The Silence is Deafening

I was at the Weisman Art Museum last Friday for a fundraiser for the Twin Cities Music Foundation. They were having a silent art auction to benefit the foundation and I had donated two pieces. The lamp I donated actually sold so that was good for the foundation.

I know that sounds very generous of me but my real motivation was to have some exposure for my work. I think it worked. What was more fascinating to me though was to not only  watch the silent auction process but but to ponder the art and the artists.

I don’t usually consider my furniture art though some of it can be sculptural in nature, so maybe it’s unintentionally art. But there the lamp was surrounded by paintings and photographs and sculpture and more. My friend Linda and I tried to contemplate the amount of effort and creativity and inspiration that went into the pieces (most of them anyway). I wondered what a strange process it must be to try to price art.

Maybe my challenge is that I look at it as having to make a living making art or making something, anyway. And in thinking of it that way perhaps I am doomed to not understand. I know it is often a labour of love that does not always have measurable financial gains.  I know also that some people only do it part time or have other financial support. If I was a real artist maybe I could get a patron, like some Duke of Chutney or something.

Where was I going with this. Oh, yes. The difficulty in pricing art. At the silent auction you could see the minimum bids (which I understand are not entirely reflective of what one might typically sell it for) and the prices ranged from $50 to $1800.   I looked at them and thought, having some reasonable knowledge of the effort involved, this artistry stuff pays somewhere below minimum wage. No wonder there are starving artists.

But I know also that artistry must follow the same market pressures as other things. Supply and demand, perceptions, brand recognition, credibility, death, etc. So I know that just like  for every 1000 bars of soap that sell for $5 there’s the one that sells for $100 and so the same is true for art however much we may not want it to be that way.

Or as Hamlet would say, It’s just a lamp, take it for all and all.

This entry was posted on 21. September 2008 at 10:50 and is filed under Designs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.