For there is not a direct correlation between the quality of art and its value. People are told that certain pieces of art are already valuable, hence the current price, and that they are set to increase over time. But who decides this, as so many people believe this, evidenced by the very high prices of art seen at Auction for works that to most people look ordinary and lacking in a wow factor. I believe that there is a lot of the ‘emperors clothes’ in the art market, as far too few people actually know what ‘good art’ is. That is not to be snobby or elitist, but it is the same with a lot of other products/ investments.


You can be advised by ‘experts’ to buy this company’s share, this wine or whisky, this super car etc, but how does the buyer really know; they don’t. But when anyone buys a piece of art, whatever their knowledge of art, they know whether they like it or not. This is the main point of this article, in that too often people only buy a piece of art because they hope or expect that it will increase in value, which is why we get so much awful art fetching high prices.


Why poor quality art rises to these ridiculously high prices is how the artist and their work starts being valued and sold right from the start. If art was valued ‘properly’ it would be done so by experts, who evaluate a new artist by the quality of their work only. Thirty or forty plus years ago this was a lot more the case, but now an artist needs to have a ‘brand’ and each piece of work comes with an essay on their personal journey, view of the world and the deep meaning of their art. Which means they are hard selling their art, rather than letting the work speak for itself.


Freud and Bacon, our two most successful artists of the last 100 years, didn’t write about their work or spend time explaining each piece they produced in detail. So why do we do this now? It probably has a lot to do with the ease and amount of digital platforms we all have


at our fingertips enabling us to do this, but also that we are now so image obsessed.


So back to how do we value art. The standard way for an artist to start selling their art and for increasing prices is to follow the accepted path. Where the quality of the art school you went to and the gallery that represents you and your art, will mostly determine the price. This is how poor quality art goes through the art world gaining value at each stage, as art schools will not mainly look for the best artists, i.e. ones that produce art which shows the most skill and beauty.


It starts in the schools where artists portfolios are also selected based on other factors. This then affects what is shown in art galleries and these works move up the ladder and at each stage being rubber stamped and value added. This is how and why you see low quality paintings that were produced less than 10 years ago fetching high prices; as the artist has somehow managed to move through these stages of their career without producing anything of deserving quality.


Richard Embrey @richardembreyart 99


LIVE24-SEVEN.COM


ENTERTAINMENT ART GUIDE


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