The Scream painting fetches $120M dollars.

[troutman]

I don't think art is a scam. It is valuable commodity out-performing other sectors of the economy. By way of analogy - is Tom Cruise worth $20 M per picture, or Jarome Iginla worth $7 M per season? They are, if the market is willing to pay them.

My concern, is the art market may be driven by the proceeds of crime.

[Table 5]

Ah yes, the old " I could draw that!" argument....if you think it's so easy, I always encourage people to go ahead and create the next "Scream". You'll make millions, you'd be stupid not to.

Having said that, I do think a lot of art these days is pure junk, and who is or isn't successful has more to do with where one lives and who they hang out with much more than than what they produce.

I saw this the other day, thought it was pretty funny.
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/im-si...i-dont-get-art

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Art tends to be one of the biggest scam games out there, driven by people that want to appear to be more sophisticated and smarter then they actually are.

I still remember when the Canadian Government commissioned that faces of rage or pain or whatever for a million bucks and got a painting with a black bacground and a red stripe down the middle that probably took less then an hour to create.

A thing is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

So . . . . not really a scam since we are talking real dollars.

A scam would be someone selling a knockoff/misrepresentation of the real thing for that dollar amount.

In the late 1980's, when Japan ruled the world economically, a company there paid something like $84 million for a painting . . . . . back when that was real money.

It was mind-boggling then just like its mind-boggling now.

I don't get it either but, again, a thing is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

Cowperson

[CaptainCrunch]

Its funny, I look at what I call consumer art, and see people that go into art gallery's and buy these paintings for 5 or 10 k and then breathlessly think that they're going to be able to sell it dodwn the road.

Meanwhile guys like Robert Bateman has come up with a cheap system of mass producing his art by tracing and Goddard makes god awful olive art that might as well be painted on black velvet and people snap them up like its some kind of investment.

Bleah.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Its funny, I look at what I call consumer art, and see people that go into art gallery's and buy these paintings for 5 or 10 k and then breathlessly think that they're going to be able to sell it dodwn the road.

Meanwhile guys like Robert Bateman has come up with a cheap system of mass producing his art by tracing and Goddard makes god awful olive art that might as well be painted on black velvet and people snap them up like its some kind of investment.

Bleah.

I have an artist as a client who mass produces original images (probably $30 to $250 per framed print) and has many, many, many millions of dollars as a result. An artist but very much a businessperson.

I have another artist as a client with original works selling in the $15,000 area or more. The National Art Gallery had a display of the work and its toured internationally. Also very successful and wealthy.

You don't have to be a starving artist. You just have to find how to create value and see if you can do it while staying theoretically true to some sort of artistic conviction. Or maybe that last part isn't important.

Cowperson

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

You don't have to be a starving artist. You just have to find how to create value and see if you can do it while staying theoretically true to some sort of artistic conviction. Or maybe that last part isn't important.

Pretty much why most people choose to go into commercial arts like graphic design/illustration/photography, rather than pure fine art. It allows you to be creative, but you're connected to industry so you can make a pretty decent living (and if you're savy enough like you're clients, a really great living).

[Northendzone]

as long as pictures of dogs playing games of chance are selling for less than $30 at the mall, hten all is good in the art world.......

[TurnedTheCorner]

If you're gonna drop that kind of coin on a painting, you could do worse.

[Ironhorse]

Meh. It doesn't match my furniture.

[THowie]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

as long as pictures of dogs playing games of chance are selling for less than $30 at the mall, hten all is good in the art world.......

Here, here!!!

[mykalberta]

Originally Posted by troutman

'60 Minutes' surveys art market with Eli Broad, Jeffrey Deitch


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/cult...ey-deitch.html

Safer's report is a follow-up to his 1993 segment "Yes... but is it art?" The controversial piece questioned whether certain cutting-edge works qualified as art and landed Safer in hot water with some viewers who branded him a philistine.

