Get Acquainted With the Versatile Art Dealer, Mirek Klabal

The tale of Mirek Klabal is an amazing story that can only happen in America. Mirek Klabal started out as a boy in Prague, dreaming about the world of art. Even at a young age Mirek Klabal had a passion for art. As a kid Mirek Klabal was always reading art books and going to art museums. Mirek Klabal studied art in college and told his parents that he would find a way to make art pay off for him. Boy did Mirek Klabal make good on that promise. Mirek Klabal is one of the world’s most prominent art dealers. Mirek Klabal’s expertise is routinely sought out all over the world. That sometimes makes Mirek Klabal’s travel schedule hectic. Mirek Klabal has clients on every continent which is an amazing feat, and it speaks volumes about the level of service Mirek Klabal provides for his clients.

Mirek Klabal is living the American dream. Mirek Klabal is a living a lifestyle that people see in movies. Mirek Klabal has obtained all the finer things in life. Every day Mirek Klabal drives to office in a fancy sports car. Mirek Klabal’s office is the most stunning gallery in the land. Mirek Klabal has elegantly combined two apartments to form an amazing gallery. Mirek Klabal has custom made floor and lighting. The gallery called MK Fine Arts is a thing of beauty. Mirek Klabal says his gallery makes him feel happy and productive. Mirek loves the hustle and bustle of making deals and acquiring “one of a kind” paintings. Mirek wouldn’t trade his job for any other in the world. Mirek Klabal’s company is called MK Fine Arts. The gallery is so modern looking and minimalist it is a true delight to set foot in there. There is nothing else like it. When you walk into the gallery you are engulfed by the soft music that is playing and all the fine paintings that you see. Mirek Klabal has a huge inventory of paintings. The artists that Mirek Klabal collects for his own personal collection are: Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Edgar Degas, Wassily Kandinsky, Gustav, Klimt, Joan Miro, Henri Matise, and Jackson Pollack.

Mirek Klabal is so happy that he made his dreams come true in America. Mirek spends the weekends at his compound in leafy Greenwich, Connecticut, where Mirek Klabal mingles with the upper crest of society. Now days Connecticut is surrounded by the hedge fund billionaires. Mirek Klabal lives next to all these new potential customers. Mirek Klabal hopes the hedge fund boom continues as Mirek Klabal says “Hey they pay lots of commission, they want the art they want and I facilitate their art transactions.” Mirek Klabal loves living in Greenwich; he says it is so close to the city but so far away. Mirek lives to play tennis and golf. Unfortunately he has been so busy his tennis and golf game are not where he wants them to be. That is the story with most successful businessmen like Mirek Klabal. They are driven by their passion and in Mirek’s case that passion is art. Art is the essence of Mirek Klabal.

