Dog Art Today

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Photo by Henry Horenstein.

Francis Bacon: Record Setting Artist Also Dog Artist!

At Sotheby's last night, Francis Bacon's Triptych (above) broke all contemporary art records when it sold for $86.3 million.  Bacon was a self-taught English painter who died in 1992.  Triptych, a large-scale masterpiece depicting the legend of Prometheus, was painted in 1976, and, like his 1953 Man with Dog (below), exemplifies his dark, angst-ridden style. 

Read more about Sotheby's recession-proof contemporary art sale in Carol Vogel NYT's story. 

Alex Prager

Undo

Londoners, check out LA-based photographer Alex Prager's Big Valley show at Michael Hoppen Contemporary.  She does mid-century modern gals, as in Hitchcock meets Valley of the Dolls.  Above photo is from her archives, a bit disturbing but very cool.

Show runs until June 8, 2008.

Robert Rauschenberg's Dogs

Murmurs, 1992

Robert Rauschenberg, one of our great American artists, died today at age 82.  He was a giant of the art world and will always be one of my favorites. 

Page 10, Paragraph 3 (Short Stories), 2001

Lily Scent, 1981

Tibetan Locks (Avenue), 1987

Images courtesy of Artnet.

Fast Boy's Girls in Bed Photo Shoot

Kisses

I discovered this beautiful cache of photos on Rebecca Collins's always inspiring Art Dog Blog.  See more of Fast Boy's Girls in Bed set on his Flickr site.  Note: some artistic nudity.

No Shame

Getting up Early to go to the Patagonia Summer Sale

Some Girls in Bed

Comfy

Do Not Feed the Animals

Library of Congress Dogs

Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range, Madison County, Montana by Russell Lee, 1942

I'm featuring dog photography this week in honor of  the New York Photo Festival.  Did you know that the Library of Congress has started a Flickr photostream?  Here are a few dogs from their archives.

Beggar's Dog, Hoboken, between 1910 and 1915

Polish Strikers at N.Y. Mills, Utica, between 1910 and 1915

A Store with Live Fish for Sale, near Natchitoches, LA by Marion Post Wolcott, 1940

Children in the Tenement District, Brockton, MA by Jack Delano, 1940

Tanis Guinness & Ta Wang, 1910

Happy Mother's Day!

Thanks, Mom...

For letting me pick out the blue hat with the feather that's almost as tall as I am.
For making me this adorable fish dress and showing me that creativity is best the best designer label.
For understanding my need for a designer label in junior high and buying me the pale pink Ralph Lauren polo shirt.
For letting me stand on my own two feet in this photo and in life, but keeping your are around me just in case.
For making a great new life in Ohio when you were a NY gal.
For wearing this Pucci-esque dress to the Great Geauga Fair and bringing NY style with you.
For finding your way into this photo, a rare one, since you're the one always behind the camera.
For saving my artwork.
For faithfully reading my blog each day.
For being a great mom.

Love, Moira

Picasso & Lump

I've never seen this amazing (though a bit blurry) photo before of Picasso and his beloved Dachshund, Lump.  He's said to be "the only dog Picasso took in his arms."  So cool.

Via The Long and Short of it All, a terrific blog for all things Dachshund.

Read more about Lump and his adventures with Picasso in David Douglas Duncan's book Picasso & Lump: A Dachshund's Odyssey.

Ted Benvenuti's Scrappy Dogs

Galgos (Spanish Greyhounds)

Actually, nothing about these sleek handcrafted works of dog art is scrappy except for the fact that São Paulo artist Ted Benvenuti uses certifiably reforested Brazilian bentwood and carpentry shop leftovers to create them. 

Rottweiler

Labrador Retriever

Beyond their beauty, I love their individuality.  Like every dog I've ever met, their personalities are utterly distinct, even when comparing works within the same breed, like the Basset Hounds below.  Simply gorgeous!

Basset Hound No. 1

Basset Hound No. 2

Basset Hound No. 3

Basset Hound No. 4

Available exclusively at Conceito Firma Casa.  See more of Benvenuti's work here.

Via Cool Hunting.

Jelly Jelly Jelly All Jelly by Jack Butler Yeats

This charming line drawing of a day at the Whippet races, Jelly Jelly Jelly All Jelly (c. 1900),  by preeminent Irish artist Jack Butler Yeats sold today at Christies London auction house for £17,300 ($33,994).  Honestly, I never knew about Jack, the brother of Nobel Prize winning poet William.  But it turns he was the first Irish painter to sell for over £1 million.  And, he is often credited with articulating "a modern Ireland of the 20th century, partly by depicting specifically Irish subjects, but also by doing so in the light of universal themes such as the loneliness of the individual, and the universality of the plight of man."

His father, Irish portraitist John Butler Yeats, also recognized his son's talents, stating "'Some day I will be remembered as the father of a great poet, and the poet is Jack."  Ouch…I wonder how that made William feel?

Here are some close ups of the lovely drawing of Irish dog enthusiasts.   



The inscription reads, "Them dogs/is took more care of/than if they was going/ter come in for a million o money"

Source: Wikipedia.

See all the Irish Art for sale at Christies here.  It's very interesting to compare the work to what artists on the continent were doing at the same time.  Obviously, the Irish were preoccupied with their battle for their Republic in the early 20th century, but you can see the steps they're taking towards Modernism, albeit baby steps of a young country fighting for survival, not yet ready to focus on art.