The art of marketing is the art

I'm recommending Robert Hughes and The Mona Lisa Curse - despite Germaine Greer's review this morning! I also agree with quite a lot of what she says too in Germaine Greer Note to Robert Hughes: Bob, dear, Damien Hirst is just one of many artists you don't get in the Guardian Online.

Mona Lisa
(Italian: La Gioconda, French:La Joconde
Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1506
oil on poplar, 77 × 53 cm, 30 × 21 in
Musée du Louvre

The Mona Lisa Curse is the first in a three-part Art and Money season of documentary films on Channel 4. 70 year old art critic Robert Hughes delivers a very timely polemic as he examines how the world's most famous painting came to influence art and how art became a commodity as a result.

You can watch it online, it lasts 75 minutes and you have 30 days left in which to view it - click this link for access to the programme.

A preamble as to viewing: I missed the beginning of it last night and was sat up late last night watching it on Channel 4's catchup-player on my laptop when it suddenly occurred to me that these 'watch after the event' facilities must mean people can watch this over the internet. What I'm not sure about is whether they get blocked in certain countries - so it would be great to know your experience if you try to watch it.

Why watch?

Hughes basic thesis is that when money and art became intertwined, critical appreciation loses out as art becomes transformed into a commodity to be bought and sold at auction - where value becomes intrinsically linked to the price paid. This in turn, he suggests, appears to have corrupted the nature of the relationships between the bastions of the art establishment - museums and public art collections, auction houses, the plagues of art advisers as he calls them and big money collectors. None of which actually benefits the artist.

So why watch? In summary, for these reasons:

• See film of a 70 year old Robert Hughes alongside a much younger Robert Hughes with notable artists that he has known and listen to his very many caustic comments about what now counts as art.
• Understand art in terms of train spotting - about how when the Mona Lisa went to New York in the 1960s people went to see it to say they'd seen it not because they loved painting.
• Understand how a collector who loans an artwork to a prominent museum increases the value of his investment in that commodity.
  
• Find out why all major museums have now been squeezed out of the art market. Get to see the directors of three major museums in the USA - Philippe de Montebello (MMA, NY), Thomas Hoving (Montebello's predecessor) and Thomas Krens (Guggenheim) explain the role of museums and brand marketing and franchising in relation to contemporary art - any why museums can no longer compete for art in the marketplace and are dependent on loans.
  
• See the film of Robert Rauschenburg confronting New York taxi company mogul Robert Skull after the Skull auction at Sotheby Parke Bernet in New York in October 1973 - in which Scull auctioned off 50 works in his Pop art collection. This was the auction which Hughes identifies as shifting the emphasis from aesthetics to money and which began the start of the new trend of art as commodity. Artists like Rauschenburg and Jim Rosenquist suddenly saw their work being sold for huge profits - but they got nothing in return. I'd very much like to see the whole film of the sale which according to this article provides an analytical explanation of what took place that evening in terms of a much broader social, cultural and economic context.
  
• Watch the art auction as an art event. It needs to be remembered that the Damien Hirst auction last week is what he will be remembered for - not his art. That's the point Germain Greer makes in her article - also echoed by Roberta Smith in Saturday's New York Times article After the Roar of the Crowd, an Auction Post-Mortem. The art is in the marketing - not the product...........

The art market is to Mr. Hirst as popular culture is to artists like Jeff Koons: his main content. Mr. Hirst revels in revealing its machinery and making it jump through hoops......And Mr. Hirst may simply have morphed into the Thomas Kincaid of contemporary art, running a factory that produces major, minor and starter Hirsts. Eventually he will probably cut the auction houses out of the deal, too.
New York Times - After the Roar of the Crowd, an Auction Post-Mortem

• I had a big smile on my face as I watched Hughes talk to the chap whose father owns the biggest collection of Warhols in the world. I watched its valuation drop by the second!
• I had an even bigger smile on my face when introduced to Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. She was a librarian and he was a postal clerk. They lived on her salary and used his to build up a collection of 2,500 works of contemporary art - and then gave it all away to museums - see this National Gallery of Art article about the Vogels and this new website Vogels 50/50: 50 works for 50 states. Now those are the sort of people who I really admire as collectors - people who do it for the love of the art, who disregard its value as an asset and who then give it to museums so it can be shared with others. People have done it for years - but they seem to be a dying breed.
  

