Are bloggers dogging the art world too?

Does the power of blogs know no bounds?

I mean, are there limits?

Apparently not. Earlier today I opined that bloggers were taking over investigative journalism, and linked to an article speculating that they're filling the void between intellectuals and the citizenry.

And now I see clear evidence that bloggers are having a major impact upon art.

Paddles were wagging at Doyle New York's annual Dogs in Art auction on February 15, 2005. Coinciding each year with the Westminster Kennel Club dog show, the auction offers two centuries of canine paintings, paintings, prints, bronzes and other objects.

Highlighting this year's sale were two rare paintings from Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's 1903 series of dogs playing poker. The pair were estimated to fetch $30,000-50,000 at the auction. After intense bidding from several determined bidders on the telephones and in the salesroom, the pair sold to a private collector from New York City for a staggering $590,400, setting a new world auction record for the artist.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge was born in upstate New York in 1844 to abolitionist Quaker farmers who named him after statesman Henry Clay's brother, Cassius Marcellus Clay. An accomplished cartoonist, he is also credited with creating the familiar life-size Boardwalk cutouts, which he called Comic Foregrounds, into which one's head was placed so as to be photographed as an amusing character.

In 1903, Coolidge contracted with the advertising firm of Brown & Bigelow of St. Paul, Minnesota to create sixteen paintings of dogs in various human-like situations. Nine of these paintings depicted dogs around a card table, two of which were offered at the auction.

Estimated to fetch $30,000-50,000, huh?

I wonder when that estimate was done. I just wonder. . .

A little "background" is in order -- and I do mean background.

Because, a scant six weeks before the auction, Glenn Reynolds was kind enough to link this post, featuring a photo of myself, Tom Brennan, and Sean Kinsell, sitting in front of an underdecorated background.

tastefulDogBloggers.jpg

As you can see, there's nothing on the wall, and I wasn't in the mood for decorating. As I said at the time,

....there should be something in that niche on the wall, but the spirit is there, and I am not about to Photoshop tasteful wall decorations into an informal luncheon snapshot
"THERE HAVE TO BE SOME LIMITS, DAMMIT," agreed the InstaPundit.

Little did I know what was coming next.

This barest of bare backgrounds in turn inspired Jessica's Well to decorate the wall with -- you guessed it! -- one of the Cassius Marcellus Coolidge paintings from the same series mentioned above.

tastefulDogBloggers.jpg

And so, a scant six weeks after the Coolidge dog art became the subject of an InstaLanche, this previously underrated artist's paintings skyrocketed in value -- from $40,000 to well over half a million. (By any standard, that's art appreciation.)

Coincidence?

I should say not!

(Doggone right there ought to be limits . . .)

posted by Eric on 04.03.05 at 05:19 PM





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