Breaking news! The Sotheby’s recorded their biggest auction in their 268-year history. After selling 69 works, recording total of $375 million and achieving 95.6% sales value on Tuesday, Sotheby boosted to all art collectors around the world.

Yesterday, a Mark Rothko painting sold for $75 million and a Jackson Pollock painting for $40 million. Dealers feel this Rothko piece achieved such a high price because of the big size and tropical hues, which are considered desirable aspects by collectors. The Rothko was expected to sell for only $50 million, but five bidders chased after the painting, until a Sotheby’s specialist Charlie Moffett made the last call with $75 million.

Mark Rothko No 1Untitled Royal Red and Blue

Other works included were Andy Warhol’s Suicide piece which fetched $15.2 million and Franz Kline’s Shenandoah which sold for $9.3 million. Sotheby’s specialist Anthony Grant noted that the majority of the buyers were from United States, Malaysia, France, Switzerland and South America.

Andy Warhol, Suicide

While many attended the auction, most of the bids were made anonymously over the phone. Other top telephone bids recorded were Willem de Koonin’s Abstraction painting for $19.6 million, the Francis Bacon’s portrait Untitled (Pope) for $29.7 million and Gerhard Richter Abstract Painting for $17.4 million.

Francis Bacon, Untitled (Pope)

With the economy in mind, the Sotheby’s auction took an unexpected turn for many dealers and auctioneers, but the auction art market has always been an adrenaline driven experience. “If you want to talk about the market being happy, healthy and well, well, here it is. That’s probably about as good as it gets.” said Tobias Meyer, auctioneer and worldwide head of contemporary art (Sotheby’s).

-Yekaterina Sahakyan

Dating back to the Renaissance, male artists have often taken the spotlight over their female contemporaries.

According to theartwolf.com, the fifty most influential artists in history are all men, except for number 49!

Yet, many lesser-known women artists deserve more attention than they’ve received.

As an under-appreciated artist of the 17th century, female artist Lavinia Fontana’s classical style rivals that of the great Caravaggio, Michelangelo, and Donatello.

Holy Family with Saints Margaret and Francis by Lavinia Fontana

Unfortunately, Fontana’s gender led to insurmountably biased reactions within the fine art world that both stunted her acclaim and limited her painted subject matter.

Like Fontana, American painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt, one of the first more well-known female artists, painted what she, as a woman of the 19th century, knew best — domestic affairs.

Women with their children recurred throughout much of Cassatt’s artwork, depicting impressionistic maternal portraits.

A Kiss for Baby Anne (no. 3) by Mary Cassatt

Following Cassatt, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and American artist Georgia O’Keeffe also explored the truths of womanhood in the early 1900′s, exploiting hardship and femininity.

Self-portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird by Frida Kahlo and Light Iris by Georgia O’Keeffe

But it wasn’t until the late 1960′s and 1970′s that women artists and art historians took full charge of their art influence and founded a feminist art movement, examining the role of women in history and culture.

Through performance art and photography, esteemed female American artists like Carolee Schneemann, Hannah Wilke, Judy Chicago, and Cindy Sherman exposed the real experiences of women and the female body.

Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party is a monumental installation, comprised of a triangular table, each side 48 feet long, on which 39 women in history are represented by place settings. Inscribed in the Heritage Floor where the table rests are the names of 999 other historic women.

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago

Throughout Cindy Sherman’s prolific body of work, she addresses the stereotypes of women in society with self-portrait photographs, representing themes like naivete, self-obsession, and sexuality.

Untitled #360 by Cindy Sherman

Yet, the feminist art movement did not reign the art world for long.

With the 1960′s pop art movement and post-modernism beginning in 1970, male artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, and Anselm Keifer became kings of the court.

And so female artists continued to fall into the shadow of their male peers.

Hopefully the young and talented African American artist Kara Walker, British painter Jenny Saville, and American photographer Zoe Strauss will pave the way for women of the art world to easily shine.

Camptown Ladies by Kara Walker

Hypen by Jenny Saville and Daddy Tattoo by Zoe Strauss

- Ava Cotlowitz

Several weeks ago The Bare Square highlighted movie posters that have taken inspiration from the works or techniques of fine artists.

Today we bring to you another platform for fine art appropriation — album cover art!

While the virality of online music downloads has displaced the importance of the physical store-bought CD and LP, cover art remains a significant form of creative expression for the album it represents.

British rock band Coldplay released their fourth studio album Viva la Vida in 2008, using French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix’s 1830 painting Liberty Leading the People as cover art.

Viva la Vida and Liberty Leading the People

Australian alternative rock band Silverchair toyed with Piet Mondrian’s Composition No. 10 painting on the cover of their 2007 album Young Modern.

Young Modern and Composition No. 10

For the Washington-based band Fleet Foxes, the cover art for their 2008 album Fleet Foxes is a detail of the 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Fleet Foxes and Netherlandish Proverbs

American country rock band Pure Prairie League released a 1972 album featuring a modified version of Norman Rockwell’s Cowboy painting on the cover.

Pure Prairie League and Cowboy

German visual artist Gerhard Richter’s 1983 painting Candle was used for the cover of American alternative rock band Sonic Youth’s 1988 Daydream Nation album.

Daydream Nation and Candle

Now, in 2012, fine art extends beyond the album covers and onto the musicians themselves. Just watch Gotye’s music video for their number one hit Somebody That I Used To Know.

- Ava Cotlowitz