On Sunday Morley Safter had a segment on 60 Minutes that was a follow up to a previous show called, "Yes...but is it art?" To briefly summarize, Safer explored various art dealers and art works that were being featured in the Art Basel Miami Beach Show. Quite interesting. The numbers being paid for artwork went into the hundereds of thousands. One piece that was an installation of various ropes tied into knots reached well into these stupendous prices.
Shocking that so many were there to drop so much money on art that was for investment purposes, prestige to own the lastest hot artist's work and to spend, spend, spend. It was hard to watch...
I have had many, many conversations with different kinds of artists over the years, most of whom struggle trying to make ends meet and then have enough left over for canvas and paints. I think that they would have found this display equally disheartening. Almost all of them could outdraw and outpaint 90% of what I saw shown on 60 Minutes.
What is disturbing is to know that The Emperor's New Clothes still has an effect and that people will buy almost anything if they have enough money to waste and think that the value of something is in how much it costs. I think these same people would also love to regale you with stories about how much their cars, jewelry, homes and other luxury items are worth. Ho-hum...
I'm with Morley on this one. I could see his little smile as one of the agents "talked" about a piece of work hanging on the wall and used vocabulary that seemed to be utter nonsense. Yet, others standing around seemed to lap this up and agree with her pearls of wisdom.
The market will bear what it will and there will always be unrecognized artists among us that will never know success. If someone wants to hang a wad of tied knots into the corner of their 2.5 billion dollar home, then go for it. The Emperor will always need something new to wear and those followers are happy to be sucked into a fantasy that is speculative and often tasteless.
I have said before that if a piece of art speaks to you, then you should buy it. What is a tangle of ropes that you paid hundred of thousands for saying to and about you today?
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