In 2017, Salvator Mundi – a painting by art icon Leonardo da Vinci – sold for a record-breaking sum of $450 million at Christie’s Auction House. The sale price more than doubled its previous record; $179.4 million for a Picasso painting in 2015.
When an artist says that they are prepared to bleed for their art, most people probably assume that he or she is speaking figuratively. However, as several artists have proved over time, some of them mean it literally – and they do not stop at using blood.
Often using their bodies as the canvas or the medium, performance artists are known for challenging, inspiring, and sometimes controversial performances. Whether they seek to question accepted norms or to comment on a socio-political situation, the most noteworthy artists embody their craft in unforgettable ways.
There are few things that are quite as sad as losing a true work of art to either a natural disaster, a fire, or even war. Over the last few centuries, there have been a number of pieces of art that have been lost to the ages; pieces that we will never be able to get back, but that many still remember.
Although they can never truly be brought back, we can learn from the loss and ensure that future and current works of art are never lost again, and that they are always preserved well.
Art is a subjective medium, and everyone has their own opinions when it comes to any piece of art. Some art, however, along with its artists, was so influential that it essentially changed the course of the art world forever. These are artists that spent their entire lives honing their skills and creating works that would go on to mystify people even hundreds of years later.