Il Fascino Ferrari A monument to Italy’s driving force City boy Nigel Cooke’s atmospheric cityscapes The Frogman cometh Tim Cotterill, the best-selling bronze artist in the world
DAVID RENSHAW Warm-hearted northern romance with Ted and Doris
Contributors
Our team About Article A very warm welcome to this first issue of Article, the magazine of the Artmarket Gallery.
Robert Power Creation
Michelle Power Gallery Director
Concept/production
I hope that you enjoy this edition of Article. The team are independent, here to help, very approachable. My avatar is Olympic Games Munich (1970) by David Hockney.
Check out my article on creating the perfect commission on page 30. My avatar is City Streets by Nigel Cooke. If you’re looking for a cityscape commission Cooke is a great artist to consider.
Graphic Power 197 Hallgate Cottingham East Yorkshire HU16 4BB www.graphicpower.co.uk
Located in Cottingham, East Yorkshire, the Artmarket Gallery was founded by directors Robert and Michelle Power in 2010. It has since grown to become one of the region’s leading galleries, displaying and selling work by artists ranging from the up-and-coming, such as Katy Jade Dobson, to the grand masters, like David Hockney (you can read about both of those wonderful artists in this introductory issue). The Artmarket Gallery is completely independent and all of our artists are carefully chosen by the team to guarantee you the best selection of contemporary art.
Matt Ellwood Lead Creative
Jeannie Swales Writer
Collaborators for this issue
A minimalist at heart. Creating Article has been a real labour of love - enjoy. My avatar is Michael Claxton’s Cobalt Coastline.
I’ve enjoyed writing this first issue of Article and meeting so many of the Artmarket’s lovely artists. I’ve chosen as my avatar Daisy Boman’s Take Chances – I love what the Bo-Men symbolise.
Cover photography by Alessio Mei:
Image credits Front cover: © Alessio Mei www.alessiomei.com Back cover: © Matthias Vriens-McGrath TASCHEN | www.taschen.com
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Page 1, top left corner: © Matthias VriensMcGrath | TASCHEN | www.taschen.com
Advertising If you’d like your business to be an advertising partner of Article, please drop us a line at:
article@artmarket.co.uk
alessiomeiphotography www.alessiomei.com
Huge thanks to everyone who helped with this first issue of Article, including James Mackenzie (at the Michelinstarred Pipe and Glass); John Pope (Image Design); artists Nigel Cooke, David Renshaw and Katy Jade Dobson; Marlene Taschen (TASCHEN); Alessio Mei – and not forgetting, of course, our furry editor-in-chief, Humphrey the Dog!
We offer a range of services including organising a commission for that unique and very special piece, home visits to help you display your new artwork to its best advantage, and advice on what to choose if you’re looking for a piece as an investment as well as for pleasure. And we’re always mindful that buying an artwork can involve a considerable financial outlay (although we have plenty of pieces at very affordable prices!): don’t forget to check out the help we can offer, including the interest-free Artmarket Zero, on our website: artmarket.co.uk Happy reading! The Article team
Contents | 2018/19
Page 2
Page 10
Page 16
Page 24
Page 34
Page 38
Page 40
Page 44
Page 50
2 A shining star in the North!
30 Creating the perfect commission
40 The Bo-Men of Belgium march on the UK
Your very own picture
6 Rozanne Bell Zimbabwe to Cottingham
32 Agnetha Sjögren The perfect dog is a bit of a mongrel
10 Il Fascino Ferrari A monument to Italy’s driving force
34 Katy Jade Dobson Dreamlike images and luscious colours
16 City boy Nigel Cooke’s urban images
20 James Mackenzie An artist in the kitchen
24 David Renshaw Home is where the heart is
Humanity, survival and the joy of life
44 The Frogman cometh Tim Cotterill’s frogs are in demand worldwide
50 Craig Davison #TheWonderOfChildhood
38 V&A Dundee Sometimes a gallery is a work of art in itself
37 Hanging about Expert tips from Artmarket Gallery director Michelle Power
55 Frequently asked questions Michelle answers your questions
56 The news in brief
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Who else but David Hockney?
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Photo: © Matthias Vriens-McGrath | TASCHEN | www.taschen.com
Hockney | A Bigger Book
Photo: © GmbH/ Mark Seelen | TASCHEN | www.taschen.com
A shining star in the North! There can be no doubting how much the Artmarket Gallery’s customers and friends love the work of David Hockney.
And it has sold more copies there than at any other gallery in the UK outside London. Marlene Taschen, MD of the book’s publishers, art specialists TASCHEN, says: “I am very happy about our collaboration with the Artmarket Gallery, a shining star in the North!
“The dedication to TASCHEN projects such as David Hockney: A Bigger Book has been fantastic, and we are now excited to rev up our engines again together with Robert, Michelle, and their team for our new monumental limited edition, Ferrari! The sky is the limit with partners like Artmarket and I look forward to seeing where we go next.” You can find out more about Ferrari! on page 10 of magazine, but back to the Hockney book – it is, of course, a thing of spectacular beauty, cataloguing the technicolour career of the man who is probably the world’s most famous living artist from the 1950s to the present day.
The Bradford-born artist’s ‘definitive visual autobiography’, A Bigger Book, is an epic limited edition tome that weighs in at 35kg and takes two men to move it; copies have been on sale at the Cottingham gallery for just over a year now.
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But it’s also looking like being a canny investment. The first 1,000 books (now all sold) from the edition of 10,000 cost an eyewatering £4,000 each. But each came with a limited edition print (print A with the first 250 books, print B with the second 250, and so on).
