When I see or experience people’s courage, insights, and commitment to helping friends and family, I feel not only inspiration but awe. Life has become a constant revelation of what we can do together and become individually. Just read Time magazine’s annual profile of the 100 most influential people and you naturally feel moved and inspired. I’ve discovered people make a huge difference in our lives by just caring and showing up for work every day. A look below the surface of nearly everyone’s life and it’s possible to see amazing, inspiring acts of love and faith.

So when I say YOU inspire me, I mean it.

Andy Warhol Flowers, 1978 Sold for US$ 1.3 million on July 20, 2011 on artnet Auctions © 2012 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

New York / Berlin / Paris (PRWEB) February 02, 2012

If you haven’t noticed already, now is a good time to take a look at the world of online art sales. In the last year we we’ve seen the launch of the cyberspace VIP Art Fair (whose second iteration opens next week), and Christie’s New York hosted its first exclusively online auction during its Elizabeth Taylor blitz in early December.

The past year saw some big prices on artnet Auctions, too. Below are highlights of the 2011 sales on artnet Auctions in the categories of unique works of art, prints and multiples, and photography.

Unique Works

As in conventional auctions, postwar material drew some of the highest prices. Never far from the top in any art sale, Andy Warhol snagged first place (not just for unique works, but for all works) with the sale of Flowers, for US$ 1.3 million, which was the second highest price for a Warhol “flower” painting at auction last year. The canvas has flowers in a deep, bright shade of blue and is one of four in the Flowers series dated 1978; the vast majority of these works date to 1964–1965.

In a different mode entirely are two pictures by Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975) that fetched US$ 198,559 and US$ 143,750. The Regionalist painter and one-time mentor to Jackson Pollock (American, 1912–1956) depicted his family enjoying a palm-tree dotted beach in Eleuthera (1955), named for an island in the Bahamas where the Bentons vacationed. The bigger price was paid for the mythical Ten Pound Hammer (1965), which shows three black men working on railroad tracks with a train steaming in the background. Benton must have liked the image—he released it as a lithograph in 1967 in an edition of 300.

A conceptual video sculpture by Nam June Paik (American/Korean 1932–2006) sold for US$ 92,000, proving that mixed media works can do well online, too. Polaris (1990) is composed of four televisions arranged like petals around a globe and backlit by concentric neon florescent tubes. It was exhibited in a 2000 survey of the artist’s work at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Another conceptual work, the checkerboard abstraction Check #9 by Sherrie Levine (American, b.1947), sold for US$ 115,000. Levine gained notoriety in the ‘80s when she exhibited her “photographs of photographs” by Walker Evans (American, 1903–1975) of desolate farmers during the Great Depression, unaltered and indistinguishable from the originals. Her solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art is just closing now, and her oeuvre seems particularly resonant today with the renewed debates concerning appropriation and copyright infringement in art.

Prints and Multiples

A portfolio of 37 prints by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, otherwise known as Le Corbusier (Swiss, 1887–1965), was the highest-earning work on artnet in the prints and multiples category. If the architect’s buildings lead you to believe he dreamt only in black-and-white, the Unité series (1953, printed in 1963) is evidence to the contrary. The set has 17 prints in color and 17 of the same prints, sans color, along with three additional black-and-white prints.

This particular folio belonged to the architect Mohindra N. Kawlra, who worked closely with Le Corbusier in the 1950s. It established the record for prints by the artist at auction when it sold for US$ 57,500 at the inaugural design auction on artnet in May 2011.

Three of the top 10 prints were by Warhol, but second place was taken by an artist with whom he collaborated. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s (American, 1960–1988) set of four, large-format screenprints titled Portfolio II was originally printed around 1982. The present set, which sold for US$ 47,727, was a posthumous edition printed in 2004–2005. A portfolio of five prints called Flowers (1990) by Basquiat’s friend and fellow street artist Keith Haring (American, 1958–1990) brought US$ 32,775.

In a year when Zhang Daqian (Chinese, 1899–1983) overtook Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) as the year’s top auction earner, it comes as no surprise that a set of 10 prints by five leading Chinese artists also makes our list. The Giants of Contemporary Chinese Art (2005) contains two prints each by Fang Lijun (Chinese, b.1963), Yue Minjun (Chinese, b.1962), Wang Guangyi (Chinese, b.1956), Zhang Xiaogang (Chinese, b.1958), and Zeng Fanzhi (Chinese, b.1964). It is the last of an edition of 99 and sold for US$ 34,150.

