images: www.katiebondpretti.com
I first read about Canadian Artist Katie Pretti in Andrea Carson’s incomparable VOCA blog (www.viewoncanadianart.com) last summer (http://viewoncanadianart.com/2009/07/10/its-all-about-the-ladies-paris-toronto/ for the article on women artists) and have been a fan ever since. I think the images will speak for themselves and explain why!
Born July 6, 1980, graduated OCAD 2004, Katie Bond Pretti is a Toronto based artist whoPretti, K. B. (n.d.). CV. Retrieved 01 26, 2010, from Katie Bond Pretti: katiebondpretti.com
C. Kent (Canada/France); Papillon le dieuxieme, 2010
Is art a bargain?
Experts say that when the stock market dropped in value, so did the value of art.
Sure, an Andy Warhol sold at auction for $43.8 million in November. But Jimmy D. Robinson, a West Palm Beach estate broker who earned a Palm Beach socialite $400,000 for a Helen Frankenthaler about a year ago, says prices are down 50 percent in the art world.
"People need to see that, so they're not fooled and they don't overpay," Robinson says. "Then they come to me and I try to sell it, and I can't sell it for them. It's a waste of my time when they offer me a painting for $2 million and it's worth $300,000!"
So how can you make sure your eye for art pads your wallet and that of your family down the road?
If you're buying art by established artists, review some of the large art price databases, suggests Alan Bamberger, a San Francisco art consultant and appraiser who authored The Art of Buying Art (Gordonsart.com).
Artprice.com, a Lyon, France-based database, reports it charges $20 for a one-day trial. There's also Artnet.com and Gordonsart.com, which exclusively tracks prints and photographs.
Search online for galleries that sell a particular artist. Call the gallery and ask the price of recent paintings of that artist.
"I wouldn't go to an auction if you're starting out," Bamberger says. While prices tend to be lower at auctions, you need to beware of conditions of the sale, which likely are on the cover of the auction catalog.
Consider that some of the auctioned items may well be "dogs," placed by a gallery owner who already has been unsuccessful in generating interest in the piece.
See something you like in an art gallery? If so, ask the owner what it might sell for at auction if you were forced to liquidate it, he suggests.
"A gallery in South Florida last week told me he would price a painting at $50,000," Bamberger says. "I looked at auction records and learned it might sell for $3,000 to $5,000. That's not a gallery where you would like to shop if you were concerned at all about resale value."
Once you're armed with data on your favorite artist, it's easier to convince a gallery owner why he or she should sell it for the price you want.
Bamberger says there are numerous "shadow" markets, in which people sell art privately. The problem: "At some point, the rest of the world is going to become relevant. Your kids may inherit it and don't really like it as much as you do." In that case, its value can make a significant difference.
Buying art based on an appraisal? Know which type.
If the appraisal is for your insurance company, it likely will be based on replacement value. Expect this value to be higher than retail, he says. It takes into consideration if it's stolen or burned in a fire. It might include framing, shipping and taxes.
"Fair Market Value," by contrast, is the price to which a knowledgeable buyer and seller would agree. It assumes that neither was under duress and both are knowledgeable about the market. "There's a lot of wiggle room there."
Then there is the auction price, which often is the lowest of the three.
Be sure to get the value from someone neutral.
An appraisal from the art gallery owner, for example, is apt to be high. Some consultants also operate as dealers, representing various artists. Watch out for such conflicts of interest.
Prefer to buy a painting by an up-and-coming artist? Follow the artist's career first.
The value of your investment depends on whether the artist continues to do well. The artist must get museum shows and national and international acclaim. Selling at auction can be an attractive credential.
Consider asking the artist directly what he expects to be doing in six months to a year, Bamberger says.
You don't want to be hanging the artist's piece on your wall — only to have him give up on painting, and run off to Borneo with a girlfriend!
Liberman, G. (2010, 01 23). How to Buy Art in Today's Market. The Palm Beach Daily News .
At an exhibit opening this weekend at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, visitors will be asked to wear 3-D glasses and walk around with clipboards and pencils while looking at images of sculptures.
