art + beat

Just skip down to some food post or rant on how old people will be eating cat food any day now if you are not interested in this art stuff, but I am just fascinated.

The Battle Royal!

Roy v Andy

In this corner we have Roy Lichtenstein's " Ohhh...Alright....", painted in 1964. 

[The owner was Steve Wynn of the Wynn hotel in Las Vegas. You remember him from previous Art + Beats. He is the guy that when showing off  his "Le Reve" by Picasso to Barbara Walters and pals , STUCK HIS ELBOW THROUGH THE 139 MILLION DOLLAR PAINTING ( full story from The New Yorker ) ]

But tonight we are talking about his Roy Lichtenstein:

And in the blue trunks we have Andy Warhol's "Big Campbell’s Soup Can With Can Opener (Vegetable),” 1962

Recession? What Recession ??

From the NYT : "Two Pop masters, Warhol and Lichtenstein, vied for bragging rights at Christie’s auction of postwar and contemporary art on Wednesday night — and although Warhol dominated sales at Phillips de Pury and Sotheby’s earlier this week, Lichtenstein managed to take the lead.

His 1964 painting “Ohhh ... Alright ...,” a comic book image of a forlorn woman clutching a telephone, brought $38 million, or $42.6 million including Christie’s fees, a record for the artist at auction. That was just under its estimate of $40 million but well above what was paid for a similarly valued Warhol.
The Lichtenstein’s seller, the Las Vegas casino owner Stephen A. Wynn, had been trying to part with the painting for a while now, and just a few months ago dealers like New York’s William Acquavella were asking about $50 million. But even the international reach of an auction giant like Christie’s could not make that number realistic.
Coming second was Warhol’s “Big Campbell’s Soup Can With Can Opener (Vegetable),” a 1962 painting with a can opener cutting into the signature can. Experts at Christie’s were estimating it would sell for $30 million to $50 million, but although three people bid, it ended up bringing just $23.8 million. That it was being sold by Barney Ebsworth, a Seattle collector, to raise money to finance a church designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, did not seem to matter: collectors had their budgets and stuck to them. ( the rest )