Art in the News

This last week has provided a few interesting and diverse art-related news items.

An Alberto Giacometti sculpture fetched the highest auction price EVER for an artwork, commanding 104.3 million dollars at a recent London auction. The selling price beats the previous record of $104.2 million for Pablo Picasso's "Garcon a la Pipe" in 2004. Giacometti's "Tall Figure I" originates from 1960, when the artist planned a series of bronze figures. The artwork stands 6 feet tall and is of an extremely emaciated human figure in mid stride. Both Giacometti and Picasso enjoyed critical acclaim and financial success while they were still alive, a real bonus and (thankfully for the living) not totally unheard of.

The upcoming Winter Olympic venues are going to be showcasing over 140 pieces of Aboriginal Art from 90 First Nations, Inuit and M'etis artists. The artists are from every province and territory in Canada. The program will produce a first of its kind collection from established as well as up and coming talent. Even more wonderful, the program pairs artists with at-risk youth in communities across the country. I think this is so awesome and is testimony to the power of art to inspire, educate, inform and express the human experience.

Carl Jung, one of the pioneers of psychology and a contemporary of Sigmund Freud, believed that there are symbols and images that transcend culture, time and place. His theory is that these archetypal symbols date from our very origins as humans and that they are recognizable to us, even in these contemporary times. What is so interesting is how similar Australian Aboriginal symbols look to Native American symbols and the Aboriginal Art that I'm looking forward to seeing at the Olympics.

I'm also looking forward to the Super Bowl ads later on today. Talk about having fun with the Elements and Principles of Design! I want to see the Bud Light house made out of beer cans. In the commercial, it's easy to spot the "homeowner" guy because of his bright orange parka against the blue beer house. That's because colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel make each other look brighter when placed next to one another. How cool is that?!

"Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life."
- Pablo Picasso