Money and Art

I was perusing Craigslist a couple of days ago and came across this gem of a post.



There are lots of things I love about this ad.  First of all, his haircut is da Bomb.  The “I’m no longer charging for my services,” line is classic, and you gotta respect how serious he clearly takes himself.   This post was so over the top, I just had to check out his website, where it turns out, he does charge for his services!  So much for idealism and art.



I feel kind of bad about bashing on this guy, but check out that self-portrait! It looks like an illustration from a trashy romance novel.  And isn’t it interesting that the drawing of Jesus with scary eyes is next to a pair of handmade shoes inspired by a rock band with a lead singer that OD’d on heroin? Don’t you wonder if this Jesus listened to Sublime, shot some smack, and trimmed his beard before or after he was resurrected?   I say all of this, but I bet this guy is actually a conceptual artist with an MFA from Yale.  We’ll probably see this as a project in the next Whitney Biennial.  His interview for the catalog might read something like this:

Interviewer:  Tell me about what this piece means to you.

John Alderman:  I wanted to create a stereotype of an artist to comment on how generalizations can affect a viewer’s perceptions of art, life, and religion.

Interviewer:  Why is your post titled “Money and Art?”

JA:  I am also interested in art as commodity and how star power affects the marketability of work.  While one of my mediocre drawings might sell for only $500 through my Craigslist ad, a collector is likely to buy it after this show for ten times that.  It’s the same piece of paper with the same drawing on it, so what is the difference?  Only the idea, which is, after all, the art in any piece.

Interviewer:  Why did you choose the internet as your medium? 

JA:  The internet has changed the way people market and acquire art. Being successful through the web requires different skills than in an antiquated gallery system.  One must create a character, a following, and the web is blurring the line between high art and low art.  For a conceptual artist like me, that is an exciting place to work. I feel like utilizing the internet makes this project accessible to both the educated, affluent art set as well as the general public, while also questioning them both.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . .  .  .  .  .  .

This was posted by Shawnee Barton, an artist who keeps a blog on other people’s blogs. If you have a little nook of cyberspace and are open to welcoming a guest poster, please email her at shawneebarton@gmail.com. She will be grateful. To see where she is headed next, check out shawneebarton.com.