Barry Humphries: A Life in Comedy, Art and Satire

Posted on February 19, 2025February 19, 2025 by Jonathan Horwich

Early Life and Education

John Barry Humphries was born on February 17 1934, in Melbourne, Australia. Raised in a comfortable suburban home, he developed a love for theatre, literature, and surreal humour from an early age. He was also a budding artist – as a young child his father would encourage him by drawing head studies and he would do the bodies. Then as a teenager he became a junior pupil in the life class at Melbourne’s George Bell painting school and he continued to paint throughout his life.

Career Beginnings and Move to London

Humphries first made a mark in the Melbourne theatre scene in the 1950s, performing in satirical revues. During this time, he created Dame Edna Everage, originally as a parody of an Australian suburban housewife. In 1959, he moved to London, where he became involved in the vibrant theatre and comedy world. He worked with comedy legends such as Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and became part of the satire boom that influenced British comedy for decades to follow.

Rise to Fame: The Evolution of Dame Edna

Barry’s best known and perhaps best loved character, Dame Edna Everage had transformed over the years from a meek Melbourne housewife in the 50s into an extravagant, purple-haired “megastar” known for her razor-sharp wit, oversized glasses, and love of gladioli. She hosted TV talk shows such as The Dame Edna Experience; and also live stage shows in London’s West End, such as Edna-The Spectacle where she humorously and often ruthlessly insulted members of the audience.

I was an audience member at one of these shows in the early 90s. Our seats were fairly near the front of the stalls, and as I was sitting in the aisle unwittingly I became a prime target for Dane Edna’s audience spotters, who picked me out to come up on stage along with a dozen other people. We were all lined up across the right hand side of the stage, standing rather awkwardly waiting for what was to come. I got off quite lightly, for women Dame Edna made a thorough search through their handbags looking for anything suitably embarrassing and for men it was down to their ‘pocket litter’ and wallets. Somehow I had managed to lose my wallet or at least misplace it in between leaving the car and arriving at the theatre so I just got a severe teasing for having done so…..

Other Iconic Characters

Humphries was a master of character comedy and created several other satirical figures, including:

Sir Les Patterson – A vulgar, drunken Australian politician who with his heavily food stained tie and suit lapels unashamedly mocked all and every cultural stereotype.
Sandy Stone – A melancholic elderly man reminiscing about a lost Australia.
Barry McKenzie – A beer-loving Australian expatriate, featured in comic strips and films.

Film, TV, and Literary Work

Humphries enjoyed success in various mediums:

Voiced Bruce the Shark in Finding Nemo (2003).
Appeared in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).
Wrote novels, memoirs (More Please, My Life as Me), and satirical essays.
Starred in numerous stage productions, including one-man shows combining comedy, improv, and audience interaction.

Later Life and Legacy

Despite announcing his retirement several times, Humphries continued performing well into his 80s. He received numerous honours, including a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

Barry Humphries was not only a brilliant comedian and satirist but also a passionate art collector. Over his lifetime, he built an impressive collection of paintings, drawings, and sculptures, particularly focusing on Australian modernist and surrealist art.

Humphries’ Love of Fine Art

Through his appreciation for modernist and avant-garde art in his youth, Barry was also influenced by movements such as Dadaism and Surrealism. Barry further developed an extraordinarily good ‘eye ‘ for Fine Art and objects. This innate ability later lead to an almost obsessive desire to acquire art and objects he lusted for.

Later during his time in London, Barry mingled with artists and intellectuals, which only deepened this already very strong interest in collecting.

I first came across Barry in the early 1980’s when I was a picture specialist at Christie’s in South Kensington. We held regular sales of Australian and decorative International Fine Art and objects and Barry was a regular attendee at many of these sales. I met him viewing in person at our auction previews on many occasions over the years. He cut a very striking figure in his broad brimmed black velvet hat, usually pulled down low over his eyes and an equally black stylish cape, this gave him an air of mystery always caused a buzz in the sale room. It was always exciting whenever a celebrity came to view one of our auctions , however Barry was different in that he was not only very knowledgeable, he was also very happy to spend time talking about what interested him and why and he was happy to share his knowledge … in his purchasing he showed all the classic hallmarks of the truly dedicated collector, I remember him declaring that he was constantly stretching his finances to buy the best and rarest pieces and then worrying about where the money was going to come from afterwards…..!

Artistic Influence on His Comedy

His love of surrealism and modernist art influenced his comedic style, seen in the absurdity of his characters and his sharp satire. His appreciation for visual aesthetics was also evident in the flamboyant costumes and theatricality of Dame Edna Everage.

Barry Humphries’ art collection is a true reflection of his intellectual curiosity, humour, and love for the avant-garde, making him not just a performer but also a serious connoisseur of fine art.

Barry died on April 22, 2023, at the age of 89, a significant number of works from his collection along with pieces from his work as an entertainer such as Dame Edna’s flamboyant glasses were included in the first of a series of auctions, this first auction took place in London on February 13th and is called ‘Barry Humphries, the personal collection’, unsurprisingly the printed catalogue has completely sold out, however it’s still possible to view the auction online and I have highlighted the results for a few pieces from this remarkable very personal collection, which includes numerous pairs of Dame Edna’s trademark glasses along with Fine objects, original paintings and prints by various artists, plus a number of fine original paintings by Barry himself!

Barry really was a man of many talents and interests and he leaves behind a much larger legacy as one of the greatest satirists and entertainers of his time. While his humour, characters, and sharp social commentary remain an enduring part of comedy history; his contribution as an avid, determined and hugely knowledgeable art collector adds significantly to his much more widely known legacy as an entertainer.

Post auction insurance values

A very recent auction such as this one has arguably established a market or auction value represented by the prices achieved, however they do not represent a value for insurance purposes, they are only the price achieved on the day and on another day at another time the price may well be quite different. Therefore, it is important to have any new purchases valued for insurance and added to your policy schedule as soon as possible and from then on, have them re-valued on a regular basis, ideally every four years also with the rest of your collection.
Looking at the results of the sale, I’d say there were two distinct groups of buyers. Generally, prices for the traditional art, sculpture, and paintings were closer to their estimates than those for the Dame Edna souvenirs, dresses, glasses, and so on.

Barry Humphries was, as I saw him, a very serious collector who made significant financial sacrifices to amass such a fine ‘private collection’, as the auction title suggests. Strong prices were achieved for the traditional art, sculpture, and paintings, which sold much closer to their estimates. The more ‘frivolous’ Dame Edna souvenirs, strictly speaking not collected by Barry but ‘acquired’ over the years, were less predictable.

The top lot of the sale, Sand Dunes by Charles Conder, sold for £239,400 against an estimate of £200K to £300K, so spot on. I imagine the buyers of dresses and glasses had little or no interest in this painting or any of the other serious artworks. Quite understandably, they just wanted to own something as a memory of a celebrity they loved and weren’t too concerned about what they should pay.

