Category: 20th Century Dog Art

Now that the wine label contest is over, I am back working on collages for my Darby calendar. I've been experimenting with silhouettes a lot, so I found this work by Ed Ruscha inspiring.

I've also been a longtime fan of Ed Ruscha's business card…

With a name like Moira McLaughlin (MORE-a Mc-LOCK-lin), I can relate.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Dog via aterrier.  Card via Archives of American Art.

Last night in NYC, Christie's had its best sale numbers ($301.6 million) for post-war and contemporary art since 2008 ($331 million).   Art Info breaks down the works, the buyers, and the prices, and pronounces that the art market did "cartwheels."

There were no actual dogs, but I am fascinated by this Louise Bourgeois sculpture with a canine crouch entitled Nature Study.   It was estimated at $1.5 million – $2 million and sold for $2,210,500. 

The artist made the piece when she was 73, during one of her most accomplished periods of her life.  She described it as "a portrait of herself and her relationship with motherhood." Of her artwork she said, "It is not an image I am seeking.  It's not an idea.  It's an emotion you want to recreate, an emotion of wanting, of giving, and of destroying."

Read more about the artist and this piece in Christie's lot notes.

Thanks, Kate Pawlicki, for sharing the Art Info link.

Also, you might like to read about a recent study that found through brain scans that viewing art is like being in love.  I wonder what a scan of someone viewing dog art would reveal? 

Via Maria Popova of The Atlantic:

Autism is one of the greatest modern mysteries of cognitive science, a multifaceted condition that remains largely misunderstood. I've previously explored several notable autistic outliers—British savant Stephen Wiltshire, who draws remarkable 3D panoramas of cities from memory; animal scientist Temple Grandin, who is equally well-known for her innovations in livestock herding and her autism advocacy; and autistic savant Daniel Tammet, who was able to learn Icelandic in a week, among other remarkable feats of memory. But what is the actual experience of living with autism in a deep-felt sense, beyond the social stereotypes and headline-worthy superskills? Drawing Autism, a celebration of the artistry and self-expression found in artwork by people diagnosed with autism, explores just that.

The stunning volume, with an introduction by Grandin herself, features works by more 50 international contributors, from children to established artists, that illustrate the rich multiplicity of the condition—which I hesitate to call a "disorder" as I subscribe to the different, not lesser view of autism—and the subjective experience of each autistic individual.

See more at The Atlantic.

Thanks to my sister, Regan, for sharing this link.

I found one dog at the Romare Bearden (1911 – 1988): COLLAGE, A Centennial Celebration exhibition at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in NYC.  And this virtual tour of the show is the closest I've come to seeing a Bearden in person.  Roberta Smith reviews the show at The New York Times and gives him his due as a great artist.

The exibition runs until May 21, 2011.  I would love to hear from you if you go.  View the works online here.

Thanks for the tip, Mom.

A Jamie Wyeth work depicting his yellow Labrador with a black circle around his eye has sold for $218,500 in New York City.

Christie's said Study of Kleberg brought more than five times the $40,000 pre-sale estimate.

It was purchased today by private art dealer Ann Richards Nitze on behalf of a client who was not identified.

Wyeth said he painted the circle around Kleberg's eye in the 1980s after the pooch got too close to his easel. Wyeth is a fan of the old comedy "Little Rascals," which featured a pit bull with the same marking. Wyeth is the son of the great American painter Andrew Wyeth and grandson of classic novel illustrator N.C. Wyeth.

He lives in Pennsylvania and Maine and has a studio in Delaware.

Thanks, Linda Papineau for giving me the tip about the auction, and my cousin Ellen Clair "Answer Girl" Lamb for sending me the results.

I wrote about Jamie Wyeth and his Jack Russell paintings here.  And Andrew Wyeth was a master at painting yellow Labs.  Remember Master Bedroom.