"Beauty and the Brain: A Neural Approach to Aesthetics," enlists the public as participants in a Johns Hopkins University study that looks at why the human brain is attracted to artwork.
![[ART_WALTERS]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WK-AS607_ART_WA_D_20100121142941.jpg)
Adler & Conkright Fine Art, New York Jean Arp's 'The Woman of Delos.'
Museum-goers will look at 3-D printouts of altered versions of sculptures by abstract artist Jean Arp. One of his works, "The Woman of Delos" (1959), will also be on display at the Walters. While looking at computer-altered versions of the sculptures—some skinnier, others more rotund—participants will be asked which they are most attracted to, and which they like the least.
Organizers say they hope to shed a scientific light on some of the ideas that philosophers have discussed for centuries. One of those is that there's a unique way that the brain activates when we view compelling artwork, something philosophers have called the "aesthetic emotion," says Gary Vikan, director of the Walters and curator of the show.
A related hypothesis is that successful artists are like magicians who have learned to exploit the edges of the brain's perception with sleight-of-hand trickery: They have an innate sense of what tickles the parts of the brain that process visual cues. "The artist is intuitively a neuroscientist," says Mr. Vikan.
Ed Connor, the professor of neuroscience at the Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins who is overseeing the study, says the findings gathered at the Walters will be combined with those from paid participants who have looked at the same versions of the Arp sculpture while magnetic brain imaging scanners examine their reactions. The advantage of using research from thousands of museum-goers is that it will offer a diverse cross-section of the population. (The downside is that unlike a lab, the museum isn't a controlled environment.) Results could be published later this year.
Critics of this approach say it's impossible to study human reactions to artwork because of the significant cultural factors that affect our reactions. We may like a sculpture by Michelangelo not just because it pushes the right buttons in our brain, but because we associate it with other works of art we've seen before, or experiences we've had. Mr. Connor says his study accounts for this by using art that's as abstract as possible, emphasizing how the brain reacts to the shape, not the actual work.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the brain may be aesthetically attracted to "sparse stimulation," like a simple string of small white Christmas lights on a black background, says Mr. Connor.
Mr. Vikan says there could practical uses for the study's findings: "If we understand better what the experience was, then we might better present works of art."
In 2007, the museum experimented with a show of landscape paintings by Gustave Courbet which included classical music playing in the background. The lighting changed subtly every 60 seconds to create a variety of moods.
The result was that visitors spent four times as long in the exhibit than they did in other shows of the same size. Science could be used to come up with similarly creative—and cost-effective—ideas for making exhibitions more engaging for visitors, says Mr. Vikan.
Write to Candace Jackson at candace.jackson@wsj.com
Jackson, C. (2010, 1 22). How Art Affects the Brain; a new exhibit explores science and aesthetics. Retrieved 1 22, 2010, from The Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703699204575017050699693576.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter
Working from his studio in London ON Canada, a career of 40 years has seen Cliff produce a large eclectic array of work. This has included Wyeth like rural paintings for International Harvester, Rockwellian depictions of people with their favourite cars for General Motors, Aviation Posters, reproduced and collected by enthusiasts across North America. and formal oil portraits of public figures. Other notable commissions included the only officially authorized Terry Fox Painting and a major outdoor clay mural commission for the Centenary of the City of Chatham.
Kearns has always been active exploring and creating personal fine art throughout the course of the private and corporate commissions, and has now turned full time and attention to the visual expression of his unique and reflective view. This expression has taken the form of abstract contemporary mixed media paintings.
His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and cultural centers in Canada, including The Arts Project and The Art Exchange in London, Ontario, the Art Works Gallery in Vancouver BC, the Papermill Art Gallery in Toronto, and Galerie Luz in Montreal. It has also been represented and received awards in a number of online juried exhibitions. His work is in private and corporate collections, including those of General Motors of Canada, International Harvester, Kurtz Steel Inc., and the Roman Catholic Diocese of London.
Sue Rusk (Canada); Women
