When I wrote the article on the extraordinary, the fantastic Jeremy Lipking I had no idea how popular he is. I just knew how much I liked his work.
And I had no idea that it is even possible for 8 paintings and 5 sketches signed Jeremy Lipking to be in a private collection in Romania.
In may this year I have received a totally unexpected email, signed Virgil Tornoreanu.
“Last month, Jeremy won Portrait’s Society of America 2009, International Portrait Competition in Washington DC Honor Award.
Here is a link to the painting from Jeremy. But if you want to see it in real life, it is in Timisoara, I bought it 2 years ago. It returned form DC last week”
Jeremy Lipking won 3 more awards from Portrait Society of America, in the previous years, starting with Best Of Show 2006, First Place 2007 and Exceptional Merit în 2008.
Virgil Tornoreanu is an art collector and a firend of Jeremy Lipking. He lives in Timișoara and he contacted me after reading the article on Lipking on this website. In his words “I wrote to you cause I was surprised to find an article on Jeremy Lipking in the Romanian language.”
I too was delighted and surprised so I asked mister Tornoreanu to tell me about himself.
Virgil is “portfolio manager in 2 companies (Werk MB Construct, www.werk.ro 150 employees and Top Agregate, www.topagregate.ro 30 employees). And General Manager in Best Agregate, a mining company with 40 employees, BD-Top OstEuropaInvest, www.osteuropainvest.at wit h10 employees, VOX FileMaker Solutions, www.filemaker-solutions.ro with 12 employees, providing turn key solutions for small businesses. I am on the bord of 6 other companies in tourism, food industry, etc. And I am an associate in a special glass constructioins company in Austria (were I also was General Manager till 2 years ago, www.glasbaucreativ.at).
I have graduated the business university in Hagen, Germany and the Constructions college Capus Fachhochschule, in Viena.
I got my appetite for art reading Gombrichțs “Art History”. I am grateful to a friend of mine in the US who made me read it saying “read the first 50 pages”. But I could not stop readidng and I read it again several times. I think it is the very best book to introduce you to art. What transforms an art lover into an art collector? That’s easy, the money.
I am past the point were the material possession had priority. I think you can find happiness and joy in art and all that is spiritual, music, painting, ballet and so on.”
Virgil being a friend of Jeremy and an art collector, I was curious to learn if he shares my opinion on contemporary versus classical masters .
My opinion, to put it abruptly (it is going to agitate spirits even if I try a softer phrasing) is this. Contemporary masters reached such subtlety and the technique that surpasses any classical painter. They reached a quality never seen in art before. A Lipking is extraordinary and his art has a museum quality.
But I wanted to ask mister Tornoreanu “What makes “Garcon a la Pipe” worth 100 million dollars, while a Lipking is 10 to 100 thousands dollars.“. I was implying that the price for a Picasso has nothing to do with an intrinsic quality of the painting. May have something to do with the vanity and the indifference to money of some collector.
Virgil agreed with me but wanted to phrase it in a slightly differently way.
“Contemporary masters ar just as good as the classics. But the price difference is based on many factors. The age of the author is one. Lipking is still young, he has time to grow. In 20, 30 his paintings will have a totally different price. Have a look at Lucien Freud who is 90, still paints and does so for quite a while. He has sold paintings with 20, 30 Million $. And
we know how the classics were living their lives.
There is more. At their time, those paintings were being sold for the same prices as those of today. The price is so high now cause they are much more rare. In 100, 150 years, a lipking will be 1000 or 10000 times more expensive.”
“Jeremy loves art. Don’t ask him to deliver a speach to the crowd but i n private he is fantastic. He can speak volumes about painting art in general or sports, movies and politics. He is a nice guy and you can have a drink with him, you will have a great time.
I know him for 3 years and the 3 times a year I travel to California I am meeting him (I am visiting a lot of painters). Today, Jeremy is considered the very best in this romantic figurative painter and he is young. His technique is fantastic and his works are museum ready.
A very good friend of mine who left the country during Ceausescu’s regime and now lives in California (surgeon in his own clinic nad the most passionate art lover I know) introduced me to him.”
I am delighted to know Virgil. I am delighted he is romanian and I am delighted that there are Jeremy Lipking paintings on a wall in Timișoara..
