How To Buy Art Safely Online

Buying a piece of art is a personal experience, whether it is a gift or for yourself, every piece of art you own tells a small story of how and where you got it and why you love it.  Buying art online has many benefits: from the comfort of your own home you can literally buy anything for anywhere in the world, no matter what your budget is you will find something for you without spending hours trailing around the shops.

 

However, whilst taking advantage of the benefits of online shopping, it is important to protect yourself.

 

Feedback from other customers, on sites such as Ebay where this service is provided in a secure manner, is very important.  Or star ratings from sites such as Amazon.  Many people do not bother leaving feedback so if a service has been good enough for people to take the time to do so then is it likely that the seller is trustworthy.  I am wary of sites which give testimonials.  They may be genuine but are easy to fake.  Customer feedback is important but it must be secure.

 

Check before you make a purchase that secure payment is offered, something like Paypal where no bank details are given is best.  Or check that they offer more than one payment method, as legitimate businesses do, so that you can choose the one you are comfortable with.  Sending a cheque or postal order may be preferable to giving credit card details, however it is slower and for trusted sellers credit cards are a perfectly safe way to pay, though always check for the little secure padlock icon on the bottom right of your screen to make sure it is a secure connection.

 

Before buying find out what the shipping cost is.  If it is hidden be wary.  Sometimes sellers offer you a ‘bargain’ price then charge high shipping fees to make a profit.  If the cost of post and packaging is clearly displayed you can judge for yourself if it is appropriate, taking into consideration the item’s location.

 

An important point that many people fail to consider is the seller’s returns policy.  Do they offer complete refunds for damaged or faulty goods, or goods that are not as they were described?  Some sellers will refund you the postage costs of returning an item, some will not.  Some sellers will say that they take no responsibility for items lost or damaged in the post.  If no returns policy is stated at all then it may be worth contacting the seller to ask.  Rather than pay money for something damaged or faulty, make sure that you know upfront that any potential problems will be dealt with.

 

Ask the seller questions about the item.  How quickly do they respond?  How full are their answers, do they know their product well?  Are they helpful and polite or do they treat your question as an inconvenience?  This will give you a good idea of how they treat their customers.

 

Ensure that you have read the item description correctly, pay attention to the specifics.  If you can compare different sellers selling similar items, are the prices and the service offered comparable?  Do a little background research into your item so that you understand any technical terms used by the seller.  Know exactly what you are buying.  If you make the mistake and buy the wrong thing the seller doesn’t have to refund to refund you.

 

Finally, keep all receipts and paperwork and any tracking information given.  Take a note of the contact details of the company you are buying from just in case a problem does arise.

 

There is a lot of beautiful and unique art for sale out there.  When you find the right piece for you, buy safely and you will have something you can treasure for life.  

 

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20th Century German Expressionist Artists: Max Pechstein

Max Pechstein was one of the artists who formed Die Bruche, The Bridge: a group of people who sought to inspire the masses to change their lives and one of the only members of the group to have had formal artistic training.  However he was kicked when, in 1912, he held an exhibit of his work, breaking one of the rules that the group would only show their work together. 

 

Then in 1916 he enlisted and fought in the trenches of WWI, leading to his creation of a series of lithographs called ‘The Horror of War’. 

 

1918 saw him co-found the Novembergruppe.  Taking its name from the November Revolution which had culminated in the corrupt monarchy being overthrown, the Novembergruppe was a group of expressionists who shared socialist values.  They campaigned for greater freedom and control of the arts.

 

However, in 1933, when the Nazis came to power they vilified him, removing 326 of his paintings from museums and removing him from his post as a professor at the Berlin Academy.  The infamous Entartete Kunst, Degenerate Art exhibition where the Nazis mocked anti-war art and turned its power to speak to the people into the power to silence them featured 16 of his works.  During this time he sought refuge in Pomerania.

 

He was reinstated by the Berlin Academy in 1945 and subsequently won many titles and awards for his work.  He died in west Berlin in 1955.   

 

Works: Kneeling Man at the Tideway of Dangast

            Circus

            Self Portrait With Death

            House on the Beach

 

 

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Felix Nussbaum: Artist and German Jew

Felix Nussbaum had a great future ahead of him as an artist and he won a scholarship to study art in Rome with a small group of other artists.  However, when there, they had a visit from Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda and public enlightenment, who informed them that they were to paint only scenes of Nazi propaganda.  Realizing then that a Jew had no place in this Nazi doctrine he left Rome and subsequently had his scholarship removed.

