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You are here: Home / Archives for artists

Trixie Pickle Art Avenger by Olaf Falafel

July 7, 2022 By achuka Leave a Comment

ACHUKA Book of the Day 8 Jul 2022

Waterstones
Amazon
Bookshop

Trixie loves art and hates bullies – and so decides to become an Art Avenger, righting wrongs at her school through art. She uses Picasso, Pollock and Ofili to teach bullies a lesson, get out of lessons and help those in need, like an arty Robin Hood.

Highly illustrated throughout by Olaf Falafel, winner of the Funniest Joke at the Edinburgh Fringe. Full of fact files of hilarious and irreverent details about real artists.

Blob Fish was an ACHUKA Book of the Day on 10 Jun 2022.

Filed Under: BookOfTheDay, Humour Tagged With: art, artists

Picture Book Den: Picture Book People – 1: Laurence Anholt

July 26, 2015 By achuka Leave a Comment

Excellent, autobiographical blog post by Laurence Anholt:

PictureBookDen

One way or another, we were unbelievably fortunate to be working in the late ’80’s and early ’90’s. That was a Golden Time in children’s publishing, when the UK led the world with an astonishing range of imaginative picture books. It was possible to make a really good living by sitting in your studio, listening to Van Morrison and dreaming up weird and wonderful ideas for children’s stories. It felt like it would go on forever and barely a day went by without another Foreign Rights deal or an exciting offer from a publisher. Alongside my artist series I wrote the Seriously Silly Stories (illustrated by my good friend, Arthur Robins), Chimp and Zee and eventually more than 200 children’s titles, many illustrated by Cathy.

http://picturebookden.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/picture-book-people-1-laurence-anholt.html

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: art, artists, autobiography, golden age, illustrators, picture books

That speech I gave in full… – Patrick Ness – Diary

February 12, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

In the wake of the discussion provoked by his and other authors’ speeches at the launch of the Imagine Festival, Patrick Ness has decided to publish the full text of his speech on his website. I quote only from his intro, leaving you to click through to transcript itself:

I wasn’t going to publish this anywhere, because a speech is a speech, not an essay. You publish it and it loses all intonation, tone, improvisation, jokes, etc.  But as the discussion about the speech I gave Monday to open the Imagine Festival keeps coming up (along with certain folks reactions to it), I give it to you here without comment (except to say that Putin line is, let’s call it, “satire”).

 

http://www.patrickness.com/2014/02/that-speech-i-gave-in-full.html

Filed Under: Blog, Books Tagged With: artists, libraries, literacy, Patrick Ness, reading, speech, wirters, young adults

Nick Paumgarten: Why Are So Many People Paying So Much for Art? : The New Yorker

November 26, 2013 By achuka Leave a Comment

This lengthy (11 webpages long) but excellent New Yorker profile of the art dealer David Zwirmer is a little tangential to the things I usually include in this blog – books, photography, education – but I include it in the hope that it will fascinate others as much as it fascinates me.
I was struck, on a recent visit to the LUMAS gallery in London, to see an infographic in their magazine claiming an average 312% increase in value at auction of art sold through their gallery, with a top-rate increase of 884% and the smallest increase of 59%.
As anyone who is struggling to find a return on orthodox financial savings that can even equate to the current low rate of inflation will know, these figures are extremely alluring. But, as this New Yorker article highlights, you have to be able to afford the art in the first place.
Of course, as this page on the LUMAS website detailing these auction results makes clear, the gains are over a period of time, and the claims reflect the current market. There is no guarantee that if you purchased artwork now you would be able to realise the same sorts of gain in 5 to 10 years’ time.
There is another reason for drawing attention to this piece by Nick Paumgarten. It’s an excellent example of the kind of extended essay-journalism that we see too little of these days.

The accumulation of greater wealth in the hands of a smaller percentage of the world’s population has created immense fortunes with a limitless capacity to pursue a limited supply of art work. The globalization of the art market—the interest in contemporary art among newly wealthy Asians, Latin Americans, Arabs, and Russians—has furnished it with scores of new buyers, and perhaps fresh supplies of greater fools. Once you have hundreds of millions of dollars, it’s hard to know where to put it all. Art is transportable, unregulated, glamorous, arcane, beautiful, difficult. It is easier to store than oil, more esoteric than diamonds, more durable than political influence. Its elusive valuation makes it conducive to extremely creative tax accounting.

via Nick Paumgarten: Why Are So Many People Paying So Much for Art? : The New Yorker.

Filed Under: Blog, Photography/Art Tagged With: art, artists, David Zwirner, dealer, galleries, investment, wealth

New Coloring Book For Contemporary Art Lovers

September 23, 2013 By achuka Leave a Comment

A new coloring book has just been released called Outside the Lines that both kids and adults will enjoy. Over 100 of today’s creatives including graphic artists, cartoonists, and street artists have come together to create some fun illustrations you can actually color!

via New Coloring Book For Contemporary Art Lovers – My Modern Metropolis.

Filed Under: Blog, Photography/Art Tagged With: art, artists, coloring, creatives, designers

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