I don’t envy the person who had to estimate the value of Edna’s glasses or stage costumes. Perhaps the estimates were perfectly reasonable if people hadn’t loved Dame Edna so much. In hindsight, they might appear cautious, but I think they were fair to begin with. After that, it simply became a matter of passion and a hugely enjoyable bidding war to determine the winners.

By contrast, prices for the paintings were more predictable as there were comparable results from past auctions, many likely bought by Barry himself. On average, these works sold closer to their estimates, though some did exceed expectations. That happens even in single-owner sales of non-famous people’s collections, where prices almost always exceed expectations. I once worked it out and found that, on average, the final total for a single-owner sale was 2.4 times the pre-sale low estimate.

As they say in football, this was a game of two halves. Fans of Dame Edna were on one side and, on the other, serious collectors of late 19th- and 20th-century British illustrators, Australian artists, and admirers of Oscar Wilde and his followers. It made for a truly memorable auction and great entertainment. The final sale total was £4,627,224.

Barry would have loved it!

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A Tribute to Frank Auerbach (1931–2024)

Posted on November 18, 2024November 27, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

Frank Auerbach, one of the most important and unique voices in contemporary art, passed away on 11^th November, leaving a profound legacy in the world of painting. His death marks the end of an era, but his work—raw, visceral, and deeply human—will endure for generations to come. Auerbach’s paintings, which often appeared as works of fierce immediacy, were also the products of an unrelenting pursuit of truth and an intimate understanding of his subjects.

Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach’s life and art were shaped by history, by the upheavals of World War II, and by the quiet intensity of urban London. His parents were, jewish and were part of a thriving and integrated community fully assimilated into German society. His father, Max, who had served in the German army, was a lawyer, and his mother, Charlotte, had studied art. In 1939 his parents, concerned by the escalating, violent anti-semitism of Nazi Germany, dispatched Frank then aged 8 to England via the Kinder transport, he never saw them again. Sporadic letters from them conveyed via the Red Cross, ceased in 1943. Only much later did he learn that they had both been taken to Auschwitz early in March 1943 and both has died there that year. Talking about this time in his life on BBC radio’s ‘This Cultural life’ first broadcast on January 27^th this year, he says “I am in total denial, and it has worked very well for me. To be quite honest I came to England, and it truly was a happy time. There’s just never been a point in my life when I wished I had parents.” Indeed, it did all work out well for him. He had the good fortune to find himself with some of the other Jewish Refugees at Bunce Court, a Quaker school in Kent which he loved and where he excelled in Art and Drama. In 1947 he was naturalised as a British Citizen and moved to London. He decided at the age of 16 to become an artist and attended art classes at Borough Polytechnic, now London South Bank University where the famous British painter David Bomberg taught him. Following this he was accepted at St. Martin’s School of Art.

It is tempting, to see Auerbach’s need for routine, his desire to keep the same sitters in the same place year after year, as a reaction to his childhood. Equally he lived within a very tight local orbit, and his subject matter comes almost entirely from his immediate environs of North London and his studio with its unfailingly regular and intensely loyal sitters.

In the early 90’s I had the pleasure of meeting one of these sitters, the art collector and academic Ruth Bromberg (1921-2010). Ruth sat regularly for Frank for two hours every Thursday for almost seventeen years. I asked myself why ? I found the answer in a letter Ruth wrote to Frank in 2008 published by the British Museum. Due to failing health Ruth reluctantly relinquished her duties as sitter, she wrote sadly to Frank as follows.’ I know how important your sitters are to you, and I would not wish to be the cause of disruption in your work schedule…I cherish my hours spent in the studio, my home away from home…Thursday afternoons will never be the same again and I feel the loss.’

Frank’s brushwork, a relentless engagement with the surface of the canvas, was a testament to his tireless search for meaning beneath the layers of the everyday world. His portraits, are at once fiercely abstract and deeply personal, capturing the essence of the individual through the weight of paint and the tension of form.

Auerbach’s paintings are known for their emotional depth and complexity, born of years of painstaking observation and reworking. He would often spend months, even years, refining a single portrait or cityscape, digging deeper each time into the texture and emotion beneath the visible surface. His relentless approach to painting was not only about achieving perfection but about honing a profound connection between artist and subject. Each stroke on the canvas, each layering of thick impasto, spoke to Auerbach’s belief in the struggle to capture truth and memory—never an easy task, but one that demanded everything of him.

His works were never concerned with trends or the fashion of the moment; instead, Auerbach’s paintings radiated an honesty and integrity that transcended time. His commitment to figuration, at a time when abstraction was dominant, and his resistance to simplification, made him a singular figure in British art. He was a master of his craft, but never complacent; always evolving, always questioning. He was a painter’s painter and his opinion really mattered to his fellow artists, particularly to his close friend Lucian Freud, who would not consider a work finished until Frank had seen and approved it.

Throughout his life, Auerbach remained a fiercely private individual, rarely seeking the limelight. Yet, his work spoke loudly, its emotional power reverberating in galleries and collections around the world. His portraits were not just depictions of faces—they were psychological explorations, capturing the depth of the inner life of his subjects. His cityscapes, on the other hand, were a meditation on the persistence of memory, as well as the transformation of place over time.

Auerbach’s influence, though perhaps understated in some circles, was profound. His legacy is not merely in the works themselves but in the way he taught us to see: to engage with the world with intensity, with a fierce awareness of its complexities and contradictions, and to never settle for the surface.

In his passing, the world has lost a giant. But the impact of Frank Auerbach’s work will continue to inspire and challenge us for many years to come. His paintings will live on, continuing to confront us with the same questions he asked of himself throughout his career: ‘What does it mean to capture a moment, a face, a city? How can we, as artists and as people, approach the world with the depth and urgency it deserves?’

Rest in peace, Frank Auerbach. Your vision, your dedication to your art will never be forgotten.

Jonathan Horwich, 14/11/2024

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The Art Market 2023

Posted on January 3, 2024August 9, 2024 by Ben Hanly

2023 in the Art Market has been one of readjustment and realignment, but thankfully not collapse – a market correction rather than the much talked about free-fall of the market.

2022 ended on a fever pitch high, with a slew of blockbuster auctions and record-breaking auctions – the Macklowe Collection brought in $922m at Sotheby’s, the Anne Bass Collection achieved $383m at Christie’s, and the Paul Allen Collection achieving just over $1.6b also at Christie’s – taking the honour of being the first sale to top the billion-dollar mark.

Yet even as these records were being made, savvy pundits predicted a gloomier future for 2023 which turned out to be true.

Surprisingly, it was the top end of the market, with its superior quality and strong provenance, that failed to deliver the goods in 2023. It was badly hit in comparison to 2022, generating a little more than half the sales value compared to the previous years. In 2023, the most expensive artworks at auction paled in comparison to last year. The top 100 lots at auction this year totalled $2.4 billion, compared to $4.1 billion in 2022.

Why is this? Experts cite higher interest rates, continued inflations, and the ongoing turbulence in the financial markets as reason for the dip – but economic jitters aren’t the only factor at play. The continuing war in Ukraine continues to negatively effect the global economy, as no doubt, the current Israeli/Palestinian war will too. Added to this, the post-pandemic exuberance of spending that fuelled the market in late 2021 and 2022 has certainly levelled off.

