The Splash, one of David Hockney’s most famous works, has sold for more than £23.1m at auction in London. The painting, which depicts the moment a diver hits the water in an LA swimming pool, was sold to an anonymous buyer at Sotheby’s.

It is part of Hockney’s trio of works, alongside A Little Splash – which is housed in a private collection and has never appeared on the public market – and A Bigger Splash, currently on display at London’s Tate Britain.

“Not only is this a landmark work within David Hockney’s oeuvre, it’s an icon of Pop that defined an era and also gave a visual identity to LA,” Emma Baker, head of Sotheby’s contemporary art evening sale, said in a statement.

The Splash series was inspired by the time Hockney spent in Los Angeles following his graduation from art school. He first visited the Californian city in 1964, and this is when he started to work on his pool painting series. Collection that he stopped working on when he had to return back to London about a year later.

In November 2019, his Painting of a Hollywood Swimming Pool fetched £5.6m at an auction at Sotheby’s in New York. And just some days ago, his last work has been sold for over £23m. A really interesting investment both from the arty and economic point of view, isn’t it?

This is exactly what happened to a small museum located in eastern Pennsylvania for five decades. The Allentown Art Museum believed that the painting “Portrait of a Young Woman” they owed since 1961 was made in the studio of Rembrandt van Rijn. But after sending it out for routine maintenance, they learned that the 388-year-old work was in fact made by the Dutch Golden Age artist himself.

Like many Old Master canvases, layers of overpaint and varnish obscured Rembrandt’s oil-on-oak painting which has lived in the collection of the Allentown Art Museum for the past 70 years. But new state-of-the-art conservation and imaging techniques have allowed researchers to remove these layers, uncovering the artist’s sure hand below.

As the museum’s vice president of curatorial affairs, Elaine Mahalakes, has declared, the painting is seen with new eyes now. Watching a glow that was obscured before.

“Portrait of a Young Lad” was donated to the museum by the Kress Foundation, an organization formed around the world-class collection of Renaissance artworks amassed by the Allentown-born department store magnate Samuel Kress. At the time, it was attributed to Rembrandt. But a decade later, a Netherlands-based initiative dedicated to the study of the Dutch painter declared it to have been merely made in the artist’s Amsterdam workshop, not by the artist himself.

There is nothing more personal and authentic than the art we select for our interiors. The wall art says a lot about us and can-do wonders in conveying our message and setting the desired mood for the space. If you feel ready to head into a more playful realm, the great news is that the seasons ahead promise is even more interesting. With minimalist aesthetic in decline, expressive wall art turns mainstream and becomes one of the most favourite ways to decorate our homes. Our recommendation is to choose a balanced combination between vintage and antique gems, but also affordable hand-painted contemporary art and art prints created by aspiring illustrators.

To stay updated on what’s hot and what’s not, let’s take a look at the wall art trends for 2020.

 

LINE ART

Inspired by the drawings of Picasso and Matisse, this omnipresent art trend is every minimalist’s dream. Line art uses the power of negative space to make a dramatic visual statement using only simple black lines on the white background. Both classics and contemporary shapes can be expressed by this ancient style that comes up updated this 2020. Depending on your preferences, feel free to choose either prints of famous artwork & author, or modern and original one-line portraits and intertwined figures hand-painted on canvas or digitally designed by new artists. The raw simplicity of this look gives freedom to experiment with interior styles such as minimalist, collector’s eclectic, or even maximalist.

 

 

FEMALE FIGURE

The art world is rediscovering an obsession over the human body, especially for the female one. Celebrating female empowerment, artists turn to women to tell their stories, to show their intimate beauty. Giving visibility and power to strong female leaders, but also romanticizing the small, everyday moments of loneliness and contemplating we usually fail to appreciate these days. The colour scheme of these prints and paintings is often cozy, earthy and retro-inspired.

 

 

BOLD ABSTRACTS

Using negative space, bold abstract art combines different shapes and colours to create a sensual, but a loud statement. From dramatic street art-inspired shapes and colours, and all the way to soft, feminine stains and geometry, this type of artwork is perfect for bringing visual stillness into the room. Colour blocking marries a throwback culture with a contemporary aesthetic to create an impressive modern look. Bold abstracts look great on large size canvas and gallery walls.

