“I was always an artist. I was a broker to earn a living, but I was always thinking about my art.”
Jeff Koons (B. 1955) Jim Beam – J.B. Turner Train stainless steel and bourbon 11 x 114 x 6½ in. (27.9 x 289.6 x 16.5 cm.) Executed in 1986. This work is the artist’s proof from an edition of three plus one artist’s proof. Price realised USD 33,765,000
“When you’re doing something for the first time, you don’t know it’s going to work. You spend seven or eight years working on something, and then it’s copied. I have to be honest: the first thing I can think, all those weekends that I could have at home with my family but didn’t. I think it’s theft, and it’s lazy.”
“Knocking down middle-class notions of painting as art, flaunting the reproductive techniques, mocking “the original,” skewering celebrity, and lauding it at the same time, laying on purposely bad technique, etc. Other pop artists were making similar efforts. But Warhol did it better. He made the point so strongly that repeating it today is a familiar strategy.”
“I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.” — Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Laboureur dans un champ oil on canvas 19 7/8 x 25 ½ in. (50.3 x 64.9 cm.) Painted in Saint Rémy, early September 1889 Price realised: USD 81,312,500
“So bullshitting isn’t just nonsense. It’s constructed in order to appear meaningful, though on closer examination, it isn’t. And bullshit isn’t the same as lying. A liar knows the truth but makes statements deliberately intended to sell people on falsehoods. bullshitters, in contrast, aren’t concerned about what’s true or not, so much as they’re trying to appear as if they know what they’re talking about. In that sense, bullshitting can be thought of as a verbal demonstration of the Dunning-Kruger effect—when people speak from a position of disproportionate confidence about their knowledge relative to what little they actually know, bullshit is often the result.”
“You really need faith in yourself to make art and to stand up for what you believe in.” — Elizabeth Peyton
ELIZABETH PEYTON (B. 1965) Liam Gallagher (Glastonbury 1995) signed, titled and dated ‘LIAM GALLAGHER (GLASTONBURY 1995) Elizabeth Peyton 1995’ (on the reverse) oil on panel 22 1/8 x 18 1/8 in. (56.2 x 46 cm.) Painted in 1995. Price realised USD 1,740,000
“A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.” — Salvador Dali
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) Naissance de l’ameublement paranoïaque gouache and charcoal on paper 25 1/8 x 19 1/8 in. (63.7 x 48.4 cm.) Executed circa 1937 Price realised: USD 1,095,000