Dorothy and Herbert Vogel - Vogel 50/50

I took a look at the Banksy Forum and one comment stood out

The fact that some art commands such high prices is one of the reasons I became interested in art in the first place

Says it all really.............

Except Tyler Green had a good note in today's blog post on Modern Art Notes - Weekend roundup, silly Smithsonian edition

Several years ago, when I was working as an art critic for Bloomberg, I wrote about how horribly awful the Damien Hirst 'pill paintings' show at Gagosian was. My editor didn't like that I'd ripped the show, and she told me I had to be wrong. Her rationale? Gagosian claimed that the show sold out before it opened. (Yeah. I departed shortly thereafter.) On Saturday Roberta Smith examined how Damien Hirst toys with the market -- and how he isn't afraid to make horrible art (like pill paintings) to do it. Don't miss the last paragraph.

I have got to try and let this matter rest. I just get so annoyed by art being treated like a commodity! Next week Hughes looks at the new Russian influence.

Tomorrow back to more serious stuff as I try and get my Series Project kick started - finally!

Links

• jstor - The Skull Auction and the Skull Film
• The Vogels … art lovers, not moguls - art collectors Herb and Dorothy Vogel
• New York Times - After the Roar of the Crowd, an Auction Post-Mortem
• Guardian online - Germaine Greer Note to Robert Hughes: Bob, dear, Damien Hirst is just one of many artists you don't get
• Wall Street Journal - The Man With 800 Warhols
• Mark Vallen's "Art for a Change" - The Unveiling of Robert Scull

21st September 2008 - Who's made a mark this week?

The Annotated Fuld

portrait of Dick Fuld
by Geoffrey Raymond
copyright and courtesy of Geoffrey Raymond

Geoffrey Raymond (The Year of Magical Painting) is a 54 year old artist who creates portraits of big shots on Wall Street - and a few others. His approach is to do his drawing or painting and then to let other people annotate it with their thoughts on the individual.

The Final Fuld is a drawing of Dick Fuld, former CEO of Lehman Brothers, was posted on his blog last week (where you can see a larger version and read all the comments.).

He set up a separate blog specifically to sell this painting called The Annotated Fuld. The painting sold, on the street, for $10,000 on Tuesday afternoon.

I spent Monday and Tuesday outside Lehman Bros. HQ. During those sessions I asked people if they worked (or used to work) for LEH. If they said yes, they got a green pen. No--they got a black one.

You can watch a video of Raymond at work outside Lehman Brothers on Monday, read more about him in this Guardian article, Picture of wealth, if a little sub-prime, which was where I discovered him (plus there's a whole lot more coverage about him out there). Plus this Times Online article tells you more about Dick Fuld.

His activities brought him billionaire status and allowed him to indulge his passion for art collecting.
Times Online - Bruiser of Wall St Dick Fuld looked after his people, but didn’t know when to quit

Art economy

Carrying on for a few moments, with the theme of the economy and art, what does the instability in the financial markets mean for artists? Well Geoffrey Raymond has established there's still a market for selling direct to the customer - so long as your artistic output 'hits a nerve'.

It's also clear that generally within the UK and USA economies, spending is on a downward trajectory and people are certainly stalling on major items of expenditure. The main question is whether they'll still have the resources for spending on other items, particularly if they are discretionary. There is a school of thinking which says people 'makeover' instead of move when there's a recession! :)

However, at the top end of the art market, it appears that it ignored what was going on in the money markets. I commented twice on the topic this week

• Monday - Art values - gold standard or more derivative rubbish?
• Friday - Contemporary Art as a Hedge Fund - which has attracted rather a lot of comments - mainly about Damien Hirst. Besides still selling sharks he's pickled, I was latterly amused to find out that Damien Hirst also paints dead cats from photos..........
  
• In Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald commented on the acquisition of a Cezanne. That does seem like rather a lot of money for what doesn't look to me like a good example of Cezanne's work. Let's not forget that all the investment in art by hedge fund managers has driven up the price paid by museums for the art they buy.
  

Art Blogs

Elsewhere there are different sorts of challenges..........

Art challenges: I'm beginning to think I expand my art challenge section in my blogroll!

