A painting created by a robotic dog sold for $40,000 at a charity auction to raise money for Ukrainian refugees.
The piece, Sunrise March, was painted in the New York studio of Polish-American artist Agnieszka Pilat. The dog, “Spot,” is a creation of Boston Dynamics and retails online for a cool $75,000.
The auction took place Friday night at the San Francisco home of Olympic gold-medal figure skater Brian Boitano and his partner, singer Franc D’Ambrosio. Proceeds from the show will go directly to the Polish Dominican Friars, who are providing aid on the front lines of the conflict.
The auction was part of a larger ticketed event which has so far raised more than $250,000
“Spot and I, together we have created Sunrise March as a gift to help raise funds for the care of the Ukrainian refugees arriving in Poland,” Pilat said.
“This painting is executed by the robot’s marching feet, as a lyrical metaphor for the feet of millions of refugees marching towards Poland in hope of escaping the war,” she added. “As a Polish artist, I feel great solidarity with the Ukrainian people, with whom Poland has a shared history of fighting totalitarian Russia.”
“It is especially painful to see pictures of old people marching. They have seen it before. I don’t see how they are going to give up,” Pilat continued. “If I were living in Poland and the Russians came, I would rather die than let the Russian regime harass us and enslave us.”
Pilat, 48, has developed something of a niche for herself in the New York City and Silicon Valley art scene for her depictions of robots and other automatons.