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4 One of those prints, Untitled no 329, depicting a glass vase of pink flowers, sold at auction in London for over £10,000 last year – and that was for the print alone. Artmarket Gallery director Robert Power was recently delighted to source a Hockney print, Pool Made with Paper and Blue Ink for Book (MCA Tokyo 234), for a collector in Florida, a piece which had doubled in value in the last five years. And with a recent Hockney original achieving a record price for the artist at auction (see page 56 for more on that), it seems there’s never been a better time to buy work by one of Yorkshire’s favourite sons. A Bigger Book, complete with bespoke stand designed by Mark Newson and published by specialist art publishers Taschen, is available at the Artmarket gallery for £2,250 – although that price may go up as the book begins to sell out and demand increases, as Robert expects it to by the end of this year: hurry if you want one. And the Artmarket gallery has a selection of other work by David Hockney, so keep an eye on the website if you’re interested – they don’t hang about! www.artmarket.co.uk
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Photography: TASCHEN | www.taschen.com
Hockney | A Bigger Book
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“ The Artmarket Gallery is a shining star in the North! The sky is the limit with partners like Artmarket… Marlene Taschen Managing Director of TASCHEN
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Photo: © Karim Tabar, 2018 TASCHEN | www.taschen.com
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Rozanne Bell Growing up under a blazing African sun surrounded by vibrant colours has had a lasting effect on Artmarket artist Rozanne Bell.
“I could no more paint a bleak, dull picture than I could fly to the moon,” she says. “Anyone with an African upbringing will tell you the same: African art is so bright. I used to come over here on holidays, go to galleries, and be amazed at the lack of colour.” Rozanne’s Scottish father and Yorkshire mother moved to Zimbabwe before she was born in 1962. She lived there for the first 40 years of her life until the political situation under President Robert Mugabe saw her flee the country with her five young children, taking only what they stood up in.
Sunset Sailing
“I took the children to school one day, and never got to go home again. I lost everything, including – for me the biggest tragedy – all my art materials and books. But please don’t think I’m sorry for myself – that’s not me at all! It’s just the way things were.” Rozanne and her children pitched up back in the UK, followed later by her husband and parents, and she settled at Sturminster Newton in Dorset, setting up a studio in nearby Shillingstone. Despite having had a successful career as an artist in Zimbabwe, she was forced to start again completely from scratch, seeking out frames for her paintings at car boot sales and selling her work round local pubs.
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Her canvases are alive with saturated, vivid colours, as glamorous and dynamic as the artist herself.
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Rajah
Betty Jubilee
Rozanne Bell | Zimbabwe to Cottingham
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“So that was my two years of crying into my paints!” she says. “Then someone spotted my work, liked it, and got me into a local gallery. My big break was with my pictures of harbours, which I started painting after visiting Padstow and Rock in Cornwall. “I like to use lots of different media – I have a real love of calligraphy, for example. And my paintings are created using layers and layers of paint, sometimes four or more.”
“I am also passionate that my work remains affordable. I would rather sell ten paintings to ten nice people at a good price, than one at a fortune to a celebrity. I’m not interested in the ego of art! It bores me to death.” Rozanne is best known for her vivid animals, many of them, most obviously her dramatic elephants, inspired by her African youth; for flamboyant birds; for those harbours; for flowers and for street scenes, all of which lend themselves perfectly to her glorious palette of colours and her trademark metallic embellishments. But recently she has turned her attention to a subject less renowned for its colourful
appearance – her mother’s home county of Yorkshire. She’s created a stunning image of Beverley market place especially for the Artmarket Gallery. And typically, she’s managed to inject her trademark colour into the town’s grey stone buildings: they’re streaked by the luscious hues of an East Yorkshire sunset. “I just love Yorkshire – I’m actually a little obsessed with it,” she admits. Who knows – perhaps the county, so far removed from those pulsing African colours, could become her next muse? artmarket.co.uk
“ I could no more paint a bleak, dull picture than I could fly to the moon. ”
Bustling Beverley
Rozanne is keen that each and every work she creates is unique and isn’t reproduced. “I’m ever conscious of those who like and buy my work,” she says. “I haven’t succumbed to the temptations of limited editions or mass market prints. Each picture I paint is an original, with no one painting being the same as another.”
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Il Fascino Ferrari A monument to Italy’s driving force.
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Fans of the sleek supercar are queuing up to snap up a unique book about the history of the Ferrari. The monumental limited edition is a remarkable testament to the power of this luxury marque.
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Il Fascino Ferrari | A monument to Italy’s driving force
Photography: TASCHEN | www.taschen.com
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Il Fascino Ferrari A monument to Italy’s driving force The cars themselves are works of art, so it’s little surprise that a book devoted to the ultimate driving machine is the next big news at the Artmarket Gallery.
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Following on from its huge success with David Hockney’s A Bigger Book, publishers TASCHEN have agreed that the gallery can be one of just a small handful of UK stockists of its latest luxury publication, Ferrari!
The book is devoted to photographs of the car that bears the world famous cavallino rampante (that’s ‘prancing horse’ to you and me), many of them previously unseen, from the Ferrari Archives and from private collections worldwide. Edited by journalist Pino Allievi and enclosed in an aluminum display case designed by Marc Newson – who also designed the bespoke stand for the Hockney book – this unique work features an exhaustive appendix gathering all of Ferrari’s victories since 1947.
Photo: © Francesco Reggaini, Milan | TASCHEN | www.taschen.com
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“ I don’t know what matters more, success or persistence. I have never been a designer nor a calculating individual, but an agitator of men; sometimes I went too far, but if I hadn’t, Ferrari would not be what it is… ”
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Enzo Ferrari
Photo: © Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images | TASCHEN | www.taschen.com
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Il Fascino Ferrari | A monument to Italy’s driving force
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The Art Edition (numbers 1 to 250) stands atop a sculpture evocative of the 12-cylinder engine in handbent, flared chromed steel, also by Newson. Each one is signed by Piero Ferrari, son of Ferrari founder Enzo; Sergio Marchionne, chair and CEO of the company; and John Elkann, chair and CEO of Ferrari’s holding company, Exor. The Collector’s Edition – numbers 251 to 1,947 – are all signed by Piero Ferrari. The Art Edition costs a cool £22,500, while the Collector’s Edition comes in at a more affordable £4,500 – both are available from the Artmarket Gallery. If those prices are a little daunting, consider Artmarket Zero, the gallery’s exclusive 0% finance scheme – more details on the website. And Artmarket regulars had an exclusive sneak preview of the book earlier this year after gallery director Robert Power pulled a few strings to have a prototype at the gallery’s launch event following its extension. “I talked to Marlene Taschen, the daughter of TASCHEN founder Benedict and the company’s current managing director,” he explains. “She agreed that we could have a prototype for our guests to see. It was flown from Milan to Dusseldorf, then driven from Dusseldorf to London, where the driver expected to leave it at Taschen’s amazing Sloane Square book store. “I think it came as something of a shock to him to discover that we weren’t in London and he had another 200 miles to go!” Marlene Taschen says: “We are excited to rev up our engines again together with Robert, Michelle, and their team for our new monumental limited edition, Ferrari!”
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City boy From Hull to New York – Nigel Cooke just loves cities, wherever they are in the world. The well-travelled artist uses his experiences to create atmospheric cityscapes which have earned him a reputation – in the words of his local newspaper – as ‘the most in-demand artist you’ve never heard of’.
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Nigel’s energetic and evocative portraits of the built environment are created in mixed media acrylics on board or aluminium, and finished with a drip technique similar to that used by Jackson Pollock.
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“ I can paint anything you like – figurative, marine paintings, landscapes – you name it. ” Every piece available at the Artmarket Gallery is an original – no prints. But, as Artmarket director Robert Power points out, they’re extremely affordable originals, with prices starting around the £600 mark. Born in Mirfield, near Dewsbury, Nigel’s talent became evident at an early age – he was just 14 when he sold his first painting. But, as so often happens, the practicalities of life got in the way of artistic ambition, and after leaving school he joined the Merchant Navy and travelled the world.
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“In recent years I’ve visited many of the cities I’m now known for painting – London, Paris, Amsterdam, New York – to
Humber By Night
take photographs and work out perspectives,” he says. “But I’d travelled pretty widely before that, and that’s had a real influence on my current work.” After leaving the Merchant Navy, Nigel at first earned a living using his considerable talent for caricatures – he joined holiday camp kings Butlins as a resident caricaturist in the early 90s, and reckons he’s created at least 50,000. But a trip to Florida proved lifechanging when he came across caricature booths, unknown in this country at the time. On his return to the UK, he opened caricature concessions on Blackpool’s Central Pier and
Pleasure Beach, in the Trafford Centre in Manchester and at Alton Towers, tucking well over 10,000 hours of live drawing and painting under his belt. “I developed a specific style, and then trained up other artists to use it – there might be four artists working away in a single booth at any one time,” he explains. “It was a big business. “But after 20 years, I was fed up – I really wanted to be a fine artist – so I sold the business. I’d done thousands and thousand of caricatures and got so slick and quick at it that I was also working on character design for a company in Hong Kong that made toys and novelty items. “But as soon as I started to paint as I wanted, about ten years ago, the paintings started to sell. Now I paint for myself, doing what I want to do – big, beautiful, fine art paintings. These days, Nigel works from his studio in Holmfirth and says: “I can paint anything you like – figurative, marine paintings, landscapes – you name it. But there’s such a huge demand for my cityscapes – as soon as I paint them, they sell!”
City Boy | Nigel Cooke
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James Mackenzie An artist in the kitchen
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James Mackenzie, chef/proprieter at the Michelin-starred Pipe and Glass, has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the Artmarket Gallery...
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James Mackenzie | Pipe and Glass
Good enough to eat James Mackenzie’s brilliant Michelin-starred food has been compared to art in the past – not so long ago, leading food critic Marina O’Loughlin (then of The Guardian, now with The Sunday Times) praised him for his ‘painterly dishes such as white crabmeat on a seasalt crisp with an arrangement of herbs and edible flowers atop that’s almost Mugaritz-like in its beauty’. Mugaritz is, of course, the Basque restaurant that so often features in lists of the world’s best, with chef Andoni seen as the heir apparent to Ferran Adrià’s throne, so high praise indeed. But you don’t have to travel all the way to Spain to savour James Mackenzie’s acclaimed food that please both the eye and the palate (the restaurant has held that Michelin star for nine years now, and is a past winner of the coveted title of the Good Pub Guide’s National Dining Pub of the Year) – it’s just up the road from the Artmarket Gallery, at South Dalton, just north of Beverley, less than 15 miles away. The two outfits have had a long and warm relationship, with work by Artmarket Gallery artists on display at the Pipe and Glass, and James often providing delicious food for Artmarket events. Gallery directors Robert and Michelle Power have even gone so far as commissioning two of their favourite artists to produce artworks paying tribute to the Pipe and Glass.
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Acclaimed Yorkshire artist Bob Barker unveiled his mistily romantic painting Table for Two at a special evening at the Pipe and Glass, a fund-raiser for the cancer ward at Cottingham’s Castle Hill Hospital. Depicting a couple arriving for dinner at the Pipe and Glass on a rain-washed moonlit evening, it really caught the imagination of art-loving diners – a limited edition
print of just 54, signed by both Bob and James, sold out quickly. But you can still see the original at the pub. Meanwhile, a typically quirky outing for Artmarket favourite Peter Smith saw a pair of his Impossimals – impossibly cute and chubby characters who spend their lives getting into (often food-related) scrapes – portraying James and his wife Kate in The Secret Pantry. “We love being so close to the Pipe and Glass, and seeing some of our favourite artists’ work on display there,” says Michelle. “It’s an amazing boost for the whole area to have a Michelin-starred restaurant – one of six in Yorkshire, which has more stars than any other region outside London.” “We’ve had a long and productive relationship with Robert, Michelle and everyone else at the Artmarket Gallery,” says James. “Long may it continue!”
“ It’s an amazing boost for the whole area to have a Michelin-starred restaurant ”
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Photography: Alessio Mei
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David Renshaw Home is where the heart is
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One of the Artmarket Gallery’s favourite artists, David’s warm-hearted Northern Romance series features the travels of flat-capped Ted and his woolly-hatted other half, Doris – and are a sweet homage to his beloved grandmother.
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David Renshaw | Home is where the heart is Ted and Doris travel, often in a red-and-white vintage VW camper van, sometimes with their faithful dog, to locations ranging from the familiar (they paid a recent visit to the Humber Bridge at the instigation of Artmarket Gallery director Robert Power) to the fantastical (the Northern Lights, a hot air balloon trip to a floating lighthouse). But they’re always together, wrapped up warm, hand in hand, and accompanied by the hearts that symbolise their enduring love. David started adding the couple to his paintings 10 years ago – until then, they’d been simple landscapes. “They were inspired by my grandmother, who was a prominent and influential figure in my childhood,” he says. “She adored my grandfather, who had died when they were quite young. She never remarried, and she used to tell me stories about him. “Around 2008 I was looking for a new direction in my painting, and my grandmother’s stories sparked the idea of Ted and Doris – I wanted something that people could connect to on an emotional level.