Across every category in the market, sales contracted in 2023 – but some were hit harder than others.

All of this has had a negative effect on the market – spooking all but the motivated seller from consigning their treasures to an increasingly unpredictable and volatile market. Just like the property market, why would you sell in a falling market? As a result, the number of works coming to auction hit a three-year low in the year’s first five months, and the contraction is most extreme on the high end. The May marquee auctions of Modern and Contemporary art in New York were noticeably underwhelming. The three main auction houses grossed an aggregate $1.4bn (with fees), significantly lower than the $2.5bn achieved the previous May, according to data provided by Pi-eX (the Londonbased art auction analysis firm).

Similarly, the up until now extra-hot, speculative/flip led market for young ultra contemporary artists also cooled down dramatically, with demand being far more measured than in 2022. In May 2022 in New York, Sotheby’s The Now sale of 23 recent works by coveted, hard-to-source names had been a bidding frenzy that achieved $72.9m. In stark contrast, just over a year later in June this year, Sotheby’s 14-lot London version of The Now format took £8.7m ($11m). This market had been characterised by heavy speculation and flipping by collectors keen to turn a quick (and often significant) profit on here to untested newcomers to the secondary market. However, market jitters have calmed this market down noticeably – with less activity from ‘flippers’ producing less demand and lower prices.

The biggest decline was in the Impressionist and Modern sector, whose sales plummeted by almost 30 percent year over year. The Postwar and Contemporary category had a slightly smaller dip of 23 percent. Ultra- Contemporary art, once the fastestgrowing category, took a tumble as the froth surrounding the market for young artists began to dissolve. It shrunk by 26 percent year over year. The most stable category turned out to be Old Masters, whose revenue declined a comparatively modest 6 percent. It remains one of the smallest markets by dollar value, second only to ultracontemporary (which covers around two dozen years of artistic production, while Masters embraces nearly six centuries).

Each of the big 3 auction houses saw their sales figures contract in 2023. Christie’s narrowly beat Sotheby’s in the race for the top spot, generating $8.9 million more in fine-art sales by mid 2023. Both houses saw revenue decline in the first five months of the year compared with the equivalent period in 2022. Christie’s was down 23 percent while Sotheby’s was down 20 percent. Hardest hit was Phillips, which reported $255 million in art sales, a 29 percent dip year over year, after reaching a record high in 2022.

In terms of the geographic split of the art market, the top three players stayed the same. The US reconfirmed it preeminence in this regard, albeit with sales down by 25 percent from the equivalent period in 2021, 2020, and 2019. China similarly reconfirmed its place as the second largest market, but in contrast to the US, its total sales spiked by more than 110 percent during the same period. The increase illustrates the continuing strength of the Chinese collector market, but it also reflects a statistical anomaly whereby several Chinese auction houses, including Poly International and Yongle Auctions, postponed their 2022 autumn sales to early 2023 in order to comply with government lockdowns, boosting the country’s spring results.

The UK market experienced a decline in sales of 27 percent but still held third place in the global art market. The impact of Brexit and the increase in overall in logistical and importation costs still continue to effect the profitability of Britian’s historic art market.

During the pandemic and the associated lockdowns, online and digital sales increased out of necessity and market survival and drove global art sales for this period. Now that in-person auctions have fully returned, online fineart sales are hitting a plateau—but they remain far above pre-pandemic levels. A total of $155.8 million worth of fine art was sold in online-only sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillips, Bonhams, and Artnet Auctions in the first five months of the year. That’s down 5 percent from the equivalent period in 2022 and down 64 percent from 2021, when many high-profile sales had not yet returned to being held in-person. The 2023 total remains more than 300 percent higher than 2019, when online sales generated just $35.5 million in the year’s first five months. What has changed is the comfort level of collectors to purchase via online routes – the average price in 2023 for an online purchase has dropped to $17,794 which is lower than since 2019.

In conclusion, 2023 – whilst certainly not a bullish year, it has still proved to be a strong market with no collapse foreseen in the near future. Bearing in mind the overall global uncertainties, and the fact that purchasing art is not a survival purchase, this is no mean feat!

Andy Warhol’s Birthday

Posted on August 8, 2023August 9, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

Andy Warhol, born Andrew Warhola, was born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Slovakian immigrant parents. Andy was the fourth of five children, his father worked as a construction worker, and his mother was a homemaker and they lived in a working-class neighbourhood in Pittsburgh.

Andy was ‘dogged’ by illness, at the age of eight, he contracted a rare and severe illness called Sydenham’s chorea. This left him bedridden for several months, during which time his mother helped fill his days by giving him drawing lessons, which ignited his passion for art. Andy attended Schenley High School in Pittsburgh, where he demonstrated early artistic talent and where he was recognised and encouraged in these abilities. After graduating in 1945, he went on to study at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh.

After completing his studies in 1949, Andy moved to New York City, where he began his career as a commercial artist and illustrator. He worked for magazines, advertising agencies, and retail stores, quickly gaining recognition for his unique and imaginative art style.

By the late 1950s, he had started experimenting with Fine Art and had begun producing paintings, drawings, and prints. He found his inspiration in everyday objects and popular culture, leading him to create many of the works that would become iconic representations of the Pop Art movement and synonymous with Andy Warhol.

In the 1960s, he established his now famous studio space called “The Factory.” It was a hub for creative collaborations, attracting artists, musicians, writers, and celebrities, alike and it rapidly became a centre for the avant-garde in New York City.

Warhol’s fascination with celebrity culture led him to create portraits of many famous personalities, including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Andy Warhol’s creativity extended way beyond painting and drawing and he ventured into film, creating the experimental movies “Chelsea Girls” (1966) and “Empire” (1964), a slow-motion film of the Empire State Building.

Andy Warhol, well known for his contributions to the Pop Art movement and his choice of subjects for his art, was heavily influenced not only by celebrity and popular culture but also brand names, crime and for some reason car crashes. Some of his most famous paintings include the following:

The market for Warhol’s work has existed from day one and interest from buyers is truly international, with his work being sold across the world, where it is both a highlight and a mainstay of all the major and minor auction houses and galleries across the world. His major works continue to change hands for multi-million pound sums and the second and third most expensive Warhol works sold at auction to date are as follows:

Behind the scenes Andy Warhol is just as fascinating, here are a few little known facts about him.

Time Capsules:
Warhol was an avid collector and archivist. He had a fascination with preserving everyday items and created what he called “Time Capsules.” These Time Capsules were essentially cardboard boxes in which he stored various objects such as newspapers, correspondence, photographs, art supplies, and random items from his daily life. Over the years, he filled over 600 of these Time Capsules, which provide a unique insight into his life and the culture of the time.

Religious Devotion:
Despite his flamboyant and controversial public persona, Warhol was a devout Byzantine Catholic. He attended church regularly, and his religious beliefs played a significant role in his life. He even commissioned religious-themed artworks, including several portraits of Jesus Christ.

