Bob Ross’ first painting headed to auction!

Hello everyone. Welcome back to By Amara. This is a weekly news show where we'll discuss some of the weird, strange, and downright odd things that happen in the art and history fields.

I'm your host and personal curator, Amara Andrew. This week, we're talking about a Pokémon Van Gogh collab. Yes, it is coming.

Museum lifts Guernica photo ban, and the first ever Bob Ross painting is for sale. So, we have all that and more coming up on this episode of By Amara. So, let's get to it.

I think that was the smoothest As I choked to death while I'm trying to say it. I think that was this is the smoothest transition I've done in a while. Okay.

Well, now, it's going downhill, of course. Well, welcome back to By Amara. This is episode 49.

What? Last week, we celebrated one year of By Amara. Granted, I've taken some time off, so the number of episodes doesn't exactly correlate with weeks, but that's fine.

Who's counting? If you're counting, then you need to do more with your life.

Anyway, welcome back to the podcast. If I seem down, it's just because it's been gray for a few days here, so it's just like, bleh. And like I like this time of year because it's fall, so it like starts to get cozy, and Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday, so it's coming up next month, which is really exciting.

I love Halloween. I'm obsessed with it. But it does make me a little sad, the weather.

If it was sunny, that would be perfect, but yeah, it just is like bleh.

But anywho, let's get chipper. There's a lot more coffee to be drank, and that'll boost my spirits. So anyway.

So, this is the part of the show where I just normally do updates. How is your week going, by the way? I hope it's going well.

This week has been a little busy, but not too crazy busy. It's been good to just kind of like settle in a little bit more since we were traveling a bunch. It is funny, though, because Jeff and I were literally saying to each other we went to go record one of the other podcasts that he

Is part of. He's part of like Kidney Stone Diet, which is a whole platform. If you suffer from kidney stones, you should check it out.

But we went with there to record new podcast episodes, and we were just talking about how because we were traveling so much, and now it just feels weird to be stationary so much. So, we're actually That actually brings me to my next point, which is there will be no podcast episode next week. I'm going to do my best and try to make it happen, but I just Let's just plan on there not being an episode just so you're well aware.

We are going to be out of town. We're going to LA, and we're going to do some shooting, but then also we're going to a real estate convention. Like we're not realtors, but we work with a lot of realtors, and it's called

FabCon. One of Jeff's friends he's known forever and now my new friend, he's actually host like putting on the entire conference. So, it's really exciting to see him kind of in his in his element and everything.

So, anyway, we're going to be doing that. So, no podcast next week. I'm sorry, but that's just how it's it's working out.

We have a lot of travel. This week, we also went to our neighborhood block party, which was interesting. We are not very social with anybody in our neighborhood.

We're just not very social people in general,

And like I like talking to people, but I do definitely have a limit where I'm like, "Okay. I've had enough. I just need to hide." And it's also interesting because everybody's at a very different life stage than we are.

So, like they all are like married, two and a half kids, full-time job. Like very specific people, and that's totally fine. Like if that's you and you love it, you do you, but we are not that kind of people, so

It's interesting trying to just like find common ground with people and try to talk, which we totally did. Like everybody was very nice, but it's just it's different when you're talking to people that you don't really have a lot in common with. And then, they also all know each other because they have kids and the kids kid together.

So, we're we're very out of the loop. We're very far removed, and we normally travel when the block party is anyway. So, it's it was by sheer happenstance we were in town.

So anyway, went to a block party, and it was like a little awkward. And then, we ended up just leaving super early cuz also I was like, "I don't really feel social tonight. Like I don't really care

Enough." Do you ever have those times? Like I like going out, but then whenever we do, I'm like, "We can just go home because this isn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be." I think I build it up in my head, and then I'm like, "Ugh, whatever." Anyway, I'm just blabbering. So, that is it for us, I believe.

Yeah, I think that's literally the only update I have. I also I've been trying to find story updates. I could not find one about that little vase I talked about

A couple weeks ago where it was going to auction and then some of the proceeds were going back to a thrift store where the couple who is like selling it at auction is going back to that thrift store, like some of the proceeds. And I literally cannot find a single damn thing about it. So, if you know what the fuck I'm talking about, please send me stories or if you've heard anything, let me know because I genuinely cannot find a damn thing.

