Thursday, September 13, 2018

if it's expensive, it must be worth it

A swimming pool painting by David Hockney could become the most valuable work of art by a living artist sold at auction.
Christie’s in New York announced on Thursday that it was selling Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) with an estimate in the region of $80m (£61m)....Alex Rotter, co-chairman of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s, said Hockney’s pool painting was “one of the great masterpieces of the modern era”.
I realize that as the world seems to sink ever deeper into the bourgeois swamp of Donald Trump and the likes (everything has a price) that the expense of a piece of art might occasion a news story. But as I look at this particular offering, all I can think of is American comedian Dan Ackroyd's riff on an auction of "hotel and motel art..." ... art "seen by millions" .... gracing your very own living room

I can't believe I cannot find a clip of Ackroyd's sctick (maybe I am remembering poorly), but I can't.

PS. My mother once told me that she enjoyed the art history classes she once took at Smith College after the professor confided off stage, "it's all bullshit." My mother enjoyed stringing important-sounding adjectives and other encomia together when she wrote her papers and got her A's.

2 comments:

  1. Art for Art's Sake
    10cc
    Gimme your body
    Gimme your mind
    Open your heart
    Pull down the blind
    Gimme your love gimme it all
    Gimme in the kitchen gimme in the hall
    Art for arts sake
    Money for Gods sake
    Art for Arts sake
    Money for Gods sake
    Gimme the readys
    Gimme the cash
    Gimme a bullet
    Gimme a smash
    Gimme a silver gimme a gold
    Make it a million for when I get old
    Art for arts sake
    Money for Gods sake
    Art for Arts sake
    Money for Gods sake
    Money talks so listen to it
    Money talks to me
    Anyone can understand it
    Money can't be beat Oh no
    When you get down, down to the root
    Don't give a damn don't give a hoot
    Still gotta keep makin the loot
    Chauffeur driven
    Gotta make her quick as you can
    Give her lovin' make you a man
    Get her in the palm of your hand
    Bread from Heaven
    Gimme a country
    Where I can be free
    Don't need the unions
    Strangling me
    Keep me in exile the rest of my days
    Burn me in hell but as long as it pays
    Art for arts sake
    Money for Gods sake
    Art for arts sake
    Money for Gods sake
    Art for arts sake
    Money for Gods sake
    Art for arts sake
    Money for Gods sake
    Songwriters: Eric Stewart / Graham Gouldman

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  2. “A fool and his money are soon parted.”
    — A 16th Century Saying

    As for that painting, it’s not to my liking.

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