Laurina Paperina's How To Kill The Artists

Meet Laura Scottini (aka Laurina Paperina), an italian artist with a wonderfully wicked sense of humor.



Her collection of drawings, installation and videos in the exhibit "How To Kill The Artists" is a hilarous and purposely ironic twist in which contemporary artists and cartoonists are being attacked by objects of their own creation, most of which brought them great wealth and or fame. I have gone to to trouble to locate images of the original pieces of art which Laurina references because some of you may not be familiar with the artists or the works.

The Installation:



Now, to better understand the following drawings, I have attached the artist's originals below Laurina's drawings/paintings so you can fully appreciate the satire.


Above: Paperina's painting with all the 'artists' from her collection


Jeff Koons:

Above: Paperina's Jeff Koons Vs His Dog

above: Koons' Balloon Puppy

Keith Haring:

Above: Paperina's Keith Haring's Dog.

Above : keith haring's famous dog icon

Joseph Beuys:

Above: Paperina's Joseph Beuys Eaten By Wolf.

Above: Joseph Beuys and Coyote, performance piece

Jackson Pollock:

Above: Paperina's Pollock

Above: Jackson Pollock at work

David Shrigley:

Above : Paperina's David Shrigley

Above: David Shrigley's photo "severed hand"

Maurizio Cattelan:

Above: Paperina's Cattalan Does Not Surf

Above: Maurizio Cattelan's Charlie Don't Surf

Barry McGee:

Above: Barry McGee (aka Twist)

Above: Barry McGee Sprayed

Above: Graffiti artist Barry McGee (aka Twist) at work

Takeshi Murakami:

Above: Paperina's Murakami Vs DOB

Above: Takeshi Murakami's DOB

Andy Warhol:

Above: Paperina's Warhol Vs. Marilyn

Above: Andy Warhol's Marilyn screenprint

Frida Kahlo:

Above: Paperina's Frida Kahlo

Above: Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait as the Little Deer

Jean Michel Basquiat:

Above: Paperina's Basquiat Vs. His Monster

Above: Jean Michel Basquiat, untitled

Above: Although not ready for download quite yet, she has animated videos which will be available for viewing on her site.

More about the artist:

Laurina Paperina (in english "Little Laura - Little Duck")
1980, Born in Rovereto. She lives and works between Mori (Trento, Italy) and Duck Land
2005, Academy of Fine Arts, Verona, Italy
1999, Art Institute, Rovereto (Trento), Italy

The artists' statement (in italian followed by english):

Io gioco con l'arte.
Il mio lavoro è un'elaborazione ironica della contemporaneità e sulle identità che la compongono. Elaborazione che nasce sintetizzando un linguaggio dove diversità e contraddizione si compenetrano e dove l'influenza dalla cultura di internet e della tv, dei fumetti e dei video games, della fantascienza e dei cartoons, generano un complesso insieme di elementi che si trasformano in un apparente caos ma lasciano intravedere delle forme riconoscibili.
I personaggi che popolano i miei lavori sono dunque ironia dipinta e sono frutto della mia fantasia, sono forme dinamiche e colori sgargianti di una sorta di "virtual reality" simile ad un video games dove la finzione e l'apparenza giocano simulando la realtà.
In sintesi il mio lavoro è un gioco ironico sulle sue esperienze che non ha un fine ben preciso se non quello di rappresentare le diversità di pensiero e come queste possano coesistere,
come se ogni elemento fosse un frammento indispensabile di un puzzle.

[I'm sorry...my english isn't good !!!]

I play with art. My work is an ironic elaboration of contemporaneity and the elements which are part of it. It is an elaboration stemming from a language sysnthesis where diversity and contradiction are intertwined and where the influence of internet culture, TV, comic strips, video games, sci-fi and cartoons are generating a complex set of elements, which, although turning into an apparent chaos, are letting themselves be seen in recognizable forms.
Characters populating my works are "painted irony": they are the fruits of my fantasy, dynamic forms and flamboyant colors of some sort of virtual reality resembling a video game where fiction and appearance interplay and simulate reality.
In sum, my work is an ironic game on my experiences, which has no specific purpose but to represent divergencies of thought and the way such divergencies may coexist, as though each element were an indespensable fragment of a jigsaw-puzzle.

Visit her site and see much of her other work.

Hirst Buys Bacon, Sothebys Makes Bread

Above: Tobias Meyer with Bacon's Self-portrait

There's been a lot of talk about art prices falling and auction houses suffering. However, just the other night, on November 14th, Sotheby's Evening of Contemporary Art Auction in New York set several records and hopes soaring.

Below is a reprint of an article written by Colin Gleadell for the UK's Daily Telegraph. I added the images for your entertainment and information.

Art sales: Damien Hirst's £16m for a slice of Bacon
Colin Gleadell on Damien Hirst's expensive purchase

Damien Hirst may have lost his title as the most expensive living artist at auction to Jeff Koons in New York last week, but he can still claim to be not only the richest artist in the world but also the one who spends the most on art.


Above: Francis Bacon, Self Portrait 1969, sold for $33,081,000 Sotheby’s New York, Nov. 14, 2007

Artist to artist: A 1969 self-portrait by Francis Bacon, which was bought by Damien Hirst bidding anonymously by telephone last Wednesday, he splashed out $33 million (£15.9 million) at Sotheby's on a 14" by 12" in self-portrait by Francis Bacon – easily a record for a small painting by Bacon, and surely one for an artist buying at auction.


Above: Damien Hirst's Platinum and diamond skull which received lots of press

In his excitement, the auctioneer Tobias Meyer, who knew Hirst was bidding, forgot the normal routine of noting down the buyer's registration number on the winning paddle. "I was too happy," he said. And why not?