Mirek is friends with all the famous tennis players from his native Czech Republic. During the US open you find Mirek Klabal entertaining players, hosting players and watching tennis. Mirek Klabal always finds time out of his hectic schedule to watch the US Open from his court side seat. He counts many professional tennis players friends such as:
Thomas Berdych, a professional tennis player from the Czech Republic. He turned professional in 2002. Tall and lanky, he is known for his powerful ground strokes which are created with little effort but his shots can be quite erratic at times. His biggest career win came at the 2004 Athens Olympics where he defeated World No. 1 Roger Federer. At the 2005 Paris Masters he won first career ATP Masters Series title. En route to the final he beat Jiří Novák, 2nd seed Guillermo Coria, 13th seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7th seed Gaston Gaudio, 8th seed Radek těpánek, and 6th seed Ivan Ljubičić.
Other notable highlights of his 2005 season included upsetting No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters, reaching the final of the Swedish Open, and the semifinals in Washington DC.
In 2006, he reached his first grass court final at the Gerry Weber Open, falling to World No. 1 Roger Federer (0-6, 7-6, 2-6). Another highlight of his year was his victory over Rafael Nadal at the Rogers Masters, beating the World No. 2 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.
In October, Berdych reached his second ATP final of 2006 in Mumbai. However, he was beaten by Dmitry Tursunov 6-3 4-6 7-6(5). In the ATP Masters Series tournament in Madrid, Berdych upset former World No.1 Andy Roddick 7-6(7) 6-3 to reach the quarter finals. He then defeated Rafael Nadal 6-3 7-6(6) to reach the semi finals.
Berdych is now not well-liked by Spanish fans for his altercation with Spanish sensation Rafael Nadal in Madrid, in which the partisan crowd jeered Berdych during points and Berdych for hushing the crowd after he won the match 6-3 7-6. Berdych never found his rhythm in his semi final match against Fernando Gonzalez as he slumped to a 6-3 6-1 defeat.
Berdych failed to defend his Paris Masters title after he lost to Dominik Hrbaty 6-4 1-6 6-2 in the quarter finals. In earlier rounds, Tomas defeated Olivier Rochus 6-7 6-4 6-2 and Robby Ginepri 6-3 6-3.
Tomas Zib is a male tennis player from the Czech Republic. He reached a career high ranking of 51 in 2005, and is ranked #70 in the world as of January 16, 2006. Zib has earned more than $975,000 in prize money, and plays right-handed.

Mirek Klabal loves when his tennis player friends come in to New York. He feels as though it is his obligation to host them. It gives Mirek Klabal great pleasure and extreme nationalistic pride of his native Czech Republic to see the tennis scene evolving in the Czech Republic. Mirek Klabal feels it is his civic duty to look at for the players and assist them in any way possible. Mirek Klabal is influential in raising the profile of his tennis player friends in the US.

Mirek Klabal says growing up in Eastern Europe he could never have imagined that he would live how he lives currently. Mirek Klabal says doing business in Eastern Europe is so difficult because there is so much red tape and greatly enjoys the transparency of working in America. Mirek Klabal hardly ever goes back to Eastern Europe. Mirek Klabal says New York is his home! Mirek Klabal says he loves the energy of New York. Mirek Klabal says there is so much creative energy, and New York has such a great vibe. That vibe is what makes New York City the best place on earth to live.

Mirek Klabal has great friends and they have stood by him through thick and thin. Mirek Klabal says “that is what makes a good friend, somebody who is there for you when times are tough.” Mirek Klabal is very interested in making sure his friends and family are taken care of. Mirek Klabal always makes time for friends and family. Mirek Klabal likes to have big friends and family gatherings at his house in Greenwich. The barbeque and cocktails parties that he hosts at his house are legendary.

Mirek Klabal is an outdoor enthusiast; Mirek Klabal likes to take trips to the country in his free time. When Mirek Klabal goes to the country he likes to ramble barefoot throughout the land. Mirek Klabal really enjoys when he travels to various horse farms. Mirek Klabal likes all art; he has a fancy for the modern masters but also has a vast collection of various pictures of American landscapes. Mirek Klabal shows the essential mood of a country scene in the various farm scene paintings that he keeps for his children. Mirek Klabal’s fascination with the wild and grand aspects of nature is evident. Mirek Klabal besides liking the modern masters the most, respects The “Hudson River School”. Mirek Klabal says Americans look at the landscapes in the painting as backgrounds in their own backyard, the wilderness is a symbol of America’s unspoiled national character. Mirek Klabal loves nature and is fighting for conservation in his native Connecticut. Mirek Klabal likes to go apple picking in the fall with his wife.
Mirek Klabal is a very charitable man; Mirek Klabal feels that you must be give back to society. Mirek Klabal is very active in various charity organizations. Mirek has a few favorite charities. Mirek Klabal’s favorite charity which he gives not only his money but his time is Seeds of Peace. Seeds of Peace is dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence. Over the last decade, Seeds of Peace has intensified its impact, dramatically increasing the number of participants, represented nations and programs. Seeds of Peace has focused primarily on bringing Arab and Israeli teenagers together before fear; mistrust and prejudice blind them from seeing the human face of their enemy. Seeds of Peace goes beyond international agreements and treaties. It reverses the legacy of hatred by nurturing lasting friendships that become the basis for mutual understanding and respect. By training these young leaders in conflict resolution skills, Seeds of Peace helps them become the seeds from which an enduring peace will grow. Mirek Klabal spends a great deal of time donating money and raising money for this charity.

