Of doormats and goddesses
Recession or not, people are still buying art
By Joanna Beresford 03/19/2009
I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money. There are only two types of women: goddesses and doormats. Youth has no age. All children are artists. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth; and art is the elimination of the unnecessary. Bad artists copy; good artists steal. Computers are useless — they can only give you answers. Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. You mustn’t always believe what I say.
This glorious chunk of ideas is sort of a word-cubist collection of quotes attributed to Picasso, who also said that it took him four years to learn to paint like Raphael and a lifetime to learn to paint like a child.
I had a house full of children this weekend and sometimes I felt that four minutes was a lifetime. But they also helped me research and write this article. For example, my youngest houseguest, age 7, told me that “everything that has color is art.”
My daughter drew a portrait of this boy, which I loved and complimented, not because it looked exactly like him, I told her, but because it really represented him as he sees himself: Mohawk, skater-gear, (temporary) tattoos. So, she decided to make a portrait to represent me. It’s hanging on my refrigerator now as a mild reproach. She’s dressed me in purple and pink and I’m standing next to a table, martini glass in hand. I don’t know if her vision would place me in Picasso’s “goddess” or “doormat” category, but the cocktail’s kind of an edgy prop, I think.
None of the children, however, could explain to me the value of art, either in intrinsic or purely monetary terms. For that information I turned to gallery owners, dealers, and collectors.
In 2004, Picasso’s painting, “Boy With a Pipe” (“Garcon a la Pipe”), sold for a record-breaking $93 million. Last October, The New York Times reported that Sotheby’s had withdrawn a different Picasso piece, named “Arlequin,” painted in 1909, at the owner’s request, and for “private reasons.” Naturally, the abrupt withdrawal caused a flurry of commentary about art and commerce in both worlds.
“Nobody is safe from a unilateral global economic crash, of course,” says Chris Forney, owner of The Artworks Gallery in Pasadena. “But I think it would take a long-term recession to really make a difference. People are still buying art.”
Forney adds that the economic mid-range of art media struggles the most at present. Christian Hohmann, director of the Hart Gallery in Palm Desert and a lifelong dealer and collector in Europe and the United States, agrees. Hohmann says that artists suffer the most when sales slow or prices decline.
“Real art, art that isn’t just made to sell, fulfills a purpose of creativity, of making something original, with spirit and emotion, and to reveal something that hasn’t been there before,” he explains. “Artists sacrifice their whole lives to create, they don’t usually get paid as they go, and when the big shots, the war profiteers come in and just want ‘to make a deal,’ that’s frustrating. Hart Gallery tries not to give in to that momentum, but it makes the business more difficult right now.”
Hart Gallery represents some of the most interesting American and European artists at work today, most of whom have achieved some international esteem. Forney’s Artworks Gallery is a 20th-century fine art gallery specializing in limited editions and prints of major artists from Picasso to Warhol. Chris also supports several emerging artists, most of them So Cal sculptors.
“We’re constantly changing what’s on the walls,” says Forney. “In terms of investment, what doesn’t change is that if you buy name-brand artists, the top guys, you’ll always win.”
Speculation is more risky. Forney advises clients to adhere to two principles when buying art: Buy what you love, and – if you can make money in the process – that’s great.
“Art is a luxury item,” Hohmann says. “But art ultimately reflects the essence of society in every culture and, in that sense, art is essential to all of us.”
Currently my daughter’s “Portrait of a Drunken Mother” is about the most valuable artwork in my home. I’m not opposed to expanding my collection, so I ask Hohmann, what’s the next revolution in visual art?
He smiles. “We’ll probably know in 10 years.”
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