all the wrong places -- seeking value

Just listening to media one might think art is just a playground for hedge fund managers and other high rolling tax manipulators who, as a class, do seem to have a singular taste in art -- they like it expensive. Doesn’t matter what’s on the front. Recently saw pre-auction estimates for a Van Gogh and a Rothko both at about twenty seven million, and it’s pretty certain the same shills would be bidding on both, with equal passion. Don’t we all dream of great chunks of money, but as the sole criterion of artistic value just the price tag seems lacking, and the present system stinks of larceny, frankly. In any case, what goes on in the ‘market’ has nothing to do with the individual decision to buy with the intention of owning. Not remotely.

Self-verification is a good reason to own art, here on a planet where even spare body parts can come spitting out of the 3-D printer, there next to the microwave. As our identities have become digitalized -- stolen, crunched, and sold back to us, nothing says ‘individual’ quite like a unique piece of art. Original art becomes a repository for events in our memories, a trolley ride back to when it was first acquired, and having it around becomes quite ‘utilitarian’ over a lifetime. Like the purchase of a car or a house, considering art is an exercise of personal judgement and taste, only much easier with fewer ‘practical’ constraints. 

Almost everything that’s been said about art, particularly since mid-century, has drowned in a din of careerist bleating, and it’s near impossible to find rationality on any level, even if it’s in there. Do yourself a favor and forget whatever you’ve heard, read, or learned in school, and good for you if you ‘don’t know a thing about art’ -- start fresh. All you do, instead, is look at art whenever you come across it. See, you have these automatic mechanisms in your head that will sort it out for you, you’re human. This ability, even desire, to express what can’t be said with words is built-in, and in our age of specialization artists are there to do it for you. When you look at art, gears and levers click into place and you find yourself liking some art more, and finally, after looking enough, liking a particular piece a lot. The recitation of four pages of resume won’t be necessary, since it’s probably better to be there before a reputation develops anyway, if you get my drift. In any case, buying something you simply like, maybe only every couple of years, will in time come to reflect who you are, and estimated price at auction won’t matter.