• the new virtual sketchdate run by Rose Welty and Jeanette Jobson is posted - drawings need to be completed and posted by the 27th. This site is slowly building participants - there were about 20 people up for involvement this month last time I looked.
• Karin Jurick (A Painting Today) has also started something similar with Different strokes from different folks. This started this month after Jack, Karin's dog, died at the beginning of the month. Karin painted her dog and then somebody else did too and then this is what happened Photo of the Week - My Jack. (see right for composite). The idea of the new blog is again one photo painted by many people. I'm planning to do a feature on this when it's a bit more established - in the meantime go and visit if you've not spotted it yet.

A week ago, I launched a new blog Different Strokes From Different Folks ~ the purpose is to provide one photograph and invite artists to draw or paint the image their way. This first week, the photo was of my dog Jack and I say this with a lump in my throat - I had 54 artists submit their work to my blog. Not only was this an unexpected response ~ it also helped heal the hurt of losing Jack and I thank you all for that.
Karin Jurick - Different Strokes from Different Folks - Week One

• I haven't quite worked out yet how the challenge on Myrna Wacknov's blog Creativity Journey but it certainly looks interesting - see Slideshow for Frenchman: Line as Texture

The American Election: Not being an American, I can only sit on the sidelines and watch the American Presidential campaign. Now and again it pops up on blogs.

• Many thanks to James Gurney (Gurney Journey) for telling me award-winning draftsman, commentator and satirical illustrator Steve Brodner. I loved the post about them both being at the Rockwell Museum - Brodner at the Rockwell - where Brodner currently has an exhibition Raw Nerve! The Political Art of Steve Brodner (until October 26, 2008)
• ...and then I go across to Drawger, Brodner's blog and there's this enormous Sarah Palin Naked Campaign #25: Palin Shovel
• ...and then I find the New Yorker and Steve Brodner in Pale by Comparison a video on Sarah Palin and the politics of perception - and drawing Sarah Palin. Fascinating!
  

Art Business and Marketing

ACEO watercolour paintings of the coast in changing lights and seasons
presentation in the Etsy shop of Vivien Blackburn
copyright Vivien Blackburn

• There's no question Etsy continues to build its reputation and its traffic. Personally, I'm very much of the opinion that that one of the reasons for this is that its format allows people to display collections of their work to very good effect (see above) - and it might also be attracting people who understand the value of working with themes. Recent new Etsy shops include those opened by

• Vivien Blackburn's (Paintings, Prints and Stuff) often paints large but her Etsy shop focuses on selling small affordable versions of her work - and very nice they look too! Vivien has just got back from a short holiday in a house in Sennen Cove, right next to the sea at the far end of Cornwall! See her blog post Cornwall - sketching and a zillion photos. I'm guessing we'll be seeing quite a lot more sea and sky work from Vivien.
  
• Cindy Haase (Color On!) is a colored pencil artist who also does Fiber art - and her shop Littleton Studio features the latter. I like the idea of a shop having a name!
  
• You can see the growth in Etsy traffic in the compete com chart

Etsy - unique visitors in the last 13 months
chart courtesy of compete.com

• thanks to Belinda Lindhardt (Belinda Lindhardt Art Journal) for drawing my attention to Client Communication - Untying Your Tongue - which can be found on Angela Fehr Painting Simplicity. Another post which is worth a read is Artist, Know Thyself!

Art Collectors

Making A Mark Survey: Do you Collect Art?
results up to 21st September 2008

My survey Do You Collect Art? (in the side column) has another just over a week to run - I'll show you the results on 5th October.

In the meantime, this is what the interim results look like based on 55 responses so far. Click the chart to see the results more clearly.

The indications so far are that most of you either already collect art (42%) or have started to do so (20%) - while another 20% would do if they could afford to.

Art competitions

Competition Results:

• For those who have been following Art competitions and copyright - the AWS Gold Medal debate, the American Watercolor Society has now removed the gold medal winning painting in question from the slideshow on its home page.
  
• Interestingly this happened immediately after one of the participants in Copyright infringement at AWS?, the WC thread about this controversy (which has now reached 33 pages - as of this morning) emailed them to find out what was happening.
  
• The participant in question had produced some very convincing photoshop demos comparing the painting with the photographs in question - see post 313.
  
• In addition, it's now apparent that there are at least three other sites where use of the stock photograph of the man can be seen here, here and here. Ironically, two of the sites are about tutorials about how to paint from photographs.
• Plus people who have actually physically seen the painting (commenting on this post - AWS Gold Medal Controversy) indicate that they found it very hard to believe it was a painting.
• The only public statement issues by AWS so far is one that states the artist's perspective - that other images exist because somebody must have photographed her painting...............
  