 

During this time his parents had moved out of Germany to Switzerland and they traveled to Italy to see him for what would be the last time.  Though he pleaded for them not to they missed Germany and decided to go back in 1935.  By 1939 they fled the country again this time to Amsterdam to be with his brother Justus. 

 

Felix himself went on the run first to Paris, then Belgium ending up in Brussels in 1937.  Then in 1940 when the Nazis attacked he was branded by the authorities and ‘enemy alien’ and sent to a French detainment camp.  A few weeks later, after the appalling treatment of the camp, he applied to return to Germany.  At a checkpoint in Bordeaux he escaped by boarding a train to Brussels.

 

There he lived in hiding.  He had no official papers so relied on friends who gave him shelter and art supplies to continue his work.  In 1944 his parents and brother and his family were all sent to Auschwitz.  He was arrested just before Brussels was liberated and also sent to Auschwitz, where he, and indeed all his family were murdered.  He had survived for ten years on the run and died one month before the liberation of Brussels.

 

His art is anti-war, as with so many of the artists of this time, but deeply personal.  One of his most famous works is Self Portrait with a Jewish Pass.  It shows him with the star all Jews were forced to wear showing a pass to a Nazi guard.  The guard is not in the picture, instead Felix looks out of the painting at you, and is showing you the pass as he waits for your judgement as if you are the guard.  In this way he draws the viewer into his world: giving a small but powerful insight into life as a German Jew.     

 

 

Works: Self Portrait With a Jewish Pass

            The Camp Synagogue at St Cyprian 1941

            The Pearls (mourners)

            Masquerade

            The Wandering Jew

 

 

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Female 20th Century German Expressionist Painter: Kathe Kollwitz

Born in 1867 to a father who was a radical social democrat who became a mason and house builder and educated by her grandfather on matters of religion and socialism Kathe Kollwitz dedicated her life to political activism.  From an early age she was confronted by death when her younger brother died, leaving her deeply affected.

 

Her father’s encouragement beginning at the age of 12 saw her progress artistically until she was old enough to go the Women’s School of Art in Berlin, at a time when women were not allowed to study like men.  At the age of 17 she got engaged to a medical student Karl Kollwitz whom she would not marry until 1891 when he was a qualified doctor.  In the years in between she studied at Munich woman’s art school, discovering there that she was a more talented draftsman than painter, then she returned to her home and rented a studio where she continued to draw Germany’s working class laborers.

 

Two of her greatest works were The Weavers: an etching cycle inspired by the oppression of Silesian Weavers in Langembielau and their ultimately unsuccessful buy violent revolt in 1842, and The Peasant War: and etching cycle equally inspired by a violent revolution this time in southern Germany during the early years of the reformation when, in 1525, the peasants took arms against the feudal lords of the church who treated them as slaves.

 

During WWI she lost her one of her sons to the fighting and lost a grandson to WWII.  All throughout her life she was a pacifist and produced anti-war art.  She provided prints for the left-wing publications of pre-Nazi Germany and during the power struggle which followed the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II sought to ally the workers with the communist Soviets.

 

When the strongly anti-communist Nazis came to power they banned her from exhibiting and stripped her of her teaching post at the Berlin Academy of Art.  Despite all this she stayed in Germany.  She left Berlin in 1943, and during the latter days of the war her house was destroyed by an allied bomb, taking with it the majority of her work, all except a small portfolio she took with her.

 

In 1932 she finally finished her monument to the son she had lost in 1914: sculptures called The Grieving Parents.  She was the first woman to be elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts.  She died in 1945 in Moritzburg.    

 

Works: The Weavers

            Peasant War

            Death and Woman

            Death Woman and Child

           

 

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German Expressionist Painters: George Grosz

As did many of the German artists of the time George Grosz fought in the trenches of WWI, having volunteered for military service.  In 1915 he was discharged on medical grounds however he was drafted in the January of 1917 due to the shortage of soldiers, where he did not fight but guarded and transported prisoners of war, but by the May he was given permanent discharge as he was unfit for duty after a suicide attempt forced them to diagnose shell shock.

 

Having faced his own disillusionment about the nature of war he turned his attention the bourgeoisies of 1920s Germany and painted a series of mocking caricatures of them and those who were in support of war.

 

He provided illustrations for German left-wing publications through his involvement with the German Dada group, and became a member of the KPD, the German communist party in 1919.  He was arrested during the Spartacist uprising which marked the end of the German revolution, but he escaped using fake identification papers.  In 1921 he was accused of insulting the army and was fined 300 German marks and had his work Gott Mit uns, God With Us – a satire condemning German Society – destroyed.

