inherent worth -- obscene prices

I’m so out of it, naive and unschooled, and don’t seem to know a thing about art. On the other hand, maybe I just don’t like rich people, question their values, and find myself mildly nauseated by their motives. It’s a bigotry formed from afar, since I don’t know any, and I’m invisible to them. We’ll never meet, but I do see their art. Art reveals quite a lot, can’t help it really, and the current market as reported in media, six figures and above, is a hideous cesspool of hardcore hustle and financial corruption, tax-fraud and insider manipulation. The ‘high-end’ art market has become little more than a ponzi-scheme soap bubble, apt to collapse in the moment something better comes along. Don’t be alarmed, I’m not trying to offend. I can say whatever I want, and they’ll never hear me. Rich people don’t listen.

These 10 Artists Broke into the Art Market Big Leagues in 2018 in Artsy Magazine, online

They could have all been grad students judging by the work alone, but something about their person -- their ethnic origin and circumstances, their gender and orientation, perhaps their brazen borrowing from other artists or invoking historical events or personages has made their work suddenly astoundingly expensive. ‘The painting was originally sold in 2013 from a summer show at New York’s Greene Naftali Gallery for just $20,000, making for a 2,900% increase in value in just five years,’ is the way they talk about art. No one is going to mention that on the front it’s little more than a totemic signature, easier to bid for, but not much to look at, little more than a threadbare gimmick.

In the end, it isn’t the art that offends, rather it’s the lifestyle it reveals, and it’s a barren, stark testimony. According to their art, the ultra-rich are frivolous and shallow, basing their investments on a hyped-up consensus that doesn’t really exist, and propping up a system of speculation and conjecture having nothing to do with art. Gigantic price tags on mediocre art are more about an appetite for elevated social status and competitive trophy hunting. Look outside, the world is changing, the human race is challenged, and that sort of lavish unsustainability may be going out of fashion soon.

Some say they want a revolution, but instead of street protests and barricades, let’s just change the art instead. What sort of art it will turn out to be will sort itself out, but let’s bring down the price to an attainable level, not cheap but affordable. Between four and low five figures there’s a lot of room for a lot of creativity, and enough for a productive artist to live on. It’s also a price range that puts serious, meaningful art up in middle class houses, art that’s seen everyday and lived with for years, art that elevates the conversation and broadens perception, and an art that expresses the real aspirations and concerns of real people living real lives.