"$800k" art piece "Donated" by SK Artist
Mukluk @ Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:36 pm
rofl
$1:
Canadian sculptor Joseph Fafard has donated his largest creation to the University of Regina, after the $800,000 sculpture failed to find a buyer on the market.
The three-metre high Mind's Garden is comprised of eight bronze panels – each intricately carved with designs – arranged in a circular pattern 10 metres in diameter.
Mind's Garden (CBC Photo/Kevin O'Connor)
The piece will now be included in the President's Art Collection at the school, where he was once an art instructor. However, it will stay in its present location on the university campus: a grassy field next to Wascana Lake.
"Each opening frames a scene of the landscape of the park, of the downtown and of the university," said the 62-year-old Fafard. "If you stand at the centre, these scenes also become part of the sculpture."
The piece has been on loan to the Wascana Centre Authority since 1999. Fafard says the sculpture was up for sale, but nobody offered the $800,000 asked.
"I really wanted it to stay here," he said. "So one way to do that is to donate it to the university. And they'll ensure that is stays here and look after it for years and years to come."
The Saskatchewan-born Fafard received his bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg in 1966 and completed a subsequent fine arts master's degree two years later at Pennsylvania State University.
After graduation, he settled in Regina to teach, eventually becoming a kinetic sculpture instructor at the University of Saskatchewan.
Fafard, whose work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada, is best known for his whimsical drawings and sculptures of everyday objects, like local residents and cows. Some of his work has proven accessible for children as well as adults because of its humorous and entertaining nature.
The three-metre high Mind's Garden is comprised of eight bronze panels – each intricately carved with designs – arranged in a circular pattern 10 metres in diameter.
Mind's Garden (CBC Photo/Kevin O'Connor)
The piece will now be included in the President's Art Collection at the school, where he was once an art instructor. However, it will stay in its present location on the university campus: a grassy field next to Wascana Lake.
"Each opening frames a scene of the landscape of the park, of the downtown and of the university," said the 62-year-old Fafard. "If you stand at the centre, these scenes also become part of the sculpture."
The piece has been on loan to the Wascana Centre Authority since 1999. Fafard says the sculpture was up for sale, but nobody offered the $800,000 asked.
"I really wanted it to stay here," he said. "So one way to do that is to donate it to the university. And they'll ensure that is stays here and look after it for years and years to come."
The Saskatchewan-born Fafard received his bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg in 1966 and completed a subsequent fine arts master's degree two years later at Pennsylvania State University.
After graduation, he settled in Regina to teach, eventually becoming a kinetic sculpture instructor at the University of Saskatchewan.
Fafard, whose work has been exhibited in galleries across Canada, is best known for his whimsical drawings and sculptures of everyday objects, like local residents and cows. Some of his work has proven accessible for children as well as adults because of its humorous and entertaining nature.
Article
You know, I love how "artists" create white elephants, and then sell them for enormous sums...then people read all kinds of deep things into them.
Or in this case nobody buys the BS story and it gets donated as an "$800k" piece of art.
People, newsflash. If it were worth $800k, someone would have offered that much for it, he would have sold it and would be laughing all the way to the bank.
Steel is quite expensive these days, so I'd be willing to say it is worth at least $500. That's dollars, not thousands of...
lmao
m
SwampoO @ Sun Aug 28, 2005 4:20 pm
I spose you don't know much about Joe Fafard. He's an incredible sculpter that doesn't need to rely on the prices of his sculptures to point out that he is a very talented and accomplished artists. His cows are studied and sold world wide. To me it seems like the artists way, to feel like an artist is to give something that everyone else considers priceless, up for nothing. Its a matter of pride I suppose.
I'd sit there and agree with you on this subject if it was a $500 Glen Skrimshaw though, there's a hack that knows how to milk the Saskatchewan art market.
Knoss @ Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:13 am
My dad has a Joe Fafard.
Besides mukluk, Fafard has sold sculptures for over $800 K (the bronze bulls in front of the Macenzie) and I think this is if he pays over $800K in taxes from art he deserves it is a fair deduction.
SwampoO @ Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:43 pm
wow old topic ...
Knoss @ Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:14 pm
I know i was checking the archives.
Blue_Nose @ Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:27 pm
Mukluk Mukluk:
Steel is quite expensive these days, so I'd be willing to say it is worth at least $500. That's dollars, not thousands of...
lmao
m
$500 for eight 3x2m sheets of steel? I'd like to know who your supplier is. lmao
m
Knoss @ Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:08 am
Well we don have IPSCO but and old oil tank but I still think it would be more.