Egon Schiele (German pronunciation: [ˈʃiːlə], approximately SHEE-leh; June 12, 1890 – October 31, 1918) was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century.
Schiele's work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism, although still strongly associated with the art nouveau movement (Jugendstil).
NEW YORK (Reuters) – An Andy Warhol portrait of Mao Zedong that actor Dennis Hopper shot two bullets through sold for $302,500 (193,400 pounds) at Christie's on Tuesday, more than 10 times its high estimate.
The 1972 screenprint from Hopper's art collection is done in hues of mostly blues and greens, including a deep blue face for Mao, the founder of the modern communist state.
It had been had been estimated to sell for $20,000 to $30,000 at the two-day auction of hundreds of works from the actor's collection and personal memorabilia from his California home.
Mao was among Warhol's iconic subjects. Hopper's painting was unique because it included bullet holes fired after the notoriously wild actor got spooked and "mistook the portrait on his wall for Mao himself and shot at it," according to Christie's.
Hopper, who died of cancer last year aged 74, later showed Warhol the bullet holes, and the pair agreed to consider the work a collaboration. Warhol drew circles around the holes, labelling the one over Mao's right shoulder "warning shot" and the one at his upper left eyelid "bullet hole."
Another iconic Warhol screenprint from 1967 of Marilyn Monroe fetched $206,500, or about four times the pre-sale estimate.
Much of Hopper's most valuable art was sold in November during Christie's contemporary and post-war auction, raising more than $10 million for his estate.
The sale, which also included works by Annie Leibovitz, Marcel Duchamp, Helmut Newton as well as more Warhols, wraps up on Wednesday.
Besides being rich and famous, Christina Aguilera, Tom Hanks, James Franco, Nicole Richie, Kim Kardashian, Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger, and Hollywood power broker David Geffen have something else in common. They are getting into contemporary art. Big time.
The Wall Street Journal reported today on a decades long evolution that Los Angeles has become a major Art Capital of the World, looking at the boom in endowments and celebrity presence at galleries and museums around Los Angeles County.
A key example, a major red carpet affair for the new building at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, named after the Fiji Water and POM Wonderful billionaires who donated $45 million to LACMA in 2008.
Tally that up with the introduction of Jeffrey Deitch as the Director of MOCA and Eli Broad building a museum to display pieces from his collection of 2,000 artwork, with the already established names in the Getty Center, HAMMER, Gagosian, and REDCAT, its very difficult to argue the new global importance that Los Angeles now presents in the world of art.