Mirek Klabal is involved with a charity called the Children of Henry Street Settlement Mirek Klabal was honored with a beautiful plaque from the Children of Henry Street Settlement for giving a donation enabling inner city kids the opportunity to spend time at a lake side retreat. Mirek Klabal said “It gave me great pleasure to do this, I was so happy after I saw how it benefited the kids.” Henry Street Settlement delivers a wide range of social service and arts programming to more than 100,000 New Yorkers each year. Distinguished by a profound connection to its neighbors, a willingness to address new problems with swift and innovative solutions, and a strong record of accomplishment, Henry Street challenges the effects of urban poverty by helping families achieve better lives for themselves and their children.

Mirek Klabal is also involved in the annual American Heart Association walk in Cape Code, MA. Mirek Klabal says it is important to try when possible to contribute to fighting such a debilitating disease. The American heart association helps fight against heart disease and stroke. Over 1 million people die each year from cardiovascular disease. Mirek encourages people to have a healthier lifestyle to mitigate the risks of heart disease. Mirek Klabal says “Better lifestyle habits can help you reduce your risk for heart attack. This charity does great work and I am glad to do my part.”

Mirek Klabal is involved with the Riverview School. Mirek Klabal and his family are actively involved in this charity. The last few years Mirek Klabal has been one of the sponsors of the Gala Benefit Village of Drams. This past year the proceeds from the Benefit went to enhance the technological capacity in the campus and to support the Secondary School dormitory construction project. The Riverview School is an independent coeducation residential school that provides a caring community for adolescents and young adults with complex language, learning and cognitive disabilities. The school is committed to developing student competence and confidence in academic, social, and independent living skills.

Mirek Klabal also supports the ARC which is a grassroots volunteer organization that works to improve the lives of people with special needs. Mirek Klabal says “I just want to make a difference”.

Many people believe that even the rich lack security of who they are and what they have accomplished. To be taken seriously in our society these days it is not enough to have money. To be a major player in society you must navigate the art world. This is where Mirek Klabal comes into play. Mirek Klabal is the dealer to the stars. Mirek Klabal sells art to wealthy families, famous celebrities, governments and anybody with an eye and wallet for art. But as Mirek Klabal says don’t forget your checkbook, as good art is not cheap. Spending $10 million dollars for a painting from Mirek Klabal is not uncommon. Mirek Klabal says when the newly rich buy art they value art as a passionless commodity to conquer and control. Mirek Klabal says this is one of the main reasons for the rapid increase in the price of art in the last few years. There has been a recent rise in the price of art because the global economy has been doing well. Mirek Klabal says between, the Russian oligarchs, Indian entrepreneurs, Chinese businessman, and hedge fund billionaires.

Over the past thirty years Mirek Klabal has been in the art business. Mirek Klabal is credited with being a pioneer in the art world. Mirek Klabal operated art partnerships for purposes of investing in art before it was in vogue. Mirek Klabal has traveled the world in pursuit of art business opportunities and for the love of art. Mirek Klabal co-developed many art shows in the last 20 years. The art shows that Mirek Klabal has produced are from world famous artists such: Challgal, Picasso, Monet and Warhol. Mirek Klabal aggressively pursues the challenges associated with making art available to kids in the inner cities.

I will leave with this note, Mirek Klabal, is a passionate, articulate, caring and giving man who treats every day as a gift. Did I forget to mention he is an art dealer extraordinaire?

