The Value of Art

Good or bad, art is a powerful force that has the power to inform, connect, and bond people to their culture and heritage. From the tole-painter who makes pleasant artifacts for local consumption to the greatest of all, art is the marker and indicia of a culture and it's level of civilization.

Art is a subject of intense interest and emotion to most people connected to the arts as either maker or consumer. Why? What underlies the power of art ?

Even though I should know better, since so many far better-qualified people have tried to answer the question, I'll try to dissect this omelette of passion.  In the ideal world:

1. Good art connects us deeply to life itself. Art creates a complex bonding passion between maker and observer which informs and explicates life to both it's creators and it's consumers. As such, it provides spiritual sustenance, and while explaining life's mysteries it also proposes new mysteries, thus providing an almost addictive propulsive motivation to make more, buy more, and see more.

2. Good art, regardless of the power of the pocketbook, is egalitarian in the sense that it rewards connoisseurship. In this sense anyone can enjoy art and even become expert in it's appreciation.

3. Good art is a luxury that is most often enjoyed by those able to understand and buy it, and to a secondary degree by those who cannot afford it but are yet driven to see it in public venues.

"Spirit of Fire"

by Eric Olson

Is it lesser art if it is unsold and unknown? 

Unfortunately, reality intervenes. The ability to acquire and consume art separates the moneyed from the plebian and thus we see the emergence of social and political drives that have nothing to do with art itself, and everything to do with power, dominance, command and control. At the highest level of this effect, we see the great robber-baron philanthropists who fund museums and give them important collections, in the median level we see those who combine a passion for their addiction with a passion for social position, and in lower levels, we see those who connect themselves to powerful patrons for personal aggrandisement, or who seek to make a buck in speculation. And of course, there are artist/businessmen who fit into each level themselves.

Is art and it's production inevitably tied to money and power? It is tempting to say so.

What of unknown, unsold art? What is it's value in society?  Is it better art if it's famous or expensive?