I don't follow this line of reasoning very well. To me, it's "the greater fool" theory being inflicted on children who might not know better. I presume your comment on the 'greatest sentence I read Friday morning' referred to the fact that the child's parents did NOT pressure him into buying the art (I don't believe it.)
I think art should be appreciated for what it is, not for what it is worth, which is only somebody's opinion. If that somebody has a lot of money, then the opinion is worth a lot, but only to a greater fool.
Andy Wharhol's art seems primitive and pointless to me. Given a choice between his original of a soup can
and a Charlie Russell print of "Waiting for a Chinook,"
I would choose the latter.
The latter shows more artistic skill and means something historically and artistically, whereas the former can be had for real, with actual soup in the can, for about 79 cents.
On the other hand...
...my wife has a TON of Fenton Art Glass, which has been hand blown for over 100 years. I've always appreciated it as a bona fide skill-driven form of art, not to mention its utility as a vase, ash tray, candy dish, or whatever.
We just found out that the Fenton Art Glass Factory is closing, fentonartglass.com because it cannot compete with Chinese imitations flooding the market. We had one of these imitations inflicted on us once a few years back. We sent it back because instead of having color embedded in the glass it was merely painted on -- and easily scratched off.
Fenton Art Glass has never been cheap, but dealers that specialize in it immediately jacked their prices up a bunch of notches as soon as the closing news was announced. I suspect my wife's heirs will inherit quite a bundle, if they can find a greater fool for each piece. |