Biography: Vincent Van Gogh – Part 13

“My youth was gloomy and cold and sterile” with this words, Vincent Willem van Gogh used to describe his teenagers years spent in the Middle School at Tilburg, a village 20 miles from where he was born in 1853; Zunder, Netherlands.

But precisely in that school is were he met Constantin C. Huysman, a painter who had achieved a certain success in Paris and who taught Van Gogh how to draw.

His brother Theo, younger with one year, and who helped him along his adult life so he could fulfill his dream of painting, said that Vincent was a “serious, silent and thoughtful child.”

Vincent Van Gogh had a dramatic life tinted with tragedy. At the age of 16, he worked with family members in art dealing in London and Paris, where he stayed from 1873 to 1876. Because of his catholic upbringing he felt called to do missionary work and did so in the coal mining district where he lived in a small hut behind the baker’s house and laid to sleep in straw to practice what he was teaching. The baker’s wife said that she could hear him sob every night. The catholic church dismissed him on the grounds that he was a disgrace because of the way he lived.

In 1881, he settled at The Hague, and worked with a Dutch landscape painter: Anton Mauve. In this stage of his life he painted three types of subjects; still life, landscape and figure, all interrelated with the daily life of peasants. Rumor had it that he got one of the peasants pregnant and once again, the Catholic Church intervened forbidding the peasants to pose for him.

His brother Theo helped him by sending him a monthly allowance and Van Gogh moved to Antwerp, where he ate poorly: bread, coffee and tobacco. Most of the money his brother sent him was spent in painting materials and models. He lost his teeth and lived with excruciating pain. It was here were he started to experiment with color and incorporating it to his paintings, but it wasn’t until he moved to Paris in 1886 where he started with Impressionism.

In spite of his short career as a painter, only ten years, he finished more than 2,000 works, 900 of them; paintings and 1100 drawings. Ninety of his painting were created two months before his death.

His love life was tumultuous and tragic as well.

While living in Etten (1881) he fell passionately in love with his cousin on his mother side, Kee van Stricker, ten years older than him. He proposed but she refused, and he became obsessed until his uncle told him “His attitude was pathetic.” His uncle

Poetry: Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh – Part 4

Torn pieces of fragmented time

Opens a vortex of darkness

Starlight begins fading faster

And shadows race to beat a fate

Inflicted by the caster

Crippled dreams lie left to die

From life to dust and ashes

A tone deaf cry of SOS

To help stitch up the gashes

Too weak to muster courage

The soul that no longer sings

The sweetest expressions that once were heard

Are lost in the void the caster brings

Poetry: Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh – Part 1

We are as plain as potatoes

Our clothes as coarse

Our skin as rough

We are as round as potatoes

Just as firm

Just as tough

We are as overlooked as potatoes

Valued as cheaply

As if we are forever plentiful

Until we are not

Then we are replaced

By a new crop of potatoes

=============

Inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Potato Eaters which is considered his first great work of art and in my opinion, one of his best works.

Biography: Vincent Van Gogh

Nobody knows what Vincent Van Gogh might have accomplished

in a different lifetime. Today, he is considered one of the most famous writers ever lived, but in the 19th century he was just another troubled painter.

Born in Groot Zundert, Holland, in March 1853, Vincent came from a troubled background. He was said to have been a daydreamer that didn’t seem to know his place in the world. Lacking direction he tried many careers, and if it had not been for his brother, Theo, we might not have known his name. It seemed he received financial as well as emotional support from Theo.; although, Vincent was the oldest of his parents eight children.

Vincent had difficulty in establishing intimacy in his relationships, in fact,

he is famous for cutting off his ear with a razor blade, due to the affections for a woman, whom did not return the sentiment. He was a sensitive and emotional man,

who tried to connect artistically as well. He had a limited friendship with the now famous painter, Paul Gaudin, as well as other painters of his generation.

Van Gogh suffered from severe depression, evidently all his life as evidence of a bewildered childhood suggested, plus , reports of several stays at mental institutions, throughout his life. History also tells us that Van Gogh suffered from numerous seizures.

