Artists' auction prices are skyrocketing.
Except for some of us.
Yes, white males dominate the international art market.
White male doctors and lawyers used to dominate medical and law schools. Because people (women) complained those stats are dramatically different today.
African Americans just got our civil rights in 1964. Generations fought and died to change the status quo.
When I talk about standards, role models, etc., I think we should compare ourselves to the best not the middle or lowest. I don't care about the "that's the way it's always been done" attitude.
Here are two reasons for harping on the money:
1. Understanding that a tangible indicator of the importance and respect art and artists command is an important issue to all of us. Money is but one measure.
2. Change occurs when the problem is identified. I don't need to list the problems, across the globe, that have been resolved because people refused to accept what they already knew.
I have constantly been asked when I tell people I am in an exhibition, "How did it go?" followed closely by "Did you sell?"
Not, did people like your work. If people buy your work, it is understood that they like it.
In response to my previous post on the June 30 Christies auction, Nancy Charak (Rounder Studio) sent this informative article. Below is an excerpt.
Click the article's title to read it in its entirety and please tell us what you think!!!
There's never been a great woman artist'
So says the critic Brian Sewell, and the art market seems to agree, with men's work commanding millions more at auction.
By Andrew Johnson
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Laurie Lewis
Bridget Riley, with her painting CataractWomen artists face prejudice and discrimination, with their works selling for a fraction of the price of their male counterparts, one of the world's leading art dealers claimed yesterday.
Iwan Wirth, who represents the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, whose giant spider, Maman, became a landmark outside Tate Modern in London last year, said the huge gap in prices between the likes of Lucian Freud and Bourgeois was "a constant source of disappointment"...Images at top left and right by Joyce Owens: Illinois Arts Alliance auction "Shout". Art built on a megaphone. Click to see works by Ed Paschke, Allen Stringfellow and others.
photo by Charles Shotwell.
