Like to be Director of VAI? / Dutch art eBayed (Friday 13 July 2007)
Dennett moving on from VAI
Visual Artists Ireland (VAI) has today been posting announcements looking for a replacement for Toby Dennett, currently Director of VAI. Under Dennett, VAI has been transformed over the last few years. Among many other things, it has absorbed the fallout from the collapse of the Artists' Association of Ireland, and it has successfullly rebranded from the Sculptors' Society of Ireland.
You can find out more about the job opening here.
Dutch art to be put up for auction on eBay
compiled by Rachel Simmons
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| Around 1,000 works in the Dutch National Collection have recently gone up for sale on online auction site, eBay, image held here. |
It's a mad, mad, online-fueled world we live in; these days, you can find anything on the internet, including art. Now, in the Netherlands, approximately 1,000 'surplus' works of art will be put up for auction on eBay, at a rate of about 50 per week, between now and October. Marina Raymakers of the Institute Collection Netherlands (ICN) says that this endeavor is not about making money, but relieving the state of the possession of these artworks. Currently, ICN manages about 100, 000 works from the Dutch collections which, when they are not on exhibition, are laying covered in the background in depots. Raymaker also added that the works being sold are those which either haven't been on exhibition in a hundred years, or do not fit museum exhibitions.
A large number of the works for sale on eBay were produced during a government artists' support scheme, which made the Netherlands an artists' haven. Artists received a living allowance so that they were never below the poverty line, and in exchange produced a number of works for the state collection. The scheme has since been abandoned, one of the possible reasons apparently being the tendency of some artists to spend their years at the beaches, only to return at the last minute to produce their required works in a rush. The build-up of these sorts of works has resulted in this 'garage sale' of auctions. Dutch artist Jennifer Hoes welcomes the change in artist support, telling the Christian Science Monitor, "I vividly remember a little Christmas tree sprayed pink, with small pieces of garbage hanging on it. It made me feel sick to think that this was what they were investing in."
Some artists are understandably upset about the situation; as painter Robert Kruzdlo said, "They called me the Picasso of Amsterdam. I did not paint rubbish." One of his paintings, Fear and powerlessness of the third world war, is currently for sale on eBay because ICN concluded that it was "without artistic merit and historic significance"; the current bid last Friday for the painting was €205.50. But still some artists are welcoming the endeavor; painter Willem Oorebeek sees it as an opportunity to reach a new audience; as he said to NRC Next, "I don't see the auction as a loss but more a renaissance of my work, a rediscovery."
ICN has also set aside approximately 300 items to go for sale through traditional auction means, mostly old Dutch furniture, the value of which they feel bidders would not be able to judge over the internet. This traditional auction will be held October 23 in The Hague and will also potentially include items which could not be sold on eBay. But one has to wonder, is it possible to judge the value of a painting - well enough to bid on it - over the internet?
More details on the auction items can be found at the Dutch eBay site, www.ebay.nl.
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