Comments on: Veblen good of the day, Julie Mehretu edition

By: EricVincent

EricVincent — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:24:23 +0000

Felix wrote:
“But increasingly I feel that when I buy art I want to buy unlimited editions or other work with no resale value.”

Felix,

I hear you. One of my favorite original paintings hanging in my apartment, I bought from an artist who’d had a bunch of his works arrayed on a sidewalk outside a clothing boutique on Walnut Street. I think I paid $40 or something for it, and it is a galvanically moving work.

The week that New Yorker issue arrived in my post box, I recall reading that article and thinking, “Okay, either the Eighties are truly back, or they never went away.” Because that artist… well, there’s no accounting for taste, but there’s no doubt Lloyd’s $5MIL could have netted him something to be a lot more proud of than that ‘thing.’

By: SCurator

SCurator — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 02:23:26 +0000

The Sistine Chapel was a religious commission. In theory (and in practice) it glorifies God. The thousands of visitors who pass through have no idea which Pope commissioned it…

Our poor museum system (which was originally designed to mitigate this and give access to fine work, selected on its merits, not its price) is only a couple of hundred years old. True philanthropy has died off the last twenty or so years and everything has become about making money through the vehicle that is art.

By: linda53

linda53 — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 19:21:55 +0000

Is this any different from the way high-end art has always been? Many of the outstanding artistic achievements of Western Civilization — the Sistine Chapel, the Scrovegni Chapel, Versailles — were paid for by rich and powerful men who wanted to demonstrate those things by commissioning high-end art.