Starting in 1869 Vincent Van Gogh started working for art dealers, and in 1877 began studying religion. He worked as an evangelist in a small mining community in Belgian from 1878-1880. He was introduced to impressionist and post impressionist painting in Paris, while living with Theo.

In February of 1881 Van Gogh moved to Arles, and painted in seclusion, although he was later joined by Gauguin. He continued his desolation with mental depression and illness while painting the paintings we enjoy today, ” Starry night, The Potato Eaters, Irises, and The Room, to name but a few. Starry night being the most well known.

Americans are intrigued more by Van Gogh than other impressionist painter of that era. I’m not sure if it is because of his beautiful paintings , or his mysterious personal struggles. We love underdogs, and the survival of the human spirit, perhaps it is because he fits nicely in those categories.

In any event, his story is a sad one, particularly because he sold only one painting in his lifetime. He attended a show with Les Vingt in Brussels in 1890, and sold a painting. In July 1890 Vincent Van Gogh died from a self inflicted gunshot wound, the despondent painter, was lost to us. I wonder what the root cause of his demons were, perhaps if he had known, he would have been able to enjoy his gifts, and discover his genius for himself.

Vital Statistics information- Who’s 2

Guggenheim collection- google search

Vincent Van Gogh’s Life, Works And Death

Born on 30th of March, 1853 in Groot Zundert, a small town in the Brabant, the southern Netherlands – Holland at the time – Vincent Van Gogh was destined to become the most popular post-impressionist painter of all ages, alas only appreciated after his tragic death.

He was named after his brother who died exactly the same day a year before and arguably this naming had a huge negative impact on all his life.

His father Theodorus Van Gogh (1822-1885) was a minister of Dutch Reformed Church and it seems that Vincent became very much interested on his father’s profession which as the result years later he chose to work as a preacher in a mining region in Belgium known as Borinage and even worked for free after he was dismissed.

Vincent had 2 brothers named Theodorus and Cor and three sisters named Elisabeth, Anna and Wil. Theodorus who was 4 years younger than Vincent played a very significant roll in his life. Theo not only financially supported Vincent throughout his life but he was the one who encouraged Vincent to take up painting seriously. It is widely accepted that if it hadn’t been because of Theo’s support the world would not had such a remarkable painter.

Having lived more than a year together Vincent ended his relationship with Clasina Maria Hoornik and a year later he fell in love with Margot Begemann, his neighbor’s daughter who was ten years older than him but it didn’t result a happy marriage either as both families opposed their relation.

Vincent started his career as an employee for the art dealer Goupil & Co. Later the company sent him to London where he increasingly got interested in religion. Later he was sent to Paris where the company found him troublesome and dismissed him. In 1880 he started taking painting lessons seriously.

Some of the most famous and expensive paintings in the world were created by Van Gogh, in fact four of top ten most expensive paintings are Van’s work, sadly he didn’t have much luck selling his works during his life time which left him a poor artist.

“Red Vineyard at Arles”, the only painting that Vincent managed to sell before his death earned him just 400 Francs – roughly the equivalent of $1000 today – was painted in 1888 and exhibited in 1890 in Brussels.

The most expensive painting by Vincent is “Portrait of Dr. Gachet”. Gachet, a hubby painter himself, was the doctor who took care of Vincent during the last months of his life in Auvers-sur-Oise, France. As with many paintings of Van this one has two versions, one of which was sold for $82.5 millions in 1990. The current estimate of value is $136.1 millions.

It is believed that Vincent suffered from insanity and depression all his life which ended in committing suicide several times. Finally on 27 July 1890 he shot himself in the chest which caused incurable injuries that killed him two days later. He left behind him many highly respected and extremely expensive paintings which changed the course of Neo-Impressionism forever.

Vincent Van Gogh – Artist Profile

Dallas Tourist Attraction – Dallas Art Museum

« Previous Page