Art Collector:
Warhol was an enthusiastic art collector and he had his own extensive collection of art, including works by fellow contemporary artists and art pieces from various periods and styles. Following his death, Sotheby’s auction house held a nine-day auction in 1988 where they sold off more than 10,000 items from Warhol’s personal collection, which fetched tens of millions of dollars.

Underground Filmmaker:
As mentioned earlier in this piece Warhol is well-known for his contributions to the visual arts and he was also a pioneer in underground filmmaking. In the 1960s, he produced a series of experimental films that challenged traditional cinematic conventions. One of his most famous films is “Sleep” (1963), which depicts his friend John Giorno sleeping for over five hours. Warhol’s films often explored themes of monotony, voyeurism, and the passage of time.

Wig-Wearing Icon:
Andy Warhol’s signature silver-white wig became an essential part of his public image. He began wearing wigs in the 1960s to create a distinctive look, and it quickly became one of his trademarks. The wig allowed him to transform his appearance and present himself as an enigmatic figure in the art world and popular culture

Cookbook Author:
In 1959, Warhol and his friend Suzie Frankfurt co-authored a quirky and amusing cookbook titled “Wild Raspberries.” The book, which was never intended to be a practical guide to cooking, featured illustrations and handwritten recipes for dishes like “Omelet Greta Garbo” and “Piglet a la Cubist.” This limited edition book is now a highly sought-after collector’s item.

These lesser known facts highlight the diverse and eccentric aspects of Andy Warhol’s life and artistic pursuits. His impact on various forms of art and culture continues to be influential and celebrated to this day.

Throughout his life, Andy Warhol continued to push the boundaries of art, leaving a lasting impact on the art world and popular culture. His early experiences and upbringing shaped his artistic style and many of the themes he explored in his work.

Read more about investing in Warhol art here.

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David Hockney soon to be 86 on July 9th

Posted on July 4, 2023August 9, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

David Hockney is one of my all time favourite British artists and throughout his career he has created many truly iconic paintings. While it’s subjective to determine the “most famous” ones, here are some of his most notable works:

These are just a few examples of David Hockney’s most famous paintings, but his extensive body of work covers a wide range of materials, dates, subjects and styles, showcasing his endless versatility as an artist.

David Hockney is a renowned British artist known for his contributions to the Pop Art movement and his vibrant, colourful paintings, drawings, and prints. Hockney was born on July 9, 1937, the fourth of five children in Bradford, W est Yorkshire. He demonstrated a keen interest in art from an early age.

Hockney’s parents were Kenneth and Laura Hockney. His father, Kenneth, was a conscientious objector during World War II and worked as a conscientious objectors’ medic. Hockney’s parents were supportive of his artistic endeavours, even though they did not initially understand his decision to pursue art as a career. Throughout his life, Hockney maintained a close relationship with his family, particularly with his mother, who played a significant role in his life and artistic journey.

He attended Bradford Grammar School and then Bradford College of Art from 1953 to 1957, where he gained a solid foundation in traditional artistic techniques and disciplines. His fellow students included Derek Boshier, Pauline Boty, Norman Stevens, David Oxtoby and John Loker. Later, he pursued higher education at the Royal College of Art in London from 1959 to 1962, where he met R B Kitaj and also featured alongside Peter Blake in an exhibition there called ‘New Contemporaries’ which heralded the arrival of British Pop Art, a period when his artistic style began to take shape and evolve.

In the 1960s, Hockney rose to prominence as a key figure in the Pop Art movement, which challenged the traditions of art by incorporating popular culture and everyday objects into artworks. Alongside artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Hockney explored themes such as consumerism, mass media, and the impact of technology on society.

Here are a few examples of some of Hockney’s most expensive paintings at auction.

Here are some lesser-known facts about David Hockney: Hockney has a love of new Technology, especially that which will help him to make art, and he has embraced it in his artistic practice. He was an early adopter of the iPhone and iPad, and he has created numerous artworks using these devices. He even published a book of iPhone and iPad drawings titled “David Hockney: A Bigger Book.”

Hockney is secretly an author: In addition to his artistic endeavours, he has also authored several books. One notable example is “Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters,” in which he explores the possibility that some of the Old Masters employed optical devices such as the camera obscura to aid in their artwork.

Stage design: Hockney’s creative talents extend beyond the realm of visual arts. He has designed sets for numerous operas, including productions at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Los Angeles Opera. His stage designs are known for their vibrant colours and innovative use of space.

Dual nationality: Hockney holds both British and American citizenship. He moved to California in the 1960s and became inspired by the vibrant landscapes and lifestyle of Southern California, which greatly influenced his artwork during that period.

Knighthood: In 1990, David Hockney was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contributions to the arts. Later in 2012, he was further honoured with a knighthood, becoming Sir David Hockney.

Love for nature: Hockney is drawn to the beauty of nature and has spent considerable time painting landscapes, particularly in his native Yorkshire. He finds inspiration in the changing seasons and has captured the essence of nature’s colours and textures in his artwork.

David Hockney has had several close friends and acquaintances throughout his life, including notable figures from the art world, literature, and entertainment industry. Some of his close friends include, Peter Schlesinger, an artist and photographer, was one of Hockney’s closest friends and a frequent subject of his paintings. They were in a relationship during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Celia Birtwell, a renowned textile designer and fashion icon, became friends with Hockney in the 1960s, and he often used her as a muse in his paintings. Birtwell’s vibrant and patterned fabrics also influenced Hockney’s artistic style. Ossie Clark was a British fashion designer and a close friend of Hockney. Clark’s designs were known for their bohemian style, and Hockney often collaborated with him, creating artwork inspired by Clark’s fashion. Jonathan Silver was a major patron and collector of Hockney’s work. He was a close friend of the artist and played a significant role in supporting and promoting his career at his gallery space at Salt’s Mill in Bradford.

At 86 David Hockney is a shining example of how making art and being constantly busy and creative can stop the years creeping up on you, long may he continue!

Art Basel

Posted on June 21, 2023August 9, 2024 by Ben Hanly

Last week’s Art Basel 2023 contemporary art fair, June 15 – June 18, defied forecasts of a market slowdown, with wealthy collectors buying works with seven or eight-figure price tags.

Described by its new chief executive Noah Horowitz as ‘the single most important annual event in the global art market’ and the ‘barometer of the industry’, Art Basel opened its doors to VIPs last Tuesday – the first two and a half days of the fair are traditionally reserved for wealthy collectors, before the doors open to the public from Thursday to Sunday.

Some 284 galleries representing more than 4,000 artists are represented at the fair in the Swiss city, which for one week every year becomes the centre of the global contemporary art market. Among them are regulars of the art event such as Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace, David Zwirner and Perrotin. Some 20 galleries from Europe, Africa, Asia and America will have a stand for the first time.

Three of the first-time labels are entering directly into the main Galleries sector, namely Blank projects (Cape Town), Empty Gallery (Hong Kong) and Offer Waterman (London). The Feature sector will host eight first-time exhibitors, including David Castillo (Miami), Thomas Erben Gallery (New York) and Gajah Gallery (Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Singapore), compared to 10 for the Statements sector.