• On Thursday I provided an update about the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - selected artists announced. Those selected include lots of well known artists and my post includes as many links to artists websites as I could find. The exhibition opens in November.
  

Call for Entries:

• CPSA calls for entries for Explore This! was publishd by CPSA on Monday and me on Wednesday. I gather that the requirement that work for the online exhibition should not conform to the entry requirements for the normal international exhibition has some artists scratching their heads.
  
• This is the Call For Entries for the Hunting Art Prize 2009. Its $50,000 award is the most generous annual art prize in the U.S. In the past it is helped to build the reputations, raise the profiles, and support the careers of distinguished artists. Entries are now limited to residents of Texas. The deadline is 30th September.

Art exhibitions

Exhibitions coming up include:

• The 71st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Wood Engravers whose opens with a Private View on Tuesday 23rd September. There will be wood engraving demonstrations each weekend, 1 – 4 pm. There will also be an exhibition of students' prints on show from courses held around the country. It's great to a see a national art society with an exhibition which tours. Exhibition venues are as follows:
• Bankside Gallery, London 23.09.2008–05.10.2008
• Bristol, City Museum and Art Gallery 11.10.2008–14.12.2008
• Newcastle on Tyne, Northern Print 16.012008–21.03.2009
• Art Jericho, 6 King Street, Jericho, Oxford 22.05.2008–27.06.2009

This exhibition features over 100 engravings and other relief prints selected from Britain and around the world, the Society of Wood Engraver's annual exhibition is recognised as the premier showcase for the engraver's art. This year's special feature display will focus on the teaching of engraving an the courses that are available across the country.

• the 45th annual exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artistsopens at the Mall Galeries on 24th September and continues until 5th October. There's a porfolio day for anyone with a collection of drawings or sketches – including a few finished works – on 24th September. Anyone is welcome to discuss their portfolio with the President Andrew Stock and Treasurer Mike Warren. Critical assessment, suggestions and general advice will be offered in the context of the exhibition and future submission.

The Society of Wildlife Artists showcases the very best in art inspired by the natural world and also, seeks to foster an awareness of the importance of conservation in a world of threatened wildlife and habitats. Bursaries are offered to young aspiring artists to encourage and enable the fulfilment of wildlife based art projects, presented at the opening of the Annual Exhibition, along with many other important prizes and awards.

• In London, the exhibition Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian opens at the National Gallery opens at the National Gallery on 15th October - but you can already see a slideshow of some the paintings in the exhibition. on the exhibition micro-site. It includes Albrecht Dürer, 'A Portrait Machine', 1525. Of course artists have always used tools to help produce their paintings, you can't beat the eye!

Art History

• Tables for One by Peter Schjeldahl is an article (dated 22nd September) about Giorgio Morandi’s still lifes in The New Yorker's Arts section
  

Art Materials

• you can see the plein air kit that Carol Marine (Carol Marine's Painting a Day ) uses in Green Hot

Equine Artists

Maggie Stiefvater participated in the production of this amazing Mural Mosaic which is a testament to what can be done with a bit of community effort. It was unveiled recently at Spruce Meadows, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Crowds at unveiling at Spure Meadows
(photo credit Tracy Kolenchuk)

The image in question is 22.6feet H x 18.6feet W (6.9metres H x 5.7metres W). It's created from a matrix of paintings where each artist's painting represents a cell. You can see all the different paintings from 178 equine artists on this page.

Illustrators

You may follow up my recommendations but I also have blogs I read where I always go to take a look at what they recommend. Here's the latest recommendations from Cindy Woods (Learning Daily) These are all illustrators. The last three in my opinion need to find better hosts for their websites or check the size of the illustrations and sketches they're loading as their sites are very slow - but well worth looking at

• Benoît Guillaume (benoît guillaume) is sketching the streets of Paris from life and displaying them on his blog - he's only just started his blog but it's getting a lot of comments from visitors sent by Cindy! :)
• Barry Bruner has a wonderful website - although it's rather slow it's worth it. Check out his sketchbook from his trip to Europe and Africa in 2007. That one is going in my sketchbookroll on my sketchbook blog. Barry also has a blog (Barry Bruner Illustration )
  
• Chris White and Neal Iwan do great illustrations and sketches - but you'll need to wait a while for both website as they are very slow.

Making room for more art supplies and more art books!!!

We are indebted to Luann Udell..........

