Money Makes the World Go Round

It has been said that money makes the world go round. In resent decades this has become more and more true for the art world. In a lecture by Dave Hickey and in the documentary “The Mono Lisa Curse”, the issue of money moving into the art world is discussed.

Before money became intertwined in the art world people used to buy art because they appreciated and enjoyed the artwork. But this attitude would change as people began seeing art as an investment. Dave Hickey discusses that artists began selling out. Meaning that they began making art so that they themselves could sell the art to dealers rather then making it to express themselves and highlight different issues in society. In the documentary “The Mono Lisa Curse”, this similar aspect is discussed. That no longer where people looking at art critically but they instead began looking at artworks price tag and not allowing people to make their own judgments. The documentary describes that one piece of artwork, Gustav Klimt “Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer”, as is being compared to the Mona Lisa but the maker documentary disagrees that though the price tag is high it doesn’t make the piece a major work of art.Gustav Klimt “Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer”

In many ways both these two art critics are right. The way in which artists and the public look at art has changed since money has become intertwined in art culture. People aren’t just critical about the art itself but also the works price and how much it is worth.

But not only did this transformation of the art community change the way people looked at art but also how art was being presented and displayed. In his lecture Dave Hickey describes that museums once displayed artwork that the public liked and wanted to see. But as he goes on to say that with government funding for the arts, museums began changing that they no longer responded to the publics likes. The documentary goes more in depth. The documentary illustrates that museums began becoming more business like in their own dealings. Museums started using advertising and began to put on spectacles of different artist to attract its audience. This reflects how the art market has changed art museums into something that is more commercial. The documentary points out the specific example of the new museums being built in Abu Dhabi. These museums will present some of the worlds most prized pieces of art. But it also will contain shopping centers, a boardwalk and a golf course. It turns art into a part of an attraction or spectacle and the artwork itself becomes a commodity allowing the artwork to loss its context. But for all these faults that money has brought to the art community in some ways it has given new life to art. Dave Hickey describes that the museum is forced to display new pieces of art because no one wants to see the same type of piece twice. The art market has made it so that museums are forced to show new pieces of art. So in a way the money behind the art is forcing art to change and create new pieces. It attracts new artists, new movements and new ideas to the art community. But those this sounds good that the art world is changing. The motive behind it is the problem. Art has its context and its own movements rather then artists trying to figure new ways to sell their art for money.

The revolution of the art community in recent decades has changed the way people look art. The intertwining of money into the art culture seems irreversible. It seems that art will in some ways be synonymous with the price of artwork. The market for art that has developed seems to drive an ever growing and ever changing art community and culture.