Art Basel director Noah Horowitz hopes this year’s event helps maintain Art Basel’s status as the world’s leading contemporary art fair.

‘I am incredibly excited to welcome the international art community to Basel in June for another premier edition of our show and my first as the organization’s CEO,’ he said in a statement. ’Ranging from bold contemporary positions to rare presentations by 20th-century icons, our Basel fair will once again reaffirm its pre-eminent position as a platform for discovery and encounters that drive the art world.’

Alongside the contemporary art fair itself, visitors to Art Basel were able to discover some 20 special installations around Münsterplatz and downtown Basel.

One of these was a ‘sprawling superstructure’ designed by French-Moroccan artist Latifa Echakhch, a former Marcel-Duchamp Prize winner and Switzerland’s representative at the Venice Biennale in 2022. In addition, the city’s museums and cultural centres offered a wide range of exhibitions and events throughout the week.

While stock markets jitters and soaring interest rates had triggered predictions that the art market was cooling, that was not evident at the fair, where it was reported by Marc Glimcher, CEO of Pace NY ‘the art market seems quite healthy here in Basel. People are not paying crazy high prices, but they are not asking us to sell at crazy low prices either.’

At its VIP Day last Tuesday, Zurich’s Hauser & Wirth confirmed that they had sold a major 1996 spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois to a US collector for US$22.5m (the most expensive sale of the day), and also an oil on canvas by US painter Philippe Guston for US$9.5m.

Similarly, New York’s Pace Gallery sold two fox sculptures from a new series by US artist Jeff Koons, even though one of the works had yet to be finished. They went for US$3m each. They also sold a Alexander Calder mobile for $2.8m and two smaller works by the artist, offered by his family, for $775,000 and $675,000. David Zwirner exhibited and sold Gerhard Richter’s oversized 2023 sculpture STRIP TOWER for $2.5m. Blue-chip work on the primary market that sold on VIP Day included a new painting by Jonas Wood, offered by David Kordansky Gallery for $2.5m.

Other highlights to be seen at the fair included a gorgeous sunset collured Rothko painting offered at $60m by Acquavalla Galleries; an impressive Picasso for $25m at Landau and a $14m Joan Mitchell triptych at Pace.

After a healthy rebound in 2021, the art market grew three percent in 2022 to US$67.8b, according to Art Basel’s annual art report published by Clare McAndrew.

McAndrew writes that while the first half of 2022 was marked by strong sales, and a number of record prices, the market was more subdued in the latter half due to political and economic instability, the war in Ukraine, increasing inflation rates, supply issues and looming recessions in key markets.

Whilst the Art Market is almost certainly cooling, this is a necessary correction that happens in the market every now and again. The market is still buoyant, with good things selling, but buyers are simply not paying over inflated prices. As art dealer David Nolan reported, ‘tricky times are often prime opportunities to buy art, with galleries more amenable to discounts and collectors looking to free up capital. There is such diversity in the types of people who come to Basel, many of whom budget specifically to buy at Art Basel, and who are less affected by the stock market and the interest rate fluctuations.’

The Nude

Posted on March 16, 2023January 23, 2025 by David Dallas

For the next in my series of articles on what inspires artist to paint, I have chosen The Nude. This is such a vast subject, that I intend to look at Western Art, exploring only paintings from the Renaissance to the present day. Of course sculpture has a very important part to play in the history of The Nude, but for the most part, I am going to ignore it for brevity’s sake.

Sir Kenneth Clark, as he was then, in his brilliant book “The Nude”, (published by John Murray 1956), begins chapter one thus:

“The English language, with its elaborate generosity, distinguished between the naked and the nude. Naked is to be deprived of our clothes and the word implies some of the embarrassment which most of us feel in that condition. The word nude, carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone. The vague image it projects into the mind is not of a huddled and defenceless body, but of a balanced, prosperous and confident body: the body re-formed.”

Since classical antiquity, the human body has been central to art. We are mostly familiar with sculpture, as so little painting has survived. During the Renaissance, excavations of ancient sites in Rome, Naples and elsewhere unearthed a vast treasure trove of naked gods and goddesses.

These antiquities invited scholars, collectors and artists alike to embrace a classical notion of ideal beauty and Diana, Venus, Danae, Sea Nymphs and various other creations of Greek and Roman mythology became a rich seam for admirers of the nude to mine. Gods and goddesses seldom wore clothes!

The Bible, too has a store of subjects involving the nude from Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden to Lot and his daughters and Bathsheba.

The obvious potential for eroticism, was reduced by certain conventions in depicting the nude. The bodies, although adult, were hairless and had the look of polished marble rather than flesh – the look of a classical statue, as opposed to a “page 3” girl. This anodyne look, with a few subtle variations, lasted until the mid-19th Century.

There was a convention that allowed little boys to be painted completely naked and they are, frequently, as Cupid and Putti (winged cherubs). Little girls, however, have their lower abdomens covered by draperies. Sometimes adult females are draped too but the folds in the draperies often merely accentuate what is hidden.

The 17th Century ushers in a new aesthetic in Western painting. The dramatic light and shade of Caravaggio’s art in Italy found its way to the North of Europe, via Utrecht artists who worked in Rome. Rembrandt was one who embraced this new realism. When he painted his mistress, Hendrikje Stoffels, as “Bathsheba at Her Bath”, she is very much a woman of flesh and blood. Rembrandt records her rather large feet and hands and slightly tubby torso. He also includes the lump in her left breast, which may have been the cause of her death, aged 39, but her death may have been caused by the Plague, which killed thousands in Amsterdam in 1663. In any event, she is nothing like the classical ideal nude of a century earlier.

With the painting of François Boucher in 18th Century Paris, we return to a notion of ideal beauty. Against a background of political and social turmoil, Boucher depicts a world where elegant and beautiful gods and goddesses float and frolic blissfully.

In the 19th Century painters had a new and potentially devastating invention to contend with, photography. What could a painter do, that a photograph could not? The answer is, interpret the object in front of it, rather than merely record it, which is why, nearly 200 years after the invention of photography we still have war artists.

Édouard Manet’s “Olympia”, exhibited at The Paris Salon in 1865, is partly a return to the ideal, with Olympia’s marmoreal body, but it is also a snapshot of the moment her maid arrives with a bunch of flowers.

In England, three decades after Olympia, John William Godward is painting Campaspe as a living sculpture. She is not as pale as Olympia, but she is definitely statuesque and conventional, to conform with Victorian sensibilities. It is worth remembering that some Victorians draped the legs of their pianos, as legs were suggestive – of what I wonder? Furthermore, librarians separated books by male and female authors, lest they jostle against one another on the bookshelves – I think I know what they are getting at, the possibility of two books turning into a library.

Now we come to the 20th Century, when, as we all know, the rule book is thrown out of the window. There is no norm. Whilst Amadeo Modigliani, is painting an ideal nude, inspired by Italian Renaissance painting, Picasso is producing Cubist nudes in strokes of muted grey and Egon Schiele is producing sexually explicit nudes, which still have the power to shock profoundly and are the subject of censorship in many parts of the world. I’m not going to illustrate one!