Warhol’s portraits of Chairman Mao, Mick Jagger, and the Marx Brothers brought US$ 37,000–54,500, and a Warhol-esque screenprint of a crying Marilyn Monroe (complete with diamond dust) by “neo-pop” artist Russell Young (British, b.1960) realized US$ 27,780.

Photographs

Warholmania gripped the photographs category as well. One set of 12 photos that features some of the artist’s most beloved subjects, among them Salvador Dalì (Spanish, 1904–1989), Liza Minnelli, Jackie Onassis, and Pope. The portfolio sold in May for US$ 140,300, over its high estimate of US$ 120,000. Earlier in the year, another suite of the same photographs brought US$ 126,500 against a high estimate of US$ 90,000.

A relatively tame picture by famed homoeroticist Robert Mapplethorpe (American, 1946–1989) showing two men in profile sold for US$ 83,636, and a large-format Thomas Struth (German, b.1954) photograph of a cemetery in Tokyo, dated 1996 and donated by the artist, raised $ 80,500 for the victims of last year’s devastating earthquakes in Japan during the Arts for Japan charity auction, produced in collaboration with Berenberg Art Advice.

Early photography brought strong prices as well. An 1893 winter landscape by Alfred Stieglitz (American, 1864–1946) brought in US$ 40,250, and a portrait of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin (French, 1940–1917) from 1905 by Gertrude Kasebier (American, 1852–1934) fetched US$ 51,750. And a pair of Paul Strand (America, 1890–1976) prints mounted back to back in one frame was taken for US$ 57,500.

Article originally published in artnet Magazine by Jessica Mizrachi, Decorative Arts specialist.

View all artworks available on artnet Auctions: http://www.artnet.com/auctions.

For more information, please contact:

Robin Roche

+1-212-497-9700 ext. 140

RRoche(at)artnet(dot)com

About artnet:

With 24/7 worldwide bidding, artnet Auctions is the world’s first and only online auction platform to buy and sell Modern and Contemporary paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and more. artnet has been online since 1995 and is host to approximately 2 million visitors each month. Through the artnet Price Database of all auction sales results and artnet Galleries of all premier art galleries worldwide, artnet is the leading online resource for the international art market.

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Walls Need Love Launching Holiday Line

Nashville, TN (PRWEB) November 21, 2011

Walls Need Love, a Nashville-based home decoration company that specializes in vinyl wall art, has announced that it is offering a new line of holiday-themed wall decals for customers to decorate their houses and offices with.

Walls Need Love’s latest collection includes numerous festive decals such as Christmas trees and a variety of Christmas and Winter-themed designs. Customers were demanding holiday decals to decorate their living spaces, and Walls Need Love listened to their needs in creating the new offerings. The company also specializes in creating custom designs, so if customers have ideas for holiday wall decals beyond what is currently in the collection, the company can create customized decals.

Ali Abrahimia, owner of Walls Need Love, said “After having a number of conversations with our customers, we designed our holiday-themed wall decals to meet their needs. It is incredibly easy to have beautiful art on your walls now, and changing a vinyl wall decal for each and every holiday is a snap. Our goal is to make sure our customers are completely satisfied in every way possible. In fact, we offer a 100% money back guarantee, so there is absolutely no risk when purchasing any of our products.”

Wall decals offer the advantage of adding custom designs to customers’ walls without the unnecessary mess and permanence of paint. The decals are easily affixed to a wall and removal does not cause damage to the wall’s surface. Walls Need Love’s vinyl wall decals install in seconds, and are made with a precision cut matte vinyl finish that is nearly indistinguishable from a hand-painted work of art. Whether decorating a home, apartment or office, Walls Need Love can meet a customer’s individual needs.

When purchasing a vinyl wall decal, customers are also contributing to the environment. Walls Need Love is an eco-friendly company that donates a percentage of every purchase to SoundForest.org, which is a charity that is focused on preserving the environment by planting trees and encouraging zero emissions.

About Walls Need Love

Walls Need Love creates high quality non-damaging vinyl wall art.

Walls Need Love’s vinyl wall decals and stickers are perfect for creating uniquely personal and creative decor. The decals appear to be painted on the walls they are applied to and are a popular option for people that want to be creative with their living spaces without any damage to the walls. The decals are less expensive than painting, easy to apply or remove, and best of all, fun to decorate with. In addition, the decals are safe, non-toxic and entirely reusable.

Walls Need Love offers customers over 40 colors and only uses the highest quality 100% safe interior vinyl for all of its wall art and vinyl wall lettering. The decals will stick to almost any surface imaginable.

For more information, please visit http://www.wallsneedlove.com.

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Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.