If you can't afford a $71.7 million Warhol...

Yesterday, at Christies, the NY auction house, a record was set for contemporary art sales. The sale totaled $384.6 million, according to the NY Times. Andy Warhol's "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) from 1963 sold for $71.7 million. The record for any contemporary art sold at auction took place on Tuesday, when Sotheby's sold Rothko's "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose" for $72.8 million.

In the world of photography, an Andreas Gursky diptych (for those who are fans- the great one titled 99 cent II) sold for more than $3.3 million at a London auction in February, topping the previous record of $2.9 million paid for Edward Steichen's "The Pond -- Moonlight" at a sale at Sotheby's in New York in 2006.

Alas, most of us are not in that elite company who can afford these prices when hanging art in our homes. How wonderful it is that because of high end digital technology, fine art photography can be affordable to all of us!

If you’re like me, I want my home to be filled with beautiful art but at the same time I’m raising a kid and just don’t have the $85 million to spare to hang a Picasso over the sofa. But I can afford high end digital fine art photography. And that’s why Will It Look Good Over The Sofa was created - to make fine art photography more affordable and accessible to you. Even for your kid's rooms! We make large limited editions and they’re signed by the artist. (Read our article about high end digital photography if you’re confused about it on our Living with Art Section).

I also read an article recently that listed the best selling subject matters in art- guess what’s number one? - traditional landscapes. Second is local views, then semi-abstract landscapes and then abstracts.

While nobody would ever tell you to buy art based on popularity (that in my opinion, would be the last reason to ever buy anything!) well, we do cover those categories at Will It Look Over The Sofa.

Abstracts, in particular, have been a growing category in our collection. This month we have 27 new abstract images by Stephen Joseph who is based in NY. A great up and coming photographer! In honor of Stephen, our Photo Of The Month is Stephen's abstract image called "Westside Tennis." 5% of the proceeds of the sale of this image will go to Habitat For Humanity.

This is the time of year when another kind of photography is also popular-
wedding photography. We’re in the finishing touches of launching our sister site- The Wedding Picture.biz. The site is for photographers and brides. We have lots of information, a shop, tips on charitable weddings and most importantly, because many wedding photographers (at least the ones we’re going to include on The Wedding Picture) also do some really great fine art photography, we hope to sell some of their work in the future on Will it Look Good Over The Sofa. So if you know anyone getting married soon, please spread the word.

Thanks,
Andrea Sperling
Will It Look Good Over The Sofa

Earth day is coming!

Earth Day is coming up so I’d thought I’d share with you a photograph I recently took in Rome. Here I am shooting ancient ruins that are over 2000 years old and what do I see in the Tiber River- nonbiodegradable plastics. Modern ruins, you could call them.

The fact that there was an Italian soccer ball in the mix of colorful plastics is what really caught my eye. I usually don’t take pictures like these- my idea of a landscape is a bit prettier. But face it, unfortunately this is what a modern landscape looks like, and I did find beauty in the colors and shapes of the plastics as they rolled downstream.

My family and I have really made it a point to try to stop using plastics - including bags and bottles as much as possible. We try to bring our own sacks when we shop. We’re trying to do our little part.

As a photographer, one of the benefits of shooting digital these days is that we don’t use chemicals, and we don’t have film and film canisters to pollute the planet with. I used to spend a fortune printing editions but now because of high-end digital printing, we have a master file on our computers and we print to order. This saves paper, time and ultimately money for people like you who want affordable art for your homes .

In honor of Earth Month, here are some of our favorite landscape images. Let us know what you think! On our website, www.WillItLookGoodOverTheSofa.com, of course you can see a lot more- look under our travel, countryside and landscape categories! And we've got cityscapes, too!


Our photo of the month is our little part to save the planet. 5% of the proceeds of Trees in Fog by Mark Feaster (see below) will go to Conservation International. On Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org) they’re listed as one of the top 10 charities that put their donations to good use. Their mission is to “conserve the earth’s living heritage, our global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that human societies are able to live harmoniously with nature.”

Happy Spring everyone!