Sunday's story attempted to examine why the art market has managed to outperform the S&P 500 and defy the current economic recession. Blum, who is the co-owner of the Blum & Poe gallery, described today's art market as the "wild west" and a "bizarre place to do business."

"This is all theater," he said, referring to the buying and selling at Art Basel. He also said the boom in art prices is "inexplicable."

The full segment from Sunday's broadcast is available online.

Morley Safer: How have China and Russia changed the art market?

Larry Gagosian: It's been a huge factor, I think the wealth in Russia, the Middle East, Asia has changed it, changed it dramatically.

Maria Baibakova, age 26, is interested in this dealer's Gerhard Richter, a German artist who is the current rage.

[Maria Baibakova: It's got a lot of wall power...]

She's a Russian oligarch's daughter, who's spending a fortune on contemporary art.

[Dealer: And my painting I'm selling it for $4.8 million and so you're getting a bargain with me today.

Maria Baibakova: That's a real bargain.

The 60 minutes report on it a few weeks ago was amazing. People investing in art like stocks.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by THowie

Here, here!!!

Hear Hear

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-say-hear-hear

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear,_hear

[valo403]

Originally Posted by troutman

Hear Hear

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-say-hear-hear

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hear,_hear

Perhaps he was attempting to give delivery instructions for the latest 'Dogs Playing Poker' piece that he had commissioned

[getbak]

I thought it was "hear here", as in "listen to what this person is saying".

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Table 5

I saw this the other day, thought it was pretty funny.
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/im-si...i-dont-get-art

This, and the whole high end art thing reminds me of fancy pants wine industry. I get the impression that maybe 0.1% of the population can really savor (or even detect) that "hint of oak" in the $500 bottle of wine they just bought. Maybe it's just what you do when you get older and you used to be that guy that just got poopfaced every Saturday night on the cheapest thing possible. Older now with some money and it's just that self delusion club you join at that age.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by chemgear

This, and the whole high end art thing reminds me of fancy pants wine industry. I get the impression that maybe 0.1% of the population can really savor (or even detect) that "hint of oak" in the $500 bottle of wine they just bought. Maybe it's just what you do when you get older and you used to be that guy that just got poopfaced every Saturday night on the cheapest thing possible. Older now with some money and it's just that self delusion club you join at that age.

We have discussed research in some wine threads here that showed "wine experts" could not distinguish cheap wine from expensive wine, and red wine from white wine in blind tests (based on expectations of what they were drinking).

[bizaro86]

Art and wine are very much alike, in my opinion. Buy what you like, and don't worry about what other people think, do, or say.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by troutman

We have discussed research in some wine threads here that showed "wine experts" could not distinguish cheap wine from expensive wine, and red wine from white wine in blind tests (based on expectations of what they were drinking).

I was watching some Hong Kong game show where they test HK celebs on if they can tell the difference between rich stuff or normal stuff. So they'd have stuff like a $30K bottle of wine vs. a $300 bottle of wine and see if people can tell the difference. None of those guys can. Its all just a guessing game.

[surferguy]

I build and sell original art as a portion of my living. It is not an easy task. I find that you can create all you want, the real task is getting in front of people. That and being honest with yourself regarding the price point.

With my work I will never stand on a soap box and shout that my art is the greatest thing ever invented, so I don't charge people like it is.

I know that only a portion of a world will like my work. I find the challenge is finding that market and getting in front of them, when I do I get a great response.

I find it funny that people never really took notice of my work until I added clocks to them effectively making a functional piece of art. Once I did that, BOOM, sales took off!

Perhaps the one thing I have going for my work is that it is simple and affordable. It is a great way to add an impact that will not break the bank.

I do find it frustrating when somebody will hold/reserve a piece and then take forever to come and claim it. It sucks when you have to chase a client to hand over the art and get your pay cheque, sometimes I wonder if these people realize that this is how I make my bills.

To me the payoff comes when somebody is stoked to own one of my pieces. The fact that I get paid to be creative is awesome. I don't make millions but I can tell you that seeing that proud look on a clients face when I hand over a clock/art piece is priceless.