According to libertarians and liberals in general, the actual worth of things is measured by its ability to sell and be sold.
But the thing with Art is that it doesn’t really function that way. .or does it? In many cases aesthetic values are nor in contrary with market ones and the best selling art is sometimes also a good one. Of course there are some other examples as well.
Another thing I was thinking is should writers accustom to the demands of market/audience? I know this guy who has like 1600 poems but never published a book: he writes in classical, more hermetic, symbolistic way. I told him that people just don’t read such stuff today - its just a postmodern mindset - but he acted rather offended because, well, he doesn’t sell out for anyone …
What do you guys think? I find this an ongoing debate.
He shouldn’t get offended because like Bruce Hornsby said “that’s just the way it is”. I feel that art shouldn’t be measured by monetary value. Because many great artists don’t collect fame until after death. That’s proof itself that art isn’t always measured correctly by how much it’s worth.
Almost none of the great impressionist painters made any money from their paintings. I think Monet was the only one who was well off because of the money he got from his paintings. Most of those guys died from syphilis and complications from alcoholism. Their paintings didn’t suit the tastes of the time. Today their paintings are loved, and some of them sell for millions of dollars. I guess you could say that impressionism suits the tastes of the modern public. Vincent Van Ghoh only sold one painting while he was alive. His style didn’t appeal to his contemporaries. Today his paintings sell for millions of dollars.
I think the distinction between popular art and aesthetic art is relatively recent. Before modern mass communication and newspapers the only thing the general public had to inform it was religious painting and other great art. Much of the painting of religious themes appealed to the general public, both the lowly serfs and the exalted royalty. Today mass communication appeals to our prurient and well as our exalted yearnings.
I like some of the popular art today, especially that of Thomas Kinkaid. His paintings have a lot of charm, and I think some art authorities say that keeps it from being aesthetic art, but I like his paintings.They have a way of portraying light that is breathtaking. He shows light shining through windows a lot. This is an effective technique to draw the viewer into his paintings. Sometimes I look at his rural paintings and fantasize about drinking beer in the local pub in an old English town.
I'm not going to try to make any ponderous pronouncements about the difference between aesthetic and popular art, but I will say that impressionism was scoffed at by many of the art critics of the time.
Good point…i have to think about it. I know that only since the romanticism art had really been available to ordinary people. Before that the consumers were only the elites. I don’t know If the consumer part can really be left out.
One thing I was taught about aesthetically good art is that it is so because the canons are well presented and explored, and are actually measurable, quantifiable and such, in this sense I think once a canon gets mainstream the prices skyrocket.
Or, in a more kitsch sense, it’s just pretty, it feels right, but in this domain I think market value has nothing to do with this kind of aesthetics. It just so happens that sometimes something that pleases us sells for a lot of money and other times you find the most beautiful painting in your local flea market for 20 bucks.
In regards to writers accustoming to the demands of an audience I remember once reading that every book was written with someone in mind, for someone. But I also think that if writers want to write as some kind of masturbation, where they do it for themselves and without regarding anyone else, there’s no problem there, some of the best books I’ve read were written by people poking their inner wounds, completely self absorved. It just so happens that many of these folks eventually feel a need to share what they found out while in isolation, and suddenly the writings that weren’t wrote for an audience start ressonating with more and more people. And that is where the magic happens. I dislike writers who do it to get a specific reaction from the audience, like always second guessing what the thing they just wrote should evoke in other people, it takes the fun away, although I get taking writing as a craftwork.
I think the two questions you posed are interconnected.
Of course you do. It really does have to do with literary tradition: either the art happens within the canon but hits the best of it or the author does something really out of tradition but it attracts people and makes sense.
I draw, I also write pretty good biographical essays according to one of my college professors and my girlfriend at the time (English major).
I have been told by people to pursue both professionally people I both know and and have just seen/read my “art”.
I have no interest in that, not because of potential criticism but because I Hate My Job. It doesn’t matter what I do or how much I like it. If I Have to do Something over & over again I become unhappy doing it.
I like drawing & writing, it is more the act then the end product for me. I think if the Goal of someone’s art is to make money Today, then yeah your gonna have to “Sell Out” or be ready compromise.At least until you are an Established Name. Too many people want to be paid to be Artists
@sarad I published my poem…i got a really nice comment but he only gave me 5/10 stars…but I looked into it and that’s a pretty decent score. The “Poem of the day” got 5.8…so I’m not too far off. We’ll see how it goes when I get more votes
I have written over 60 poems and published these on the Internet and I am not expecting that these will be sold. My father wrote over 30 poems during his military service and these are recorded in his private notebook and again I expect that these won’t be sold. Yes, these poems are some sort of the art but these are transferred from my generation to the future generations within my family.
In the past I maintained my ‘Intelligence Notebooks’, I have 30 notebooks with me and I do not expect that these will be sold, these are primarily just the record of my intelligence findings at the time when each recording has been made in these notebooks. It would be nice to publish these but it would take so much effort to transfer all documents from the paper notebooks to the digital documents that this is not going to be done. Again these notebooks shall be transferred from me to the future generations within my family.
Sometimes you can find a nice painting at a flea market for 20-30 euros, but in the real art gallery these paintings may cost much more. I suppose the value of any painting is what people want to pay at any moment of time.
