Why art is so expensive?

I had hard time understanding art. Specially why it is so expensive. And it seem so random how one artist becomes so famous, and very expensive while someone else is struggling financially over the years. I loved art, the process of making a painting fascinates me. Not only a painting, a pottery, a statue, or even conceptual art is an special interest of mine. Consider the latter, where someone just burry worn out tyres in a row in a desert land and call it a conceptual art. How can that be? Why the bleeding robot of china looks tragic, and why some art become so expensive, like in the case of Banksy art or Jackson Pollock?

An art gallary

I say this incredible film sometimes back, its name slipped in my mind. Yet the story was remarkable. It was about a couple who were attracted to art, specially the women. And she had bought paintings of unknown artists over the course of her life journey and when she was dead her husband kept them at his wing. And his will determied that it should be acutioned at his death. A similar young couple seeking comfort in art, were attracted by their story and they also went to the auction. They did not have much money as there were some famous art collectors, gathered around. The value of this art collection were enormous as those artists were no longer living, and the art they created came at a time, when majority of them were not famous.

At the acution, the first thing to be auctioned was a painting by the deceased man, of his wife. Obviously he was not a famous painter, and his painting was not in top class like others and demand was less. And nobody was interested in betting this one, except the young couple. They bet and won against all odds, expending a good sum of money. But here, the plot twisted, as just at the moment the art was sold, the autcion stopped and all the rest of the paintings were given to the buyer of his painting of his wife. Although other people gathered around the young man who won the bet tried to convince them to sell other paintings, he decided to keep the art collection in a museum.

Birds

Why art is so expensive?

This story gives me a good perspective to look at why art has a monetary value. Consider the painting by the old man. It was a painting of his wife, who was his love of life. And for this old man his wife holds an enourmous value. His painting caputred his thoughts, of values in a painting, although not perfect in his mind this thought about wife is more valueble than anything else he has acquired, including all those invalueble paintings of other artists. So, it makes sense when in is will, he concluded that the one who sees the value in his painting recieves all the collection. But, as you can see, the value of an art comes from its ability to capture someones thoughts, ideas. From the time of the cave painters, humans had the ability to caputre their thoughts in paintings. Nowdays the means of caputring thoughts are diverse, from a ticktock to facebook, from a blog to photograph, you can collect these human values in form of art. If you cannot create them you can collect them.

How to monetize art?

There is another step, in this process of monetization of art. That is you have to convince other people to value your art. For the old man, his picture of his wife was more valueble than any other art and he conveyed the message through his will. Onces others also agree your art is valueble, then it doesn't matter you draw a stick figure or a collage. It is going to be valuable. And mind you this process of convincing others to value your art is most difficult part of an artists career. Sometimes this doesn't happen even after arist is dead, and most of them die relatively poor.

Van Goh

Art has no value?

At this point in your mind you must go "That sounds pretty crazy, it seem that art really doesn't have any value". This is exactly my point. I can expand this saying, not only art, nothing has inherent value. It's just a relative to mind. It is true and false at the same time, the vlaue of art. And it is true to gold and Mortgage. But if more people believe in something, more physical "money" it will generate, as human values are in human thoughts, not in physical "things" like art or gold.

Now I have given you something to play with. I am not sure what you will do with this wisdom. And I hope its worth and you can spread it to someone who struggle in their life. And I bet about the fact that "Philosophy will make you rich, one way or the other"