 

After spending five months in Russia meeting with people like Trotsky and Lenin he left the KPD, unwilling to live under any sort of dictator and as such his politics were strongly ant-Nazi.

 

He was invited by the Art Studies League of New York to teach there in 1933, just at the time when the Nazis came to power.  He received word that they had been to his apartment and his studio looking for him and so he stayed in America, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1938.  During this time his work become more romantic and to many this signaled a decline.

 

He continued to teach, forming a private art school in his own home during the 1950s and he worked as an artist in residence.  He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1954. 

 

He returned to Berlin where he died after a fall down some stairs in 1959.

 

Works: Suicide 1916

            Fit For Active Service 1918

            Grey Day 1921

            The Face of the Ruling Class 1921

            The Eclipse of the Sun 1928

 

 

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20th Century German Expressionist Artists: Otto Dix

Famed for his realistic images of war, Otto Dix had plenty of memories to draw from.  Believing, as many did, the WWI would be ‘the war to end all wars’ he volunteered for the German army and eventually found himself fighting at the Battle of the Somme on the western front as a non-commissioned officer of a machine gun unit where he was injured several times, seriously once when he was hit in the neck by shrapnel.  He then fought on the eastern front until Russia and Germany negotiated peace whereupon he found himself back on the western front fighting the German spring offensive.

 

Having financed his way through the Dresden School of Arts by painting portraits, after the war he used his talent to paint war veterans whom he shared a kinship with.  His paintings depicted the dark reality of the forgotten many, maimed and starving in 1920s Germany and became increasingly political and left-wing.  His paintings was so shockingly graphic that one museum director was forced to resign for exhibiting them.  In 1920 he exhibited in German Expressionists in Darmstadt.  He produced a portfolio of 50 etchings called ‘War’ in 1924 and in 1928 and 1932 he painted perhaps his most famous works: the triptychs Metropolis and Trench Warfare.

 

In order to continue working as an artist after the fascists rose to power he was forced to join the Nazi controlled Imperial Chamber of Fine Arts, painting only landscapes, though he still painted a few paintings in defiance of their regime.  They stripped him of his teaching post at the Dresden Academy and used his paintings of WWI such as The Trench and War Cripples in their propaganda exhibition Entartete Karst or Degenerate Artist.  Later these paintings were burned. 

 

In 1939 he was arrested and charged with conspiring against Hitler but was later released and the charges dropped.

 

During WWII he was conscripted into the Volkssturm or German national militia which led to his capture and imprisonment in a POW camp in France.  He was released after the war in 1946 and returned to Dresden where he continued to paint on the themes of religion and post-war suffering.  He died in 1969.

 

Works: Seven Deadly Sins

            Trench Warfare

            Metropolis

           

 

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German Expressionism: The Art of Revolution

The origins of the expressionist art movement are credited to the artists of Germany who worked between the world wars.  Many of the soldiers who fought in the trenches of World Was I were artists, or were to become established as artists as the horrors of war sought an outlet form their memories. 

 

These earliest of works showed contempt in equal measure for the butchery of human beings on the front lines and the bourgeois elite who sat at home patting themselves on the back for a job well done. 

 

When the war was lost in 1918 the corrupt monarchy of Wilhelm II was overthrown and hope bloomed in the streets of Germany, and people breathed in the sweet scent of a new beginning with all its intoxicating promises.  In this climate activist groups flourished, with calls for democracy and communism and right-wing regimes also filling the streets.

 

The artists of this time formed groups of their own and called on other artists to back the provisional government; the expressionists formed Arbeitsrat fur Kunst or the Workers Council for Art.  They worked closely with the Novembergruppe who formed under the name and influence of the November Revolution which was a series of events culminating in the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on 9^th November 1918 and the establishment of a parliamentary republic.  These groups call for all artists, sculptors, painters, architects, writers and composers to unite and build a new society.

 

Swift action was taken by the right-wingers to oppose them, the same people who would form the core of the Nazi regime, who had prominent socialist leaders arrested and murdered.  They took a year planning a coup to capture Berlin’s governmental buildings.  Ultimately this move failed when 12 million German workers held a general strike which drove the right-wings from power.  It was at this time, however, that the National Socialist German Works Party was founded, one of the most active and strong-voiced members of this party was one Adolph Hitler.

 

During this era of the fascist climb to power the artists worked hard to disparage them and their principles, producing work which expressed the grim future and highlighted the need for change.  Though some artists sought to escape the current political climate in their work, producing portraits, landscapes or religious works, all felt the oppression beginning to descend.