So, anyway, with that, no story updates, so I think

Let's just get straight into the show. Brace yourself. A Pokémon Van Gogh collab is coming.

And I know it's Van Gogh. I talk about this in every fucking episode because for some reason Van Gogh comes up in every episode, and I hate it. However,

I'm saying Van Gogh because I want to. So, Van Gogh and Pokémon are collabbing. This is a lifelong dream that Vincent van Gogh had.

He wrote about it in his diary and he wrote about it to his brother Theo, and he was just like, "I need to work with Pokémon in the future." Just kidding. I'm just being an asshole. But no, in all seriousness though, this collab is coming, and it's coming September 28th, which is also when the Sony a7C II

Camera is being shipped out, and I'm very excited because I am waiting for that camera, so I'm just I'm so excited. I can't wait. So, that is why that date sticks out to me.

Anyway, I digress. So, there's really no information about this collaboration. There's a little bit.

There's a whole video, and I'm going to break it down for you. But I genuinely have no idea what this collab is going to be. There will probably be a fuck ton of merch, though, so

Let's talk about what we know so far. On September 12th, the Pokémon YouTube channel posted a 39-second video. I almost said minutes.

That would be very long. It was an entire epic. They posted a 39-second video to promote this collaboration.

So, basically, what you see in the video, it's Pikachu and Eevee. They're going down this like little dirt road surrounded by sunflowers, obviously, Van Gogh.

And the they're just like running down the road, and then you see this picturesque landscape, again, because Van Gogh, and you see windmills and shit, and it's very Van Gogh. So, it looks like a French countryside, obviously, like I said, because Van Gogh. So, they're running along, and then a little like sploop of like blue paint plops on Pikachu's head, and then they both look up, and they're like, "What the fuck?" And then, that would have been

Really funny if they actually said that. But then, they look up, and then they see that it's like a the sky turns into a Van Gogh painting. It's very like swirly, and you can see all the globs of paint and everything like that.

And that's basically it. Then Oh, and then, all the Sunflora come out. They're terrifying, by the way.

They're If you don't know what I'm talking about, they're little like sunflower heads and like little bodies, and they have arms and legs and faces, and they can like run around, and they're smiling, and it's like actually a little creepy.

It really freaks me out. Like they're kind of cute, but also very terrifying, and I don't like them at all. So, they come running out, and then the video's just over.

Then, you see the two logos, like Pokémon, and then Van Gogh Museum, they come into making fucking hand gestures. My brain is not on. It's the gray weather.

Honestly, it just makes me feel so tired and just like, "Bleh."

But anyway, so the logos come in together, and then they separate, and then you see a painting. It's Sunflowers by Van Gogh, one of Sunflowers, but whatever. But it's like the quintessential iconic Van Gogh painting, and instead of a sunflower, like in the middle, you see a Sunflora.

So, that might be a hint as to what is coming. Again, there literally is no information. Like that's just it.

That's all that was released. That's all that was tweeted about. They've turned off comments on YouTube

And No, not on Twitter, X, or whatever the fuck. You can actually comment on it still. But on YouTube, they turned off all comments, which I thought was interesting.

So, there is a little bit of speculation going around about what it is. I don't know why, my first thought was, "Oh, it's going to be Pokémon Go at the Van Gogh Museum," but it's 100% not. Like, I don't know why the fuck I thought that, cuz also, is that even still a thing?

I digress. So,

This isn't unusual, though, for Pokémon to partner with a museum, because actually, in 2018, they partnered with the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art when they had an Edvard Munch collection. So, this might be what we're in store for. Again, this is all total speculation.

It's not 100% like, "Oh, yeah. That's totally going to be it." But at this collaboration in 2018,

Visitors to the museum were able to purchase five different rare Pokémon cards that featured Edvard Munch's The Scream, obviously, as like the backdrop, and then you had different Pokémon characters as the central figures instead of the person screaming in it. It was actually a Pokémon character, which is kind of cute, especially Pikachu.

That was adorable. So, that was what you could purchase at the museum at this exhibition.

That could possibly be something that they're going to do. So, like seeing that Sunflora at the end of the video, that might be a card. There might be various different Van Gogh portraits or paintings or whatever with different Pokémon in it.

