Allan McCollum (1944, Los Angeles) is an American contemporary artist. His first solo exhibition was held in 1970 and his first New York showing was at an exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery in New York in 1972. At first, his dream was to become an actor, for which he moved to Essex, England. But in 1967, he decided to become an artist. He educated himself by reading the writings of Fluxus artists and the early structuralists. In the late 1960s, McCollum produced his early work, and in 1970 he established his own studio. His work was included in the Whitney Biennale in 1975, and he decided to move to New York City in the same year.

Ever since, Allan McCollum has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. For example, his work has been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, at the White House and in Paris at the Centre Pompidou. His work is included in over 63 permanent museum collections.

He became mostly well known for his Surrogate Paintings series, in the late seventies. One of the characteristics of his work is the use of mass production, creating over thousands of objects that are each unique, despite of the fact they are mass-produced.

One of the series that Allan McCollum made is the Visible Markers Series (1997-2002), a continuing series of multiple objects in different sizes and shapes, designed for use in expressing gratitude. The series exists of solid resin tablets bearing the word “Thanks” in bold lettering. In this way, McCollum explores his notion of the art object as something that gains its significance not through the making or presentation of the object, but through the process of its exchange. Giving this tablet to people is a unique and lasting way of telling them how grateful you are. It is a constant reminder of the importance of giving, appreciation and gratefulness.

The Visible Markers are now on auction at Famous Auction House. The markers are available in the colors green, blue, turquoise, yellow and beige. Bidding starts at 350 euros.

Last Monday, 8th of April, British politician Margaret Thatcher passed away at the age of 87. She was the first female prime minister of England and she served as prime minister for 11 years. The Iron Lady has made such an impact and played such an important role in England’s politics, that she has made quite a name for herself. There’s a movie made about her life, The Iron Lady, with actress Meryl Streep. The Daily Telegraph has made a documentary about her life, The Making of The Iron Lady, in which Thatcher stated: “There is only one chance in life for women, it is the law of life.” Her son Mark said: “She was the best man for the job.”

Political figures are often an inspiration source for artists. For example, British artist Marcus Harvey has made a portrait of Margaret Thatcher in 2009. This portrait is made of plaster and acrylic on aluminum. It is created from more than 15000 plaster cast sculptural objects, including plastic vegetables, Tony Blair masks and sex toys, and it took over 1000 hours to complete. It represents her identity, British history and the moments of change in Thatcher’s life as a prime minister. As Marcus Harvey said: “Thatcher’s image has a magnetic, dark, complicated sexual allure that’s hard for me to define – it’s not exactly feminine and it does come with a pungent whiff of testosterone.”

Another artist that has drawn inspiration from political life is the Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf. In 2000, he made the series Royal Blood, that features important historical figures like Lady Diana, Julius Caesar, Sissi, Jacky O. and King Ludwig of Bavaria. The objects that caused their deaths are shown on these photographs. The photograph of Lady Diana shows the princess of Wales with a Mercedes Benz emblem embedded in her blooded arm.

The photograph of Lady Diana by Erwin Olaf made the news several times. In July 2005, there was a lot of fuss about this particular photograph. At that time, this photograph was on view at the exhibition Elegance and Perversity at the Australian Centre for Photography in Paddington. Chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, Philips Benwell, said: “We have complained, because the photograph is in very bad taste. The whole thing is quite obscene.” He requested an immediate withdrawal from the exhibition from the Dutch government and a formal apology to Queen Elizabeth II, but without success.

The series Royal Blood and Fashion Victims caused an important breakthrough for Erwin Olaf in the international art world. Now, these photographs can be seen as iconic artworks. The photographs represent unforgettable historical moments, which makes them timeless.

The Lady Diana photograph by Erwin Olaf is now on auction at Famous Auction House. Bidding starts at 12000 euros. Check out Famous Auction House for both Marcus Harvey and Erwin Olaf auctions!

Damien Hirst (1965) is a British artist. He’s an artist that doesn’t need to be introduced. He’s one of the most important members of the group ‘Young British Artists’. His breakthrough happened in 1988 at an exhibition called ‘Freeze’ in an empty harbour building.

For The Love Of God is probably his best-known work. This is a platinum cast of a 18^th century skull, set with 8601 diamonds, with a pink, large 52,4 carat diamond. The diamond skull is a symbol for the amounts of money that people are willing to spend to postpone their own death. According to Hirst, the skull is sold to a group of anonymous investors for £50 million. If this is true, this makes For The Love Of God the most expensive artwork of a living artist. There are critics that are speculating that Hirst made this up to increase the price.

Other well-known works by Hirst are animals (including a tiger shark, sheep and a cow) preserved in an aquarium in formaldehyde. British art collector Charles Saatchi has purchased one of the most famous ones titled The Physical Impossibility Of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living in the eighties and sold it to Steven Cohen for 6.5 million pounds. This wasn’t only a huge profit for Saatchi, but it also made Damien Hirst one of the most expensive living artists.
Artist Damien Hirst recently established his “Cock and Bull” installation at a restaurant in London. To celebrate the menu at Tramshed, Hirst installed a Hereford cow and cockerel that is preserved in a steel and glass tank of formaldehyde.
For the Miniature Museum by Ria and Lex Daniëls that is going to be opened this spring in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, Damien Hirst has made a special edition tiny little tank with a guppy.

