, for $139,000,000. But before the deal was done he put his elbow through the canvas, and suddenly the deal was off.
1) Picasso, Nude, Green Leaves & Bust, $106,482,500:
They’ve agreed to lend it to Tate Modern in London for two years. ibid.
We have more art than we know what to do with. 80% of the paintings in our public collections aren’t even on display. Alastair Sooke, Your Paintings: A Culture Show Special, BBC 2013
Over 200,000 works have been painstakingly uncovered, photo- graphed and put on line, some for the very first time. ibid.
If you hang them in a museum in a collection of great paintings and if they hang long enough there they become real. Elmyr de Hory
Peter the painter, along with others, submitted his price to the local council to paint the seaside resort’s historical lighthouse and won the contract.
After painting only half way up the lighthouse he suddenly realised he had grossly underestimated the amount of paint it would require to finish the job.
Undaunted, and determined not to lose any money on the deal, he added a fair quantity of turpentine to the remaining paint. After completing the job, Peter went into the pub opposite and treated himself to a gratifying pint. Taking his drink to the front window of the pub, he casually glanced across to the lighthouse. As the evening sun fell across it, to his horror, Peter’s cost-saving efforts to augment the paint supply for the top half of the structure stood out like a sore thumb.
In despair, he ran outside, shook his fists at the lighthouse and shouted: ‘What am I supposed to do now?’
Suddenly, a voice thundered out of the clouds: ‘Repaint, my son. And thin no more!’ Anon
When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion, then I go out and paint the stars. Vincent van Gogh
I cannot help it that my pictures do not sell. Nevertheless the time will come when people will see that they are worth more than the price of the paint. Vincent van Gogh, letter to brother Theo 20th October 1988
A good picture is equivalent to a good deed. Vincent van Gogh
I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream. Vincent van Gogh
It’s very difficult to know yourself. But it’s also very difficult to paint yourself. Vincent van Gough
The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting. Vincent van Gogh
Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don’t know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, ‘You can’t do a thing’. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of ‘you can’t’ once and for all. Vincent van Gogh
I work as diligently on my canvases as the labourers do in their fields. Vincent van Gogh
Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion. Vincent van Gogh
Sculpture is the best comment that a painter can make on painting. Pablo Picasso
The world doesn’t make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do? Pablo Picasso
One must act in painting as in life, directly. Pablo Picasso
I have a horror of people who speak about the beautiful. What is the beautiful? One must speak of problems in painting! Pablo Picasso
There are only two styles of portrait painting: the serious and the smirk. Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, Miss La Creevy
The sign of a good painting, Dud, with their bottoms towards you is if the bottoms follow you round the room. Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, Not Only But Also
I paint not the things I see but the feelings they arouse in me. Franz Kline
A limited mass of paint on a canvass is nobler than an acre of decorations in a rich man’s mansion. Clifford Steel