A company at the epicentre of a secret and private world. Sold! Inside the World’s Biggest Auction House II
Special Sale: Defining British Art: ‘No more than thirty lots … A very British sale. So the ask was a big one.’ ibid. Jussi
James Christie used to throw private parties that were THE place to be in London 250 years ago. It was a way of softening up potential clients. ibid.
Asian art is selling well. ibid.
The Rab C Nesbitt school – the De-pressionists. Rab C Nesbitt s3e3: Gifted, Burney, BBC 1993
January 28th 2008: the head of one of Britain’s most illusive crime families arrives to be sentenced. Together, Olive, Shaun and George Greenhalgh have become the most successful forgers in history. Their fakes ranged across all types of art. The Artful Codgers, Channel 4 2008
Most of their fakes were made in their garden shed. ibid.
The Artful Codgers – the most unlikely master-criminals the world has ever seen. ibid.
Police suspect they sold over 140 forgeries. ibid.
The Greenhalghs moved on from faked paintings to bogus antiquities … all made by their son Shaun … Shaun taught himself how to fool the experts by visiting his local libraries. ibid.
It’s a hundred years since the word surreal was first used. And now you hear it everywhere. How to be a Surrealist with Philippa Perry, BBC 2017
Their interest in the unconscious mind sparked an explosion of revolutionary ideas that transformed art and cinema and the world around us. ibid.
Surrealists were more about opening things out and playing with what you opened out. ibid.
One of the artists most dedicated to the surrealist life was Max Ernst. ibid.
Magritte: ‘Surrealism is neither a literary school not a school of art. Surrealists use literary and artistic means with a view to expressing what the mind can say and which is not already known.’ ibid.
I’m really don’t care. I don’t listen to you. Cutie and the Boxer, him to her on 80th birthday eating cake, 2013
Maybe I can sell. I have to sell. ibid.
I’m not his assistant. ibid. her
From the airport she arrived to the Times Square. One day Cutie visited Bullie’s Soho studio by chance. She had never seen art like this in all her life. Cutie was only 19 and Bullie was 41. ibid. her story
Shinohara has been making sculpture since the beginning of his career. ibid. Ethan Cohen art critic
As a young man in Tokyo he emerged as a leader in Japan’s avant-garde art movement with his imitation of American pop-art and action painting. ibid. art report
Ushio and I had many fights caused by his drinking. ibid. her
Day by day poverty and misery struck Cutie. ibid.
Here, you see a fusion of Japanese Oiran style and strawberry ice cream. ibid. him
We are the ones suffering the most for art. ibid.
I started thinking by myself. ibid. her
On April 8th 2000 Mark Hogancamp was in a bar – he left the bar about closing time and a group of five individuals had been in the bar harassing him, then they went outside followed him and beat him senseless. Marwencol, 2010
He was in a coma for nine days. ibid.
I wanted to find out who I was. ibid.
I know what it’s like to build things in miniature; I want to have a society outside of society, a smaller society. ibid.
The arts have long provided a refuge for gay people in Britain. A place they could express themselves. Queer as Art, BBC 2017
‘If there’s one thing worse than homosexual art it’s heterosexual art.’ ibid. David Hockney
‘It consists of one hundred and twenty bricks stacked in two layers.’ Bricks! BBC 2017
‘It was talked about all over the nation and it went on for months.’ ibid.
February 1976: ‘They’re probably the most expensive bricks in the world.’ ibid. news
‘My art poses questions.’ ibid. Carl Andre
The bricks arrived on 22nd May 1972. ibid.
‘This figure in tweed smoking a cigar.’ Gluck: Who Did She Think He Was? Sky Arts 2017
‘She was a society painter.’ ibid.
Gluck: Medallion (YouWe) 1936; Portrait of Miss E M Craig 1920; Sketching on the Moors 1919; Self-Portrait 1913; Bettina 1917; Girl With Orange Scarf. ibid.
Modern Britain was forged in the Industrial Revolution … So why is it that when asked to paint a picture of Britain we seem to see ourselves in a very different light? Awesome Beauty: The Art of Industrial Landscapes, BBC 2017
It seems the good life is never smeared in diesel … We are addicted to this pastoral idyll. ibid.
John Martin: The Great Day of His Wrath 1851-3. ibid.
Welcome to Dudley: this is 19th century painted by Constable’s greatest rival and Britain’s other favourite landscape painter J M W Turner. ibid.
The Vorticists: these young punks celebrated the promise of the machine age. ibid.
Graham Sutherland chose to give industry a human face. ibid.
Britain’s major galleries house some of the finest collections of art to be found anywhere in the world. But there are thousands of other artworks we know little about in the collections of smaller institutions. Over 80% of this publicly owned treasure is in storage and often uncatalogued. Britain’s Lost Masterpieces s2e1, BBC 2017
George Villiers: First Duke of Buckingham after Peter Paul Rubens … one of the giants of art history … One of the most naturally gifted painters who ever lived. ibid.
The intimate relationship between Villiers and King James is well documented. ibid.
Rubens didn’t really like painting portraits. ibid.
Joseph Wright was born, lived and died in Derby … He had a phenomenal talent. Britain’s Lost Masterpieces s2e2: Derby
Landscape of a Ruinous Castle … Pretty compelling evidence to suggest Wright of Derby painted our picture. ibid.
Carmarthenshire County Museum is a piece of history in itself … A portrait of Richard Vaughan, second Earl of Carbery … One name in particular springs to mind: Sir Peter Lely. Britain’s Lost Masterpieces s2e3: Carmarthenshire, BBC 2017
Peter Lely found himself increasingly in demand at the royal court. ibid.
We’ve been working on the idea that this is by Mary Beale. ibid.
Reminds me of the work of a Flemish 16th century artist called Anthonis Mor. Britain’s Lost Masterpieces s2e4: Arbroath
Everyone agrees that the person in the portrait is Rembrandt. But it’s not clear who painted the picture … thought to be a later copy. Britain’s Lost Masterpieces s3e1: Devon
The panel would have been seasoned and ready for use in the late 1620s, exactly when Rembrandt would have been working in Leiden. ibid.
Our painting came from at least the workshop of the artist we hope painted it. ibid.
Portrait of a Country Gentleman thought to be Charles Burney attributed to Nathaniel Dance … one contributor has suggested the name of a German artist Johann Zoffany. Britain’s Lost Masterpieces s3e2: Manchester
Zoffany has been called the Jane Austin of English art. ibid.
Petworth House: There are 17 Van Dycks in the house … [and] Portrait of an Unknown Genoese Lady … I’m convinced it’s by Van Dyck. Britain’s Lost Masterpieces s3e3: Petworth
Lieutenant Wright has effectively fused the incongruities of the surrealists with the irrationality of Dadaism. Star Trek: The Next Generation s3e15: A Matter of Perspective, Data