Voted Most Popular for 2009...

Each year Overstockart.com -- a company specializing in oil-painted knockoffs of art historical masterpieces -- releases its Top Ten list of paintings sold. Last year, Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" was #1. But this year, VIncent's "Starry Night" reclaims the top spot, with "Café Terrace in the Place du Forum" at #2. Klimt drops to #3, while the rest of the list includes works by Monet ("The Poppy Field at Argenteuil" is #4), Renoir ("Luncheon of the Boating Party" = #5), Picasso, O'Keeffe, and Kandinsky.

David Sasson, CEO of Overstockart.com, comments that "Van Gogh consistently remains the most popular artist in the world, his total sales numbers have left everyone else behind." Ah, the irony...not just because of the large sales figures, but because, as I've said before, Vincent did not consider "Starry Night" an important work at all in his own oeuvre. Sasson adds, "In the business world especially, where image is everything, many companies strive to keep up with the latest interior décor trends to maintain a modern appeal that will impress customers and clients." What would Vincent think about that, I wonder, or how would any of these painters feel about their work being essentially mass-produced as "authentic hand painted canvas art"? (You can, by the way, choose from a copious list of van Gogh works beyond "Starry Night" and "Café Terrace.")

Read the full article about the Top Ten here. In 2009, Overstockart.com sold approximately 45,000 paintings.

Sunny Days at the VGM

How'd they know I couldn't resist? The Van Gogh Museum Online Shop has a new "Sunflowers" themed promotion especially for summer. I'm especially excited about the new volume in the Van Gogh in Focus series, curator Louis van Tilborgh's "Van Gogh and the Sunflowers." I have two other volumes in the series (Van Gogh and His Letters, Van Gogh and Love) and found them both informative and enjoyable. These books are only available at the VGM itself or the online shop, alas, but proceeds (as with everything else there) go toward future museum acquisitions. I'm tickled to order it just in time for the last revisions on my novel! And if a pretty Sunflowers printed shawl hopped into my online cart too...well, what can I tell you? *wink*

Van Gogh Goes High-Def

Sony has just announced that their new line of flat-screen HD televisions -- the Bravia (TM) E4000 series -- will include a Picture Frame Mode. Sort of like a screensaver, the TV operates on reduced power in Picture Frame Mode, and particularly when wall-mounted, the idea is to present something pretty instead of a blank black screen. Users can install their own pictures in the tv's photo gallery, or they can choose from six pre-installed images. One of them is the London version of van Gogh's "Wheatfield with Cypresses," further proof that marketing types think Vincent can sell just about anything.

Call me old-fashioned (and many would), but isn't it cheaper just to get a nice framed poster?

The "Art Infusion Effect"

The stuff you find when you make typing "Gogh" into Google News part of your lunchtime routine. A new study coming out in the Journal of Marketing Research suggests that consumers are more likely to consider various items "luxurious" when they are promoted using art. The two researchers carried out a series of studies; in one of them, they posed as waiters in a restaurant and showed 100 patrons boxes of silverware. Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night appeared on the boxes of some of the silverware, while the rest of the boxes had a photograph of an outdoor cafe. The researchers found that the diners rated the silverware that came from the van Gogh-decorated box more "luxurious," even though it was the same as the utensils in the other boxes. The researchers determined that the "art infusion effect" works with all kinds of everyday items in terms of enhancing perceived prestige among consumers. Not surprising, really, but I love they went with van Gogh in their study, and with a painting that many people would recognize as being his.

Source: www.world-science.net