Above: Tobias Meyer at Sotheby's

With that purchase, Hirst, who now owns four Bacons, joins an elite group of big spenders who last week allayed fears of a slump in contemporary art prices. The group includes the diamond dealer Laurence Graff and the hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen.


Above: Francis Bacon's Second Version of Study For A Bullfight #1, sold for $45.9 million

It is thought that Cohen bought the top lot of the week, Bacon's Study for Bullfight, for $46 million. And Graff spent nearly $30 million on two paintings by Warhol and one by Jean-Michel Basquiat.


Above: Basquiat, Untitled (Electric chair) 1981 - 1982, acrylic, gold spray paint and oilstick on canvas, Sold For 11,801,000 US$

He may have been in partnership with Larry Gagosian when the dealer bought a big Koons sculpture at the sales - the 8ft stainless-steel Blue Diamond, for $11.8 million.


Above: Koon's 8ft stainless steel Blue Diamond, sold for $11.8 million

On the surface it was a glittering display by the art world. More than 100 records were broken and $950 million was spent on contemporary art during the week.

This was itself a new record, close to the highest estimates for the sale set in the balmy early summer when credit crises were barely a glimmer in the eye of far-sighted Wall Street analysts.

Adding style to the occasion were the fashion designers Marc Jacobs, resplendent with blue hair and green scarf, and Valentino. Outbid as a buyer, Valentino successfully sold two paintings by Mark Rothko and a Hirst.

One of the Rothkos, which was sold for $21 million, cost $1.7 million at auction nine years ago. The Hirst made a record for a spot painting in 2003, selling for $438,000; Valentino sold it for $1.6 million last week.


Above: Jeff Koons' Hanging Heart, presently the world-record for art auction sales by a living artist; $23.6 million

The biggest mark-ups, though, came for Koons's $23.6 million Hanging Heart, for which the seller, the US property developer Adam Lindemann, had paid $4 million last year, and for Richard Prince's 2002 painting, Piney Woods Nurse, which was sold by the West coast collectors Nora and Norman Stone for $5.4 million.


Above: Richard Prince's Piney Woods Nurse, 2002, sold for $5.4 million

Bought by the London dealer Jay Jopling, the painting would have cost less than $100,000 when first shown four years ago.


Above: LUCIAN FREUD, Ib and her Husband (1992) ©The Artist, Oil on canvas, 16.8 x 14.7 cm Private Collection, sold for $19.36 million

Older generation artists in demand included Lucian Freud, whose portrait of his daughter, Ib and Her Husband, sold for $19.36 million, making him the most expensive living European artist at auction (in dollars), just ahead of Hirst; the American "Pop" artist Ed Ruscha, whose classic Burning Gas Station was sold by the collector Kent Logan for a record $6.98 million; and the junk-sculpture artist John Chamberlain, whose twisted wreck of car parts sold for a record $4.6 million.


Above: Ed Ruscha's Burning Gas Station, sold for $6.98 million

Among the rising stars attracting accelerating prices were the young Americans Mark Grotjahn and Jules de Balincourt, and the German Anselm Reyle, in all of whom Charles Saatchi has wisely invested.

However, there were some warning signs. At the main Christie's sale, 39 per cent of lots were sold at or below low estimates or not at all.

Nearly half the lots, carrying a combined low estimate of $173.5 million, had been guaranteed, and they realised just $176 million excluding auctioneer's commission. So profit levels must have been minimal.

US buying was also relatively low at around 50 per cent. In recent seasons this has been as high as 82 per cent for New York contemporary art sales, which are aimed mainly at the American market.

Sotheby's had made an even higher level of financial guarantees to sellers, regardless of the outcome of the sales, but, in contrast to last week's Impressionist sales, met it comfortably. The $316 million sale was Sotheby's largest of any kind, ever.

But there was sufficient evidence to predict that, come the next series of important Impressionist and contemporary art sales, in London in February, estimated prices and guarantee levels will be more conservative.

The bubble has not burst. But clouds are still gathering ominously.
__Colin Gleadell for the UK's Daily Telegraph




Click here to see Artnet's illustrated catalog of the Sotheby's Art Auction On November 14, 2007

The 2008 Artist Series Beach Towels Are Here!

Earlier in 2007, Target and the Art Production Fund came out with a series of four artist-designed towels. The 2007 series (seen below) was a big hit and Target sold out of all four almost immediately. As a big Alex Katz fan, I immediately bought two of his. The towels are nice and large 60" x 70" and well worth the $50.00 for which they retail.


Above: The now sold-out Artists Series of Beach Towels from 2007

Now, Target and Art Production Fund have announced the lineup of guest artists for their second-annual collaboration of fine-art towels known as the Artist Towel Series 2008.

Above: One of this years' wonderful artist series beach towels

Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Peyton, and Kehinde Wiley have each created a limited-edition beach towel as part of the WOW (Works on Whatever) items designed by contemporary artists to bring art off the walls and into everyday life.


Above: Jeff Koons' Balloon Monkey beach towel


Above: Cindy Sherman's Woman In Pool beach towel

They include "Balloon Monkey," "Woman in Pool," "Sidney," and "African-American Man." The 60 x 70-inch cotton towels, which will be available starting November 19 for $50 on Target.com and worksonwhatever.com, will also be the official pool towels for André Balazs' Raleigh Hotel during Art Basel Miami Beach December 5 to 9.

 
above: Elizabeth Peyton's Sidney beach towel


above: Kehinde Wiley's African American Man beach towel

Proceeds from sales will support Art Production Fund's mission to support major civic artwork projects, while half of all proceeds generated from sales of Koons' towel will also support the Koons Family Institute, a resource of the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

Buy 'em quick, they don't stay in stock for long.