I have no idea. Or it's all Sunflora, which sounds like hell to me. They're very creepy.

I don't know why they freak me out so much. I think it's just like the creepy smile. That is literally it.

That's all we know. Just know that it's coming. There might be plushies and all sorts of merch and stuff like that.

I literally have no idea, but obviously, there will be an update for this in the future very soon.

I don't know why. I've just been thinking about this a lot lately, too, because Van the Van Gogh Museum, or just like the stewards of Van Gogh's work, he's everywhere. Like, he's omnipresent.

But his Like with the I'm trying to formulate my own fucking thoughts as I'm saying this.

But when you go to those weird exhibits where it's like the whole room is a painting, and then there When we were in Vegas in March for my birthday, there was like a really weird exhibit kind of thing. It was like a gift shop, but you could like go in, and it was so weird. It was so, so weird.

It was at the Aria Hotel where we stayed, and it was just or like Crystal Bridges shopping thing, whatever. It was very weird. But

I feel like Van Gogh is being way overdone. I mean, obviously, he has been for forever, cuz every kid who's in art history always has like the shoes, or the backpack, or the pin, or some fucking Van Gogh meme, or whatever. But I really feel like, I don't know, just the way that they are approaching legacy is very interesting, and it's sort of complex.

And I kept thinking of Disney also, which I'll talk about in a second,

But just the fact that they're partnering with everybody and licensing his work out in various different formats, I don't know. I get wanting to have legacy and becoming part of the cultural lexicon, cuz like Andy Warhol Foundation does a very similar sort of thing where it's just like you can buy whatever with Van Gogh artwork on it and like go experience all these different exhibits and experiences, and experience, experience, experience.

But it's just weird. Like it feels like it's like too much now. And then, I wonder if this might be just like a little too mucher.

I don't know. I just feel like this could backfire tremendously in a way. Like I don't even know what I'm trying to say, but I guess the best example I could think of was Disney, like I mentioned before, where

Star Wars. They've literally overdone Star Wars so fucking much. Like if you love Star Wars, that's awesome, great, cool.

For the rest of us, it's a lot. It's way too fucking much. We don't need every goddamn storyline that you could ever write ever.

And again, that's just my own two cents. If you're like, "Fuck you," then that's cool,

Whatever. But it's just too much now where it's not as it's not special anymore. It's not like, "Ooh, this is really neat, and this is like I'm so excited to see this.

Like I have to see this." It's like, "Star Wars number 752 is out now in theaters." Didn't they just release some Yeah, but that's like they just keep going. So, I think that's what I'm worried about happening with Van Gogh is

It's going to become less and less special, and it's actually going to become kind of tacky. And I mean, that's fine. It's going to become very kitschy, which I feel like it already kind of is, especially The Starry Night.

You see it everywhere. Like when I was teaching, that was the main piece that a lot of my students talked about was The Starry Night. It was just everywhere.

Anyway, I don't really have anything else for the story other than just I really hope that

They're not overdoing all of this, but again, if that's where it goes, then that's where it goes, and where it goes, nobody knows. I thought my brain was on for this today, but it is not, so I'm sorry. If you listen to this podcast, why?

Just stop listening.

Okay, let's go to our next story. I never really play that song too much because I can never really tell where I should end it. I don't think that's a good song for this podcast.

Anyhoo, the photo ban on Picasso's Guernica has been lifted.

This I think is going to be a huge trend that we're going to see in the future of museums with tech advancements and stuff, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, this isn't like really a weird or unusual sort of thing, but I think it is interesting to see happening. So, especially with video as ubiquitous as it's becoming and TikTok and all that shit,

It makes sense. So anyway, Madrid's Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, I made it, lifted its famous photo ban this past week, which had been in place since the painting arrived at the museum in 1992. Now, photo bans are not uncommon in museums.

It's actually very common to have, especially because cameras back in the day,

They would just have flash. It was automatic, or people wouldn't realize that it's automatic and then they would take a photo. My mom got yelled at the Art Institute when I was really little, and I thought it was hilarious, but anyway, because she had flash.

So, it makes sense to not have cameras even available, or like you can't bring cameras into galleries because of the flash. Light severely degrades,

Literally anything and everything. If you've ever had a book out in the sun like on your bookshelf or in a windowsill, you'll see that the entire cover gets faded very quickly. The same thing happens with overhead lights, so like in archives, that's why you have things in boxes and to protect against dust and all that shit.

