These little African penguins from the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut make little paintings with their feet. The Mystic Aquarium sells the paintings for $124.99 in its gift shop. Some of the money goes to help raise money for African penguin conservation and research efforts. You can read more about the paintings and how they are made here. Take a look:
Photo: Mystic Aquarium/Sea Research Foundation, Inc.
This might be the world's most expensive fly swatter. The Wall Street Journalreports that David Hammons' 1992 Fly Swatter sold for $66,000 at a Swann Galleries auction of African-American Fine Art. David Hammons' fly swatter is six feet long and was made with wire mesh and a long pole.
Casttoois a company that makes decals you can place on your cast. You can see how the decals work here. Casttoo offers a number of ready made decals. You can also send Casttoo an image to have made into a cast decal. Prices for a Casttoo decal range from $20 to $40.
Anna Wintour sat for her first formal portrait by Alex Katz. The painting is part of a special exhibition at National Portrait Gallery in London. The portrait, entitled "Anna," was painted in 2009, in oil on linen. Alex, an American painter in his 80s, was inspired to do the portrait after seeing The September Issue.
She sat for Katz, 82, at his New York studio in late 2009, the first time she has consented to have her portrait painted. "I couldn't think of a nicer way to spend the afternoon. We talked for two hours while he worked," recalled Wintour, who was the inspiration for Meryl Streep's terrifying editor in The Devil Wears Prada.
Katz asked Wintour to pose without her sunglasses after watching The September Issue, the recent documentary film which went behind the scenes at Vogue, and noticing that she had "lovely eyes". He said: "Painting Anna was like shooting fish in a barrel. There was no way I could miss it."
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And Wintour's verdict on the portrait? Well, she liked the yellow. "I was pleased to see that he used a lot of colour, which I adore," she said.
The exhibition of Alex Katz Portraits will run from May 15 – September 21, 2010 at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Admission free.
Image: Alex Katz, "Anna," 2009, oil on linen, 60" x 84"
Art made from Red Bull cans is going on display on an exhibit along Ocean Drive in South Beach. The 47-piece collection includes an eight-foot tall Egyptian wall with hieroglyphics, a couture gown made of a cans and the hideous fish stilleto pictured above. The number of cans utilized in the art pieces ranged from one to thousands. You can find out more about the unusual exhibit here.
The Wall Street Journalreports that Alberto Giacometti's 6-foot sculpture of a walking man sold for $104.3 million
at a Sotheby's auction in London. It is the highest auction price ever paid for a piece of artwork. The WSJ says the high bid for Walking Man I could signal a resurgence in the art market.
The 6-foot-tall bronze depicts a wiry man in mid-stride, his right foot jutting forward, his head erect and and his arms hanging at his side. Giacometti, a modern master known for his haunting sculptures of blank-faced Everymen, cast the work 60 years ago as part of a commission to plant several of his bronze figures on Chase Manhattan Bank's Pine Street plaza in New York City. The artist famously struggled with the project, eventually quitting it but casting stand-alone versions of several of the planned figures, including "Walking Man I."
The price breaks the existing $104.2 million auction record, set six years ago at Sotheby's, for Pablo Picasso's 1906 portrait "Boy With a Pipe," whose buyer remains unknown.
Art Daily has a photo here that gives you a good idea of the statue's size. You can read more about Alberto Giacometti here on artcyclopedia.com.
Gap is collaborating with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) to celebrate the museum's 75th anniversary. The result of the collaboration is a line of eight limited-edition artist-designed T-shirts designed by nine well-known artists who have connections to the Bay Area, including Rosana Castrillo Diaz, Simon Evans, Chris Johanson, Kerry James Marshall, Barry McGee, Ed Ruscha, Leslie Shows, and Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel. All of these artists are also represented in the series of SFMOMA's anniversary exhibitions and programs entitled 75 Years of Looking Forward.
Starting January 16, the T-shirts will be available for $24.50 at the SFMOMA MuseumStore, online at sfmoma.org/museumstore, and in 13 Bay Area Gap stores.
An Italian artist named Dario Gambarin uses a tractor to plow images on fields. Some of the crop art he has created include a portrait of President Obama and a horse. Take a look:
You can see a longer video of Dario's Obama tractor art here.
The BBC reports that German official have decided not to comply with Egypt's requests for the return of an ancient bust of Queen Nefertiti to Egypt. The German officials argue the bust is too fragile to be transported. They also say it was obtained legally.
The collection's director, Friederike Seyfried, said: "The position of the German side is clear and unambiguous - the acquisition of the bust by the Prussian state was legal."
Queen Nefertiti is renowned as one of ancient history's great beauties.
She was the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaton - who initiated a new religion which involved worshipping the sun.
