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Monday, February 8, 2010
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SFMOMA throws money away
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 The late Donald Fisher pulls out art that is kept in storage hung on sliding walls at Gap headquarters.
Last week, the SFMOMA announced that it had raised $250 million dollars in just 6 months to boost their endowment and fund the museum's plans to expand to three times their current size (see SF Chronicle article for more). All the excitement comes in the wake of Gap Founder Donald Fisher's announcement this past summer that he would gift his 1,000+ piece contemporary art collection to the museum. Fisher's private collection is perhaps the largest in the world and will put the SFMOMA on par with the NY MoMA and the Tate Modern.
After some reflection, I've come to the conclusion that SFMOMA's purchase was frivolous. If only their curators were more web savvy, they would have saved $100s of millions of dollars by buying similar art on Ugallery at a much better price point. Allow me to elaborate...
Donald Fisher - anything you can do, Ugallery can do better!
 Donald Fisher: David Hockney Interior With Sun and Dog (1994)
In all seriousness, Donald Fisher's collection is amazing. I can't wait to see it exhibited! For more about his works, watch this great video of Fisher guiding a tour of his collection:
Labels: Donald Fisher, JP Tormey, Kelley Stengele, Matt Osselaer, Phillip Grass, SFMOMA, Stephen Proski, Sunil Nair
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Friday, February 5, 2010
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Finger on the Pulse: Alberto Giacometti brings home the bacon
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Today the art gods smiled on Alberto Giacometti - one of his iconic thin sculptures pulled in $104.3 at Sotheby's in London. That's the highest sum paid for any artwork ever. Sotheby's made more money on this one sale than they did on their top four sales combined last year. Sounds like the art biz is back! Be sure to check out Ugallery's sculpture work. Who knows, maybe one of our works will bring in $104.4 million in the coming years... Here's an article on the auction from the Los Angeles Times:
Alberto Giacometti sculpture breaks auction record. February 4, 2010 
Will that be cash or charge? A bronze statue by the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti has broken the record for the most expensive artwork sold at an auction, according to Sotheby's. The statue, "L'Homme Qui Marche I" ("The Walking Man I"), was sold for $104.3 million at a recent London auction. The artwork was reportedly expected to fetch $20 million to $30 million. It was owned by Commerzbank, a German bank that inherited the work when it acquired Dresdner Bank. The selling price barely beats the previous record of $104.2 million for Pablo Picasso’s “Garcon a la Pipe†in 2004, according to a report in Bloomberg. Giacometti's sculpture originates from 1960, when the artist planned a series of bronze figures as part of a commission. The artwork stands 6 feet tall and depicts an extremely emaciated human figure in midstride. The winning bid came over the phone in the auction house's London sale room, and the bidder has chosen to remain anonymous, according to the Wall Street Journal. Giacometti is known for his sculptures depicting thin human forms. His "Tall Figure II" and "Tall Figure III" are part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and are featured in the current exhibition "Collection: MOCA's First Thirty Years." -- David Ng Photo: "L'Homme Qui Marche I" by Giacometti. Credit: Justin Lane / EPA Labels: $104.3 million, Alberto Giacometti, l'homme qui marche I, the walking man I
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Wednesday, February 3, 2010
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Reflections on Luc Tuymans
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 Luc Tuymans The Architect (1997)
Early this morning, Gallery Director Alex and I (Bailey - I'm an Assistant Gallery Director and the newest member of the Ugallery team!) popped by the SFMOMA for a sneak preview of their upcoming Luc Tuymans' exhibition.
Tuymans, a prickly, chain-smoking Belgian, is one of the most important contemporary artists on the scene today. This morning, he personally led a big group of us around his retrospective and shared tidbits and context about each work. (!!!)
Alex and I saw whispers of some of our Ugallery artists' aesthetics in Tuymans' work, and we thought we'd share a few we found most poignant in particular.
One of the tropes of Tuymans' work is that his paintings alone often don't disclose enough to understand what's going on. The painting above, The Architect, is one of his most famous examples of this. The faceless man on skis fallen over in the snow is none other than Hitler's death camp architect Albert Speer. With no face, and no explanation, however, many of us are lost in ambiguity.
 on Dimensions: " w x " h x " d In content and form, Ugallery artist Lucille Park's work Hitler Youth echoes Tuymans. Faceless figures (their uniforms suggest they are younger boys) form a hierarchical pyramid before a textured black background. The boys' identity doesn't matter, only their cause is of note. Nonetheless, there is something haunting about their expressionless faces as their tear-dropped shaped eyes drift off in sadness.  Luc Tuymans Within (2001)  Luc Tuymans Our New Quarters (1986)  Luc Tuymans Gas Chamber (1986) Another striking aspect of Tuymans' work is his limited chromatic range. Often his pieces employ only two or three pigments. With this limited palette, he translates landscapes and portraits much like an aged photo. (In fact, Tuymans often uses polaroids and low quality photos as studies for his paintings). The absence of light or the presence of shadows define the figures in his work.  on paper Dimensions: " w x " h x " d 
on Dimensions: " w x " h x " d Ugallery artist Rachel Ridgley's photographs of aging scenes in her home state of Ohio reflect Tuymans' narrow chromatic focus. Light beiges and subtle blue hues permeate both artists' works. Ridgley's work is not intended to be precise, hyper-real photography. Much like Tuymans, she is interested in the power of the incomplete and the sentimentality attached to fading images.
 Luc Tuymans
All and all, Alex and I both walked away from the tour moved by the experience of hearing a living artist personally discuss his body of work. Unlike wall texts drafted by curators, Tuymans' talk was full of anecdotes and personal reflections. While these stories may not be recorded in future art history text books, they do create the first iteration of his legacy. With time, and many more conversations, a dominant theory about Tuymans will emerge. But for now, we just have to start talking.
At Ugallery, we hope to encourage just that. We want our site to serve as a space for artists and art-lovers to meet and interact. We want to build an online art community to support artists working now. Won't you join us?Labels: Big Empty, Gas Chamber, Hitler Youth, Luc Tuymans, Lucille Park, New Quarters, Rachel Ridgley, SFMOMA, The Architect, Wise Old Oak, Within
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Friday, January 8, 2010
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Decor Demon Features Artwork
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The popular new design site Decor Demon featured Ugallery artwork recently. Decor Demon was started by television producer turned decorator/designer Brian Patrick Flynn who offers up some great commentary on the pieces featured and in his other stories. Be sure to check it out! 
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Friday, December 11, 2009
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December Deals Launched Today
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Hi All,
We launched our first day of December Deals with Free Shipping today! We will have a different deal each day for the next week. Below are the highlights:
Fri. 11 - Free domestic shipping on all art up to 40"x40" in size
Sat. 12 - Spend $100 or more and receive a $25 gift card, spend $250 or more and receive a $50 card, spend $500 or more and receive a $100 card
Sun. 13 - 15% off all art on the Top Rated and New Art pages
Mon. 14 - Secret Deal
Tues. 15 - 15% off all Landscape Paintings
Wed. 16 - 15% off all Oil Paintings
Thurs. 17 - Looking for an original last minute gift? Ugallery will match your gift card purchases! Buy a $50 gift card, receive a $50 gift card free; buy a $100 card, receive a $100 card free; buy a $200 card, receive a $200 card free
Hope everyone has a great weekend, TGIF!
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Ugallery Blog
Read weekly art segments featuring Ugallery artists and news about the art world at large. We hope you enjoy this insight into the inner workings of our gallery and invite you to take part in the discussion as well.
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