• CLEANING THE ATTIC Tip #9: What’s the Point?
• CLEANING THE ATTIC #8: Call For Backup!
• CLEANING THE ATTIC Tip #7: It’s Working!
• CLEANING THE ATTIC #6: Get People to Come to You!
• CLEANING THE ATTIC Tip #6: Help Someone Else
• CLEANING THE ATTIC Tip #5: Identify Your Legacy

and the rest.......

Websites and Blogging

• First - thanks to all those people who have signed up as following my blog - I now have 9! :)
• Yesterday I wrote about Seth Godin on The back list and talk about what I do (plus show you some new groups!)
  

What actually happens to all those pearls of wisdom that you laboured to produce and which then disappeared into your blog's archive? How can they be shared, again and again, with people who might value your knowledge and expertise?
Seth Godin - the Back List

• Nothing to do with art - but thanks to Matt Cutts for alerting us to the fact that Sergey Brin (co founder of Google) has started a personal blog. http://too.blogspot.com/

and finally.....

Monday 15th September was momentous in more ways than one.

On the one hand, the largest publisher of children's books in the world announced a new contract, won at public auction and in competition with other major publishing houses.

The contract is with my friend Maggie Stiefvater (Words on Words and Greywaren Art). Maggie has won Making A Mark Awards and has often had a mention on this blog.

You can read more about it in Maggie Stiefvater goes Scholastic!

Lament, Maggie's first novel
to be published by Flux on 1st October
photo courtesy Maggie Stiefvater

Then on the other hand we had Meltdown Monday. Involving rather a lot of ruckus in the financial money markets during which time a lot of grown men probably wished they'd actually aspired to be something other than a Hedge Fund Manager or working for the Federal Reserve.

I came across an astrology site on my surfing this week took a look at what it said for Monday.

It turns out there was a full moon in Pisces on Monday September 15th which according to the astrological forecast I looked at 'could cause some excitement about money'!!! I guess that only goes to show, that for every 'up' there is a 'down' and vice versa.

Seth Godin on The back list

Seth Godin had a really interesting blog post recently ostensibly about How often should you publish? but it's actually about recognising the importance of the backlist - or the blog archive as we might call it.

What actually happens to all those pearls of wisdom that you laboured to produce and which then disappeared into your blog's archive?

How can they be shared, again and again, with people who might value your knowledge and expertise?

New Hampshire Apples
4" x 3", coloured pencils on film
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Mine all go into my various squidoo lenses. I've set various ones up - each with a very specialised focus - you can find them all in one of two sites.

• Making A Mark on Squidoo - which lists all the separate information sites on Squidoo and has sections for different aspects of my interests
  
• Who is Making A Mark? - this one shows how all my interests link up across all my sites - including the portfolio and publications one.
  

It's then possible to group lenses according to broader topic areas and then open these up to squidoo lenses made by other people who reach the sort of quality standard I'm looking for - for great information sites! So, for example, I've recently developed groups for:

• Great Women Artists - I'm currently thinking along the lines that they might be a theme for next year.........
• Great British Artists
• Great American Artists
• Really Great Sculptors
  

That way it means that the content keeps being read by new people - and I get quite a lot of traffic and quite a few new subscribers this way too when people find the information sites first and then find the blog.

However it really doesn't really matter where people start. Whether they come to the blog first and then find the information sites or vice versa - this approach means that everybody gets to access 'stuff' they want to know about - and posts with good and enduring content that I've written in the past don't get lost. (You may have noticed some of my category labels now have in excess of 100 posts - so they've no longer useful for finding posts).

So - how do you keep good content from the past or backlist available to new readers?

[Note: The drawing comes from two years ago and relates to a visit to New Hampshire and this blog post on my sketchbook blog - Monday 18th September: Apple orchards, maples and a chocolatier I'd lost the drawing and the other day suddenly found it in the 'safe place' that I'd put it! Sitting with Nicole Caulfield that evening was the first time I'd drawn a nearly ACEO sized drawing!]

Contemporary Art as a Hedge Fund

You'll all be familiar with the Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale about the Emperor's new clothes. Today I'm looking at the more recent fairy tale relating to contemporary art values - and I definitely see some parallels.

This is the second post on this theme this week (see Art values - gold standard or more derivative rubbish?) but the parallels just seemed to become more and more obvious as the week has worn on. Plus this has been a VERY unusual week.

