«GOOD BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART»

I read in an article in the New York Times last year that, “now the artists’ names are enough to define them as desirable tokens”. In the past twenty years, have we seen the raise of a ‘branded era’ in art? According to Harry Dalmeny, the great difference between an Old Master painting and a contemporary painting is that the former tends not to be signed. Now art is seen as a commodity and brand by many artists; sculptors or photographers quite often take a lot more control over the reproduction and the control of their images. Indeed, many artists earn as much money from reproduction of their paintings as from the sale of the items themselves. Dalemy compares the art market to polo, “I sometimes think that contemporary art collecting is a bit like a sport, like polo. If you are a rich man, and you enjoy polo, you might have a team full of muscly Argentinians who play polo beautifully. And there you are, the rich man, galloping along at the back, playing in the team, and you are part of it, but you have to be able to ride. If you can’t ride, it’s really pointless. If you are a rich art collector, you could be part of that team, part of the herd (la horde en gros), you don’t even need to be able to ride, you just need to be able to sign cheques! And then you can make it quite a big name.”

-Varsity

 November 1 2012