Egypt has been aggressively campaigning for the return of ancient artefacts, and last week secured the repatriation of fragments of a 3,200-year-old tomb from the Louvre.
The Crux Vaticana is back on display after a two-year restoration process. The restoration is meant to make the the 6th century Crux Vaticana look more like it did originally. The Crux Vaticana is rumored to hold fragments of the cross Jesus was crucified on. The Telegraph has before and after photos here. Some of the colored gems were removed and replaced with pearls. Candle wax and smoke resideue were also removed from the Crux Vaticana. It certainly looks better now. You can also see it in the AP video below. Take a look:
Supreme has partnered with artist Damien Hirst for a Holiday 2009 line of t-shirts and skateboard decks. The products will be available on Supreme New York's website on November 23rd. Highsnobiety has more photos form the collaboration here.
The Wall Street Journalreports that the art market may be on the mend. The fall art sales at Christie's and Sotheby's showed recovery in certain markets. Above is Picasso's "Bust D'Homme," which sold for $10.3 million, although the estimate was $12 million.
The U.S. art market appears to be on the mend. The major fall art auctions may not have sold everything on offer, but collectors showed a renewed willingness to bid up top examples of artists' work. Dealers also said inflation fears and expectations of higher bonuses in the financial markets stoked strong bidding.
New York's two chief auction houses, Sotheby's and Christie's International, brought in about $596 million combined from their semi annual sales of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art in the past two weeks. The total surpassed the houses' $409 million spring sales in May, a gain that could signal a measure of returning confidence in high-end art values.
The mood among collectors grew increasingly upbeat as the two weeks of sales progressed. At Sotheby's contemporary art sale Wednesday night, a Warhol silkscreen sold for $43.7 million, more than triple its high estimate. At a lively sale of modern and Impressionist art the week before at Sotheby's, an Alberto Giacometti sculpture sold for $19.3 million, well over its $12 million high estimate.
At Christie's, the results were more modest. The house fell short of presale estimates at its Impressionist sale and modern art evening sale Nov. 3, but it performed solidly at Tuesday's post-war and contemporary auction, led by a Peter Doig painting that sold for $10.1 million.
The sales were modest compared with the height of the market a few years ago and there were some unsold works, but overall the sales were an encouraging sign that the wealthy are starting to spend again.
Some of the pieces that went unsold because the bids did not meet the minimum were Michel Basquiat's "Brother Sausage" (estimated at $9 million, top bid of $7.5 million and Picasso's "Tete de femme (estimated at $7 million, top bid of $6.4 million). The top price at Christie's was the lovely 1896 painting of two ballerinas entitled "Danseuses," which sold for $10.7 million to a private Asian collector.
At Sotheby's Andy Warhol's "200 One Dollar Bills," sold for $43.7 million to a telephone bidder. The estimate on the well-known piece was $12 million.
Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, who write the Tastings column for The Wall Street Journal, say that the question they get from readers most this time of year is what wine should they bring when they are invited to a dinner party. Dorothy says you should put some effort into the selection and try to find something tasty and trendy. Hot trends in wine right now that won't break the bank (being thrifty is on trend, too) include Prosecco, Malbec from Argentina, naked or un-oaked Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs from Oregon and 2005 Bordeaux, which haven't sold well because of the recession and so are a good value. Take a look:
Chocolate lovers gathered at New York's Chocolate Show to see all the new trends in chocolate. There were freshly roasted chocolate beans, strawberries to dip into a chocolate fountain, a chocolate carving station and a chocolate book store. In addition to the edible treats, there was also some amazing chocolate artwork. Swedish chocolatier Hakan Martensson won praise for his chocolate gothic sculptures.
Martensson creates chocolate artwork that he says can last between 10 to 15 years in the right conditions (no extreme temperatures and no moisture). Prices range from $500 to $2000. He'll even sculpt a special order chocolate portrait of you, if you like. Take a look:
Halloween parties aren't just for kids. Kathie Lee and Hoda learn how to make some ghoulish adult beverages which are just perfect for Halloween. Maureen Petrovsky, author of The Wine Club whips up a Blood Orange Harvest Cocktail, which must be pretty strong because Kathie Lee was snuggling up to Chewbacca after trying one. Next up was the Eyeball Martini, which we are definitely trying out this weekend. For those with a sweet tooth, there was Halloween Punch in a Pumpkin which uses Midori liquor and features a dry ice serving suggestion and some Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes.
What's really funny is that the song from the scene at the Mos Eisley Cantina in the very first Star Wars movie is playing in the background.
Take a look:
You can find the recipes for these fabulously devilish drinks here.
The Wall Street Journal 
The BBC 
