Art: Crazy rich people
I am a big fan of some of the works sold at yesterday’s auction, but I am amazed at the prices. Time to find some bargains. That is the great thing about art, you can find work just as good as the multi-million dollar pieces out there. The astronomical prices are the result of gallerists and auction houses creating niche markets, selling to those who value name and cache. So they create name and cache. The art is just the vehicle for them.
In today’s New York Times about the Christie’s auction:
Warhol and Judd Soar in $143 Million Art Sale
From a Campbell’s Soup can to a dissected lamb split and submerged in formaldehyde, postwar and contemporary images straight out of the art history books rose to ever-higher price levels in more than two and a half hours of tireless bidding at Christie’s last night. But the most memorable part of the evening came when Minimalism went mainstream.
The evening set records for 12 artists ranging from David Hockney and Damien Hirst to Richard Prince and Mike Kelley in a sale that totaled $143.1 million, in the middle of its estimate, $113.1 million to $160.2 million. Of the 91 works, only 8 failed to sell.
I’m so there with you. Prices have gone crazy and I don’t hear anyone talking about a art market bubble. That is all good for young artists I think, but bad for people who love art. We can only get work from (very) young artists. Once a good gallery gets in the game…it’s over for us.