An emperor who cares too much about clothes hires two swindlers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they tell him, is invisible to anyone who was either stupid or unfit for his position. The Emperor cannot see the (non-existent) cloth, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime. The Emperor then goes on a procession through the capital showing off his new "clothes". During the course of the procession, a small child cries out, "But he has nothing on!" The crowd realizes the child is telling the truth. The Emperor, however, holds his head high and continues the procession.
Wikipedia - The Emperor's New Clothes - Plot Summary

This week a lot of people have been counting the cost - in any number of different ways - of the biggest shockwave to the financial services sector since the Depression. As an ex-finance person, I've been reading financial pages and dropping my jaw all week. It's not finished yet but the lives of a lot of people will never be quite the same again.

However I'm not crying over the people who used to be billionaires now having rather less. Far from it!

I'm far more concerned that a number of very ordinary people with very ordinary salaries will be losing their jobs. A lot of small investors and people with pensions have taken some very major hits to their financial cushions. Some of those people are my friends - and I know what it feels like having personally been through a something similar experience last year (see Northern Rock - drawings from the front line)

In the financial services sector, the stresses and strains have come about essentially because of inappropriate risk ratings - and consequently valuations - being given to debt relating to sub-prime loans. Everybody looked the other way as debt was repackaged. Essentially prudent and professional practices went out the window as investment bankers became consumed by greed and how to max out on their bonus schemes.

In the end, the people who continued to be boring bankers (ie prudent and professional) are now rescuing those who were consumed by the financial equivalent of bling.

How does this all relate to the art world?

Well, people with funds accumulated no doubt from some of the profits which accrued during the 'bling' years have been investing in contemporary art as if it's some sort of hedge fund.

The buyers had begun arriving hours earlier: hedge-fund managers in suits without ties, New York dealers, a smattering of Russian oligarchs, women with expensive, understated jewellery and expensive, overstated lips. There was much air-kissing and rubber-necking. It was like an exclusive cocktail party with no cocktails, a Hollywood premiere with no film..........
Alongside the Russian oil magnates, the Chinese businessmen, the Indian digital billionaires and the Middle Eastern oil barons are the hedge-fund managers and private-equity managers, with money to burn and large walls to decorate. The buying power of London’s richest citizens is now greater, compared with the average earner, than at any time since the 1930s, according to the Financial Times.
Times Online 23 June 2007 Millions to spend, bare walls to fill and a frenzy for fine art

This week has also seen Damien Hirst generate something like £111 million (c$200 million) from Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, the two day auction of his work at Sotheby's. I say "his work" - his ideas, possibly appropriated from others and made by his apprentices in his art factories might be a more accurate description. A read of the work philosophy and appropriation sections of the wikipedia article about him is enlightening. Is he really working in the traditions of the Master Artists and their ateliers or not? What do you think?

Yesterday, in another irony, Forbes published its rich list - The Forbes 400

Rising prices of oil and art paved the way for 31 new members and eight returnees, while volatile stock and housing markets forced 33 plutocrats from our rankings.
Forbes - The Forbes 400

Some of the people in the rich list are only there because of their art collection.

Volatile markets have bruised several fortunes of The Forbes 400. But swelling contemporary art prices have provided an unexpected hedge.
Forbes - The Color of Money

Except there's a catch.

In my view, the value attributed to some contemporary art is vastly over-rated. I simply do not believe the values attributed to it. I'm standing here on the sidelines - in my capacity as somebody who neither aspires to produce art like Hirst and his ilk or to own their art either - and asserting that an awful lot of that art seems to me to have neither real substance nor value.

The people who are asserting that such art does have both substance and high value too often seem to be the same people who have a financial interest in so doing. But they would say that wouldn't they? It just doesn't make it true. The only truth is that you can't make your commission or bonus unless you also continue to say this is a valuable asset.

Let me be clear, I'm not saying that all contemporary art is over-valued. I'm certainly not saying all contemporary art is rubbish. What I do think are quite ridiculous are the stratospheric valuations attributed to some of it - particularly at the high end of the market.

I think it is also possible to compare some contemporary art that has attracted unwarranted valuations to derivatives (or "financial weapons of mass destruction" as Warren Buffet termed them in 2002). Why? Well rather a lot of it seems to have been about taking other people's ideas and repackaging them with a lot of marketing hype which says the new version is worth an awful lot of money. I just question why one should value a conceptual idea or that approach that highly. I certainly don't - and I emphatically don't when I look at all the other alternative options for what one can do with the sort of money which is currently being paid for art. What on earth has happened to moral values when the philanthropy that used to be exercised by the moneyed classes has now been usurped by a need for brand names and bling instead?