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“So now there’s always the couple, always a heart, and love is always the theme. But geographically, they can go anywhere. And they’ve evolved over the years. At first they were always quite Lowry-esque cityscapes – my parents are from Manchester and Leeds. But I was born and brought up in Southport, and I love the countryside, so now they’re often in more natural environments, reflecting my own experiences more.”
Follow Your Heart
Vee Dub Together
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David Renshaw | Home is where the heart is
Seat of Love
So where now for Ted and Doris? “So long as people still want them hanging on their walls, I’ll keep painting them!” David laughs. “I’ve started occasionally adding more family members – a couple of children, a dog – and I might add more. We’ll see.” The Artmarket Gallery offers a wide range of David’s stunning work, from both the Northern Romance and the Northern Lights series. The latter sees Ted and Doris viewing that most spectacular of natural phenomena, the shimmering Aurora Borealis, allowing David to display his talent as a colourist.
“ My grandmother’s stories sparked the idea of Ted and Doris – I wanted something that people could connect to on an emotional level. ”
Within the two sets you can find seasonal scenes, landscapes, seascapes, cars and even skiing. The variety of themes, plus the cooler tones of the Northern Lights pictures providing a perfect counterpoint to the warm hues of the Northern Romance paintings, means there’s a Ted and Doris image perfect for every home.
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And if you really want to push the camper van out, you might like to know that David is open to commissions – but, warns Robert Power, allow time if you want one – David is hugely popular! For more information on David’s work contact: gallery@artmarket.co.uk 01482 876 003
You Light up My Heart
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Creating the perfect commission It used to be a rare luxury available only to the very privileged few – commissioning your favoured artist to create a work of art just for you. Since ancient times, private individuals, commercial companies and public organisations have bolstered artists’ bank accounts with commissions, in the process creating some of the world’s greatest works of art. It may surprise you, for instance, to know that Leonard da Vinci’s famous mural The Last Supper was a commission, for the monastery church of Santa Maria della Grazia in Milan, as was Michelangelo’s depiction of biblical scenes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, an epic artwork commissioned by Pope Julius II.
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Now, we’re not suggesting for one minute that you might be the proud owner of an historic building of global importance and in need of an enormous wall or ceiling painting. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t afford to commission your own work of art, something that’s deeply meaningful to you and your family, and which can be shared with future generations.
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Many of our commissions arise because visitors to the gallery can’t find exactly the image they’re looking for. But many of our artists are willing to work to commission – and at a price you can afford. Come and visit us, have a coffee, relax, and browse – decide whose work you really like. Then talk to us.
You need to think carefully from the start about the elements you want including in a work of art that’s going to be very personal to you and you’re going to live with for a long time. If you suddenly decide halfway through the process that you want a bagpipe player adding to your picture, you could end up with something that really doesn’t work!
A recent Artmarket Gallery commission was by Rozanne Bell, featured on pages 6 to 9 of this magazine. One of our regular customers owns several pieces of Rozanne’s work, but wanted something very personal: a painting of Edinburgh, where she and her husband were married, but including a number of rather quirky details, including a London bus, a bagpipe player and a portrait of her husband in his work gear – he’s a bomb disposal expert!
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3 Style Make sure you choose an artist whose style works for the kind of picture you’re after. As a general rule don’t select a painter famous for his or her landscapes to create an intimate portrait of a roaring tiger.
4 Agree Commissions can take time, especially for the in-demand artists of the Artmarket Gallery. Although probably not as long as you think: we’re usually talking weeks or months rather than years. But if you’re thinking of commissioning a work of art as a wedding present needed in three months’ time, make sure we can commit to that deadline. And talk to us about your budget, too – remember that if you suddenly start moving the goalposts, that limit might shift, too.
michelle@artmarket.co.uk 01482 876 003
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It’s an easier and more affordable option than many realise. Just follow our gallery director Michelle Power’s tips above, and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any further questions:
Cartoon Dogs
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Agnetha Sjögren artmarket.co.uk
Agnetha Sjögren’s perfect dog is a bit of a mongrel: part Labrador, part Dalmatian, and with a soupçon of imaginary hound thrown in for good measure – think Scooby-Doo, Snoopy, and Tintin’s faithful companion, Snowy.
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Her joyful sculptures can be seen in gallieries worldwide – in recent months she’s signed up with galleries in Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco and, of course, with the Artmarket Gallery in the UK. Each friendly figure – some alert with arrow-straight tails, others wagging crazy corkscrews – has its own individual personality. They come sporting metallics, glittered flags, leather, découpaged first edition comic
“My dogs don’t eat bark, jump, bite, drool or need to go out for a poop. They sit or stand ‘nicely’ all day long, you can come and go as you please without having to worry about them... now that’s a ‘nice’ dog!” Just like the real thing, though, each finished dog is very much an individual, with a personalised name tag (sterling silver, of course, and bearing both the name of the dog and the artist’s signature) on its collar, and a mini passport so that its new owner knows its back story. But each starts the same way, with a handmade sculpture of wire and plaster from which a mould is taken. The dog is then cast in bronze, or, for the cartoon-covered canines, in solid Jesmonite, a lightweight but extremely strong and durable composite of mineral and acrylic resin which allows great flexibility of artistic vision, before being carefully sanded smooth, prior to decoration.
They’re all limited edition, with small edition numbers – usually a maximum of 50. Currently, they’re all roughly lifesized, but Agnetha has started working on a range of ‘mini-mini’ dogs, each around 25cm high, and a bigger, outdoor, version, which will stand 1.5m to 2m high and is a response to people asking for a piece for their garden. As well as the sculptures, Artmarket customers will be able to choose from a selection of limited edition screenprints.
For more on Agnetha and her family of dogs visit: www.artmarket.com
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Doggybag
“People ask me all the time if I’m going to do other animals, but I don’t need to – the dogs are just a way to allow me to tell my stories.”
