WHY exactly IM doing my ART degree???

Hello, my self-reflection, haven’t been paying attention to this blog for a while. My life is so chaotic – consisting of two jobs, uni work, household, there is just never enough time for me to write something here as well.

As I am approaching deadline fast there is so much to do, and I can feel the pressure rising, but in the meantime, I wanted to discuss what happened in the art world just recently and it makes me more questioning – WHY exactly IM doing my ART degree???

Two very different but significant paintings have been sold on auction houses lately~

Nr 1 – An artwork created by Paris-based art collective Obvious using AI (artificial intelligence) - has been sold at Christie's auction house in New York for nearly half a million dollars. Therefore, making Christies the first auction house to put an artwork generated by an algorithm under the hammer.

Nr 2 - "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)"  - an iconic 1972 painting by British artist David Hockney been sold for $90.3million at Christies taking  the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by a living artist. Hockney's previous auction record was $28.4million 

The seller or the successful bidder left unknown…

 

Neither of artworks is to my liking, but if to be honest I would rather spend money for AI project as its first of its kind. I don’t have anything against David Hockney’s work, but common- let’s be honest, it does not worth 90m. This kind a sale can only indicate on sensible cover up in money loundering business. 

It’s not a news flash that art auction might appear to be a glamorous hidden world where highbrow art lovers meet some of the richest collectors in the world. But the truth is the art market is a "hotbed" of corruption- simplify, rich people passing money around and its nothing to do how good or bad painting is. Dealers are known to use the auction system to artificially inflate prices, planting an accomplice to bid against clients and ramp up the final price…. WHERE important works sometimes sold at a private price significantly lower than the sum announced publicly, the headline-catching public price boosting the status of the artist for future sales – in this case living artist.

For me it’s hard to understand how its seems normal to majority of people and why no one objects.

These two sales leave me wondering why exactly I’m doing art degree - is there a future for us arty  individuals … I’m not sure… as to succeed there is price to be paid….

All credits to sources bellow:

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/10/29/christies-ai-artwork-obvious-portrait-edmond-de-belamy-design/
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/david-hockney-painting-90-million-auction-record/index.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/02/art-world-is-hotbed-of-corruption-collector-claims/