[hitme]

Where does Jose Parla rank among contemporary artists today? His gallery shows sell out quick for big money, but then at auction like Bonham's yesterday, his pieces don't go for that much. What gives? I don't understand. His Parla still a little unknown in the art world compared to the masters of our generation?

Thoughts/comments?

[giiiant]

I did a google search for his name a few days ago and this humble forum appeared on the first page of results. Nowhere near as big as some people would have you believe.

[bonesy]

If there were a large ridiculous paiting, like from his recent shows, Im sure it would fetch great money. The prints (and even the watercolors) dont fully display his talents- though they will rise in price as his popularity and respect grows ffrom his larger pieces. IMO

[Daniel Silk]

I love his work, but I fear he might be the sort of artist that you can only really have one or two pieces on the wall I think a whole room with say 6+ pieces might look a bit strange.
Anyway all his prices are well out of my league

[guest2]

Oct 24, 2008 16:27:46 GMT 1 hitme said:

Where does Jose Parla rank among contemporary artists today? His gallery shows sell out quick for big money, but then at auction like Bonham's yesterday, his pieces don't go for that much. What gives? I don't understand. His Parla still a little unknown in the art world compared to the masters of our generation?

Thoughts/comments?

the prints are 2 bob and don't deserve to sell for much at all imo, the water colour at bonhams was an extra small one and sold for £7200. What do you want them to sell for? I think thats a good price personally or at least on te money. A large one at dreweattes sold for around aprox 11 - 12k and elms sold out of all there watercolours for around the same price. I'd say he had a pretty good month.

Parla won't be going down the street scene any more I feel, but he has star quality and will be on the up and up. He's been in it and will be in it for ever more. He's a painter of high end art who has a clear vison. He's in control.

[snausages]

Oct 24, 2008 16:52:23 GMT 1 bonesy said:

they will rise in price as his popularity and respect grows ffrom his larger pieces. IMO

Haven't they already risen? Used to be able to get a painting on canvas for £2000-5000, now they cost a ridiculous £20000 - 50000. His prints and watercolours are worth 3-5 times more than they were 2 years ago. How much more do you guys want?

And whether he remains a successful fringe artist or mainstream megastar is still just wild speculation.

[interceptor]

amen Frankie!

[guest2]

Oct 24, 2008 17:44:39 GMT 1 @snausages said:

Oct 24, 2008 16:52:23 GMT 1 bonesy said:

.... His prints and watercolours are worth 3-5 times more than they were 2 years ago..........

Make that 12 to 15 times on the watercolours!

[interceptor]

For the size of that watercolor it is a great result. If a major panel piece came up, i reckon it would hit 250k usd. This forum is a very very small pimple on the ass of the art world, and bonhams and drewatts are the wal-mart of the above said world.

[bonesy]

Oct 24, 2008 17:44:39 GMT 1 @snausages said:

Oct 24, 2008 16:52:23 GMT 1 bonesy said:

they will rise in price as his popularity and respect grows ffrom his larger pieces. IMO

Haven't they already risen? Used to be able to get a painting on canvas for £2000-5000, now they cost a ridiculous £20000 - 50000. His prints and watercolours are worth 3-5 times more than they were 2 years ago. How much more do you guys want?

And whether he remains a successful fringe artist or mainstream megastar is still just wild speculation.

I think his prices in a couple years time could be tripple what they are today. I dont want them to rise at all, I'll never be able to afford anything even where they are today. Im just stating i think his prices will continue to be on the up and up.

[Cocteau 101]

The guys pure quality plain and simple.

[Martin Whatson]

IMO he is one of the few graffiti artist that successfully has transferred his streetwork onto a canvas and made it work as fine art! I usually dont enjoy watching graffiti (seen, daim, loomit etc) on canvases, as they work so much better on the streets.
Thats why I rank him as one of the best graffiti related artist out there!
As I also rate Graffiti wery high in the contemporary art scene it appears he will be far up my list!

[snausages]

Oct 24, 2008 17:50:04 GMT 1 interceptor said:

For the size of that watercolor it is a great result. If a major panel piece came up, i reckon it would hit 250k usd.

Anything's possible. But a serious collector (if spending a quarter million dollars) would probably buy a painting by any number of artists who are in major museum collections, has major retrospectives, and serious critical acclaim etc. I'm not saying it can't happen to Parla, but it's wild speculation for sure.

[RBK]

How about you guys check this out....
www.joseparla.com/bio/index.html

How many of our beloved artists on here even have bios worth publishing? How many of our beloved artists have shown at Basel, had sell-out shows in multiple international galleries, and have multiple year long waiting lists for work?

Parla is an established contemporary artist - not a street/urban artist. Yes he draws inspiration from the street and once was the graffiti writer Ease but this dude is on some other sh|t!

And hitme - if you're basing an opinion on one half-sized water color and 2 screenprints from an auction held at the worst possible time in the recent economy - I suggest you go to Elms Lesters and get converted

[skanky]

Frankie got it spot on, as he said Parla is in control of his own destiny. His prices have not jumped over night and he has been pretty much all round the world with his work. The Hackney piece at Elms is truly museum quality and he is already in major collections, I know of a couple but its not right to say. Did you get the Elms book Snausages ? Happy to pick one up for you if you didn't, its a special book and well worth the money.

[onemandown72]

Oct 24, 2008 18:23:00 GMT 1 skanky said:

Frankie got it spot on, as he said Parla is in control of his own destiny. His prices have not jumped over night and he has been pretty much all round the world with his work. The Hackney piece at Elms is truly museum quality and he is already in major collections, I know of a couple but its not right to say. Did you get the Elms book Snausages ? Happy to pick one up for you if you didn't, its a special book and well worth the money.

Absoutely, and the man doesn't consider himself a street artist, but an artist. The street inspires him, but I cannot see this as a place where he wanted to remain who feel resricted by. It is a starting point.
He maybe young in terms of his career, yet with some people you just know how good they are. Tiger Woods is a giant of his sport, yet was barely into his stride when he was feted, as was the case with Maradona, De Niro pretty much did the same thing wiht his very early films, some people have that star quality

[Heavyconsumer]

The guy is a great artist. I don't really understand the need to rank artists in a numbered order! Art is subjective, so ultimately, if enough people like an artist's work, he becomes successful. Why would anyone even question the degree of success of an artist, whose works have risen in value exponentially in recent years and, who still has his whole life ahead of him, godwilling? Pointless thread? Yup.

[top]

Oct 24, 2008 18:00:46 GMT 1 Cocteau 101 said:

The guys pure quality plain and simple.

Reckon he's got more to come too

[interceptor]

NYC show opens nov 8th

[Francis]

Jose Parla is a good artist and is seen as a top notch artist is our scene, but he does not rate at all in the contemporary art market right now. There are probably at least 1,000 more well-known, in-demand, and "better" international artists that are in the contemporary art space.

[jp]

Oct 24, 2008 19:13:03 GMT 1 interceptor said:

NYC show opens nov 8th

Do you know how long it runs for? I'll be in NY for the Banksy show in Dec and it would be nice to see his work in person.

[James Smith 77]

Banksy show in December?

[kay7four]

Parla most definitly ranks up there in the contemporary art market. This guy is the real deal...from his approach to his pieces to his execution Parla is the entire package. Go stand in front of one of his massive pieces for an hour and I promise you , you will become a Parla loyalist. Parla has entered the history books and will stay there for a very long time. Buy now.
IMHO

[interceptor]

Oct 24, 2008 19:41:34 GMT 1 Francis said:

Jose Parla is a good artist and is seen as a top notch artist is our scene, but he does not rate at all in the contemporary art market right now. There are probably at least 1,000 more well-known, in-demand, and "better" international artists that are in the contemporary art space.

I know art is in the eye of the beholder, but id like to think ive seen a fair amount of art in my time. Mr Parla is on to something special and executes with perfection. He will be just fine and trump the 1000 others you speak of in due time.

[Francis]

Oct 24, 2008 20:03:56 GMT 1 interceptor said:

Oct 24, 2008 19:41:34 GMT 1 Francis said:

Jose Parla is a good artist and is seen as a top notch artist is our scene, but he does not rate at all in the contemporary art market right now. There are probably at least 1,000 more well-known, in-demand, and "better" international artists that are in the contemporary art space.

I know art is in the eye of the beholder, but id like to think ive seen a fair amount of art in my time. Mr Parla is on to something special and executes with perfection. He will be just fine and trump the 1000 others you speak of in due time.

Contemporary art is not about that. You have to be seen and owned by the right people and represented by the right gallerists.

[interceptor]

I agree 100% Francis and stand by my statement.

[snausages]

I think you guys are counting your chickens before they hatch. Parla is a great artist with a great career and a solid resumé but how he ranks in history compared to guys like Rauch, Murakami etc is probably going to be miniscule, eh, I could be wrong sure. But the way some of you price people just isn't based on anything I've seen. And I still find it odd how much some people demand that he be recongnized as a 'fine artist' I mean would you consider Banksy a fine artist? Not really yet he still sells for tons of dough. All this pushing him as a fine artist comes across as sort of desperate attempts at bigging him up. His work could be described as fine art sure but he doesn't flow with the chelsea and clique high end crowd. Not really.
And no I don't have the Elms book, I have his arkitip issue. Paintings are very nice sure. It's just when he has a retrospective or solo exhibitions at the MET, Moma, or a Kunsthaus or wherever then I might agree his paintings would be worth hundreds of thousands. In the meantime if I'm going to spend a quarter million dollars, still I'm going to buy a Neo Rauch or a hundred other artists who are much more known and respected.

[Francis]

Oct 24, 2008 20:23:19 GMT 1 interceptor said:

I agree 100% Francis and stand by my statement.

Yes, sorry. I agree that you agree. Just wanted to get that out the way though.

[snausages]

And another thing to consider is that we're probably in a period of time where we have an unprecedented amount of "huge successful artists still alive." How many are really going to make the cut in the long run in a very big way? Competition is utterly massive.

[loucastel]

Interesting to read some of the comments on here about Parla, I like the guy's work and would be verry happy with a canvas by him on my wall, however what I do question is whether his art is actually worth the prices put on it, as regards some of the bigger canvases, which I think are now selling through galleries for £30-£40-£50 K a pop,it would be interesting to see one of these top pieces up for auction to see if there would be any interest from the wider collecting market and not the niche collectors which it seems to be at present. after all as somebody already said ,do a google search and this forum is up there, and we on here are a miniscule part of the greater art world, so I think Mr Parla has quite som way to go And why when quoting auction prices do people always quote the hammer price plus fees, what if you did it the other way around and looked at the price the seller actually got, because to me that then becomes a realistic figure ,and gives you a good idea of what a work by any artist is worth, if you sold a piece. so looking at that formula, the price for the Parla at Bonhams wasnt so great for the seller who would have recieved somewhere in the region of £4800, bit of a difference really to the hammer price plus fees.