Prada Love
“I have almost forgotten that they’re dogs, though,” laughs the London-based Swedish artist. “To me, they’re 3D objects which I use as a canvas, just as other artists put paint onto a canvas.
And they’re easy to look after, too. “They started because I got tired of people telling me that their dog was nice!” says Agnetha. “I’m afraid of dogs and I wanted to show people what a ‘nice’ dog is.
And it seems her unique mix of real and fictional canine traits doesn’t appeal just to her – her dog sculptures are in huge demand, with besotted owners including Jude Law and Angelina Jolie.
They’ve been featured in a huge variety of publications, from the fashionista’s favourite Vogue to high-end art publication Aesthetica.
Tintin
Marsipan
strips, vintage fabrics and lace – there’s even an hybrid beast, a scarlet-painted dog based on the famous Swedish Dala horse. You could say there’s an Agnetha Sjögren dog for every occasion and every home.
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Dreamlike images and luscious colours Q&A with Katy Jade Dobson A recent addition to the Artmarket Gallery’s growing family of artists, Katy Jade Dobson’s dreamlike images and luscious colours have already attracted quite a following. She’s recently added to her own family, but still found time to talk to Article… Katy Jade, thanks so much for agreeing to spend some precious time answering a few questions for the Artmarket Gallery – it must be hard to find time for work with a new baby!
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You were born in Yorkshire and still live in the (sort of!) north – has that had any impact on your work? I was born in Yorkshire and now live in the Midlands. Growing up in Yorkshire meant getting to see great wildlife in the surrounding areas – this could potentially have impacted my work, as I have grown up as a dedicated animal lover!
You’re a new mum – do you think that will change the way you work, and the work you produce? As a new mum I can already see the way my work has evolved during the process of creating it. I have to think more tactically about how I use my (very little!) time, and really make my painting time count! I haven’t seen the effects translate into the paintings yet, but I’m sure something will alter along the way. I’ve gained such a huge appreciation for what the female body is capable of, and could potentially have some ideas for the occasional figurative piece from this new-found appreciation.
You often reference French symbolist Odilon Redon as an inspiration – where/how did you first encounter his work? Odilon Redon has been my biggest influence. I first learnt about his work at college when I was 16 where, as part of a project, I had to mimic his colours with oil pastels. I couldn’t do it at the time and found it incredibly frustrating that I couldn’t create such a beautiful thing. I went on to teach myself how to use oil paints when I was 22, and since then have honed my own way of creating these ethereal scenes and introduced into them the subjects I love and the ideas I couldn’t wait to paint. I just adore his soft tones and the beautiful textures. I appreciate that, while he made his work look so
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dreamy and effortless, it would have taken a lot of logic to bring to life. Your collections have very specific themes – Phosphenes, 21 Grams. Where do you find your inspiration? My themes can be rather specific: but I don’t find inspiration – inspiration finds me! There is little rhyme or reason in how I happen upon a collection idea. Phosphenes began as the paintings themselves, before the name and idea really brought it all to life. The concept of 21 Grams began with the title, which I found so intriguing, and continued to develop based on the theory. I have so many times had ideas that I have to act on immediately, as if it would be a disgrace not to!
Others sometimes simmer in the background until I can’t wait to start them! And finally, how do you feel about seeing your work in the Artmarket Gallery? I’m so incredibly proud to see my work at the Artmarket Gallery. I have worked hard over many years on my paintings and to have them represented by such a wonderful gallery makes me so happy! Thank you for the opportunity to be featured and for such great questions!
For more information on Katy’s work contact the Artmarket team gallery@artmarket.co.uk 01482 876 003
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I also have a yearning desire to paint mothers and baby animals. I have previously worked on some of these, but the bond now is much more palpable to me.
Katy Jade Dobson | Q&A
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Hanging about
Where will it be? Think carefully about your location. Are you hanging in your hallway, living room – or even your kitchen or bathroom? How often will you see the piece? How often do you want to see it? And consider safety – of your artwork and, even more importantly, your own. Tempting as it may be, it’s probably best not to hang over a fireplace, where the work might ultimately be damaged by the direct heat. And be careful to check where electrical wires or water pipes are – you don’t want to go banging a nail into either of those!
Consider the scale A tiny, intimate piece will be lost if you hang it over a huge, plump sofa – unless you cluster it with other, similar-sized pieces (plan these carefully, though!). Similarly, a huge, dramatic painting could be overbearing in a small room full of delicate furniture.
Consider the style If your living room is ultra-modern and sleek, a traditional oil will stand out like a sore thumb – and vice versa!
Use your toolbox A tape measure and/or a spirit level can both be really useful if you don’t have a perfect eye – and who does?
Think about the practicalities If you hang a work from a single picture hook, it will lean forward slightly, and may move in the slightest breeze. Hanging from a pair of hooks, towards each side of the picture, will prevent this.
How high? There’s a general tendency to hang art high on a wall, so that you’re looking up at it even when standing. No one wants a cricked neck – hang your art so the centre is roughly at eye level.
Leading art auctioneers Christie’s recommend hanging modern/contemporary art at 1.55m (the middle of the picture), with traditional work a little higher. And – a particular bugbear of mine – don’t line the tops of the pieces up with the head of your doorframe. The eye seeks variety when it looks at a room.
Think about your other art Do your pieces work together – either contrasting pleasingly, or complementing each other? And make sure you consider the ‘negative’ space – the wall that shows in between pieces can enhance or detract from their visual impact.
And finally… If you want to, disregard all of the above! Beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder, so if you really want to hang a Gainsborough alongside a Damien Hirst, 12 feet up, who am I to tell you otherwise?
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Expert tips from Artmarket Gallery director Michelle Power on making the most of your precious art collection.
