Imaging The Imagination - New Visions of Surrealism

I am very proud to announce my inclusion into the book, "Imagine The Imagination-New Visions Of Surrealism" with my piece "Ouroboros Biomorphic Perpetual Motion Machine". Publisher: nEgoist
You can read more about it here:
http://the-surreal-arts.deviantart.com/journal/26411136/

I will post an update about my fellow artists of the Visionary Tribe also featured in this volume very soon!

Visionary Art Membership Invitations

This blog is directed towards Members of the Private Visionary Art Network, to Visionary Artists in general, as well as Artists of the Santiago Ribeiro Network who had been invited to join our Network on or about August 18th 2009:

We NEVER mass-mail invitations to become a member of our Private Network "Visionary Art". We are not spamers!
Prospective members are carefully selected and approached individually.
We are not interested in growing the membership for the sake of growth, but in aquiring new members that will positively enhance our private network with their presence.
We encourage our members to invite close friends, kindred artists they can vouch for.
New members are subject to approval by administration. We have 15 highly respected and trusted administrators.

Having said that, I am sorry to report that on August 18th, our network MESSAGING CENTER was swamped with an avalanche of membership invitations and briefly shut down under the sheer weight of applications pending.

The first guess was that one of our members e-mail had been hacked, and spam applications were sent out to a huge number of addresses. Upon second reflection I must say that while likely, it may also have been a glitch (or a mistake) in the Ning system, having to do with importing a e-mail contact list: the default checkmarks ALL contacts, and if not careful, a simple click will send e-mails to all contacts on the list, not just the one person you may have wanted to target!

One of the "Prospective New Members" was none other than the notorious WAF head honcho JoJo Marengo! The last thing I needed was someone of his ilk to invade our private network! Anyone not familiar with the issues involving Marengo, please check the Art Review post: GEORGE a.k.a. "JO JO" Marengo and the WORLD ART FOUNDATION (WAF) Scam and follow the links.

To restore the disabled Network Messaging Center, I waded into the pile and deleted all invitations and pending applications. Unfortunately, amongst them were most likely legitimate candidates, many from the Ribeiro Network, that otherwise we would welcome with open arms.

I therefore apologize to those artists: this should in no way be construed as an affront! We will in due time continue to invite artists to join us. Again, these invitations will happen by personal contact, not mass-mailings!

LOVE, PEACE AND HAPPYNESS

OTTO RAPP

DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY

Erik Heyninck

Peter Van Oostzanen

Reinhard Schmid

From 2 August to 27 September in the Old Town Hall of Viechtach (Germany, Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Bavarian Forest), an exhibition of world-class art is on view: 52 artists from all over the world have worked with one of the most famous works of world literature and are showing their interpretation: Dante's Divine Comedy. In "La Divina Commedia" by Dante Alighieri, which was created by 1307 to 1327, Dante describes his own journey through the other side, led by the great Roman poet Virgil. The trail leads Dante through the three levels of the Hereafter: to hell, the catharsis and ultimately into a mountain paradise, where he encounters God and comes face to face with the Holy Trinity. Dante's Divine Comedy has over the centuries inspired many well-known visual artists, as now in this monumental international exhibition in Viechtach. Curator Claus Brusen (Denmark) gathered the world's most renowned representatives of the fantastic art , based on their own individual style and in depth knowledge of the medieval literature. The exhibitors include local artist Reinhard Schmid (Viechtach) and Richard Pernsteiner (St. Englmar).
The exhibition can be viewed during the opening times of the Tourist Information Viechtach, tel 09942/1661 with free admission to visitors.

More IMAGES from the Exhibition in Viechtach

Pictures from the OPENING

Participating Artists:

Agostino ARRIVABENE, Italy
David M. BOWERS, USA
Margaret BOWLAND, USA
Claus BRUSEN, Denmark
Gil BRUVEL, USA
Annebelle CLAUDIA, Germany
Peter CROSS, England
Elisabeth, DE LUNDE, Norway
Bruno DI MAIO, Italy
DI VOGO, Serbia
Val DYSHLOV, USA
Jørgen Mahler ELBANG, Denmark
Paul ERLAND, Denmark
Monica FAGAN, England
Magda FRANCOT, Belgium
Walter GIROTTO, Italy
Sanne GLISSOV, Denmark
Georg GONZALEZ, USA
Igor GRECHANYK, Ukraine
Wolfgang HARMS, Germany
Danny Evo HEINRICHT, Denmark
Stephanie HENDERSON, USA
Diana HESKETH, England
Erik HEYNINCK, Belgium
Michael HIEP, The Netherlands
Krzysztof IZDEBSKI-CRUZ, Poland
Dariusz KALETA, Poland
Steven KENNY, USA
Marcin KOLPANOWICZ, Poland
Anne-Fieke & Eugène LATER, The Netherlands
Ugo LEVITA, Italy
Jack LIPOWCZAN, Poland
Ida LOTOCKA-HUELLE, Poland
Brigid MARLIN, USA
Vlada MIRKOVIC, Serbia
Voytek NOWAKOWSKI, Canada
Peter van OOSTZANEN, The Netherlands
Vladimir OVTCHAROV, Bulgaria
Daniela OVTCHAROV, Bulgaria
Michel de Saint OUEN. England
Richard PERNSTEINER, Germany
Volodia POPOV, Russia
Tim ROOSEN, Belgium
José ROOSEVELT, Brasil
Ines SCHEPPACH, Germany
Reinhard SCHMID, Germany
Carsten SVENNSON, Denmark
Cas WATERMAN, The Netherlands
Mark WILKINSON, England
Patrick WOODROFFE, England
Siegfried ZADEMACK, Germany
Olivier ZAPPELLI, Switzerland

Link to the Web Page:

DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY - A BIG EVENT IN THE HISTORY OF MAGIC REALISM

My friend Leo Plaw had just blogged about this event also, and since he was there, he presents an insider view of this Exhibition. Please check his blog on the Beinart News HERE.

Vienna Auction House Sees Record Results - ARTINFO.com

Just when we thought the art market is going into the dumps along with the rest of the economy, there appears to be some signs of light at the end of the tunnel. What is particularly encouraging (to me) is the rising value of one of my favourite artists, Egon Schiele:

The estimated value in the Im Kinski auction catalogue was between € 100.000,00 and € 140.000,00, whereas the actual price came in at €260,000!

http://www.beyars.com/partner-objekt_205319_egon-schiele.html

Here is what ARTINFO wrote about the subject:

VIENNA—At a time when the "big three" auction houses — Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips de Pury & Co. — are seeing their major sales bring in mere fractions of previous years' results, the Vienna auction house Im Kinsky has defied the declining art market and achieved record results for the first half of 2009, reports the Austrian Press Agency.

The modest Im Kinsky brought in €14 million ($19.9 million) from January through June, for an increase of 11.2 percent over the same period last year. The house reports selling 17 lots for more than €100,000; the top three earners were Max Oppenheimer's Die Geißelung (The Whipping) at €446,000 and Egon Schiele's Stehendes Mädchen (Standing Girl) and Akt mit Strümpfen (Nude with Stockings) at €320,000 and €260,000. Not all the news is good, though: While important modern works have done well, interest in 19th-century painting has waned.

Vienna Auction House Sees Record Results - ARTINFO.com