 

 

CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

When it comes to photography trends, we will rely on expressive black & white and color images to depict our deepest desires and duality of life. A growing appreciation for surrealism and philosophical subjects fuels the popularity of fine art photography and photo manipulations portraying compelling visual stories. Creative use of makeup translates the line art trend into the realm of photography and fashion.

 

 

BOTANICALS

Botanicals have been growing for a couple of seasons back and they are still firmly on trend. Increasing demand for sustainable products brings in focus the earthy colour schemes. New modern shapes take the walls in saturated and contrasted palette and abstract shapes. Really inspiring patterns, bold and daring.

 

The Pantone company has designated the colour “Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue” as the Colour of the Year 2020. Position in which it will replace the stormed “Living Coral” of 2019, and the tones “Ultra Violet” of 2018 and “Greenery” of 2017, as a reference colour in many creative fields such as fashion, interior design, graphic design and art in general.

PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue

Instilling calm, confidence, and connection, this enduring blue hue highlights our desire for a stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era. A timeless and enduring blue hue, PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue is elegant in its simplicity. Suggestive of the sky at dusk, the reassuring qualities of this thought-provoking colour drive people to rest and by its unbelievably de-stressing action. Classic Blue brings a sense of peace and tranquillity to the human spirit, offering refuge.

As technology continues to race ahead of the human ability to process it all, it is easy to understand why we gravitate to colours that are honest and offer the promise of protection. Non-aggressive and easily relatable, the trusted PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue lends itself to relaxed interaction. Associated with the return of another day, this universal favourite is comfortably embraced.

PANTONE Classic Blue takes the canvas

Art is an intemporal experience. An intimate experience that beautifies life in all expressions. Betting on that idea, PICTOCLUB stands up for democratization of bespoke & made-to-order art worldwide. This art studio has launched a wide range of original works in Classic Blue to enhance the beauty of hand-painted works.

From Spain to the world, the creative team of multidisciplinary artists that from part of PICTOCLUB offer a great variety of made-to-order & custom-made art in Classic Blue available online.

 

BLOCKS BLUE – PICTOCLUB Originals Collection

Acrylics on canvas – 90 x 120 cm – Natural wood frame

Classic blue brushstrokes acquire sole control over the white canvas in “Blocks Blue”. Juxtaposed traces in classic bluish hues against the infinity of inmaculate backdrop to catch the eye. This fine and elegant artwork belongs to PICTOCLUB Originals collection and its made-to-order in bespoke sized and frames here.

 

REGINA 4 – PICTOCLUB Artists Collection

Brass & fabric – 60 x 60 cm – Natural wood frame & museum glass

Two pieces of equal size but different material: textile and brass. Both framing an eye- catching grey figure in a subtle and elegant way conveying a huge sense of simplicity. Created mixing brass, industrial felt in natural colour, classic blue fabric and 100% organic wool felt in grey. Framed in natural beech wood with museum glass finishing and available online here.

 

IMPLOSSION 2 – PICTOCLUB Originals Collection

Acrylics on canvas – 140 x 100 cm – Natural wood frame

A mirage of classic blue collapse in and out the canvas once and once again. Messy elegance, dainty shapes evoke an intimate sense that becomes perfect for an office space or private quarter. Classic blue palette expressed into a liquid form creating a unique atmosphere. Buy it online here.

 

FIGHTER FISH – PICTOCLUB Artists Collection

Acrylics & silver leaf on canvas – 100 x 100 cm – Unframed

A blue fish meanders in a sea of water lilies and liquid silver. Fascinating work elaborated by hand using in oils and silver leaf on canvas. A classic blue palette adds an extra daintiness to a oriental influenced work hand-painted in acrylics. Eye-catching silver leaf applique. A unique artwork on sale here.

 

TIK TOK – IMPLOSSION 2 – PICTOCLUB Originals Collection

Acrylics on canvas – 140 x 100 cm – Natural wood frame

Add a minimalist bicolour painting to your interior. “Hero” is a great way to incorporate a touch of such a classic & elegant touch of colour as classic blue without renouncing to minimalism. Bold shapes that play within the space creating a sense of movement that will bring a touch of contemporaneity to your interior. Buy it here.

