1. A RT A RT P AST, P RESENT AND F UTURE Is It Really Worth It?

2. W HAT I S A RT ? According to Dictionary.com, [Art is] The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

3. Artist: Jackson Pollock Year: 1948 Year of Sale: 2006 Sale Price: $140 million Currency Adjusted: $149.70 million Top Five Most Expensive Paintings

4. Artist: Gustav Klimt Year: 1907 Year of Sale: 2006 Sale Price: $135 million Currency Adjusted: $144.4 million Artist: Willem de Kooning Year: 1953 Year of Sale: 2006 Sale Price: $137.5 million Currency Adjusted: $147 million

5. Artist: Vincent Van Gogh Year: 1890 Year of Sale: 1990 Sale Price: $82.5 million Currency Adjusted: $136.1 million Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir Year: 1876 Year of Sale: 1990 Sale Price: $78.1 million Currency Adjusted: $128.8 million

6. A BSTRACTION When looking at these ‘Top 5 Most Expensive Paintings’ a pattern seemed to emerge As a group, it is clear to us that the average consumer feels a connection to the abstract art

7. W HY MORE PEOPLE ARE BUYING ORIGINAL ART TODAY ? Understanding of Interior Design Color psychology

8. Beauty They can literally stare at the same art piece over a period of days and each time come away with new insight as to its meaning.

9. The Rise in Disposable Income Greater ability to buy original art Attraction a tendency to want something unique rather than mass produced Symbol of success

10. Greater Amount of Information on Original Art in the Press Hardly any newspaper is produced without one article or another regarding paintings, sculptures and photography

11. On A Local Level… A local chicken has painted a picture with the help of his owner Merrimack, NH $550 Acryllic Paint Sold on Ebay

12. P OPULAR A BSTRACT M OVEMENTS De Stijl 1917-1931 Dada Movement 1916-1923

13. D E S TIJL This inspired a lot of artists in the Dada period Artists of this movement seek to express a new ideal of spiritual harmony and order. Achieve pure abstraction by reducing to the essentials of form and color they simplified visual compositions to the vertical and horizontal directions primary colors used only primary colors along with black and white.

14. P IET M ONDRIAN Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930

15. “I believe it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true…”

16. D ADA M OVEMENT Movement Involved Visual Art Literature Poetry Anti-war politics through a rejection of the prevailing standards in art Purpose was to ridicule other artists Show meaninglessness of the modern world

17. M ARCEL D UCHAMP Fountain, 1917

18. I S IT WORTH IT TO YOU ?