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Re-Released WPA Documentary Makes Impassioned Plea for Government Funding for the Arts

Until 2020, the Works Progress Administration, a Great Depression–era government program that gave billions of dollars to artists during the 1930s, was largely the stuff of high-school U.S. history courses. But it didn’t take long for it to become the source of fascination within the art world once the pandemic struck the U.S. and Europe. In late March of last year, a mere two weeks after lockdown began in most places, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist called for a government relief program of the WPA’s scale. (So far, none has sprung up.) One month later, art historian Jody Patterson wrote in an ARTnews essay that the WPA’s “aim of radical inclusivity and accessibility—in which art benefits more people, rather than fewer—should not be the distant vision of a past generation.” Government funding for the arts—rarely, if ever, a sexy topic—hadn’t seemed this interesting in ages.

Basquiat Continues Market Reign at Christie’s $204 M. Hong Kong Evening Sale

On Monday, Christie’s held its Hong Kong 20th and 21st century art evening sale across two sessions at the city’s convention and exhibition center. Led by auctioneer Georgina Hilton, the five-hour-long event brought a hammer total of HKD 1.3 million ($170.6 million, or $204.2 million with premium), landing well above the HKD 1.1 billion ($141.7 million) low estimate. The sale realized a successful 97 percent sell-through rate across 72 lots.

'Good for the soul': São Paulo's muralists are committed to turning their city into a canvas

Officials in that Brazilian city previously harassed graffiti artists and muralists, treating them like hooligans. Now the government even finances those artistic expressions that make the metropolis an open-air gallery. At that time, you couldn't make money as a graffiti artist in Brazil, and risks abounded. Passersby used to insult him, police arrested him three times and racked up dozens of citations for damage to public property. "Many artists from that period fell off buildings and died," recalls Kobra. "And there were very violent fights between rival graffiti gangs."

$1B feud involving Leonardo's 'Salvator Mundi' reveals dark side of the art world

It is the biggest legal fight the art world has ever witnessed: a Russian oligarch, who claims he was ripped off buying multi-million-dollar masterpieces, versus a Swiss art dealer who says it was just business. Now, after six years of lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions, the tables appear to be turning once more in a saga so dramatic it's been given a name worthy of a movie script: "The Bouvier Affair." Russian fertilizer tycoon Dmitry Rybolovlev has pursued Swiss art dealer and freeport storage magnate Yves Bouvier around the world for years in various courts, claiming to have been swindled out of $1 billion on 38 exorbitantly priced artworks sold to him by Bouvier over the course of a decade.

Artist of the Month: BASH ORIGINALS

Sebastian Ferreira is an artist/painter based out of Edgewater, NJ. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, he grew up in Miami, FL with a passion for writing and lettering. He always took pride in his penmanship until he discovered graffiti in the streets. His artwork is currently an amalgamation of pop, abstract, and calligraphy. “I like to write my stories into my pieces, My portraits have a very morose and melancholic vibe to them.” He is heavily influenced by greats like Warhol, Kline, Retna, Soulages, Francoise Nielly, Cy Twombly, and more obscurely, Lester Johnson.

Acrylic, ink on canvas “Pablo”
36 x 48 in
91 x 122 cm

Oil, ink, spray on canvas
48 x 60 in
122 x 152 cm

CONSIGNMENT

Rocart is seeking to receive on consignment secondary market Fine Art works of all media. We are pleased to offer an appraisal to collectors who are considering selling their artworks with our gallery.

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