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V&A | Kengo Kuma
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V&A Dundee, designed by Kengo Kuma Sometimes a gallery is a work of art in itself. That’s certainly the case with the new V&A Dundee, which opened in September 2018. The new international design centre for Scotland, on Dundee’s historic waterfront, is the first ever design museum to be built in the UK outside London. The angular ribbed building, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, resembles the prow of an ocean liner reflected in the water and was partly inspired by the rugged cliff faces of Scotland. Kengo Kuma, who is also designing the National Stadium for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, explains that he wants the building to feel welcoming to potential visitors. “It’s very different from a concrete box, very different from a 20th-century museum,” he says. “The inclination of the facade gives a very different type of experience. If it is too vertical, the vertical void rejects the people – the building should invite people to the waterfront. “I love the Scottish landscape and this very beautiful country, and I am proud to be working on this project which will attract people to Dundee from all over the world.” To find out what’s going on at the V&A Dundee, or more about architect Kengo Kuma, visit: www.vam.ac.uk/dundee http://kkaa.co.jp
www.alessiomei.com
alessiomeiphotography
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Photography: Alessio Mei |
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The Bo-Men of Belgium march on the UK
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‌with a little help from Robert and Michelle!
Daisy Boman | The Bo-Men of Belgium march on the UK
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42 “I think the Bo-men, large or small, Among the many striking for Daisy’s many UK fans and speak for themselves, and are artworks on show at the collectors. very easy to understand,” says Artmarket Gallery, the The couple have the trip down to Daisy remarkable Bo-Men – a fine art, often doing the whole small ceramic figures thing in fewer than 36 hours. “They are about humanity, whose never-ending survival, and the joy of life. They “Daisy is special to us,” says activity symbolises are on different levels, as we all Robert. “You can’t buy the humanity, survival and have a little bit of a struggle to Bo-men anywhere else in this the joy of life – always get to the next level of our lives, country, and we love our regular and sometimes get on top of each attract attention from trips to Geel. And the Bo-men are other a little.” curious visitors. always good company in the car
The square-headed little people, symbolising humanity’s essential oneness with each other and ever-hopeful determination to overcome life’s struggles, are the creation of Belgian artist Daisy Boman, and can be found worldwide – although in this country, the Artmarket Gallery is the sole stockist.
The sculptures are pretty sturdy but are, nonetheless, ceramic – so Artmarket Gallery directors Robert and Michelle Power like to give them the VIP treatment. Three or four times a year, the couple hop on the ferry in Hull and head to the city of Geel, in the province of Antwerp, where Daisy works from her beautiful studio.
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They’re there to collect the latest consignment of Bo-art (yes, we’ve just made that word up!) to bring back to Cottingham
on the way back!” Not all of the Bo-men are small – but even with its recent extension, the Artmarket would struggle to house work on the scale of what’s probably Daisy’s best-known work, the monumental and groundbreaking public sculpture known as The Antwerp Whisperer. These five larger-than-life figures near Antwerp’s Museum aan de Stroom, in the Eilandje district, combine traditional sculpture with very new technology: those wishing to interact with them can download an app, record a message, and then give the visitor to the city a code which enables them to hear their private message delivered by the highest figure, the Whisperer himself, to the figure down on the dock.
“ Life throws things at us which makes our heads square! ”
And those square heads? “I think we are all born with round heads,” she laughs. “And then life throws things at us which makes our heads square!” The Bo-men were originally inspired by a serious and very personal crusade: Daisy’s wish to remind people that we are all equal. She lived in South Africa in the early 1980s when her architect husband’s work took the family there, and was appalled by the violent discrimination and inequality of the racial segregation of the Apartheid regime at the time. Already a trained artist – she’d studied art at the Sissa school in Antwerp and the Academy of Fine Arts in Mol – she undertook a ceramic art course in Johannesburg, and exhibited widely in South Africa. On the family’s return to Belgium in 1987 she created the ‘Bomannetje’ (‘mannetje’ being Belgian Dutch for ‘little man’), later shortened to Bo-men. The egalitarian figures soon caught the attention of the wider art world – Daisy exhibited at London’s Halcyon and New Bond Street galleries, and respected British art critic Estelle Lovatt praised their ‘primitive and rough’ forms, saying they were ‘raw in their natural state. Stripped back, so as to illustrate man’s equality and stability, each fits into a shared cast with shared objectives’.
Daisy Boman | The Bo-Men of Belgium march on the UK
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THE
Frogman COMETH…
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Internationally renowned ‘Frogman’, Tim Cotterill, the best-selling bronze artist in the world.
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Frogman | Tim Cotterill
Visitors to the Artmarket Gallery might be slightly startled to encounter a giant tree frog climbing up the side of the building. The colourful creature is an invitation to come on inside and enjoy the work of one of the gallery’s latest artist – internationally renowned ‘Frogman’, Tim Cotterill, the bestselling bronze artist in the world. Tim’s work – exquisitely sculpted bronzes depicting animals and birds, the most popular of which are his brilliantly jewel-coloured frogs – inspire passion from collectors around the world.
At an introductory event when Tim first joined the Artmarket stable earlier this year, one client invested £10,000 on a large bronze frog – for her garden! Gallery director Robert Power says: “Tim and his work are in huge demand worldwide, so it’s taken nearly three years of negotiations to welcome him to our family of artists – but it’s been worth every minute. “His glorious, tactile bronzes are a stunning addition to the gallery.”
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The artist himself has a personality as vibrant and flamboyant as any of his creations, and an energy that belies his 68 years – Google his appearance on Emmy Award-winning show Jay Leno’s Garage, where he showed off another of his passions, the extraordinarily futuristic Rocket II Trike which he designed and hand-built, and you‘ll see what we mean!
He started his career in the UK with six years of training as an electrical engineering, before deciding it wasn’t for him. “But nothing in life is ever wasted,” he says now. “I’m still using some of the skills I learned then.” It’s hard to imagine how when you look at his sculptures. They’re as far removed from the brass tacks of engineering – and from construction, landscaping and stonemasonry, his subsequent, and typically varied, careers – as it’s possible to be.
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“ My pieces are real quality, something that can be handed down through generations ”
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Frogman | Tim Cotterill
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“ My frogs have big eyes, and feminine curves – they’re actually rather sexy, if you can say that about a frog ”
He uses the classic ‘lost wax’ technique to model his bronzes – a silicon mould is filled with wax to create a maquette which is then coated in a ceramic material to produce a second, heavy-duty, mould capable of holding the molten bronze. But that first silicon mould is made from his original ‘master’ which is built from metal and – believe it or not – car body filler. “I learned how to acetylene gas weld at the age of 20,” he says. “Believe me, I can make a gas torch talk! “I start out by making a metal armature, welding rods together and using ball bearings to make the frog’s little toes. “Then I add car body filler. We call it Bondo over here in the States; in the UK, it’s known as P38. It’s very strong – I can work on it with steel files, taking it off, putting it on, until I get the result I want.
