American Art News at Art News Blog is a listing of all the blog posts that focus on arts, design, and photography news in the United States of America (USA).

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• Michael Kalish License Plates - Taking the car theme of the past few days a little further, Angela has pointed out a story about an artist that uses car number plates as a medium. The license plate art of Michael Kalish sells for between $5,000 and $150,000.
• Ballpoint Pen Art - It's good to see the humble ballpoint pen getting some love from artists. You see it used for doodles, but finished works on canvas don't often list "ball point pens" as a medium.
• Another Art Teacher in America Fired - Relating to this ridiculous post yesterday, there's a New York art teacher that is currently fighting for his job after recommending that some of his more advanced students should take life drawing classes.
• Texas Art Teacher Sacked Over Nudes - I'm not sure if the nude incident is the whole reason behind the Texas teacher losing her job, but it's still interesting. Sydney McGee claims that she was fired after a complaint from a parent of a student, relating to a school field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. He was concerned about his child seeing "an abstract nude", which was a 4BC Greek marble torso.
• American Artists Online - On my (cyber) world tour of artists by country, I've found that the most represented bunch of artists online are definitely Americans. I struggle finding artists from countries like China, India, or even Germany online, but everywhere I look I find websites by American artists.
• Most Expensive Painting by Gustav Klimt - The famous Austrian painter Gustav Klimt has reportedly set a record for the most expensive painting to be sold. The 1907 iconic work "Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer I" has sold for $135 million dollars.
• Art Museum Ticket Prices - There has been a bit of news around lately about the price of museum entry. The Museum of Modern Art charges $20 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art has also announced that they will be raising their ticket price to $20.
• Neue Galerie's Most Expensive Painting - The most expensive painting in the world is now on display at the Neue Galerie in New York. "Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings from the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer" will be on show through to the 18th of September.
• Edvard Munch MoMA Exhibition - "Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul" exhibition opens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on the 19th of February, through to the 8th of May 2006.
• Britney Spears Naked Sculpture - A nude sculpture of the pop star Britney Spears clutching a dead bear rug has been creating a bit of a stir recently. The work by Daniel Edwards, titled "Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston" shows Spears naked, pregnant, and sensually bent over on her knees.
• Christo in New York Park - Christo sure does know how to attract attention and draw a crowd. His latest project in Manhattan's Central Park is creating a media frenzy, which can only be good for art, and thousands of people are going to NY just to see the work.
  
• New York: the new British invasion - This month two more British antique dealers are opening galleries in Manhattan. Carlton Hobbs and Berwald Oriental Art are inaugurating premises in the Upper East Side. Their arrival brings the number of British dealers with New York outposts to 12.
• Most Expensive Vase - The wealthy Las Vegas casino man, Steve Wynn has shocked his critics by showing that he has a caring/giving side to him. Firstly he paid a record amount for a vase (5.5 million pounds), only to give it away.
• eBay Art Fraud - eBay may be a great tool for contemporary painters to sell their work online as the paintings usually only sell for hundreds or perhaps a few thousand at most. So investors can afford to take a risk on the work.
• Dora Maar Sells for $95.2 Million - A painting of Dora Maar by Pablo Picasso has sold for $95.2 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York. The estimate of $50 million was almost doubled!
• Versace Art Sale - Gianni Versace's art collection will be auctioned off in May/June this year. The murdered fashion designer amassed a great collection of modern and contemporary works of art with decent paintings by Lichtenstein, Basquiat, Warhol and Clemente. Versace's heirs are set to pick up a cool $17+ million for the sale.
• Vendors lost $4 million on Audubon sale - Perhaps through greed?.. the sellers of "Audubon’s The birds of America" knocked back a pre-auction offer of 9 million. Instead, they took the works to auction and made less than 6 million.
• Starting an Art Gallery - Over at ArtInfo.com they have attempted to outline what it takes to start an art gallery and why you should start an art gallery.
• Lamborghini Art - A man in California liked the look of his Lamborghini Countach so much that he has done a Marcel Duchamp with it. The Californian millionaire Richard Moriarty has bolted his 1974 sports car to a wall in his house and called it art.
• Art-o-mat Art Vending Machine - The more I think about the Art-o-mat, the more I like it! It's a vending machine that sells affordable original art.
• Artists Sue NYC over Anti-Graffiti Law - A group of seven artists and the fashion designer Marc Ecko are suing New York City for being too hard on graffiti artists, claiming that their "constitutional right to free speech" is being violated.
• Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea - With a bit of a boom going on in the contemporary art market, the Gagosian Gallery is expanding in New York's Chelsea area. Gagosian already has a gallery in Chelsea, so there must plenty of activity in the buyer's room. They also have galleries in London, Beverly Hills, and currently two in New York.
• Helen Frankenthaler with Gum - A 12 year old boy recently decided to discard his gum by sticking it to a painting by the New York abstract painter Helen Frankenthaler.
• Child Prodigies - I've noticed a few child art prodigies popping up on the internet lately. Marla Olmstead has been mentioned before on artnewsblog, as the 4 year old art prodigy, and for being featured on 60 Minutes.
  But there's also Akiane, the 11 year old internationally known child art prodigy. That's her pictured on the left, appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show!
• Blood Art - Art made of blood has been taken off Ebay. The online auctioning mega-portal does not accept the sale of human body parts, and classifies the works in this category.
• Marla Olmstead on 60 Minutes - I did not see the episode on 60 minutes recently, but it's interesting to see what people have to say about it. See the two previous posts on Art News Blog and the comments that people have had.