Thu Nguyen - Houseboat on the Seine
...Enfin Malherbe vint...
One of the movies of Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge) revealed to me a Paris filtered through Asian sensibility. I should say it differently: an Asian artist can notice in the Parisian mosaic things that we others have forgotten, or don't notice, or don't care any more, a subtle warmth, a subtle charm, a subtle color; the Taiwanese artist was discovering for me the small things that make le Paris de toujours.
And here comes Thu Nguyen, to explore these small things through her Asian lens: the warmth, the charm, the color.
(Contemporary Art)
Labels: Thu Nguyen
posted by Pierre Radulescu at
3:03 PM
1 Comments:
"If Oprah Bought a Painting Online"
by Mary Lawler
This is an except from ArtId staffer Mary Lawler's blog which we think really illustrates some of the struggles and frustrations artists face when trying to compete with mass marketed decor art. So, if you know Oprah or someone in the mass media who talks about decor, please send this article to them!
What if Oprah bought a painting online, or Martha Stewart or Ty Pennington? All it would take, for online art sales to become less intimidating is for one celebrity, one television show, one main stream media giving their endorsement of buying art online and it would change the tide dramatically. If Oprah showed a piece of art on her show that she bought online, people wouldn’t be able to get to art sites fast enough. If one HGTV decorating show included buying original art online for a project, it would break the barrier wide open.
Yesterday, I saw a TV bathroom re-decorator spend $35,000 on the renovations, and when it was nearly done, she took the client to a brand name store and told her that, “buying art was expensive and she could get art for her bathroom much cheaper”. They bought two small pieces at $59.99 each that were the “right color”. Here is an idea, why not spend $1,000.00 less on the granite tile and buy a piece of art that is still the right color AND is something you care to look at.
What can we do to make the online sale of art fashionable? Art is a renewable resource. Art is a purchase that beautifies surroundings, feeds the soul and improves the quality of life. You buy art because you like it, you buy it because you want to look at it for a long time. Art doesn’t end up in the back of the closet with the tags still on a year later. Art doesn’t get donated to Goodwill when the season is over. You don’t put art on the curb come trash day because it broke two days after the warranty expired. Michelle Obama, support the arts, buy art online.
Where would you go to buy original art, a gallery, a street fair, a dealer? There has never been a retail supplier of original art until now. The internet makes original art available to everyone, the way art should be. The internet has changed the way we communicate, it has opened up global markets, it has changed the way we learn and the way we spend money. Shopping on line is commonplace for everything, clothes, books, jewelry, music, and household goods, everything… but art.
The amount of good, available, original art online is staggering and within reach. Yet there is great and understandable fear on the part of the consumer to purchase art online. With art education virtually non-existent in schools, we have created entire generations that know next to nothing about art and are therefore uncomfortable with it's purchase. No one expects a consumer to go online and buy a $20,000 painting on a whim. However there is an available store of original art that is priced between $100.00 and $1,000.00. In any economy, consumers will spend that on a pair shoes, dinner in a restaurant or a weekend get away. Art is just like any other purchase, if you don’t like it, it doesn’t fit the space or go with your sofa, return it to the artist and get something else.
Each artist is a sole proprietor, a self-employed, under insured, taxpayer that is working hard like everyone else. For the past nine years, Artid.com has been providing an online home for artists. Offering a web site, a sales venue, a blog, links, video uploads and marketing tools for the artist, and information, education and advice for the buyer. The artists are on board, they are uploading incredible art, using social media, educating themselves on internet marketing and investing their time and energy but where is the buyer?
Artists have traditionally had to sacrifice half of a purchase price to a gallery in exchange for the gallery educating their client on the value of the art. Why not go directly to the artist, read their blog, email them questions, establish a relationship. Artists are our visual storytellers, the recorders of a feeling, a place and time, a dream, in a unique way. A purchase from that artist suddenly becomes much more than the art itself, it becomes personal, it is an experience, an interaction and a story. Our art should be what’s left to tell future generations what we valued, not landfills of discarded consumption.
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Anonymous, at 1:43 PM
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