The toxic debt in the banking sector is currently rocking the share values and even the survival of some banks. My prediction is that over-hyped and over-valued contemporary art will also start to lose value just as soon as there are rather fewer players in the marketplace - and that could be very soon. Many of those hedge fund managers attending the auctions could soon be without a job - if they haven't already lost it. Those who have still got a job might be looking for a safer place for their assets. After all, they know that the art market like any other is essentially cyclical - it just lags behind the financial markets.

It is unlikely that art will retain its value in the current slump, despite the record-breaking Damien Hirst sale earlier this week.
Guardian - Forbes rich list highlights pre-banking crisis fortunes (my bold)

At least when contemporary art market values finally start to tumble, the tax payer won't need to fund the creation of a federal agency to look after all the over-valued items of art........

For those wanting to understand a little bit more about how the art economy works and how values are arrived at for art as an investment, I'm trying to develop a new section on the art economy within my information site Art Business - Resources for Artists. It also has tips about how to sell art in a weak economy!

[Note: Image from Wikimedia Commons: Ilustration of "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Vilhelm Pedersen (1820 - 1859) ]

Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize - selected artists announced

The artists selected for this year's Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize were announced yesterday by the organisers Parker Harris.

The prize was created in 2005 by the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and the Lynn Foundation with The Spectator as media sponsor. The purpose of the Prize is to encourage creative representational painting and promote the skill of draughtsmanship. This annual exhibition is open to all UK artists with prize money totalling £22,500 and an engraved gold medal for the winner.

Lady Thatcher in Livery Hall (2007 exhibition)
9"x6"pencil and coloured pencil in Moleskine
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

You can find the list below. Names in bold have had descriptions added by me together with links to:

• either websites belonging to the artist(where discoverable).
• galleries exhibiting this artist's work

If you spot an error of attribution or know of a better link please let me know.

• Jennifer Anderson - a Scottish painter of portraits and figurative art with an interesting artist's statement about her approach to making her art
• Warren Baldwin - winner of the £6,000 2008 Jerwood Drawing Prize with a pencil portrait study (Study for Portrait V ) and the The Prince of Wales's Award for Portrait Drawing in 2003
• Akash Bhatt RWS - exhibits with Beaux Arts in Bath
• Michael G Bilton ARCA - exhibits with the John Davies Gallery
• Stanislas Slavomir Blatton - a figurative painter and member of the London Group
• Richard Bond
• Sasha Bowles - regularly exhibits at various art fairs and galleries and this year was selected for the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy
• Paul Brason RP - portrait artist and winner of the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture in 1998
• Nicholas Brown - exhibits with the Toni Heath Gallery
• Peter Brown NEAC, PS, ROI - an all weather painter of street scenes and landscapes and winner of the 2008 Prince of Wales's Award for Portrait Drawing
• Martin Churchill
• Peter Clossick - contemporary figurative oil painter and current Vice President of The London group
• David Cooper
• Tom Dewhurst - previous exhibitor in Jerwood Drawing Pirze 2004
• Thomas Doran
• Jeremy Duncan - exhibits with Waterhouse and Dodd
• Bob Evans
• Peter Fleming
• Dick French - shortlisted for Lynn Painter Stainers 2008 main prize with The Tunnel of Love
• Noreen Grant
• Judith Green
• George Harding
• Edlyn Haste
• Emma Haworth - paints modern metropolitan life in urban spaces
• Julie Held RWS - studied at Camberwell and the Royal Academy Schools; an elected member of both the Royal Watercolour Society and the London Group; selected for the Threadneedle Figurative Prize in 2008
• Keith Holmes - portrait painter, has been exhibited in a number of exhibitions of national art societies
• Jennifer Howard -
• Linda Hubbard - warning: her website home page looked interesting but crashed my computer!
• James Judge - studied at Byan Shaw; oil painter
• Peter Kelly NEAC RBA - paints interiors and still life, exhibits with the Red Rag Gallery and others
• Sophie Levi - she has twice been shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award and has exhibited at The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Discerning Eye and The Hunting Art Prizes.
• James Lloyd - paints people and still life; he's the only painter to ever win both the BP Portrait Award (1997) and the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture (2008) awarded by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. He has two portraits included in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery. Plus he's the tutor for my weekly drawing class at the Prince's Drawing School!
• Andrew Loly - member of Birmingham Artists; paints in oils
• Donald Macauley - a painter with a preference for colour and painting direct from life and realistically
• Sargy Mann - Sargy Mann is a successful figurative painter in spite of being registered blind for twenty years. Since 2005 Mann has been totally blind but continues to paint. Exhibits with Cadogan Contemporary. There's a video about Sargy Mann made by his son on YouTube.
• Zara Matthews
• Gareth McCorry - paints nature in photo-realism mode
• Jennifer McRae - Shortlisted last year for the Lynn Painter-Stainer and has featured as a selected and shortlisted artist in many notable prizes. This year so far she has been selected for the Threadneedle Figurative and has won the RWS/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition. I'd be very surprised if she isn't at least shortlisted - and she's still to win this one..........
• Wladyslaw Mirecki - shortlisted for Lynn Painter-Stainer in 2007; exhibits with Chappel Galleries
• Simon Monk - graduated from Camberwell School of Art with a degree in painting in 1989 and has subsequently lectured in art history; now works from a studio in Southend
• J Oliver
• Stefan Orlowski - like Eloiza Mills, he has recently graduated from Aberystwyth University with a degree in fine art
• Juliette Palmer RBA - Her work has been repeatedly selected in three major national competitions; the Hunting/Observer Art Prizes, the Singer and Friedlander/Sunday Times watercolour Competition and the Laing Landscape Competition.
• Mick Rooney RA - painter member of the Royal Academy and winner of the John Player Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery (1985)

