Congratulations on highlighting the Art of the Book. My late friend Paul Getty II built a beautiful library at his English Country Estate dedicated to it. I have collected fine books since childhood and will always regret having shied away from buying one the finest books ever made,published at Venice in 1499 by Aldus,The Hypnerotaumachia Polifili in a splendid binding because of its dauntingly high cost. Need I tell you that 20 years later that book is worth fifteen times what was then asked…
AH! Yes, like so many things we could have once bought for a comparative song. The trouble was that back then our sheckels were so scarce that those lower prices felt just as far out of reach then as the astronomical prices feel now. Thanks for the read!
Are you Balthus’s son? (“One of my fathers”) I’d take one of your father’s drawings over anything Warhol ever made. I have painting in my own painting studio that I believe George Bellows painted. It’s unsigned, with no provenance, but the hand is unmistakable – like a signature.
Ah! My dad was a well-known artisan (my grandfather and uncle as well). It's a unique challenge to live in those characters' shadows. I'm the eldest too – of my whole generation of cousins. I've always admired Balthus very much. He and André Derain were/are favorites. I had the children's book about the cat as a little boy in the '60s (Can't remember the title but I remember the pictures). That was the first time I ever saw anything by him. But of course, as I became serious about oil painting, I discovered the paintings.
I need to write a whole other article about art and money. The only reason why some works of art (and craft) are able to cost millions of dollars is because there are people who have that much money, and who are willing to pay the inflated price. This too shall pass. There's a story about tulips that illustrates this point nicely.
However book collecting has always been an expensive addiction. It differs quite a bit from collecting so called fine art. Andy Warhol once offered me an entire wall of his 1965 flowers to hypnotize Edie Sedgwick and about 15 laters wanted to trade 3 of his paintings for one drawing of my father"s....
Congratulations on highlighting the Art of the Book. My late friend Paul Getty II built a beautiful library at his English Country Estate dedicated to it. I have collected fine books since childhood and will always regret having shied away from buying one the finest books ever made,published at Venice in 1499 by Aldus,The Hypnerotaumachia Polifili in a splendid binding because of its dauntingly high cost. Need I tell you that 20 years later that book is worth fifteen times what was then asked…
AH! Yes, like so many things we could have once bought for a comparative song. The trouble was that back then our sheckels were so scarce that those lower prices felt just as far out of reach then as the astronomical prices feel now. Thanks for the read!
“Comparative song” is the case now but not then the asking price was $100,000 but now it is one and a half million …
Are you Balthus’s son? (“One of my fathers”) I’d take one of your father’s drawings over anything Warhol ever made. I have painting in my own painting studio that I believe George Bellows painted. It’s unsigned, with no provenance, but the hand is unmistakable – like a signature.
I am indeed his eldest son
Ah! My dad was a well-known artisan (my grandfather and uncle as well). It's a unique challenge to live in those characters' shadows. I'm the eldest too – of my whole generation of cousins. I've always admired Balthus very much. He and André Derain were/are favorites. I had the children's book about the cat as a little boy in the '60s (Can't remember the title but I remember the pictures). That was the first time I ever saw anything by him. But of course, as I became serious about oil painting, I discovered the paintings.
madness
I need to write a whole other article about art and money. The only reason why some works of art (and craft) are able to cost millions of dollars is because there are people who have that much money, and who are willing to pay the inflated price. This too shall pass. There's a story about tulips that illustrates this point nicely.
However book collecting has always been an expensive addiction. It differs quite a bit from collecting so called fine art. Andy Warhol once offered me an entire wall of his 1965 flowers to hypnotize Edie Sedgwick and about 15 laters wanted to trade 3 of his paintings for one drawing of my father"s....