 

When the Nazis did come to power the artists lost any status they had as teachers or painters, were forbidden to exhibit or create, many went into exile as their contemporaries were arrested and killed.  Thousands of artworks were removed from public view in the museums and galleries of Germany, then the Nazis turned the power that the artists had once wielded against them when the formed their own exhibit of these same artist’s works.  This they called the Entartete Kunst: Degenerate Art.  Within the exhibition they mocked the works by hanging the badly, at angles and decorating them perversely with Nazi banners and badges. 

 

The artists themselves were, the Nazis proclaimed, madmen, Jews and Communists and morally deficient.  They succeeded in creating the end of art in Germany only for as long as they were in power, for after the liberation of the country many of the artists, some of whom who had forged successful careers in other countries, returned and resumed their posts as teachers in the academies and art schools and continues to produce great works of art.

 

 

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The Expressionist Art Movement

Expressionism was an artistic style which grew like a rose out of the soil of the late 19^th early 20^th century society. Originating in Germany and Austria and following the anti-authority thinking of people such as Freud, Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky, the expressionist movement focused on the expression of inner experience and emotion. It was less concerned with the reality of what a subject looked like and expressed the artist’s emotional reaction to it.

Expressionist paintings can often be characterised by distorted forms drawn in bold colours and two dimensions, without perspective. But always sought to depict intense emotion and was always strongly subjective. Often the images were full of angst such as Edvard Munch’s The Scream, or the latter paintings of Vincent and Gough such as The Starry Night.

 

Around the time of World War II the expressionist art movement had migrated to the shores of America. Indeed, it was the artists of this time which established New York as a place of importance in the art world. It has been said that expressionism was a precursor to surrealism and influenced artists such as Dali.

 

A huge part of the movement in America became abstract expressionism, characterized by dripping paint onto the canvas. One of the most famous of the abstract expressionist painters of this period was Jackson Pollock.

 

Interestingly the artists pioneering this movement never described themselves as expressionists, it was a label given to them, and as an artistic style is still very much alive today within the work of many contemporary painters.

 

 

Common Fashion Mistakes Women Should Avoid

-         Wrong colours.  Know your skin and hair tone and what colours compliment you.

-         Wrong size.  Be honest when you shop.  Wearing the right size clothes in good tailored fitting will make you look wonderful no matter what your size.

-         Wrinkled clothes.  Avoid looking like you haven’t made the effort.

-         Slave to fashion.  Don’t pick the trends up from the catwalks unless you are sure they will suit your bony shape and colouring.

-         Wrong underwear.  Wear good, well fitting underwear and don’t show bra straps or slip hems.

-         Too short skirts.  They make it too easy to flash, keep your modesty intact.

-         Too many colours.  Lots of colours together confuse the eye, choose two or three.

-         Too many patterns.  Again, confusing and messy.  Don’t be afraid of colour or pattern but less is more.

-         Too many accessories.  Accessories can really make an outfit, but again don’t overdo it.

-         Unmatched shoes.  Make sure your shoes match your outfit or stockings.

-         Stuck in rut.  Don’t always stick to the one style of clothes, have some fun changing your wardrobe.

-         Inappropriately dressed.  Always dress for the occasion or wear functional clothes depending on the weather or season.

-         Inappropriate make up.  Day make up is lighter than evening and summer is lighter and more sunkissed than winter which is darker and matte.

-         Scruffy shoes.  The best outfit in the world can be ruined with scruffy shoes.

-         Unmatched fabrics.  Dress for the season, heavier knit for winter doesn’t match with the lighter sheer summer fabrics.

-         Uncoordinated wardrobe.  Try to create a wardrobe of clothes you can mix and match so that you don’t have to worry about putting outfits together.

-         Same hairstyle.  Update your hairstyle, don’t get stuck in a rut.

 

 

 

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Top 10 Fashion and Style Tips For Women

 

 

1 – Know your body shape

Petite women should avoid chunky clothes and strong prints.  Instead go for fitted shapes and soft fabrics, narrow belts subtle contrasts of colour and texture.  Keep everything streamlined so as not to cut the body in half.

Busty women should wear eye-catching skirts (shorter if you are comfortable) and trousers, strong prints and colours or textures draw the eye away from the top half of the body.  Wearing a single block of colour is thinning.  Avoid eye-catching tops, instead wear long jackets that draw the eye down.  Darker coloured tops which are loose fitting and waist hugging.

