WHat makes a painting expensive?
Morango
Im doing a report for my art class. And i need to know opinions and
suggestions on something. WHat makes paitings expensive, is it the
painter or the quality of hte art. If Leonardo Da Vinci did his stuff on
pastel would it still be priceless today.
Steve Corning
writes:
It is both. If the artist is recognized as "great" then the works are
more valuable and subsequent art work will cost you more. If the
artworks are considered of great quality, then the Artists Name will
grow in stature, (unfortunately for artists like VanGoh, they are dead
first). But the dealer in our society has a lot to do with what people
believe is "quality art". In my opinion this leads to a lot of badly
done art and outright trash being sold as "valuable art".
This is a difficult question. Clearly expensive and valuable are not
the same thing. The other part of this question is who defines the
painting is expensive. The seller, the buyer, or the artist?
But let's stick to this question and whether the Painter or the quality
of the Art makes a painting cost the buyer more and the dealer ,(or in
the politically correct world according to Artnews, the gallerist) think
he or she may charge more.
In most cases I believe scarcity of a work or Hype will cause a painting
or other work of art to be more expensive, (cost the buyer more).
In the case of scarcity, if an artist is dead, (no more work), and
buyers wish to own some of the dead artists works, then demand exceedes
supply and hence you pay more. Clearly time is a factor since VanGoh
could not sell his works for a few francs while he was alive and now you
may pick up a nice flower picture for aroung $20 to $40 million.
Fortunately History helps to clear out a lot of the rubble, as someone
has to store and maintain the work. I believe tastes change, but truly
great art will endure, (so long Kiki Smith, Eric Fischl, outsider art).
The case of fakes shows how this argument holds up. A fake work by
another artist will be sold for a similar amount as real works until the
fake is exposed. Then the cost plummets. The name is clearly the
selling point here.
In the case of Hype though like anything else perception is everything.
If the work is perceived as scarce or lots of other people will pay even
more for the work later then it will cost you more to buy it. But here
we have a case of "is it Art", since in the case of Picasso a napkin
suddenly has value, or unsigned Dali's later become works of art.
The item just happens to be a painting or art work, but is really just
like a baseball card, or rare coin at this point.
Part of the rarity or scarcity does come from an artist who paints what
is perceived to be a "great work of art", at the right point in time.
Again you pay more because to my knowledge you could not go back in time
and paint a sunflower in the style of VanGoh before VanGoh did.
There are a number of artists today who could paint in the same style
and reproduce a work which looks just like a VanGoh. But these
paintings are not scarce, although beautiful and would be cheap.
However there is the question of Value, or valuable art works.
Some works are valuable because they bring great beauty in our lives.
Some record a moment in history. Some were the first to turn art in a
new direction, (Picasso, Rothko), or mirror events at large.
Different cultures also have different criteria for the value of the
artwork. I love Japanese Brush painting, but many in the western
culture perceive it as simplistic.
I hope I have opened the door for discussion. What I say is my view,
and there are obviously different and equally valid views from others.
Mattison
: Im doing a report for my art class. And i need to know opinions and
: suggestions on something. WHat makes paitings expensive, is it the
: painter or the quality of hte art. If Leonardo Da Vinci did his stuff on
: pastel would it still be priceless today.
Soul, prolific dead artists, marketing, supply and demand, innovation,
staying power...timing and many more things.
Mattison
Jaxas
>
>
>Im doing a report for my art class. And i need to know opinions and
Since you are obviously young and naive, I'll suggest to you that
VERY LITTLE art is expensive. Take a look at the enormous volume
of stuff that is passed off as ART today, and you'll see that the bulk
is priced at "sofa art" prices. The art that IS expensive may or may
not deserve to be, but it got that way for all the reasons anything
becomes expensive--rarity, market hype, extraordinariness, and of
course, most importantly for art, its authentication as the work of
a renowned artist. How the artist became renowned, and whether
s/he deserves to be is the subject of another paper.
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
***** + Jaxas from Texas + *****
***** Look for the silver lining, *****
***** But don't ask if it's sterling! *****
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Michael Gerard Maranda
>Morango (sco...@access.digex.net) wrote:
>Mattison
Oh, and generous use of gold leaf and red paint. That helps.
Damn art supplies art expensive.
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......................Michael.Maranda..................................
.......................................mm017g@uhura.cc.rochester.edu....
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J. Stephen Pendergrast
: Morango (sco...@access.digex.net) wrote:
: : ... If Leonardo Da Vinci did his stuff on
: : pastel would it still be priceless today.
Leonardo did lots of studies in red chalk that would fetch
a king's ransom today, so what difference would pastel make?
Wasn't the Hammer Coda all in ink? It just sold for something
like $35 million, right? (I guess it will be renamed the
Gates Coda...)
Mattison
: Oh, and generous use of gold leaf and red paint. That helps.
On the frames?
Mattison