“I then add two or three coats of primer, and rub that down until I have a perfect finish – the silicon mould will pick up even the tiniest imperfection, so it has to be absolutely right. “Most bronzes are big, chunky lumps of metal: maybe a torso, or a head. Mine are airy – I even sculpt orchids in bronze – because of the materials I use. “They’re genuine hot-cast bronze, not cold-cast, which is essentially resin with bronze powder. So you’re buying a piece of real quality, something that can be handed down through generations. “And they’re very addictive. My frogs have big eyes, and feminine curves – they’re actually rather sexy, if you can say that about a frog!” Tim lives and works happily alone in his compound – a ‘funky barn cabin’ is how he describes it – in LA’s artistic enclave, bohemian Venice Beach. And Robert and Michelle are keeping their fingers crossed for a gallery trip to visit Tim in his studio at Venice Beach! For more information on Tim’s work contact: gallery@artmarket.co.uk 01482 876 003
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But the resourceful artist, who’s never had any formal art training, has woven his many skills together to create a unique technique that results in pieces which, while heavy in the hand, are visually ethereal.
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Craig Davison #TheWonderOfChildhood
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It’s a dream come true for any Star Wars fan – a big thumbs up from the man himself, Mark Hamill, aka Luke Skywalker.
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Love Craig Davison | Mark Hamill
“I LOVE Craig Davison,” he said recently on Twitter. “In my 5-year-old mind’s eye that dishtowel around my neck made me look exactly like Superman!” And the star, who at time of writing has over 2.8 million followers on Twitter, added the perceptive hashtag #TheWonderOfChildhood. The man he was admiring, Craig Davison is an artist at his peak, doing what he does best and loves most – portraits of children at play, inspired by his own childhood in Sheffield in the 1960s, a simpler time before video games and social media gained their stranglehold on youth.
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Craig has recently left his long-standing publisher who also owned a national gallery chain. Affiliating himself to Wishbone Publishing a company that prefers to work with independent galleries like Artmarket, this provides Davison more artistic freedom to create images that please both him and his fans. His nostalgic paintings, which are hugely popular with collectors, capture the innocence and freedom of that time before the responsibilities of adulthood kick in, portraying children and teenagers paying
tribute to their many diverse heroes, whether they be Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, David Bowie, Scooby-Doo or Mary Poppins. And the Artmarket Gallery is the proud home to not just a wide selection of Craig’s prints, but original paintings, the original studies for some of his best-known pictures, and resin sculptures based on his characters.
“ In my 5-year-old mind’s eye that dishtowel around my neck made me look exactly like Superman! Mark Hamill
Craig says: “I would describe the work that I do as lots of influences all mashed together, and one major part of that is nostalgia – I want people to connect emotionally and remember their own childhoods. I like to think my work’s got an honesty, there’s no pretension to it – it is what it is. “Art is anything that you can see emotion in. I have to feel an emotional connection to art – that’s the key, whether it’s a sculpture, an installation, or whatever.” He uses the unusual technique of ‘underpainting’ with acrylics, then finishing with oils. The acrylics allow him to ‘block’ the image quickly, but don’t give the accuracy of colour he demands: “With acrylics, you can mix the paint and it looks great – and then it dries differently. With oils, you mix it and that’s exactly how it’s going to stay.” Bad To The Bone
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Born in Sheffield in 1965, Craig was a cartoonist in the 1980s, working on pre-school comics, and drawing characters including The Shoe People, The Wombles, Huxley Pig and Bangers and Mash. He then worked at a computer games company as an animator and designer, working on many games including including Zorro, The Hulk and The Hurricanes, as well as the game concept and characters for Johnny Bazookatone. He also began sculpting reference figures for 3D animation, which led to his becoming a freelance sculptor of animals and action figures for ranges such as Me To You, Enchantica, Harry Potter and Doctor Who.
Kkhoooow - Kkhooow
For a brief period, he was even a painter and decorator – a job which, he says, he hated. In 2007 he entered an art competition and finished in the final three, which launched his career as an artist. “Children play such a big part in my paintings,” he says. “The first one I did was inspired by my own childhood memories of me pretending I was a native American. At primary school, I was convinced I was a Cherokee. Turns out I’m not! “It’s important for us to reconnect to happier times. Adults deal with a lot of stresses, and if they can look at a picture and remember those days when they had few stresses, that’s what I want them to be left with.” And he considers himself to be fortunate to be able to make a living from the thing he loves doing the most.
“ I LOVE CRAIG DAVISON Mark Hamill
For adivce on finding your perfect Craig Davison artwork contact the Artmarket Gallery: gallery@artmarket.co.uk 01482 876 003
“For me, art is not a case of ‘that’s how I earn my money’: it’s what I need to do.”
In The Pink
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The former comic book illustrator started painting in 2007, and soon gained acclaim for a series of images featuring Batman – the pictures showed children playing as he did as a child ‘shadowed’ by the superhero. The popularity of the images led him to paint similar images depicting children with their favourite footballers, Star Wars characters, pop stars and other heroes.
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Frequently Asked Questions Artmarket Gallery director Michelle Power answers some of the questions she’s asked most often…
What is a limited edition print? A limited edition print is a reproduction of an original artwork. It can be reproduced using various processes, such as giclée prints. If it is a closed edition, there will only ever be that number of prints made, if the edition is open then subsequent releases may follow. All our limited editions are signed and numbered by the artist.
What is a giclée print? The word giclée (it’s pronounced ghee-clay) derives from the French word gicler, which means to spurt or spray. It’s a print made using inks on paper, canvas, glass, aluminium or other materials.
Should I buy a limited edition print, or an original? That really depends on your budget, and reason for buying. If you’re looking for an investment piece, you’re probably best to go for an original. But it’s also worth remembering that prints can increase in value – and originals don’t always!
I’d love to buy an original, but can’t really afford it at the moment – can you help? We certainly can! Why not take a look at Artmarket Zero? It’s a 0% finance scheme that allows you to pay on a monthly basis (over six, nine, 12 or 18 months) at no extra cost. You can even pay off early if you wish.
