The Price of Everything
How do you put a price on aesthetics? The current trend is minimalism.
Stark whites as a backdrop for a few displayed furnishings with a pop of color in homes, galleries and lobbies. Contrast this with how wealth used to be displayed.
Rich, plush, jewel toned colors and opulent textiles with gold trim and frames; baroque rococo everywhere.
No surface left unclaimed or unadorned by pattern or color. Nothing clean and stark. Some would say a maximalist dream.
The Price of Everything, a new HBO documentary, makes the case, on both sides, whether art should be exclusively for the wealthy or made and appreciated by the masses.
The Tale of Two Artists
This contrast is sharpest between two male artists with rhyming last names featured in this documentary on HBO.
Larry Poons was in the art scene when the pricing of art began to explode and branding yourself as an artist started to trend.
In a moment of encouragement someone told him not to worry about what he would do next because he was Larry Poons.
Larry heard the opposite of what this person was implying. He wouldn't be allowed to change or grow as an artist and retreated to upstate New York.
Jeff Koons is the most capitalistic artist featured in the documentary. He dances around the label and praise of being the most successful artist because of the amount his pieces sell for.
Instead he wants to focus on the process and feelings. His work is highly valued but also commercial. In a storefront we see a collaboration with Louis Vuitton with a well known Koons rabbit sculpture outline dangling from a purse strap.
While still a force in the art market, two players in the art world bemoan his pieces landing in lobbies. Context is key. Lobby art is death. This implies an eventual downfall with his pieces becoming less desirable since, “if you see it in the lobby it just disappears.”
The last time we see him onscreen, Jeff is talking about a new piece he wants to create. A giant train you can stand under dangling from a crane with steam and pistons churning away above. He estimates the costs at $25 to $50 million.
“Artists must make an enemy of envy.”
-Jerry Saltz
The Art Market
A hallmark of the art market is astronomical prices. Most of us have no hope of purchasing one of these pieces at auction. Many confirm, in interviews scattered throughout, the sentiment of art as an asset.
Not just for decoration, if ever, but to diversify your portfolio. There are only so many places to put your money. By the end we see Larry Poons vindicated slightly.
It’s hard to say if his underdog status will be used against him in the future. People remember him but his work is under valued.
Anyone buying before an upswing will make a killing in the future reselling at auction. We see this play out at auction in real time with a newer artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby's piece selling for $900,000 which she won't receive a dime of.
In essence, the piece was bought for a nominal amount and flipped for much more at auction. If capitalism seems like a ruthless game the art market is a winner take all death match.
The Collector
One collector tows the line between being enamored by the art world and being self aware enough to laugh at himself. Stefan Edlis is one of the few collectors we revisit throughout the documentary. At first he seems like more of the same. People with too much money they don't know what to do with it.
We view his collection and see how eclectic it really is. He can joke about not really knowing if some of the pieces surrounding him are art including clown shoes, a bread foot and the insidious statue titled Him. Even after hearing each ridiculous price one after another he seems the most down to earth.
One of the last scenes shows him admiring a few of the 42 pieces he donated to the Art Institute. He wants to share his art wealth with the world outside of his walls.
“Some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
-Stefan Edlis
The Art Market Power Player
Some people don't stumble into the art world so much as they couldn’t belong or thrive anywhere else. Art is their life. Amy Cappellazzo from Sotheby’s embodies this.
She is serious about art and doesn't take kindly to any questions explicitly or implicitly questioning the current operations of the art market. Nothing could be more serious for her.
The art world and marketplace consume her working and leisure hours. She takes a screenshot of a painting, the first she remembers liking beyond her own childhood forays into art; a Giacomo Balla from her home town. It will serve to cheer her up in the future.
“There's 3 kinds of people in this world. Those who see, those who see when they are shown and those who will never see.”
-Amy Cappellazzo
The Price of Art
The analysis from the auctioneer, Simon de Pury, is all about upholding the art market status quo. Art should be expensive because people don't want to save cultural artifacts with no value. (Have you seen my Beanie Baby collection?)
It does make a certain amount of sense dissecting it as a devil's advocate. The problem is the art market is a bubble few can penetrate. Most people who find the time, energy and money to seek out art are going to galleries or museum exhibits.
If they really like a piece they can buy a print from the gift shop. The financial interests of certain parties is cited as the reason for inflated art prices. “Plenty of people buy with their ears not their eyes.” This is the only dig Simon makes at the art market.
Another line of thinking, not explored in The Price of Everything but worth thinking about is the perceived value of other types of art.
Why do we not consider affordable or attainable art, on Etsy and other online marketplaces, as good or valuable as the pieces selling for millions of dollars? Is it just price or is another way of excluding undesirable people from owning cultural artifacts?
The easiest way to capture the artistic spirit is the beloved interior design trend of a gallery wall. The more chaotic and disjointed the better. This way everyone can fill their house with art but not with inflated art prices.
