Painters paint; art dealers make deals
How much would you say this painting
is worth?
Or rather - a more pertinent question - how much would you guess it
sold for?
The work is by Jean Michel
Basquiat. Basquiat is most famous for starting out as a homeless
graffiti artist. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Basquiat died at just
27 of a heroin overdose, leaving a large body of work.
Before I get to the burning question of the painting's value, allow me to digress. I have before been outspoken about the art market, which - of course - at it's top end has little to do with the values of art, but rather with big money and investment.
My gripe is that once an artist is talked up by the art dealers and art investors, big money is soaked up and very little is left over for artists - painters, sculptors, photographers - who haven't "made it" into the big league; the big league often being paintings of dubious artistic value. In Australia artists on average earn approximately half the minimum wage. And when big money is paid for art, it is not necessarily the artists that benefit ... just ask Aboriginal artists.
We have
in our Art Gallery of NSW a grand example of art that is of said dubious
artistic value being talked up by art aficionados, namely the previous art
gallery director Edmund Capon. He was a fan of an American artist in Italy,
travelled there and spent a few millions on some awful scribbles on canvas ...
ok, that obviously is a very subjective assessment; you judge by
yourself. What is the artwork's value? In artistic terms? I
reckon Nil. In monetary (i.e. investment terms) gazillions.
Does the above artwork by Basquiat
fall into the same category? You be the judge of its artistic value ... but now
read all about the investment value (SMH). The
Guardian provides an appraisal of its artistic value I respect. Some art,
they say, is priceless ... like Picasso's Guernica or
Phan Thj Kim Phuc's photo that helped stop the Vietnam war Napalm Girl.
Below
our Art Gallery's own art investment, the Cy
Twombly.
See also my blogs 741 and 196