Page 10 - Three Studies News Today

From designing rugs in Paris to painting visions of human suffering … the origins of some of the 20th century’s most iconic artworks

Rare Botticelli portrait sold for record $92 million Sothebys in New York auctioned off a 15th-century masterpiece, the Botticelli painting "Young Man Holding a Roundel," smashing the record price for the artist. The painting was the highlight of the annual Masters Week sales series in New York The art world held its breath as Sandro Botticellis Young Man Holding a Roundel went on auction at Sothebysin New York on January 28. The painting that has been shown in leading museums worldwide o...

A spark like Bacon’s can also be a curse. Life is difficult for those whose skins are thin, and whose minds seldom find rest. “He was wound very tightly,” says Stevens. “Like many artists, he didn’t have filters. And he was shy, lonely and often very ill, so he created this persona.” In that, Bacon was helped by the fact that he was naturally incredibly charming and, in his youth, extraordinarily physically beautiful. For those of us familiar with the lined, round-...

Banksy: Girl with Balloon, shredding just after the hammer came down in 2018 Credit: Instagram/@banksy As we enter 2021, it seems a good time to assess the previous decade. From a long-range perspective the high points might be: the resounding recovery from the 2008 banking crash; the virtually continuous growth in prices for modern and contemporary art; or, more recently, the market’s adaptation to the erosion of the physical experience of art during the pandemic. Closer inspection reveals g...

Featured in In the Chilling Shadows of a Biennial Yet to Be Seen ‘Made in L.A. 2020: a version’, slated to open in 2021, exposes the horrors of American life pre-pandemic Before entering the long-delayed (and now revised) ‘Made in L.A. 2020: a version’, I pitied its poor curators, whose exhibition has been kyboshed by a succession of lockdowns. Originally scheduled to open in June, the biennial – split this year between the Hammer Museum and the Huntington Library, A...

Auctioneer Oliver Barker holding court over Sothebys global e-auctions. Courtesy of Sothebys. The art trade is defined by far more than its uppermost echelon. But in an unprecedented year when virtually ever major auction went… well, virtual, top prices serve as a valuable benchmark—and an indication that the world’s wealthiest did not view 2020 as a roadblock to spending big money on art. If we’re judging by auction prices alone, though, the market was still considerably less frothy at...