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Painter and popular TV personality Bob Ross
Photo: Bob Ross Inc./ dpa
A gallery in the U.S. state of Minnesota is offering the first painting that the artist Bob Ross made in his TV painting course "The Joy of Painting" for sale for just under ten million dollars (about 9.3 million euros). "The gallery takes all offers seriously, but is in no hurry to sell," said Ryan Nelson, owner of the Modern Artifact gallery in Minneapolis. of the news agency dpa.
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»A Walk in the Woods« is the first painting Bob Ross painted on television
Photo: Mark Vancleave / AP
The oil painting »A Walk in the Woods« was created in 1983 in the first episode of the painting show. After that, according to media reports, a volunteer of the TV station bought it for an undisclosed sum and had it hanging in her house for almost 40 years before she approached the gallery for sale.
Born in Florida in 1942, Ross had proclaimed the joys of painting in a soft voice for years in his show "The Joy of Painting" – and thus gained millions of fans worldwide. At his death in 1995, Ross left behind around 30,000 paintings, in which, however, critics see kitsch rather than high art. »The Joy of Painting« is still shown at night on ARD-alpha.
Perm, full beard and unbuttoned shirt
Ross, who always showed himself with his beloved perm, full beard and an unbuttoned shirt, emphasized that painting does not have to be pretentious.
"We've avoided painting for so long because we've been told all our lives that you have to go to school for half your life, maybe even be blessed by Michelangelo at birth, to ever be able to paint a picture," Ross said on his show. "And here we want to show you that this is not true."
Ross hosted the show on U.S. television from 1983 to 1994. In each episode, he spoke directly to viewers, asking them to paint with him while creating idealized scenes from nature – and he did it all quickly.
czl/dpa