But that's also why there's museum glass to help with UV fading, so you don't have too much. I almost just spit, again.

Why do I get so spitty during this? Spithead. Anyway, so the museum, they are now allowing photography in the gallery.

Obviously, you can't use flash because that's going to severely degrade the artwork, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of people, especially for Guernica, you have thousands of people

Every day taking photos, flashing the Not literally flashing, but flash photo. Flash. Flash, flash.

And so, that will severely degrade the painting over time, and like you can only do so much to help preserve it. So, the ban was lifted September 1st, and it sounds like it was lifted as an effort by the director to have people become more engaged. So, like we were literally talking about

The past story where everybody knows Van Gogh and like is very familiar with the work, it feels like the director is doing this to engage with a younger audience. He told Euro News that his goal for the museum was to reach, quote, "100% photographic accessibility, especially for a young audience that lives filtered by a screen," end quote.

So, this was also, apparently, the only spot in the museum that prohibited photography because of Guernica, and there I think there were a couple other drawings and stuff in there that might be too fragile. So, while the ban has been lifted

From photography, you still can't bring in selfie sticks, stabilization devices, tripods, and obviously, flash photography. Just, obviously, for any of those. Like, why the fuck would you bring a tripod in?

But I digress. So, I feel like, I mean, this is just super brief. It's literally just the ban was lifted.

Now, you can take photos of Guernica, which is kind of cool. The museum did receive a little bit of flack, I think, a bit ago cuz Mick Jagger posted a photo or something with the painting,

And people were like, "How are you allowed to do" I'm like, "Fucking duh. It's because they're famous." And I know they're trying to make a commentary on like, "Well, why do famous people get to take photos with these paintings?" But it's promotion, like I think Katy Perry did that at the Art Institute a while ago with Magritte.

Anyway, this is just super brief, but I feel like this is actually going to usher in a new wave of galleries allowing people to take photos and even videos now in gallery spaces. You still can't record videos in gallery spaces. I have found that out the hard way,

And I was trying to make TikTok and everything in a museum, which was my own dumb fault. I should have thought about it, but I got yelled at, obviously. So, I just I feel like things are shifting now, and especially because things are more accessible, and like the director said, they want to appeal to a younger audience.

I think it's necessary because the more something is photographed, like Elizabeth Taylor is known as being the most beautiful woman like ever to exist because

She was one of the most photographed people next to Marilyn Monroe. They're very similar. But the more photographed someone or something is, the more important it seems, and the more coveted it is, and the more legacy it has.

Allowing people to do this in the museum, it makes a lot of sense, because then it's like, "Okay. Well, now, Guernica is going to be even more famous." Yeah, it just makes sense. So anyway, I'm just fucking rambling today.

Bob Ross Joy of Painting Canvas Headed to Auction

So,

Anyway, I think this is going to set a precedent for many other museums to allow photos in galleries where you can't take photos, cuz that's still very common practice. And like obviously, allow photos without flash, or maybe videos. We'll see.

Who knows? On to our last and final story. I always say last and final, and I mean third and final.

Whatever. For our final story, we are talking about Bob Ross, the cultural icon. And yes, you have seen him everywhere, memed beyond belief.

You may have even watched the entire series of The Joy of Painting and looked at his permed hair and just loved it. You can now own

The first painting he ever created on his TV show, The Joy of Painting. You can now own it. Yes, you can.

So, the piece is called A Walk in the Woods, and it was created on the fur like very first episode of The Joy of Painting, which debuted January 11th, 1983. Obviously, this is a very idyllic landscape. I'm looking at it right now on my computer, and I mean, it's quintessential Bob Ross,

Of course. So, you're in a forest. It's called A Walk in the Woods, obviously.

Duh. You're in a forest. There're trees, happy little trees, and they're like a yellowish green kind of color.

There's like a little rocky path that leads to a pond of some or some sort of body of water, very small, and it's surrounded by boulders, and then there's like a little strip of sand around it, and the sky's like a pretty

Open color and everything. It's just a very peaceful painting. This also is one of 30,000 supposed 30,000 paintings that Bob Ross actually created during his lifetime, and it's even rarer because it's one of the thousand or so that's estimated to have been created during the show.

