As IF Times

link Freud, Art Star Prices May Surge 30% This Year, Survey Says – Bloomberg.com

If I painted a portrait of some flowers in a vase, it would obviously give me some pleasure. Presumably, those of my friends with any taste would agree and compliment me on my artistic genius. The really nice ones might even deign to insult me by offering money for this masterpiece. Apart from my towering reputation in the art world, the price of the painting would be determined mainly by what value the buyer would ascribe to owning this piece of timeless genius.

Value and beauty is in the eye of the beholder as the old saying goes and so it’s difficult to peg a price for any piece of art. If we extrapolate this logic to works in the art world created by the well known masters such as Van Gogh, Cezanne, da Vinci etc etc, then the price of art should reflect the genuine desire of the purchaser to enjoy the particular piece of work. Since the artists named are long dead, scarcity comes into the calculation of price since Vinny can’t just whip off another Sunflowers by the weekend.

What has happened in the art world is that enjoyment of art is completely removed from the value and pricing of art. It’s highly doubtful that any purchaser can sit in a chair, gaze intently at Sunflowers by Van Gogh and derive $60 million dollars worth of pleasure from it. After 30 minutes or so, anyone would be tempted to see what’s happening in the football game on TV.

No, the value, or more correctly, the pricing of art is controlled by a small cabal of Dealers such as Sotheby’s, Christie’s and others who determine thus on behalf of clients with money to spend. So, think about this, not only do they set the price for art work, they also get a commission for selling them at auctions or galleries. That’s a nice gig. Imagine sending the husband out to get something to fill the wall in the east foyer and he comes back with a $25 million dollar Cezanne, which is a heck of a deal because the dealer assured him that the price will appreciate by 30 percent over the next 18 months or so. As discussed earlier, one can arguably justify the price based on scarcity value.

In most modern galleries however, it’s unlikely that original works of the great masters will be available for such purchase. More likely they will be the works of someone a little more pedestrian but whom the dealer assures shows great promise. In reality, the money changes hands not because the blue in the artwork happens to complement the periwinkle in the foyer, but because the dealer has blessed the piece as a good investment. The enjoyment factor has almost nothing to do with it. The job of the dealer is to describe the piece with eloquent prose in order to assuage the purchaser of his good judgement, but really, the art is only bought…to be sold, sometime down the road.

Post the Bernie Madoff ponzi scandal, it’s absolutely fascinating that money will bid up the price of ‘art’ solely based on the say so of a very small band of people on the inside. As the article opines, when a dealer says that prices will rise by 30 percent, it’s very believable because they are on both sides of the market. It’s the ultimate game of musical chairs.

link Audiences experience ‘Avatar’ blues – CNN.com

I can’t make this stuff up, this material streams in and just begs for comment. CNN reports that an online web site called “Avatar Forums” have people expressing feelings of sadness or depression because they cannot live in a world as beautiful and perfect as depicted in the movie “Avatar”. A writer by the name of Mike:

“Ever since I went to see ‘Avatar’ I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na’vi made me want to be one of them. I can’t stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it,” Mike posted. “I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in ‘Avatar.’ ”

Other fans have expressed feelings of disgust with the human race and disengagement with reality:

“When I woke up this morning after watching Avatar for the first time yesterday, the world seemed … gray. It was like my whole life, everything I’ve done and worked for, lost its meaning,” Hill wrote on the forum. “It just seems so … meaningless. I still don’t really see any reason to keep … doing things at all. I live in a dying world.”

As an aside, the writer is 17 years old. Everything that he’s “done and worked for” may include math and english homework as well as a half finished collection of Pokemon cards. Of course he does live in Sweden, so the 11 month winter may be getting to him.

If these heart wrenching sentiments don’t crown James Cameron as the greatest filmmaker of all time, I’ll be the uncle of monkeys. To be able to craft a movie so rich in convincing detail, that people are tempted to off themselves because reality is so miserable is unprecedented to my knowledge. Heads up to the lawyers, Cameron will need a team of you guys when the lawsuits come pouring in for wrongful death suits.

Maybe people like this unfortunate young man should stop believing the biased propaganda that is being peddled by governments and media alike. Under the cover of science we are constantly fed a bleak stream of negative and alarmist views. The looming horror of global warming, imminent nuclear warfare, disappearing forests, depleted fish stocks, missing polar bears, African killer bees, spread of AIDS, hijackings of ships, oil prices soaring, rain forests shrinking, violent drug wars, airplane terrorism, excessive salt intake. He has to stop watching MSNBC.

If his bleak assessment of the state of the world is based on the diet of information fed to him at school, maybe the education system should stop sourcing texts from the Goth School collection; maybe turn a few lights on at the school.

Back in the 60’s there was an campy TV series called Lost In Space, whose special effects didn’t quite approach the richness of Cameron’s epic. One of the characters, Dr. Zachary Smith, was notable for his eternal pessimism and on nearly every episode, he was able to wail, “We’re doomed I tell you, doomed!” This guy was way ahead of his time.