If someone asks the price your work, can you give the answer within a few seconds?
If it is possible, what is the standard for it?
If it is impossible, what is the reason that you hesitate?
What does it mean to you?
“Artists worry that while their work commands more money, price fever may be turning art into a commodity. “… ''It's like the Olympics,'' said Angela Rosengart, a long-established art dealer from Lucerne, Switzerland. ''But instead of setting athletic records, people are competing to see who can spend the most money.''
“The increasing desirability of art as a status symbol [is apparent]. As soon as people have money today they start collecting,'' said a dealer who asked to remain anonymous. ''Art comes right after the mink and the Mercedes.''
These reactions were evident as the New York auction sales held by Sotheby's reached a peak in a marathon that ran from Nov. 9 through 16. Between the two houses, a total of 1,404 works of art were sold - a number at record prices - for a staggering total of $443 million.
GRACE GLUECK, “The Mania of Art Auctions: Problems as Well as Profits,” New York Times: November 26, 1988
Auction looks quite fair enough and happens to be in a transparent market. On the other hand, at the point that they do it in a limited time with a group of people, there are various possibilities it could be manipulated by something or someone.
Moreover, through the auction, collectors look at the artwork price first before they understand the artwork itself. Even though artists and collectors have already known those facts they tacitly agree with this practice of the market.
The tacit agreement generates the sensitive balance between artists, collectors, and auction houses, which each have different standards of value.
So our message is in this project is to all about making the relationship between the artist and the collectors in a symbiotic balance.