Is art a good investment? It certainly can be – take a look at our article on David Hockney on pages 2 to 5 of this magazine to see how his work has increased in value. Talk to us – we’ll be happy to give impartial advice. One thing we often point out though is that, if you spend £1,000 on, say, a new TV, it’s probably going to be worth nothing a year or two later. Spend the same amount on art, and chances are it’ll retain at least some of its value, and may well have increased in value. But as any bank or financial adviser will tell you about investing your money: please remember that the value of an investment can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invested.
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Why is it best to buy from an independent gallery like the Artmarket Gallery? An independent gallery like Artmarket can offer a wider and more interesting range of art, as we can source from wherever we please, rather than having to sell what we’re given by head office, as national chains do. We can allow our stable of artists total artistic freedom, so you can be confident you’re getting the best from them. And, of course, we can give you completely impartial advice.
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The news in brief Launch pad If you haven’t visited the Artmarket Gallery for a while, you might be in for a surprise. The gallery has almost doubled in size after extensive extension work which saw airy new display spaces added, plus an innovative
new magnetic hanging system which means we can change our exhibitions much more quickly and easily. Many of our friends and regular customers joined us to celebrate at a special launch evening in
the spring, at which we were privileged to unveil Ferrari!, the latest luxury edition from art publishers TASCHEN – you can find out more about that on pages 10–15 of this magazine.
Michael Claxton Sergio Marchionne
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It was with great sadness that we heard of the death of Sergio Marchionne in July, at the age of just 66.
Paper Pools
pieces,” says Robert.
Artmarket Gallery director Robert Power was recently delighted to find a rare limited edition print by David Hockney for a client in Florida – at $25,000, Pool Made with Paper and Blue Ink for Book (MCA Tokyo 234) had doubled in value over the last five years.
And with a Hockney original, Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica, recently going under the hammer at Sotheby’s New York for $28,453,000, doubling the artist’s auction record in under two years, it looks like there’s never been a better time to invest in his work. You can find a selection of his signed Hockney art on the Artmarket Gallery website.
“If you can’t find just what you want on our walls, we have an extensive network of contacts who can help us to source rare and important
Sergio was part of the team that oversaw the new TASCHEN book Ferrari!, which you can read about on pages 10 to 15. in this magazine and as such one of the exclusive group of three people who signed the Art Edition. He owned six Ferraris, and was the former chief executive officer of Fiat Chrysler; he is widely credited as being responsible for that company’s dramatic turnaround. “Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone,” said Fiat chair John Elkann. “My family and I will be forever grateful for what he has done.” Photography: © Archivio Perini
Meet the latest member of the Artmarket clan – Sheffieldbased artist Michael Claxton. Michael’s glorious landscapes in oils and acrylic are inspired by the nearby Peak District, where he often walks, and by his travels around the coastline of the UK. The simplicity of nature is also a constant source of inspiration for Michael; he likes to capture the shifting light, and the way it interacts with the landscape and nature. Michael likes to work from memory, giving him great freedom of expression. His bold open brush strokes sit alongside palette knife marks to achieve richly textured paintings alive with energy and emotion. Michael says he enjoys portraying ‘tumbling clouds, crumbling rocks on rolling hills, a crashing wave and the tranquillity of open spaces’.
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North/South divide
We’ve already talked about it elsewhere in this magazine, but we just had to show you the actual Tweet from Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hammill. The Star Wars actor not only expressed his admiration for Artmarket favourite Craig Davison in words, he also Tweeted four images: three of Craig’s paintings paying tribute to the great movie franchise, and a fourth of the artist himself. We’re sure you’d love to tell the actor how much you agree with him, but probably best not to – in another more recent Tweet, he told his 2.9 million followers: “To remain on Twitter I can’t respond to DMs anymore. No way to keep up w/ the daily barrage of requests for Donations-Phone Calls-Signatures-SkypesBirthday Greetings, etc. Hope you understand. Love you all but can’t keep up w/ all the demands!.”
Fine art, fine food A special Artmarket evening with David Renshaw at the Pipe and Glass on Wednesday 21st November will see the unveiling of three original artworks alongside 25 boutique hand-embellished limited edition prints of each. The event, hosted by Robert Power, will include drinks and canapés on arrival followed by a three-course meal.
This despite the Ferens’ visitor numbers for the first five months of this year increasing by a staggering 91% increase compared to the same period in the year prior to Hull UK City of Culture 2017. Northern Powerhouse, anyone?
Great Scott – it’s Banksy
Photography: © Guy Raimes
All hail to Hull window cleaner and art hero Jason Fanthorpe, who recently took ladders, white spirit and water to the rescue when a brand new work by acclaimed street artist Banksy was whitewashed in the city.
Pining for the fjords Another piece of legendary Hull street art has recently been saved for posterity. Dead Bod – a naïve image of an expired avian on its back – had become a muchloved local landmark after it was painted on the side of a corrugated iron shed at the city’s Alexandra Dock in the 1960s by Len ‘Pongo’ Rood. But it was recently announced that the shed was to be demolished as part of a redevelopment. Dead Bod’s many fans mobilised, an online campaign ensued, and the piece found a new home in the Humber Street Gallery.
Jason was getting ready for bed when he heard that the mural – entitled Draw the Raised Bridge and depicting a colanderhelmeted child brandishing a wooden sword with a pencil tied to the end of it – had been censored by a person or persons unknown.
“I was angry, outraged,” he told national newspaper The Telegraph. “Love it or hate it, there’s no need to deface it. That art was gifted to the city, it was drawing crowds in from all over.”
After his valiant work, Hull City Council added a transparent screen to the Scott Street Bridge masterpiece as temporary protection. At time of writing, the authority has just announced that it will put into storage until it can be relocated adjacent to the original site, as the Grade II listed bridge is a danger to shipping and will be removed. And Artmarket directors Robert and Michelle Power’s daughter Georgina was on hand to capture the whole thing.
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May the force…
Commiserations to Hull’s Ferens Art Gallery, which was recently shortlisted for the Art Fund’s Museum of the Year Award 2018, falling at the final hurdle when the title went to Tate St Ives.