 

About Pantone Colour of the Year

For over 20 years, Pantone’s Colour of the Year has influenced product development and purchasing decisions in multiple industries, including fashion, home furnishings, and industrial design, as well as product packaging, graphic design & art.

The Pantone Colour of the Year selection process requires thoughtful consideration and trend analysis. To arrive at the selection each year, Pantone’s colour experts at the Pantone Colour Institute comb the world looking for new colour influences. This can include the entertainment industry and films in production, traveling art collections and new artists, fashion, all areas of design, popular travel destinations, as well as new lifestyles, playstyles, and socio-economic conditions. Influences may also stem from new technologies, materials, textures, and effects that impact colour, relevant social media platforms and even upcoming sporting events that capture worldwide attention.

A Banksy painting that shows the House of Commons occupied by chimpanzees is expected to fetch up to £2 million at auction in October.

The painting that is called “Devoted Parliament”, depicts the members of parliament as chimps on the middle of a Commons sessions. This work is created on a nearly 4-meter length canvas, is the largest-known work created on canvas by Banksy until now.

Created in huge sizing; this painting is created in all detail and carries a brief but clear inscription: “Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge”. The same quote was a homage to his piece Laugh Now, which features a stencil image of a chimpanzee wearing a sandwich board reading exactly the same quote.

“Devoted Parliament” was originally painted and displayed in 2009, in an exhibition displayed by Banksy in Bristol Museum. A show which attracted more than 300,000 visitors. Painting was put on display again in March to mark the original date set for Britain to leave the EU and it will go on display at Sotheby’s on 28 September before being auctioned at Bristol Museum’s Contemporary Art Evening on 3 October.

Alex Branczik, European head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s, said Banksy “confronted the burning issues of the day”, and that “regardless of where you sit in the Brexit debate, there’s no doubt that this work is more pertinent now than it has ever been.

He described it as capturing “unprecedented levels of political chaos” and added that it confirmed Banksy as “the satirical polemicist of our time” and “a modern-day Voltaire”.

Jeremy Scott dug back into his bag of fashion tricks for Moschino in Milan for Spring 2020. As showgoers arrived at the Palazzo del Ghiaccio’s venue-turned-catwalk, the space boasted two life-size Baroque-style frames.

It was anyway predictable that the rebel that revolutionized Moschino had an ace up its sleeve when talking about the new collection.

The accesories served as picturesque moments for each model on the runway, who were dressed in outfits that were covered in painterly prints, spanning the different styles, eras and mediums of the famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. There was Bella Hadid wearing a harlequin outfit from the painters “Rose Period;” Kaia Gerber donning an actual abstract guitar from when he dabbled in sculpture; Cara Taylor costumed into a framed charcoal drawing; and Stella Maxwell in a dress embellished with Picasso’s famous “little flowers.”

Even the late creative’s signature and the Moschino logo were parodied creating a more stylish look inspired by Picasso’s signing. The catwalk became instantly in a mirror of the classic Spanish culture, at times the subject was Picasso’s artwork itself, but the Spanish culture also turned the topic that conduit the show displaying and exploring thought many other Spanish typical folkloric subjects like matadors, bulls and flamenco dancers.

The American designer has been the creative director of the Italian brand since 2013, when he took the position that Rossella Jardini held, meeting the target. The designer debuted on the runway with the Italian firm in 2014 with a collection that left no one indifferent. Like everything it does, the show had humour, subtle references and a lot of extravagance, some great aptitude that has become his personal style and that we can already see and enjoy.

It was 1910 when Natalia Goncharova was first censored in Russia after being accused of charges of offending public morals and for creating pornography. Over 100 years later the story repeats itself, but this time is Instagram the one that has gone through censoring the painting “Model (on a blue background)”.

Everything happened when Palazzo Strozzi, a museum located in Florence, decided to post a picture of a female nude painted by Natalia Goncharova to promote an exhibition organised by them. It is not difficult to guess that the showing would be starred by this great artist.

Natalia Goncharova became one of the most relevant artists of her time; multifaced and brave, she turned into a leader of the Russian rebel futurist movement. She was the one and only woman of the decade -and over the 20^th century- that had a real artistic development comparable to the work of her colleagues. Goncharova had a prolific career composed by over 200 artworks and she was followed close by master painters and friends Gaugin, Matisse or Picasso.