• Ilaria Rosselli del Turco - many thanks to Ilaria (see left) who contacted me with the news that the list of artists selected had been posted. Ilaria had one of her paintings of chefs chosen for the last exhibition of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and another painting of a chef had been chosen for this exhibition.
• Denis Ryan - His painting of Playland currently features on the Call For Entries brochure for the 21st Century Watercolour exhibition
• Alan Salisbury - takes work from the past and reworks it incorporating contemporary images

• Tai-Shan Schierenberg - Painter of portraits, figures and landscape; studied at St Martin's and the Slade Schools of Art. Shortlisted for the Threadneedle Figurative Art Prize this year; won the 1989 National Portrait Gallery's John Player Portrait Award; has works in the National Portrait Gallery and exhibits with Flowers East
• Melissa Scott-Miller RP - studied at The Slade School of Fine Art and elected as a member of The Royal Society Of Portrait Painters in 1999.
• Maurice Sheppard PPRWS, NEAC, MA, RCA - in 1984-87 he was the youngest ever President of the Royal Watercolour Society since 1820.
• Charlotte Steel - shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2008 (the exhibition for which opened yesterday at Jerwood Space, 171 Union Street, London, SE1 0LN)
• Bonita Tandy - artist selected in 2007 for Lynn Painter-Stainers prize exhibition
• Simon Turvey - past Hon. Sec. of the Society of Wildlife Artists; has had work included inRoyal Acadamy Summer Exhibition, the Singer and Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition Exhibition and others (including the BP Portrait Award Exhibition).
• Robin von Einsiedel
• Neville Weston - epresentational painter specialising in landscapes of Australia, Britain and Europe
• David Wheeler - lives in Cornwall, modern contemporary artist
• Charles Williams NEAC - American born; studied at the Royal Academy Schools; selected in past for Royal Academy Summer exhibition and Hunting Art Prize and Discerning Eye
• Susan Wilson - Shorlisted last year for The Young Oxford Undergraduate (oil). A New Zealand artist who studied at Camberwell and the Royal Academy and who now lives in the UK. She taught at Chelsea School of Art from 1988-93 and has received various awards plus was shortlisted for John Moores 2006
• Tom Wise
• Neale Worley NEAC - contemporary figurative oil painter who is a member of the NEAC and has won previous NEAC prizes; shortlisted last year with Andrea

The exhibition is at Painters' Hall, 9 Little Trinity Lane, London between 19th-29th November 2008. The nearest tube is Mansion House.

This site provides images of shortlisted entries from 2007. Plus this is my review last November of the 2007 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize and exhibition

Links:

• Parker Harris website - Lynn Painter Stainer's Prize
• Lynn Painter Stainers Prize website (not updated as yet)
• Making A Mark - Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize and exhibition (November 2007)