I think the whole concept of the value of art is very interesting. Like discussed in the article, art is literally worth whatever the highest bidder says it’s worth. An artist can put in a great effort in making their piece seem to be worth a lot, yet it is ultimately down to the people to decide how much it’s actually worth.
For example, Michael Green (the artist who created the balloon dog GIF) did several things to try to make his art more compelling, and still no one bought it. When at first it didn’t sell at the price of $2,000, he bumped up the price to $5,800. By doing this, I speculate that he was trying to make the GIF seem as though it was valuable. If the starting price is so high, maybe people would think “Oh wow! This piece must be valuable if that number is the starting price.” And then they’d buy it at the starting price before the number gets too high.
Green also added some very descriptive words explaining the piece of art. I again, speculate that he was trying to make it seem more valuable by adding some super deep meaning to it. Green has several sentences explaining the profound meaning behind the deflating dog GIF saying it represents the death of physical art museums, like compact discs and books. Despite his effort to put meaning and value behind his art, there were still no takers for his piece.
Obviously, the cash value of art is very subjective, the price someone will put on a painting varies person to person. There are some art pieces that have sold for millions of dollars, that I wouldn’t even take a second look at. On the other hand, there are small local artists that create pieces that I love and would spend money on their pieces to have it in my room.
I wanted to play a little guessing game of “how much does this art piece cost?” I put 5 different pieces, all spanning between $147-$90,300,000. Take your best guess of how much it’s priced at and find the answers at the bottom of the slide gallery.
1) Work by David Hockney. First sold in 1972 for $18,000 (equivalent to $117,000 in 2022). Sold in 2018 for $90.3 million. At that time (2018), it was the highest price paid for a work by a living artist.
2) Work on Etsy by Lina Wu, her shop is called XingmaiPainting. Priced at $147
3) Work by Richard Hambleton priced at $72,000
4) Work by Etsy artist Natalia Shaykina, her shop is called GalleryPaintingsArt. Priced at $616
5) Work by Judy Chicago. Priced at $15,000
Comment your opinion on these art works. How much would you pay for these pieces? Do you like the more expensive ones or the cheaper ones better?
♡ Elise
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