The ‘art market’ isn’t about art, it’s about acquisition. Very wealthy people vie with each other at pissing away money, it’s what they do. These days you won’t be seeing them lighting their cigars with hundred dollar bills, a blatant insult to poor folks everywhere, but they will drop a few conspicuous million on anything the other rich guys want too, just because. This is, seriously, the way art is sold across the board. A renowned local dealer has been quoted, ‘the price of a piece of art is what others are willing to pay for it.’ Period. What’s the style, what’s it about -- didn’t come up. This is, in the first place, a strange door to walk through. Art is no longer valued by whatever is on the front, but instead relies on an indexed desire to pay by a spooky consensus you’re just going to have to believe in. The whole business exudes an oily unwholesome mystique, but if it produces great art why ask why? You be the judge.
In contrast art is defined differently here, and we could start with price. The price of art, as far as you’re concerned, is what you’re willing to pay for it, after deciding how much you want it. All those phantom bidders trying to get this thing away from you, let them have it. There’s no reason to compete with them, resist the urge. Instead consider investing some of your assets in something of value you can see and live with everyday, that enhances your life and adds substance to your home. Unless you’re trying to impress your friends you won’t be spending millions, but the real thing isn’t cheap and shouldn’t be.
The artists, based on all they know and have experienced, make the best art they can make, that’s their job, their side of the bargain. If they change it a little thinking more people might want to buy it, or so their peers will approve, or because they want to be famous, they’re not living up to the code. If they’re honest, what they have to say as artists comes through no matter what they paint, can’t help it you understand. Ten artists painting the same thing will produce ten different pictures depending on their skill and discernment, and seeing them all together would reveal their individual quotient of each. In a rational world prices would be assigned accordingly.
Far away in the contemporary art market, new money in pursuit of status is churning millions for trademark art a sign painter could easily forge, and has. Around here artists have day jobs, sacrifice to pay for supplies, and steal their work-time whenever they can, because average people like you, my friend, have been convinced by the evening news that art is an extravagance that goes with yachts and exotic automobiles. Once it occurs to you, and to a few fellow citizens, that original art has been missing on your walls, from restaurants where you eat and offices you visit, and when you begin to recognize area artists by their work, that million dollar gossipy game-show frenzy ceases to be relevant.
In contrast art is defined differently here, and we could start with price. The price of art, as far as you’re concerned, is what you’re willing to pay for it, after deciding how much you want it. All those phantom bidders trying to get this thing away from you, let them have it. There’s no reason to compete with them, resist the urge. Instead consider investing some of your assets in something of value you can see and live with everyday, that enhances your life and adds substance to your home. Unless you’re trying to impress your friends you won’t be spending millions, but the real thing isn’t cheap and shouldn’t be.
The artists, based on all they know and have experienced, make the best art they can make, that’s their job, their side of the bargain. If they change it a little thinking more people might want to buy it, or so their peers will approve, or because they want to be famous, they’re not living up to the code. If they’re honest, what they have to say as artists comes through no matter what they paint, can’t help it you understand. Ten artists painting the same thing will produce ten different pictures depending on their skill and discernment, and seeing them all together would reveal their individual quotient of each. In a rational world prices would be assigned accordingly.
Far away in the contemporary art market, new money in pursuit of status is churning millions for trademark art a sign painter could easily forge, and has. Around here artists have day jobs, sacrifice to pay for supplies, and steal their work-time whenever they can, because average people like you, my friend, have been convinced by the evening news that art is an extravagance that goes with yachts and exotic automobiles. Once it occurs to you, and to a few fellow citizens, that original art has been missing on your walls, from restaurants where you eat and offices you visit, and when you begin to recognize area artists by their work, that million dollar gossipy game-show frenzy ceases to be relevant.
No comments:
Post a Comment