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Tag Archives: goya

Art is Not Elitist

13 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by Jay Magidson in art

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art, auction, Elitist, emerging art, expensive art, goya, museum

In the last few decades, art has been perceived, and is to many, an elitist endeavor.  The artist does work for money after all.  With the rise in value for some paintings in the hundreds of millions, it is no wonder many collectors buy with the goal of increasing their wealth.  Museums need visitors, so they follow the trend as well, buying and displaying such works as Munch’s the Scream, purchased at auction for nearly $120 million.  The Mona Lisa, for example, brings about 6 million viewers to the Louvre every year.  Its value based on this alone puts it in the $100s of millions if not billions.  These are commodities, marketing icons.  One might ask one’s self, is that so bad, exposing millions to important works of art?

AUCTION-edvard munch

Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” sells for $119.9 million at Sotheby’s in 2012

Marketing Creates the Illusion of Value

The effect is not limited to museums.  Contemporary works sell for millions regularly at auction houses and galleries.  Many of these works are important, many of questionable long term worth.  The auction house and gallery have a vested interest in promoting and maintaining these upward prices.  The buyer expects increasing returns, critics and experts influence and perpetuate these expectations.  A very small range of works continue to rise to stratospheric levels while tens of thousands of artists languish in obscurity.  Fair?  Life isn’t fair, right.  Play the game or don’t cry about it passing you by.

Photo_of_Interchanged_by_Willem_de_Kooning

“Interchange” by Willem de Kooning sold to Kenneth C. Griffin for $300 million in 2015

What is Art For

But step back and remind yourself of the true purpose of art, its intrinsic value.  Art is created to communicate ideas, concepts and emotion.  When it succeeds it is good, when it touches your soul, it is great.  Is a $100 million work touching some one’s soul?  Sometimes, but often not.  The price has nothing to do with its connection to the viewer.  Its measure as a commodity makes it inaccessible, available only to those who can afford to be touched.  Do these wealthy few have a special or unique type of soul that money has given them?  Hardly.

Paul_Cézanne the card players

“The Card Players” by Cezanne sold to the State of Qatar for between $250 and $300 million in 2011

Can You Put a Price on Your Soul

Our value driven culture has pushed aside so many potential art enthusiasts, given them them the illusion that if they can’t afford it, they can’t appreciate it.  It has created an elitist view of art in general, that somehow the wealthiest have some kind of special ability or gift that you do not posses.

gold toilet by Maurizio Cattelan

Working Gold Toilet by Maurizio Cattalan in the Gugenheim Museum bathroom in 2016 valued at $2 to $3 million

A King’s Ransom for a Painting

This is hardly a new concept.  Kings, noblemen and the religious institutions paid great artists to create works for their palaces and churches for centuries.  The 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries made art far more accessible to more people.  Prints, portfolios, illustrated books and drawings were “affordable” for many.  We are going backwards in a way, returning to the times of kings teaching us that art is out of reach because we can’t afford it.

Le_Massacre_des_Innocents_d'après_P.P._Rubens_-_Musées_royaux_des_beaux-arts_de_Belgique_(2)

“le Massacre des innocents” by Peter Paul Rubens sold at Sotheby’s London in 2002 for $76.7 million

But It’s all a Lie

Art is a uniquely human experience available to all.   You can go to many museums for free or a modest cost and be touched by great works.  You can visit galleries and artist studios to see unknown masterpieces.  You can even buy them if you choose.  But money is not the measure of art’s worth, your experience is.  Ignore the money circus and search for yourself, decide for yourself what is great art.  It takes education, experience and effort.  The rewards are manifold.  You feed that infinite spark inside you called the soul, you are richer for the experience, more human, more you.  Art is important to all of us.

Goya Grande Hazana con Muertos

Goya’s “Grande hanzaña con muertos” sold at auction for $500

Goethe said in his beautiful way:

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

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Where Do Ideas Come From?

17 Sunday May 2015

Posted by Jay Magidson in ideas, writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

dreams, goya, ideas, Writer's block, Writing

Granted, this is not new territory, but the question continues to get raised, by readers, and by writers looking for new story ideas. I can’t speak (write) for anyone else, so I’ll tell you how ideas sometimes come to me.

One place I go for ideas is that sweet spot between waking and sleeping. When I go to bed at night, I kind of play with that twilight zone before sleep, not quite awake, not quite asleep, seeing how wide I can stretch it. It is kind of like daydreaming, but much richer, crazier, none of the rules of reality get in the way. It’s like a kid asking, what if I could fly, or be invisible or jump inside of other people’s dreams? And I just let the ideas come, the wilder the better. Some I grab and tell myself. “I’m going to remember you.” Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but it doesn’t matter. It is far more important to keep the ideas flowing then destroy the process by getting up and writing something down. How pedestrian can you get?

Other ideas come from daydreaming. I daydream all the time. I doubt my family has any idea how much. Except maybe my daughter, she is a master daydreamer too. It is likely most writers and artists are great daydreamers. A cloud floats by and it reminds you of a clown, which makes you think of the circus, which makes you think of all of mankind locked in a freak show without knowing it. And on it goes.

Maybe you’re sitting at a restaurant and you overhear two people talking. “What a great baritone voice that man has.” You think he could be a radio personality with that voice, but maybe that is just a cover and you create some spy scenario in your head. OK, I know, most of life is not all that interesting, but add just a drop of untamed imagination and it is never boring. I have no idea what it’s like not to have an overactive imagination, telling oneself stories all the time, inventing characters and scenarios. People without wild imaginations probably get a lot more stuff done.

Ideas come from nowhere too, and those are the best ones of all. I get up early, before anyone else, when the house is quite and I can write, not feel guilty that I should be helping with the millions of things that need to get done when you have a family. Many times, I have a blank page and no starting place. I know I need a new chapter, but have absolutely no idea what is supposed to come next. I don’t agonize over it, I just write. It starts out as pure shit, but I don’t stop, because I know what’s going to happen if I just trust the process. And pretty soon, my fingers kind of disconnect from my brain, and out comes…stuff. Pretty good stuff, sometimes even great stuff. Then I hear a soft peep out of the critical part of my mind, “hey what’s that, where did that come from, that’s not you, you can’t write like that.” But I give him a good gagging and let the process continue. Maybe it lasts a few minutes, maybe a few hours. And damn if it isn’t pretty good.

Where did it come from? I have no idea. Call it the muses, call it intuition, the subconscious, long buried memories, call it God. What difference does it make, but by all means don’t stop it. That is the most creative a human being can be. And it is way cool!

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