Surrealism, of course, has its own take on the nude and Rene Magritte’s “Attempting the Impossible” of 1928 has the artist wearing a brown suit painting a living female nude model in 3-D, standing in the same space that he occupies. It is a witty take on Art imitating Art. The model is little more than a painted statue.

No Study of The Nude is complete without an in depth look at the work of Lucian Freud, a man obsessed with the nude, although he hated the word. In his maturity, he possessed a technique which uses thick impasto (paint) with light scumbles (like light washes) over the top to create a sense of the colour and texture of living flesh. Freud’s sitters are as far removed from the ideal as it is possible to be. The men often appear vulnerable and awkward, as do many of his women.

Sue Tilley, the model for one of his most famous nude portraits, “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping”, became a muse for him in the 1990s. The painting of her asleep on a sofa in Freud’s studio is a masterpiece of observation, empathy and reportage. She is seen from above, lying on his sofa, and the sense of her volume and the space she occupies is breathtaking. She sold at Christie’s for $33.6M, which, at the time, was the world record for a living artist.

The Nude has provoked much thought and inspired the spilling of litres of ink over the centuries. The Guerilla Girls, a group of anonymous American female artists produced a poster of Ingres’ “Grande Odalisque”, a white-skinned female nude seen from behind, with a gorilla’s head and in bold type posed the question: “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” It went on to say “Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female”.

Through all the convulsions and twists that art has taken from the Renaissance, through Abstraction to the modern day, it is interesting to reflect that Life Classes, drawing the human body using a live model, still go on in every corner of the globe. There are three within a five mile radius of where I live ! To be able to draw the human form is clearly the starting point of all art.

World record prices at auction for the artists mentioned:

Lucas Cranach £9.43M
Cavaliere d’Arpino £325,000
Rembrandt van Rijn £20.2M
François Boucher $2.4M
Édouard Manet $65.126M
John William Godward £1.3M
Amadeo Modigliani $170M
Pablo Picasso $179M
Rene Magritte £59.4M
Lucian Freud $86.2M

10 Celebrities who you never knew were artists!

Posted on March 7, 2023January 31, 2025 by Doerr Dallas Valuations

‘Never judge a book by its cover’ – that’s what we’re always told. We never know what’s really happening beneath someone’s public persona – and none more so than with famous actors or musicians, who we think we know so well through their film or music. But this fame and celebrity can often be misleading as many of the most famous celebrities have kept a secret from their fans – the secret being that they are artists (painters, photographers, sculptors) independent of their day jobs. In fact, in some case, the celebrities identify more as visual artists than their more famous personas!

Below are 10 celebrities who might surprise you with their double life!

David Bowie

David Bowie was undoubtedly one of the greatest creative forces of the 20th century, known for his ability to effortlessly reinvent himself over and over. It’s not surprising, therefore, that his creativity was also multifaceted and that he was a practicing visual artist for as long as he was a musician. Until 1994, however this side of his work remained unknown to the public. For the glam icon, painting was an essential part of the musical process.

As he explained during a conversation with The New York Times in 1998: ‘I’ll combine sounds that are kind of unusual, and then I’m not quite sure where the text should fall in the music,’ he explained, ‘Or I’m not sure what the sound conjures up for me. So then I’ll go and try and draw or paint the sound of the music. And often, a landscape will produce itself.’

Bowie was also a devoted art collector, and he had a close affinity with the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

‘I feel the very moment of his brush or crayon touching the canvas, there is a burning immediacy to his ever-evaporating decisions that fires the imagination ten or fifteen years on, as freshly molten as the day they were poured onto the canvas. It comes as no surprise to learn that he had a not-so-hidden ambition to be a rock musician. His work relates to rock in ways that very few other visual artists get near.’

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey’s comedy and movie background is already legendary, but most people don’t realise that he is also an artist with a number of public exhibitions under his belt! Carrey has been drawing and painting since childhood, and not surprisingly considering his sharp wit and edgy sense of humour, his art is highly political and satirical; criticising and digging into the woes of modern-day America. Carrey is both a painter, sculptor and print maker.

In common with many of his actor / artist contemporaries, Carrey uses his art to ground and settle him, to enable him to switch off. As he says, ‘When I sculpt and paint is when I feel the most present and in harmony with the environment; as if all time has been suspended, all gravity disappears.’

Bob Dylan

As if he wasn’t content with being one of the most iconic musicians of modern times, Bob Dylan has also established himself as a painter and sculptor of international acclaim. The ‘Blowin In The Wind’ singer has been given pretty much every award you can think of, including the Pulitzer Prize, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nobel Prize for Literature, an Oscar, and the National Medal of Arts.

Dylan dates the beginning of his work as a visual artist to the early 1960s. A few drawings reached the public gaze with album covers like Music from Big Pink (1968) and Self Portrait (1970), but it was not until 1974, that Dylan started to take his art serious. He spent two months studying art with Ashcan School tutor Norman Raeben, who philosophised the importance of ‘perceptual honesty’ – painting life as it as seen, not imagined. Dylan says of this time: ‘He put my mind and my hand and my eye together, in a way that allowed me to do consciously what I unconsciously felt.’

The inspiration behind Dylan’s art are travels – the cities and towns he visits appear on the canvases he produces, interpreted in the brightly graphic, expressionistic style he has made his own. He says his art is about the instant moment of a place, person and time, and it has found enormous appeal with audiences worldwide. The combination of the Dylan name and his accessible imagery is a winning combination.

Dylan’s first major retrospective, Retrospectum, opened in the Modern Art Museum Shanghai in 2019/20 and was visited by over 100,000 people in the first three months. He is now represented by a number of heavy hitting international galleries such as Halcyon and Opera Galleries.

Dennis Hopper

From Hell’s Angels and hippies to the streets of Harlem, Dennis Hopper’s photography powerfully captures American culture and life in the 1960s, a decade of progress, violence and enormous upheaval.

Hopper carved out a place in Hollywood history, with roles in classic films like Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, True Romance and Easy Rider. He is less well known, though no less respected, for his work as a photographer.

In 2014 Hopper’s photographic work was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Royal Academy in London – entitled: Dennis Hopper – The Lost Album. This exhibition brought together over 400 images, taken during one of the most creative periods of his life in the 1960s.

This was a decade of huge social and political change, and Hopper was at the eye of the storm. With his camera trained on the world around him he captured Hell’s Angels and hippies, the street life of Harlem, the Civil Rights movement and the urban landscapes of East and West coast America. He also shot some of the biggest stars of the time from the worlds of art, fashion and music, from Andy Warhol to Paul Newman.

Together, these images are a fascinating personal diary of one of the great countercultural figures of the period and a vivid portrait of 1960s America.

Lucy Liu

More commonly known for her roles in the movies Kill Bill and Charlie’s Angels, as well as the TV show Elementary, the American actress Lucy Liu is also a very talented abstract artist. She has painted for years, under the pseudonym Yu Ling.