Pear shaped women should love vertical lines, V-necks and skirts with slits up the side.  Straight of A-line skirts to just below the knee.  Dark tights and shoes with colour or pattern in a blouse or top, tops should hang past the hips.  Classic cuts on top in lighter colours draw the eye away from the hips.  Accent the V-neck with a V or Y- shaped necklace.

Tall women should avoid tight clothes.  Wear the right skirt length, too short or too long will be out of proportion.  As with petite women keep everything streamlined, wear blouses over trousers so as not to shorten your top half.

Rectangular women should wear pattern.  Feminine knit sweaters over skirts are great.  Wear a round neckline and mirror it with a round necklace or scarf. 

2 – Dress to suit your personality

Rock chick – accessorize and clash a little but keep it feminine.

Urban chic – take advantage of the wonderful high street fashion, stunning yet simple.

Sporty – Layer trendy casual clothes.

Arty – Taking the contemporary fashion and adding a dash of your own personality to spice things up.

Sexy – Sensual fabrics, curvy and delicious.  A splash of colour and scent.

Retro chic – Great accessories, and a flare for those classic, all time looks.

Romantic – Classic cuts, tailoring and soft colours, lace, embroidery and pearls.

3 – The right accessories can make all the difference

- V and Y- shaped necklaces draw the eye down

- Round necklaces fill the neckline

- Ultra long earrings elongate the neck

- A long, trailing belt elongates the legs

- The right hat can make an outfit

- Cocktail rings add fun and colour and a bit of sparkle to a casual outfit

- Scarves can be arty

- A matching jewellery set can bring an outfit together

4 – Wake up to make up

- Make your eyes sparkle with a contrasting eye shadow

- Open out the eye by highlighting down the middle of the lid

- Use black for a dramatic look

- Use grey for smoky eyes with a delicate pink lipstick

- Choose a red lipstick for a classic look but choose one close to your own natural colour for precision.

- When creating bold eyes, keep paler lips.  When choosing red lipstick do paler eyes.

- Use the colour palettes made up by the manufactures instead of matching your own eye shadow tones.  Blend the colours well.

5 – A bag for life

- For daywear a good sized leather bag in a classic style cut.  This season gives you plenty of choice as to colour and texture.

- For evening wear the clutch bag is back or alternatively go for a shoulder bag with a chain strap. 

6 – Keep everything in proportion

- petite people elongate themselves with a slim cut

- for slim hips wear straight leg trousers/skirts, avoid flared ankles.

- for curvy hips balance them out with an A-line skirt, not a bias cut

- to hide hips wear flared trousers and a classic cut top

- wear a blouse with a short skirt

- wear a trim jumper with a long skirt

- heels are always slimming

- wear the right jacket, length and bulk are important here

7 – Dress for the season

- in spring / summer wear the bronzer and shimmery make up

- for spring / summer wear lower cut and soft fabrics in bright colours

- in autumn / winter matte make up with slightly darker tones

- for autumn / winter wear natural colours and natural fabrics, knitwear, leather, cotton, linen

8 – Don’t mix styles

- less is more

- there are many trends this season don’t wear bold colours, metallics, animal print and retro glamour all at once.

- Pick one style per outfit and don’t go overboard, often one or  two accessories will look fabulous with a simple outfit.

9 – Have fun with subtle changes

- have jewellery that you can mix and match each day

- change your parting

- wear a scarf as a belt

- wear basic clothes in unusual ways

- use a brooch on a ribbon as a chocker

- wear a long necklace or a scarf as a bracelet

- add cabochon beads to an old bag and use it again

10 – It all comes down to the basics

- a good pair of jeans go for comfort, there are lots of styles which are fashionable this year.  It is important to try them on before you buy.  If going for skinny jeans get stretchy ones.  If you have curvy hips got for low boot cut jeans to show them off.  If you need a little more room for thighs and calves go for a relaxed fit, or for the bum go for low waist, low pockets and balance things out with flared ankles.  This season go for dark colours and textures.

- a leather jacket is an autumn/winter basic.  Go for a good feminine cut, no need to look like a biker unless you choose that style.

- a classic suit if you don’t wear one to work is great for many occasions.

- a white blouse is versatile and feminine

- a proper coat again go for a feminine cut at a length that suits you.

- boots there are many refreshing changes to the classics this year

- evening dress think of the whole outfit before you buy and make sure you have shoes and jewellery to match, maybe get a versatile dress that can be dressed down for occasions too.

- high heels the shoes to dance the night away in

- appropriate bag barrel bag for overnight, clutch bag for evening, shoulder bag for day.

- Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the correct underwear.  Start with a good foundation and the rest of the outfit will follow.  Go and get yourself measured if you are not sure.

 

 

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