The Price of the Art
In April 15, 2005, I went to see Dan Flavin: A Retrospective in the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The art works are mainly in both fluorescent lights and drawings. Some of the art works reminded me of the light lamp in the tunnel. Some of the art works enlighten me to create some interesting effects of light, such as refection and overlapping. Through interaction with viewers, appreciating the art became a dynamic investigation. This characteristic made Dan not consider his work as sculpture, a statistic object. However, technically, the art was just putting fluorescent lamps indoors. What makes these pieces so valuable?
It is hard to tell the "right" price of the art. In Hislop's official international price guide to Fine Art, two examples are demonstrated. A picture titled "English School, 18th Century," had been sold by $1500. Afterwards, it was found to be by Gansborough. Furthermore, this type of art work is scarce even in Gansborough's art works. The price finally became more than $150,000. Another example was about similar paintings but with different price. Dr. Gachet, a neighbor of Vincent Van Gogh, imitated several Vincent's paintings. It is hard to tell the difference except experts. The price of a Vincent Van Gogh's painting would be more than 60 million. The price of a Dr. Gachet's painting may be only ten thousand.
Many factors influence the price of an art work. For unknown artists' works, one probably buys it with $150. A known artist may be brought in for valuation, and the price could be more than thousands. However, it is still very hard to spot the price. Checking the price in auction, people can easily see the price to the art work from the same artist in a wide range. For another example, Hislop's official international price guide to Fine Art says that price is actually very subjective. For decorating houses, people buy the art works probably just because "I like it.", which is very individual-judgment-oriented. On the other hand, a professional collector usually uses price guides and their specialty to decide the price. From technical point of view, 2005 Artist's & graphic designer's Market suggests price art work through medium of the piece, expense of materials, size of the piece, scarcity of the creativity, and status of the artist.
Although deciding the price of art works is complicated and dynamic, spotting price is a skill that can be developed. Knowledge plays the very important role. For example, in the beginning of moving to the US from Asia, I did not have sense of price. Most of the products were expensive to me. Now, it is much easy for me to decide which product is expensive or cheap simply because that I learned the knowledge from shopping. The same rule can be applied to art works.
Go shopping may be the first step. However, there are many resources that are very helpful to prevent mistakes. Biographical books could be very helpful for someone who is interested in a particular artist. Galleries, museums and libraries have valuable information. Some of them preserved original documents, diaries, letters and photographs of artists. Catalogue issued by Galleries or Auction Houses also provide the information of current market status and of some new artists. For example, I read some new artists' subject matter in the catalogue I collected when I visited galleries in Fort Worth. Finally, of course, people can collect information through attending auction of art works.
Copyright © 2005 by Joseph CJ Lee
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