Liu’s interest in art began at the age of fifteen, when she started experimenting with collage and photography at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1990 with a B.A. degree in Asian Languages and Culture, before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her interest in acting. Her first solo exhibition, Unraveling, at Cast Iron Gallery in New York in 1993, was a photographic exhibition that earned her a grant to study at Beijing Normal University. Liu found this period in China to be extremely valuable, not only as an opportunity to learn more about her Chinese heritage, but also to expand her understanding of the symbolic potential of art. The trip became the subject of a body of work shown at her next one-person exhibition, Catapult, at Los Angeles’ Purple Gallery in 1997. Liu remained in Los Angeles for several years, during which time she continued to work in collage and photographic portraiture. She returned to New York City in 2004 and enrolled in painting classes at the New York Studio School from 2004-2007.

Ongoing conceptual concerns in Liu’s artwork have been the notions of security, salvation, and the long-term effects of personal relationships on our physical and emotional selves–themes that she addresses in painting, sculpture, collage, silkscreen, or the appropriation of discarded objects, which Liu recontextualizes in handmade constructions that function as reliquaries.

Her work has been featured in numerous gallery exhibitions and international art fairs, and is included in multiple private and corporate collections. Liu currently lives and works in New York City.

Paul McCartney

The Beatles were a true global phenomenon within contemporary culture – arguably the world’s most famous band, against who all other bands are measured. In addition to this, Paul McCartney is one of the most successful composers and performers of all time. He has written or co-written 32 songs that have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2009, had sales of 25.5 million RIAAcertified units in the United States.

For more than thirty years, alongside his music career, McCartney has been a committed painter, finding in his work both a respite from the world and another outlet for his drive to create. His paintings were a very private endeavour until 1999 when he decided to share his artwork with a public exhibition and a book titled ‘Paul McCartney Paintings.’ His work is now represented by a number of galleries internationally.

McCartney’s works are full of intense colour and life – his paintings reveal McCartney’s tremendously positive spirit as well as a visual sophistication. The combination of techniques, such as scratching, wiping and applying paint directly from the tube, clearly documents on the one hand the artistic process as it takes place on the canvas but creates on the other hand the illusion of objective realism, with the elements air, water and earth. Faces abound in his paintings and humour plays against a more sombre imagery, while his landscapes radiate a sense of place.

Joni Mitchell

Think of Joni Mitchell and think primarily of her incredible career as a singer, songwriter and musical innovator, whose songs have helped define an era and generation. She has received many accolades, including nine Grammy Awards, and has released 19 studio albums. Much less has been written of her life as a painter. It might surprise fans to hear that Joni has always considered herself to be a painter first and a musician second!

Joni started painted extensively in the ’60s and has never stopped since, except for a few brief, ill-advised forays into photography in the 1980s. The ’60s paintings are almost exclusively portraits of those around her, often drawn from reproductions of sketchpad drawings made on the road or in recording studios. Those around her are mostly men: some of them lovers (Graham Nash, David Crosby), some friends and professional barometers (Neil Young, Bob Dylan), but for their cheery, empty impersonality, they might as well be strangers.

Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks, the evocative lead singer of the folk rock band Fleetwood Mac, has painted throughout her long career, but yet she says she doesn’t really think of herself as a painter. This modesty belies a body of work which almost perfectly reflects the essence of her music, and evokes the bucolic feel of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Her paintings are at once folkish and deeply biblical.

‘They’re all angels,’ she said of her art. ‘I only draw angels. I started to draw when my best friend got Leukemia. And that’s what she’s left me. And so I know she’s really excited now because it has finally, after the last 9 years, come to fruition, and people have finally started appreciating it. But I never drew a thing before she got sick.’

Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone has been an icon in the film world for decades, best known for writing and starring in the blockbuster movie franchise Rocky. But few of his fans realise that he has been painting for almost as long as he has acted – nearly 50 years.

Stallone’s work has evolved over the decades, with later canvases veering towards abstract forms and a reduced colour palette of black, white, and red. Stallone cites the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francis Bacon, and Kasimir Malevich as his key influences, as well as Andy Warhol, for whom he famously posed in a series of photographic portraits in the 1980s. A prolific screenwriter, he often used art to help conceptualize his characters; including his 1970s painting Finding Rocky served as a means of entry into his character’s mindset. Stallone’s works have been featured in retrospective museum exhibitions in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Nice, France.

Ronnie Wood

Who would have thought it, but this quintessential bad boy of rock ‘n roll has consistently found solace in art and has painted throughout his wild days in the Rolling Stones. Ronnie Wood says: ‘There is no kind of therapy like the one you have from starting a picture and then seeing it through to the end.’

Having received formal art training at Ealing College of Art, Ronnie has been a prolific painter since his teens. He has described painting as being like therapy and would create portraits of figures he admired. Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix and fellow band member Mick Jagger are just a few of those he has painted, along with other musicians, friends and family.

Varying his medium depending on the mood he wishes to evoke, Ronnie creates his original pieces in charcoals, oils, watercolours, spray paints, oil pastels and acrylics. His subjects range from band members and musicians he admires to close friends and self-portraits.

For Ronnie, music and art have always gone hand-in-hand, and the intensity that he brings to the guitar translates onto canvas and paper with rhythmic line and vibrant colour. Ronnie’s paintings are a record of his many talents and loves. One of the things he most enjoys is to paint the views from his farm in County Kildare Ireland and the horses he keeps in stables there, allowing him time to take time out from both the media attention that follows him everywhere and also work on his future projects, both with the Rolling Stones and other musicians, in a more secluded atmosphere.

‘I apply musical theory to my art. I build artworks in much the same way as studio overdubs, the more defined ones are things that stand out in the mix.’

The Art of Picasso

Posted on February 21, 2023January 31, 2025 by Jonathan Horwich

Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973, which makes 2023 the 50th anniversary of his death. Incidentally it is also exactly 50 years since I started my career in the Art world at Thomas Agnew in Old Bond Street, where I first had the privilege of handling Picasso’s work.

Picasso was very much a polymath, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and all round genius who was always making art and is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He was a pioneer of the Cubist movement and his groundbreaking works continue to captivate audiences around the world. On the 50th anniversary of his death, it is a time to reflect on his legacy and contribution to art and the world. Picasso’s works can be seen in many of the world’s most famous museums and galleries, and continue to inspire new generations of artists.

His impact on the art world continues to be felt today and many very well known and highly regarded artists have been influenced by Picasso’s groundbreaking style and innovative techniques, including:

Georges Braque: A close collaborator of Picasso’s during the development of Cubism, Braque was deeply influenced by Picasso’s work and the two artists had a major impact on each other’s style.
Juan Gris: A Spanish painter and sculptor, Gris was also a key figure in the Cubist movement and was heavily influenced by Picasso’s work.
Henri Matisse: While Matisse is known for his distinctive style, he was also influenced by Picasso’s use of colour and form, and the two artists maintained a close friendship throughout their careers.
Joan Miró: A Spanish surrealist artist, Miró was inspired by Picasso’s bold experimentation with form and colour, and the two artists were close friends.
Frida Kahlo: While Kahlo is primarily known for her distinctive self-portraits, she was also influenced by Picasso’s innovative approach to portraiture and the two artists shared a close friendship.