The exhibition has the aim of taking visitors on a journey from the Russian countryside to Moscow and Paris, two of the most important cities to Natalia, featuring 130 artworks and giving an account of the unorthodox life of a woman who lived for her art and successfully forged her own unique fusion of tradition and innovation, of East and West, making her own work a unique example of experimentation with artistic genres and styles ranging from New-Primitivism to Rayonisme, painting and graphic art to her work for the theatre.

Arturo Galansino, the director of Palazzo Strozzi, says that Instagram initially deleted the post last week. But that they tried again and that last time worked.

The row sparked debate once again about social media platforms’ stance on female nudity in art. Instagram, and its parent company Facebook, both ban photographic representations of the naked body, although last year the social media giant revised its policy to allow artistic nudity in sculpture and painting. Meanwhile, an increasing number of artists are having their Instagram posts deleted or accounts suspended.

Galansino says: “The risk is that we start using social media differently and less freely than we do today. Instagram is a powerful tool of communication, but it’s also a useful source of information for people interested in arts and culture. Art must not be censored.”

Shortly after, perhaps afraid to repeat himself creatively, he kept his Leica in a closet and devoted himself to the cinema. photography until a decade later, but his talent

But in the early sixties, when his name had already made history, Frank was already fully dedicated to the cinema. His first film, Pull My Daisy, directed along with the painter Alfred Leslie, had a script narrated and written by Kerouac. His underground work, which covers more than 30 titles, would defy all cinematographic canons, but this time he did not find the desired recognition.

Fleeing the fame to which the Americans catapulted him, in the early seventies he settled in a remote village in Nova Scotia, Canada, with June Leaf, his second wife. In 1971 his photography became much more autobiographical, creating his last series, The lines of my hand. At this point, Frank began experimenting with Polaroids and incorporating collage and text into his snapshots. The death of his two children: Andrea in a plane crash, and Pablo in a psychiatric hospital, gave his work a more heart-breaking and personal tone, which explored the loss, memory, change and continuity.

The photographer Robert Frank, one of the most influential of the twentieth century, died Tuesday in Inverness, a small town in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, at 94. Frank, born in Zurich in 1924, arrived in the Big Apple 23 years later and his work The Americans, the hugely influential ensemble of photographs of his adoptive compatriots taken across the United States in the fifties, became his best cover letter.

Singular and inimitable, Robert Frank considered himself as a total outsider. At the last stage of his life Frank was still the nonconformist, elusive and above all faithful to his beliefs, who redefined photography in the mid-fifties.

He was thirty-one years old when encouraged by Walker Evans and subsidized by a Guggenheim scholarship, he set out to tour the United States in a Ford Coupe; Nine months, 10,000 miles, 30 states, 767 reels, 27,000 images would shape the Americans. “After seeing these photos, you just don’t know if a jukebox is sadder than a coffin,” wrote Jack Kerouac in the American version of the book. Frank dissected America with the unpolluted gaze of a foreigner. A deep and poetic vision that revealed what was hidden behind the American dream; alienation, injustice, social and racial differences, loneliness, and sadness. And he did it using a language never seen before: with a raw and sincere photographic approach. He did so through 83 published snapshots in the book The Americans.

Shortly after, perhaps afraid to repeat himself creatively, he kept his Leica in a closet and devoted himself to the cinema. photography until a decade later, but his talent

But in the early sixties, when his name had already made history, Frank was already fully dedicated to the cinema. His first film, Pull My Daisy, directed along with the painter Alfred Leslie, had a script narrated and written by Kerouac. His underground work, which covers more than 30 titles, would defy all cinematographic canons, but this time he did not find the desired recognition.

Fleeing the fame to which the Americans catapulted him, in the early seventies he settled in a remote village in Nova Scotia, Canada, with June Leaf, his second wife. In 1971 his photography became much more autobiographical, creating his last series, The lines of my hand. At this point, Frank began experimenting with Polaroids and incorporating collage and text into his snapshots. The death of his two children: Andrea in a plane crash, and Pablo in a psychiatric hospital, gave his work a more heart-breaking and personal tone, which explored the loss, memory, change and continuity.