Tag Archives: arts

Now you too can own your very own Giménez!

Posted by gruesomegreg on

Cecilia Giménez, as you may recall, is the 80-year-old Spanish woman who turned a painting of Jesus into “a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic.”  After suing her church for royalties—unsuccessfully, I’d assume—Giménez is now putting one of her original paintings up for sale on eBay.  Current bid: 835 Euros (and there have been 45 of them!)

However, as the eBay listing explains, en español, por supuesto, Giménez’s “Las Bodegas de Borja” was painted in 2000, well before she seemingly lost most of her eyesight and artistic ability.  In fact, this piece, which translates to “Borja’s Wine Cellar,” looks like something you could proudly display on your wall—without the slightest trace of irony:

That said, I’m not sure I’d pay $1,083.49, plus what must be fairly hefty shipping fees for it.  However, I must commend the artist for this act of kindness.  As it turns out, this auction isn’t a cash grab; the proceeds will be donated to Caritas, an international Catholic charity.

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Had Carr painted a rodeo, it surely would’ve fetched a higher sum…

Posted by gruesomegreg on

It seems that the Group of Seven isn’t such a big hit in Calgary, where an Emily Carr painting sold at auction for roughly half its asking price, The Globe and Mail reports.  As per the Globe, “Emily Carr’s Kitseukla watercolour, which depicts Gitxsan-Wet’suwet’en totem poles in the first nations village of Kitseukla, British Columbia” went for a paltry $200K.  

“I’m a little disappointed,” the auctioneer told reporters. “Let me put it this way, though: I’m very happy for the purchaser, because I think that he got a fabulous watercolour at a very, very reasonable price.”

In fact, for that very, very reasonable price, he could’ve purchased a two-bedroom townhouse in Northwest Calgary, and still had some money left over to pay the legal fees.  But hey, you can’t show off a townhouse to your friends at cocktail parties—especially since it’s in Ranchlands. ;)

Old Spanish woman gets Darwin’s revenge on Jesus…

Posted by gruesomegreg on

A shoddy Spanish painter in the city of Zaragoza has become a worldwide laughingstock after turning her church’s portrait of Jesus Christ into something resembling “a crayon sketch of a very hairy monkey in an ill-fitting tunic,” the BBC reports.  It seems that 80-year-old Cecilia Gimenez didn’t like how the painting was falling apart, and took it upon herself to spruce things up.  Apparently, she had permission from the priest to do so.  Know what she didn’t have?  Art classes!

The cruel irony of this story is that, according to the BBC correspondent, “the local centre that works to preserve artworks had just received a donation from the (original) painter’s granddaughter which they had planned to use to restore the original fresco.”  I guess they’ll be using that money to buy a pressure-washer now?

Here’s the offending art restoration, in all its hideousness:

GRAFFITI OF THE DAY: Going off the Rails on a Gravy Train

Posted by gruesomegreg on

Only in Toronto would a graffiti artist made famous by painting the mayor’s face on public property be given a gallery to showcase his work.  Such is the case of SPUD, a local tagger whose paintings, including the masterpiece “Going off the Rails on a Gravy Train,” will be on display at the Don’t Tell Mama Gallery on Ossignton until the end of the month.

While I wouldn’t consider all graffiti to be artistic, I hafta hand it to him for his depiction of Mayor Ford’s face on Thomas the Tank Engine crossing a sea of cheese, curds and gravy.  Check it out: