Cruise Ship Art Auctioneer: Not Your Average 9-to-5 Job

THE ART AUCTIONEERS representing Park West Gallery on cruise ships around the world certainly lead extraordinary lives. Though dedicated to their work and conducting Park West art auctions at sea, cruise auctioneers also get to have fun exploring the exotic locations they find themselves in – all while meeting fascinating people along the way.

For more information or to apply for a cruise art auctioneer position, please visit www.plymouthauctioneering.com
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“Without question one of the best career decisions I ever made was to work with Park West as an Art Auctioneer. I am an American and I was raised in Mission Viejo, California. When I was young I never got to travel further than Arizona. Everyone dreams of having that great jet-setting job traveling the world earning tons of money. When I finally decided to become an Art Auctioneer on a cruise ship I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I was scared because I knew very little about art; actually all I knew for sure was that this job was like nothing else I had ever encountered.

The training shoreside was intense, and the first four months on the job was a blur. As an Associate Art Auctioneer it was all about hard work and dedication, and you are constantly learning new things. Everything you do is preparation for the final phase: to become a Principal Art Auctioneer on your own cruise ship.

Needless to say, at some point pretty early on in the job I found myself typing away on Facebook on a Tuesday during a day off in port. One of my old friends was chatting with me while on a break in their cubicle at their 9-5 job. They asked me where I was, what I was doing, and what this new job was that I had gotten myself into.

I told them that I was on Cozumel Island in Mexico at a beach resort. I was lounging by a pool drinking cheap Coronas at No Name Bar (trust me, you will love it when you get there) after spending the morning SCUBA diving on some of the world’s best reefs. My new girlfriend from Sweden was sitting next to me and she was chatting with other shipboard friends from England and South Africa and Romania and Thailand. I was an art auctioneer / art dealer representing the world’s largest art dealer and I live and work on cruise ships all over the world.

My friend of course quickly replied “LOL – what are you really doing.” I think it was at that point that it hit me. I had found that dream job.

Working with Park West takes a lot of determination, hard work, creativity, people skills and a can do attitude. There are plenty of easy and fun days when the ship is in port and plenty of long hard days when the ship is at sea. The work is hard but the rewards are huge. This is not a 9-5 office job – you wake up in a new country every morning. You live for free on a luxury cruise line and have friends from all over the world. You have the opportunity and privilege to work with world class original artwork from some of the world’s greatest living artists and even some of art history’s greatest masters. The first time you ever pick up a 300+ year old Rembrandt your heart races; then it races even more when it sells to an excited client. You work with fun and happy guests who are on vacation and you can educate them and enrich their lives. You are part of a very strong team made up of top of their game outgoing go-getters who are wonderful to work with and call your friends.

Working with Park West is the best move I have ever made in my life, and I cannot wait to see what the next 5 years have in store for me, because somehow it just keeps getting better.”

Jason C. | Art Auctioneer
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

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Related Links:

• Plymouth Auctioneering
• Representing Park West Gallery as an Art Auctioneer May Be the Best Job In the World
• Park West Auctioneer on the Advantages of a Career Selling Art at Sea
• The People You Meet at Park West Art Auctions
• Park West Art Auctions at Sea Featured on CNBC

Matisse as Printmaker at the Baltimore Museum of Art

Henri Matisse is an artist of classical greatness and one of the strongest influences on the art of the 20th century. The Park West Gallery Collection is one of the world’s finest, showcasing fine art by masters including Henri Matisse. Browse the Park West Gallery – Matisse Collection >>
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BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – The Baltimore Museum of Art presents the first comprehensive exhibition on the printmaking of the great French artist Henri Matisse. Matisse as Printmaker features approximately 170 works of art spanning 50 years of Matisse’s career. More than 150 prints, as well as a selection of related paintings, sculpture, drawings, and books are included, providing compelling evidence of the important role printmaking played in the evolution of Matisse’s visual ideas.

Matisse as Printmaker loosely follows the chronology of Matisse’s career, from the artist’s earliest print in 1900 to the last in 1951. Examples of every printmaking technique used by Matisse — etchings, monotypes, lithographs, linocuts, aquatints, drypoints, woodcuts, and color prints — are included. Almost all of the prints involve serial imagery with the artist showing the development of a reclining or seated pose, the integration of models within interiors, the study of facial expressions, and the transformation of a subject from a straight representation to something more abstract or developed.

Illustrated books such as Poésies de Stéphane Mallarmé (c. 1932), Pasiphaé (1944), and Jazz (1947) demonstrate Matisse’s brilliant innovations in the presentation of serial imagery. The artist’s brief experimentation with color printmaking is represented with three impressions of the color aquatint Marie-José en robe jaune (1950) and a print titled La Dance (1935), which captures the composition of his first version of the mural intended for Albert Barnes. Though most of the exhibitions and research to date have focused on Matisse’s painting and sculpture, the rich variety of media and subject matter in Matisse as Printmaker significantly advance the scholarship and public awareness of this understudied aspect of Matisse’s oeuvre. These works are rarely on view to the public due to their sensitivity to light.

Matisse as Printmaker is now on view through Jan. 3, 2010

For more information, please visit www.artbma.org

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Related Links:

• Park West Gallery Artist Biographies: Henri Matisse
• Browse the Park West Gallery – Matisse Collection
• Matisse, Picasso, and Modern Art in Paris
• Matisse and Roding Tete-a-Tete in Paris

Artist Birthdays October 30 – ALFRED SISLEY

ALFRED SISLEY (October 30, 1839 – January 29, 1899)

• Nationality: British
• Field: Painting
• Art Movement: Impressionism
• ARTiFact: Because of his lack of salesmanship, Sisley’s work did not sell and was not appreciated until after his death. As a result, he spent the end of his life in poverty.
• Artist Quote: “Every picture shows a spot with which the artist has fallen in love.”
• Notable Artwork (shown below): Flood at Port-Marley, 1876.

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Related Links:

• Learn more about the artist Alfred Sisley
• More art puzzles and trivia
• Discover more about your favorite Park West Gallery artists