Art of Unknown Artist, often described as appropriation art or found object art, is the practice of using materials, objects, or images that were created by others without their permission or knowledge.
And while it may be a little on the nose to sell any work of art under the name of “Unknown Artist,” if you believe in the work and you believe in the power of its message, it doesn’t matter who made it.
“The artists we feature are just a couple of people who have a very strong message,” said Michael Fitzgerald. “Their identity doesn’t matter.”
Fitzgerald and his wife, Sharon Lockhart, both artists in their own right, began their blog about non representational art in February 2014. They say the idea for the blog came to them one day when they were sitting around their South Austin home making artwork and eating pizza. They started getting excited about some of the pieces they’d recently acquired from various artists and decided there was something they could do to share these artists’ work with others.
“We’re always looking at things other people aren’t looking at,” Lockhart said. “I think that’s true for most people who collect contemporary art and even most people who make contemporary art today.”
They started a blog called Unknown
The collector, who asked to remain anonymous, began collecting nonrepresentational art in the 1970s. “I was intrigued by the fact that it was not possible to look at a work of art and tell what country it came from,” he said, referring to the “flatness” created by many abstract artworks.
Nelson and Hollis have been collecting for about 10 years. They say they are fascinated by artists who make abstract, industrial-looking pieces.
It’s not just the aesthetics that appeal to Nelson and Hollis. They say they enjoy how different works of art can help them better understand their own emotions.
“These are real statements about our feelings,” Nelson said. “They’re more true than anything you’re going to read in a psychology book.”
The couple pays for each piece based on how much it moves them — not on what experts say about its value. And despite the size of their collection, most pieces stay on their property in Austin and are rarely shown publicly.
An artist is one who creates a unique piece of art. They are not limited to any particular medium, they can be sculptors, painters, or even performance artists. The purpose of art is to create works that inspires the audience to feel something or think about the world in different ways than they did before. Artists express emotion through their work and it takes a lot of practice to become proficient at it.
The art market is big business that includes buyers and sellers as well as museums, galleries and more. The way the market works is by finding your target audience then selling your product to them. There are many different types of markets such as fine art, antiques, contemporary art, decorative arts and crafts. Many people chose their method based on how much money they want to make per work sold. You can also decide if you want to open up your own gallery or sell your pieces online.
Artists have many different ways of marketing their work from using blogs, Twitter and social media platforms to sell their work. Artists like Josephine Meckseper use Twitter for a variety of purposes including promoting her work, connecting with other artists and talking about current events that might be affecting her artwork or her market. She uses the
The thing about art critics is that they often have little to do with the works of art they claim to critique. Art critics are a dime a dozen, and there are only so many art galleries to review. So the writer’s focus is often on the art critic him or herself; the result is that the artist becomes secondary, or even irrelevant.
Trevor Paglen, who is an artist and not an art critic, knows this. He also knows that most people don’t know it. As a result, he has developed a strategy for getting around it, as he details in his PowerPoint presentation entitled “How to Sell Your Artwork to Someone Who Has No Idea Who You Are.”
For Paglen, this is not just a theory; it is a business model. He writes:
I have made over $400k selling my work this way and I can teach others how to do the same…I have no interest in helping you make better work. I’m much more interested in helping you make more money and helping you avoid bankruptcy…If you read nothing else on this page, please be sure to read this: if you’re not making at least $100k/year from your artwork you’re broke…My method might not be right for everyone
The art market is a good place to understand the difference between creation and curation. In the art world, curation is an increasingly important part of creation, but in most creative professions the two are considered separate things. For example, you might write a book or cure a disease or make an app or paint a picture. Curation is any activity that uses your creative product as a step on the way to something else. A curator can be anyone who helps with that process. They select and organize and promote.
The art market is an interesting case because it’s one of the few places where curating is treated as a form of creating. Curating something like an art show involves choosing works to show, giving them titles and descriptions, organizing them into themes, and so on. So does writing a book, but when you write a book you call it creating one. In other fields we recognize that helping someone else create has value too, even if it isn’t the same thing as creating yourself. Writers get paid for editing; painters for framing; doctors for advising what treatments to use; architects for designing buildings others are building. But in most creative fields–and certainly all the ones I know–the line between creation and curation is considered pretty sharp.*
Banksy is one of the most famous and controversial artists in the world. Few people have ever heard his real name, but nearly everyone knows his work. Banksy’s art has been called everything from the visual voice of a generation to a bunch of “rude, childish doodles.” Since his first appearance in Bristol, UK in the early 90’s, Banksy has become an international phenomenon. His subversive street art and politically charged epigrams combine dark humor with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. Often working under cover of night, he has managed to maintain an air of mystery around his identity while building a brand and reputation that demand attention.
The fact that he can remain anonymous while simultaneously becoming one of the most famous artists in the world is largely due to this web site. The majority of what is known about Banksy and his work comes from this site, which he created in 2004. The website acts as a platform for both Banksy’s work and his thoughts about it. In addition to displaying over 150 works by Banksy, it offers photos taken at exhibitions and biographical information about him from an official perspective: “Banksy was born in Yate (near Bristol), England in 1974.” On this site, you will find