Place and culture was a great influence on Picasso and he lived in many different places throughout his life, some of the most significant include;

Barcelona, Spain: Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain, but spent much of his childhood and early artistic career in Barcelona.
Paris, France: In 1904, Picasso moved to Paris, which was then very much seen as the centre of the art world, and he lived and worked there for many years. During this time, he was associated with the Cubist movement and developed many of his most famous works.
Cannes and Antibes, France: After World War II, Picasso spent much of his time in the south of France, living and working in the towns of Cannes and Antibes.
Mougins, France: In 1961, Picasso moved to the small town of Mougins in the south of France, where he lived until his death in 1973.

Pablo Picasso’s work can be divided into several distinct periods, each characterised by its own dominant colour palette. Some of the most well-known colour periods of Picasso’s work are:

The Blue Period (1901-1904): During this period, Picasso’s works were primarily painted in shades of blue and blue-green, with themes of poverty, loneliness, and sadness.
The Rose Period (1904-1906): This period saw a shift to warmer, pinkish hues, and the introduction of more playful themes such as circus performers and harlequins.
The African-Influenced Period (1907-1909): In this period, Picasso was influenced by African art and started incorporating abstract and geometric shapes into his works, resulting in a bold and experimental style.
The Analytical Cubism Period (1909-1912): During this period, Picasso and Georges Braque developed the style of Analytical Cubism, characterised by fragmented and abstracted forms.
The Synthetic Cubism Period (1912-1919): This period saw a further simplification of form, with the use of cut-out paper and printed materials incorporated into the paintings.

While these are some of the most significant colour periods of Picasso’s work, it is important to note that Picasso was always experimenting and evolving, and his style changed frequently throughout his very long career of almost unceasing endeavour to make art.

Some of his most well-known works include:

There are dozens of exhibitions taking place around the globe all marking this major anniversary each taking a differing approach, the link below gives you a taste of their variety dates and locations, hopefully you will be able to get to see at least one of them to witness for yourself the energy and sheer creative genius of Pablo Picasso.

Click here to read more about the dozens of exhibitions worldwide marking the 50th anniversary of Pscasso’s death.

The Paul Allen collection

Posted on November 23, 2022January 15, 2025 by Ben Hanly

In the same way that ‘location, location, location’ has historically underpinned great property investment, ‘quality, quality, quality’ has always lain at the heart of great art collecting. The strength of this strategy of only buying the very best proven crystal clear with the spectacular results achieved by the recent auction of the art collection amassed by the late Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen’s at Christie’s.

Split in two parts – Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Art Collection, was provocatively billed by Christie’s in their pre-sale marketing, ‘to be the largest and most exceptional art auction in history’, with predications that it would surpass $1 billion in sales for the first time in history, beating the $922.2m realised last by Sotheby’s in May last year’s Macklowe Collection.

Christie’s predictions turned out to be both true and conservative – Part I of the collection on 9th November saw 60 extraordinary works achieve a total of $1,506,386,000, with five paintings achieving prices above $100 million. The works in the sale sold 100 per cent by lot with 65 per cent of the lots selling above their high estimates. Part II of the collection on 10th November, went on to achieve an additional $115,863,500 for the remaining 95 works offered for sale. In total, the proceeds for the landmark series of sales, totalled and an extraordinary and ground-breaking $1,622,249,500 – all of which is being donated to the various charitable causes Paul Allen established and supported during his lifetime.

What makes the Allen collection so extraordinary, aside from the huge numbers attached to it, is that the collection was put together entirely by Allen himself in less than 30 years. The fact that a collection of such quality and size can still be amassed today, with so many masterworks being in museum collections and out of commercial circulation, is remarkable.

The scope of Allen’s collection is unusual in that it spanned more than 500 years, from Botticelli to Monet, from Picasso to Stella, from Seurat to Hockney. This breadth and variety of collecting is increasingly rare in today’s world, when most collectors tend to focus on a specific area of interest or particular artists, and develop collections which, although important, are more limited in their reach. Paul Allen’s collection and his method of collecting harks back to the height of American collecting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when legendary collectors such as Frick, Rockefeller and Getty scoured the world for masterpieces across all genre and eras – the only prerequisite being quality. This type of collecting is a truly American phenomenon and demonstrates that when there is the rare combination of ambition, taste and limitless money, great things can happen.

What sets the Paul Allen Collection apart from others is the also fact that Allen himself oversaw each and every purchase himself, without the help of the ubiquitous art advisor who is the mainstay of most billionaire collectors. This personal engagement in the collection, reflects Allen’s strong interest in world culture and history, and gives the collection a personality which only great collections possess. As Paul Allen said, “When you look at a painting you’re looking into a different country, into someone else’s imagination, how they saw it.”

It was a given that such an extraordinary collection was always going to achieve extraordinary things when offered at auction – since the market is avaricious for works of this level. Christie’s performed their part superbly, and ran a slick international marketing campaign that promoted the collection worldwide. The results were stupendous.

The highest price achieved in the sale was for Georges Seurat’s 1888 Pointillist masterpiece, Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version), which made $149.2m and smashed the previous Seurat world record by a multiple of four. The world icon is used far too often in modern parlance, but in this case, the word is truly deserved.

Similarly, Paul Cézanne’s 1880-1890 La Montagne Sainte-Victoire – a classic rendering of Cézanne’s most iconic of subjects – also smashed the $100m barrier, achieving $137.8m; and Gustav Klimt’s 1903 painting, Birch Forest, set a world record for a Klimt, selling for $104.6m.

Other notable sales included the highest price ever for a van Gogh painting, Verger avec cyprès, which sold for $117.2m. Paul Gauguin’s 1899, Maternité II made $105.7m, and Lucien Freud’s masterful portrait, Large Interior WII (after Watteau), made $86,265,000.

Further paintings by Éduard Manet, Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, Andrew Wyeth, and Georgia O’Keeffe, all went onto achieve strong prices, alongside sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder and Max Ernst.

In contrast to these masterpieces of Impressionist and Modern Art, the collection also featured a number of significant old master paintings – most notably, Sandro Botticelli’s exquisite, Madonna of the Magnificat, which sold for a ‘relatively’ affordable $48,480,000m, when one considers the rarity of fully autograph works by Botticelli on the market.

One work, Lot 131, demonstrates to me more than any other work, the personal nature of the collection, and the discerning eye of the Paul Allen himself. It also happens to be the most modest work offered for sale. Measuring only 21cm high, it is an exquisite but fragmented Renaissance sculpture showing clasped hands of the Virgin Mary, catalogued as Circle of Donatello. The fact that a man such as Allen, who could afford any masterpiece in the world, was also drawn to such an exquisite but unassuming work, indicates the level of his sophistication, and proves that quality, should lead a collector when buying a work. The market agreed, and the little gem made 26 times its lower estimate and made $252,000.