Damien Hirst is one of the most rich and successful living artists of our time. Nevertheless, Hirst gets a lot of critique from art collectors, connoisseurs, etc. One of the many people who have made a statement against Damien Hirst, is the Spanish artist Eugenio Merino. He made a sculpture of Hirst pointing a gun at himself and blowing his own brains out. This is meant to be a comment on the British artist’s own £50m diamond-studded skull, For the Love of God. Merino has called his piece 4 the Love of Go(l)d, suggesting that Hirst’s attempts to increase the value of his own work would only be enhanced by his own death.
The Spanish artist explains that he is in fact a huge fan of Damien Hirst. “It is a joke but it is also paradoxical that if he did kill himself his work would be worth even more,” said Merino. “That is a metaphor for the current state of the art world.” The work was exhibited at ARCO Madrid and has been sold for $41.000 to a buyer from Florida. “The art market is bad, but actually this year has been spectacular for me,” the 33-year-old artist said. “It is ironic. I’ve never sold so much.”

Harland Miller (1964) is an artist and writer from Yorkshire, England. Currently he lives and works in London, after years of living and exhibiting in cities like Berlin, New York and New Orleans. Harland has published a few novels, including his first novel Slow Down Arthur, Stick to Thirty in 2000 and in the same year At First I was Afraid, I was Petrified.

But Mr. Miller is probably best known for his giant, colourful and playful canvases of Penguin Book covers. His starting point is often classic works by for example Hemmingway, Fitzgerald and many others. He is attracted to books as objects and he sees it as something nostalgic that must be treasured. “I remember my parents’ Penguin books. For me, they are about nostalgia for a by-gone era – that musty smell, those coffee-mug rings, the often heart-breaking inscriptions on the inside cover.”

The titles of the covers are often satirical statements about and commentaries on life and literature, like Death – What’s In It for Me?, Incurable Romantic Seeks Dirty Filthy Whore, Don’t Let The Bastards Cheer You Up and one of the favourites of the Famous team: You Can Rely on Me, I’ll Always Let You Down. Text has always been an important part of Millers work, as a writer but as well as a painter. He gets his inspiration from everyday life. He says, “When I am talking to people I often scribble something down on my hand and then stick it up on the studio wall. Sometimes it appears in the work but sometimes it just does not look good enough graphically”.

Even though text is his primary medium, Millers paintings are of great quality and resemble Rothko paintings with their dripping paint, emotive color schemes and smudgy blurring, rather than the mass-produced Penguin Books. In this way, Miller found a way to combine aspects of Pop Art, abstract and figurative painting with his writer’s love of text.

Harland Miller is doing well. This winter, he held two solo-exhibitions; one in White Cube in London and the second one in the Ingleby Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland and was titled ‘Overcoming Optimism’. His new work involves elements of chance and controlling accident. “It was physically hard to do but looks as if it was easy. Sometimes you had to let beautiful things go for the sake of the picture as a whole. My dealer said they looked feminine – not in a pejorative way, but as in they looked effortless.”

The new works are different and darker in tone from his earlier paintings. As the artist says, “It is a balancing act – this is not a humorous palette and it is harder to get levity to work.”

A book of Harland Miller’s watercolors has been published by Reflex Editions Amsterdam. See www.reflexamsterdam.com for more information or bid on the books at Famous Auction House! The original watercolors are also available at Galerie Alex Daniëls – Reflex Amsterdam. Contact the gallery for more information.

After 10 years of renovating, rebuilding and restoring, the Rijksmuseum opens its new doors on the 13th of April 2013. It will be a new, modern museum with the division of original architect Pierre Cuypers. Wim Pijbes (chief executive) said: “It will be a museum where extraordinary things happen non-stop. The opening is the 13th of April and when it becomes a museum of taste, courage, optimism and fantasy, the mission is completed.”

What is there to look forward to? Many things. There will be a romantic garden to take a break from watching art. There is going to be a new educative center, called “De Teekenschool”. There will be a new museum shop, a ‘grand café’ to drink coffee and enjoy Dutch cookies, a library and an Asian pavilion. What Famous is really looking forward to is the 20th century department with van Koolhoven, the Rietveld chair and works by Karel Appel, including ‘L’homme carré’ (1951). Also, the largest painting in possession of the Rijksmuseum will be on view again: ‘Battle of Waterloo’ by Pieneman. In short: everything will be different, nothing will be the same, except from ‘The Nightwatch’ by Rembrandt, which will return to its original place.

Good news is that the Rijksmuseum will be open 365 days a year, daily from 9 am – 5 pm. Bring your children, because it’s free up to 18 years old. ING cardholders will get a 50% discount. Become a friend of the Rijksmuseum and be the first one to check out the new museum.

Until Sunday 17th of March there’s an exhibition of all the masterpieces of the Rijksmuseum; a collection of 400 masterpieces from the Golden Age, on view in the Philips wing.

The Rijksmuseum is across the street from Famous the gallery and Famous Auction House and Gallery Alex Daniëls – Reflex Amsterdam, so we feel very connected to the museum. The Famous team is very excited and looking forward to the opening of the new Rijksmuseum! Don’t forget to step by after your visit to the Rijksmuseum…