Frazetta Girls<\/a>, a company that sells and licenses his work, via email earlier this week. \u201cMy grandfather\u2019s work deserves nothing less. In my mind, I always pictured the number 12 for Conan the Man-Ape, so when the result not only met but surpassed that, it was exactly what I always believed would happen.\u201d<\/p>\nSara Frazetta said she is happy to see the culture of the art world shifting to embrace illustration and commercial art (work for which the artist is paid in advance), long the poor relation compared to fine art (art created by the artist for subsequent display and sale). This result, along with other eye-watering totals realized at Heritage and other auctions in contrast to the general downward trend elsewhere in the art market, flips that on its head.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, my grandfather\u2019s work was categorized as commercial, even though he poured every ounce of his genius into it,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd this one is Conan. No other subject is more synonymous with Frank Frazetta. His Conan images shaped how generations visualize the character. That makes this painting both historically important and emotionally resonant.\u201d<\/p>\n
British artist Liam Sharp, who is currently drawing Conan\u2019s adventures in The Savage Sword of Conan (Titan Comics), agrees. \u201cAs pulp artists we\u2019re not considered ‘fine\u2019 artists, and yet often our skill sets and aspirations are more akin with artists from the Renaissance and Romantic era – work that has to an extent lost favor in elite modern art circles,\u201d he said in an email interview. \u201cWe dream of creating works like the Pre-Raphalites, and Conan offers us subject matter that is relatable to classical mythology. On top of that, it remains work for everybody, not just elites – though, of course, the price tag for that Frazetta painting has elevated it to unheard of heights now!\u201d<\/p>\n
Artist Liam Sharp takes inspiration from Conan and Frazetta in this piece done in 2023.<\/p>\n
Art by Liam Sharp<\/p>\n
Despite, or perhaps because of, his penchant for fantastic subject matter, Frazetta had the gift of creating visual worlds that packed lots of story into a single image loaded with mystery and atmosphere, in the manner of revered old masters like Rembrandt or Caravaggio. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrazetta was, of course, a master of composition,\u201d said Sharp. \u201cHis paintings draw the eye right into the heart of them. He could also capture motion with great facility – and that’s certainly there in the painting that just sold. But there is a gravity and sense of place too. This is a brutish land where lives are lost and forgotten in a moment. You can almost smell his protagonists – the leather, the sweat, the iron in the blood… They’re alive, despite (or perhaps because of) the intentional distortions in the figure work.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an age where escapist entertainment of all sorts is commanding mindshare and wallet-share, it is unsurprising that deep pocketed collectors are bidding his masterpieces into the stratosphere. It is also possible that the opening of several new museums dedicated to pop culture art, including the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art slated to open this fall in Los Angeles, may be fueling the bidding for blue chip pieces like this.<\/p>\n
Whatever the case, it is difficult to argue that comic and illustration art, which have continued their winning streak since the pandemic, are now the market trendsetters, eclipsing most other contemporary genres.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreatness stands the test of time,\u201d said Sara Frazetta. \u201c[Frank\u2019s] art was never tied to trends or fads. His work feels as alive today as it did decades ago. That\u2019s why his art continues to inspire new generations, no matter how much the culture shifts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sara Frazetta-Taylor at the Frazetta Museum in Grand Boca, Florida<\/p>\n
Sara Frazetta\/Creative Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conan Ape Man (1967) by Frank Frazetta, sold at auction for $13.5 million, September 15, 2025. Art by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,25431,25434,308,93,25435,25432,61,60,25436,25433],"class_list":{"0":"post-31859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-conan-the-barbarian","13":"tag-contemporary-art-market","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-frank-frazetta","17":"tag-heritage-auctions","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-liam-sharp","21":"tag-original-comic-art"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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