So, it's a super, super rare piece

To have, which fun fact, if you didn't know this, there were three different versions that were created for each episode of The Joy of Painting. There was the one that served as like the base template, essentially, so like that was what you go off of. It was the one that was used for reference for creating the second one, which was the one that was created on air, and then there was a third one that was also created, I guess, for the instructional booklet.

So, I don't know why. I would assume you just use the reference, but I digress. You do you, Bob Ross.

So then, after these pieces were painted, what happened to them? A lot of them went to the Smithsonian Institute. A lot of them were also kept by Bob Ross Incorporated, and some of them were actually given or auctioned off to PBS members and things like that, which is exactly what happened with this piece.

This version was owned by a woman who volunteered at the station where Ross recorded

The Joy of Painting. She had won it at an auction to support the station, which is pretty freaking sweet. I mean, could you imagine?

Like, you have no idea that this guy is going to become, obviously, a cultural icon, and then it's like, "Oh, I have literally the first painting from the very first episode." That's amazing. Like, that's so cool. So, this woman, for some unknown fucking reason, I mean, obviously, to make money, but like why would

I don't know. I have a very different viewpoint on selling art. I would just be a hoarder.

I would never get rid of any art, so I would be a terrible collector because I would never sell anything and I would never make any money. But different strokes, strokes, brushstrokes, for different folks. Anyway, I got way too excited at that.

So, she sold it to the Modern Artifact gallery last year. This gallery's in Minneapolis, I wrote Minneapplish. Oops.

Minneapolis, Minnesota gallery, and they actually have sold other Bob Ross paintings in the past, so I believe that's why she reached out to them. And like I said, I still don't understand why you would sell this, but I digress. But anyway, so, they purchased it from her.

I don't know how much she got.

They're pricing it at $9.85 million. Now, there's a reason why they priced it so high, and art is extremely subjective as I have talked about so fucking much on this podcast, and many other people talk about the subjectivity, but they are intentionally pricing it at $10 million basically, and they're calling it a quote, "not for sale number."

It's intentionally being made to be an outlandish sum because they actually want to take the painting on tour to quote, "share it with a museum or traveling exhibit to allow as many people as possible to view such an exciting work of art," end quote. Now, if you've listened to this podcast, you know my thoughts on this.

I am very pro letting everybody experience the art and not gate gatekeeping it and keeping it just to one person who gets to see it every day in their bathroom or what

Wherever you put your art, that's your own thing. But it's also interesting then that the gallery is doing this and not the woman who owned it. Like, she obviously wanted to make money, so she sold it to the gallery, and then I do enjoy that the gallery's like, "Well, no, we should make it available for people." But I also can't help but be a little bit skeptical as if that's like they're shopping for a buyer then to go for an even more outlandish sum if it's like,

"Well, this was on display. Everybody loved it. It was super popular.

It's the first one, blah, blah, blah. You have all your selling points." And then if they find somebody who would actually buy it for like 15, 20, $25 million I'm not saying anybody would, but could you imagine? Like, that would be nuts.

So, I could see that kind of being their like sales tactic almost. Again, I've never worked in a fucking gallery. I have no idea how it works, but I'm just saying I could I could kind of see that sort of happening.

It would also be interesting, too, if somebody actually called their bluff and they're like, "Yeah, sure, 10 million, whatever." That would be very funny, but then it would also I guess it doesn't matter at the end of the day, because they would still make their money and it just it is what it is. But I just think it's interesting.

Like, I like the idea of putting it on public display, but there just feels like there's some underlying something there. I don't know. Again, I could just be being pessimistic, but I digress.

So,

Hopefully, that will also be another story update. So then, we can all go see Bob Ross's paintings together. So, that'll do it for this episode of By Amara.

If you like the episode, sorry, this was another shortish kind of one, but bing, bing, boom. Getting shit done. I hope you like this episode.

If you did, make sure to like it. If not, then don't. If you also

Subscribe, that is cool, and that would I almost said severely help. That would really help. But, you know, you do you, no pressure.

We're all about love here, even though it's gray outside, and it makes me sad. But I need to go drink more coffee and pep up, so I'm Amara Andrew. Never stop creating.

Oh, Bob Ross.