Newest Large-scale Painting Completed 5/31/09

This painting was completed today. It is part of a group of large scale paintings which I am currently working on. This is the sixth work in the group of ten paintings.

Louvre Sculpture - Standing Figure

This is a new sculpture, which was created in the Chelsea art studio a couple of weeks ago, The work is entitled the "Louvre Sculpture" a standing figure after a clay sculpture in the Louvre Museum, Paris. The sculpture is made of plaster and metallic oil paint, and stands 36" high.

P.O.V. Painting Finally Finished

My P.O.V. painting was completed today. The painting was started in February 2008 and  took a little more than a year to finish.  The title P.O.V. referrers to the orange letters in the painting which is an acronym for "Point Of View". The work was stimulated by the growing political discussions in the media during the 2008 presidential elections. There were severals small POV studies done, which have been published in a POV sketchbook. You can view the sketchbook online at http://www.scottomycklebust.com/POV 

Kippenberger sells for $4,114,500, a record price for the artist at auction at Sotheby's May 2009 Contemporary Art Auction

Artist Albert Oehlen at Luhring Augustine Gallery in Chelsea

I dropped into Luhring Augustine gallery this week to see what was on view. To my surprise, there was a show of work by Albert Oehlen, a German artist who worked and hung out with Martin Kinppenbergerin the early 1980's. They collaborated on several paintings; the current MOMA show features a car which Kippenberger and Oehlen painted together. It was not my favorite pieces in the show, but offered an interesting prospective, and a far-out example of what is accepted as art. 

The Luhring Augustine's show includes a selection of Oehlen's new work; ten large-scale advertisement paintings. I like the work very much. It's somewhat in the same line as the paintings I am currently working on.  I appreciate Oehlen's synthesis of painting and billboard graphics, which gives a context and visual appeal to the work. The juxtaposition of the two media sets up a disassociated abstraction, which plays out on the canvas. The structure and use of white space sets up a visual counterpoint to the constrained area covered by the imagery. I think these paintings reflect contemporary exposure to the bombardment of mass media in all its forms. Art like Oehlen's acts as a reflective catalyst.

Martin Kippenberger painting at Sotheby's: will it go for millions?

I guess it pays to have a retrospective art exhibitions at two major US museums in one year. The German artist Martin Kippenberger is included in Sotheby's May catalogue; in fact, his painting is featured on the cover (it's also featured in Sotheby's Private View: Contemporary Art, which is distributed to private collectors). Sotheby's Director of Contemporary Art Tobias Meyer pitches the Kippenberger painting, a large-scale self portrait, with a very high estimate: $3.5 to $4.0 million. Kippenberger's auction prices in the past have been around $300k to $600k for large paintings. 

The painting on sale at Sotheby's is part of a series based on a photography of Picasso in his underwear, standing on the steps of his mansion, posing as a regal king-artist. All the paintings in this series are good, although I would consider them some of Kippenberger's more conservative work. People can read and understand them easily, compared to some of his other works, which may account for Meyer's substantial estimate.

Studies for "Girl with Straw Hat" Painting

Here are two small studies for my "Girl with Straw Hat" painting.

"24 Panel Painting:" original advertisements

The "24 Panel Painting" original founded advertisement page, painted over with gouache colors.

New Work: a large-scale painting, "Girl with Straw Hat"

Here is the second painting in the series of the large-scale paintings for exhibition. This image was the inspiration for the series. The work is comprised of large-format digital prints, mounted on canvas with oil paint. The original image for "Girl with Straw Hat" is from a small printed advertisement page I found in the street, while walking to the studio one morning.  I brought it to the studio and painted over each ad photo with gouache, blocking out part of the photograph.  

New Work - Large scale painting in process

I started working on a new series of six large scale paintings for exhibition. This is the first painting in the series, which is currently in its third state. I feel it is close to something I like and feels right. The second painting in the series is already completed, and will be the centerpiece of the series. I am planning to include six paintings in the series. The series is part of a larger body of work called the "24 Panel Paintings."