Gary Miller (gmphotos@earthlink.net)
Wed, 21 Jul 1999 21:16:04 -0700
The art market is just that, a market. Just because a work sells for $47
million dollars doesn't make it a great work of art, although it may be a
fine work, historically important, but the hype that drove someone to pay
that price has created a market where logic does not always win out. The
best work is not always that which receives the highest purchases prices,
and so on. I have heard some incredibly talented musicians in little dive
bars in the middle of nowhere that struggle to make ends meet, while the
mass songsters with very little talent take in millions. It is just
business. If I have something that you don't really want, then it is going
to be hard for me to sell it to you. But if what I have is something that
you really want, for personal or investment reasons, then I can command a
higher price. Pricing is such a nebulous area because we are not
manufacturers of the same products that some other company manufacturers
with the same raw materials. My prints may be made of the same materials as
other people's, but no one else makes 'my' prints. That is the nice thing
about art, the individualism. We are artists, and therefore unique. I
posted an observation about 7 months ago which questioned the fact that if I
take my 8x10 camera out to Point Lobos and photograph the cypress trees,
make a nice image, and a very nice print, why is mine only worth hundreds,
when the same photograph by Edward Weston (not one of his better works in my
opinion) is worth about $20,000. The price difference is the market. I am
not Edward Weston, and my prints, even if I go out on a limb and say that I
was lucky enough to photograph something that was exactly like a Weston,
will not be able to command such prices, well at least not until I have been
dead for a while. I have seen some really fine work that was priced low,
and a great deal of high priced work that I don't think merits the price tag
it has, and was selling mostly on the artist's name. But there are so many
other factors involved in a print value, many beyond our control, that we
just need to dive into the water at the depth we feel comfortable . I have
been struggling with this whole price issue a great deal recently as I am
taking my first steps into the art market. It is scary out there. I think
I will change my name to E. Weston. Maybe I could sell some more prints
that way. Luck to everyone;
Gary Miller
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:40:37