-Raising my concern about prices of artwork and whether or not the value reflects the skills used by the artist to create it.
Art is a term that describes a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities. I am referring to the visual arts, which cover the creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media.
My worry is that the pieces of artwork are not selling for sheer talent of the artist or the amount of effort and materials used, but the name of the artist. If there are a well known name, then their work is going to sell more than someone who is perhaps not as famous as them. For example, artist like Jackson Pollock. He creates these images of 'paint splashed' often called the 'drip' technique. Now, in my opinion, I don't think that this style is very creative of there is any real talent behind it. I feel that his works are often very similar, and I don't feel that they should be selling for the prices they go at. Jackson Pollock died at the age of 44, in 1956, and I think that this adds to the success of his work. In 1973 his piece 'Blue Poles' was the higher priced modern painting selling for around £1.3 million. Later on in 2006, his 'Number 5' became the worlds most expensive painting selling for a very impressive £90 million. Again, just this year in 2012, another one of his pieces, 'Number 28' sold for over £20 million. Here are a few examples of his work, Blue Poles, Number 5 and Number 28.
As I consider his work to take less skill than many others he is a prime example of Name over artistic talents.
One of The Scream paintings, created by expressionist artist Edvard Munch, was sold for around £74 million this year. Which is an extraordinary large amount of money. There were 4 versions in various media's, the one which sold for this amount was the pastel version created in 1895.
I am happier with the price one of the Scream paintings went for over the price of Pollock's work because I feel Munch's work has displayed real talent. His soft pastel colours work well and blend so nicely together. He has built up a real image which really captures people's eyes. You can clearly see the bridge, the water and the sky all using different colours. Blues, browns, oranges and yellow. Each mixes together like they fit. You can see that Edvard Munch was a person full of expression and passion, his work, in my eyes deserves the amount of attention they receive and the amount of money they fetch at auctions.
However, I still feel that artist, who can be just as good as Munch, or better are not getting the recognition they deserve.
If you were to look on the Internet, you are bound to find anything related to the topic you search for. so if you wanted to find an artist of any sort, you would get results for that. The Internet shows you what is more popular, and the things that are repeatedly coming up are people like: Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Edvard Munch, Leonardo da Vinci and Henri Matisse. The more people look for these artists to research and look up for inspiration, the more famous they get. Making it all a loot harder for the new artist to make a break through. You have to search really hard on the Internet for upcoming artists, which many people are not willing to do. I think it is unfair that amateur artist like myself are finding it very difficult to make ourselves seen. That is one of the reasons that I have decided not to pursue a career as an artist. I feel that if I was to devote myself completely to it, I perhaps wouldn't get noticed, until my work has been around for decades, or until after my death.
The perceived value of artworks often reflected the cost of the materials and sheer amount of time spent creating the work at least as much as the creative input of the artist, whereas now it is more about the popularity of the artist, the way the artwork is displayed and 'current popularity' in style.
When you make a piece of artwork it obviously takes time and resources. To break-even with what you spent is becoming harder for the upcoming artists in today's world. People are becoming less willing to give them a chance. The 'well known' artists, most of them who are not around today, are still being the main focus in the art world. Which I can understand when piece of work become more valuable after the death of the creator, but I don't think it is entirely fair the 'amateur's' and infamous people are being neglected because the same people is stealing the limelight time and time again.
What I would like to see is that other people have to same opinion as me, and that we should all give new artist more chances and places where they are able to display their talents to us all.
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