Why Modern Art Is So Expensive | So Expensive

modern art is expensive from completely white canvases to simple abstract colors these seemingly basic works can cost you millions so what makes their price so high and how can they possibly be worth this much money Modern Art is a wide field covering everything from around 1870 to 1970 but say modern art to someone on the street and chances are they possibly picture something like this at the turn of the century art changed from the birth of abstract Impressionism to the minimalists and even performance art art was no longer just about representing the world with skill that skill faded away after photography was invented once photography was invented that was a skill that camera could do so artists no longer felt that that was their primary reason for making art art isn't about beauty that's it never was really are generally became more conceptual and more challenging but this change wasn't popular with everyone in a 2016 study of the British public twenty-eight percent of people don't consider this art sixty five percent of people don't think this is art an eighty three percent of the public definitely don't consider this to be art over a hundred years after its creation the work is still somehow as divisive and controversial as ever with the public but that hasn't stopped record prices being sent I think most people think that modern or contemporary artists are having a laugh at their expense and nobody wants to feel at all for many who are immediately dismissive of these pieces frustration also often comes when they see the price most of us I think tend to be cynics and we I think a lot of times associate art with value and that I think that triggers the question of well why why is it that much or why such a high value if you know I could probably do this think unless you're in the market and actively buying art there's no need to look at art and think of a price tag it shouldn't I mean it shouldn't be the way you look at art for the artists involved what looks simple can be the culmination of a lifetime's work take the black square for example painted by turn-of-the-century avant-garde artist Casimir Malkovich this simple black painting didn't come out of nowhere it's the result of 20 years of simplification and development when it was shown the black square was a revolutionary symbol exhibited at the top corner of the room a spot reserved for Orthodox religious icons making this work wasn't exactly an easy decision either and in 1930 Stalin's regime confiscated Malevich's artworks and manuscripts and he was jailed for two months yes the white canvases are or the black canvases are very rarely all they've done they haven't just come out of schools that I could paint a black canvas I mean as much as we might think we could do that yes we could do that but the artist has thought of it and probably had a journey quite a long journey and a process to get there the works aren't just made for profit it's often only after the artist is dead that the art can fetch the incredible price that it's reached today in 2008 one of Malevich's abstract works sold for 60 million dollars and the demand for these important modern works is only going to increase the natural trend is for you to see you a rise in prices but that's because it's these true masterpieces are rarer to find because they're really all in museums but setting an actual price can be tough in the end the value is only going to be what people are willing to pay as long as there's going to be artists producing there's always going to be sort of shifts in tendencies and tastes I would say also in taste in the market it seems like every year there's a new record price and as extreme wealth inequality increases so do the number of millionaires willing to pay the fortune required for these works no matter what the artist intended art is now seen as an easy investment by many and companies have appeared the tree art purely as an asset for financial gain but despite the ever increasing prices of the modernist masterpieces for 99% of the artists out there their work has always been a labor of love there are obviously people out there with a lot of money who view art just to be a commodity nothing outs but there's gonna be people who purchase or engage with it with it because they take genuine pleasure from it or it stimulates them or they feel it enriches them I'm an abstract painter not really dealing much form I became quite obsessed that was painting or all day or night and it was just something there I I'm really I kind of took a hold of me so it's it's not easy being an artist in London there's a lot of really good talent out there I think you've really got to be good to actually make any money we don't have the I suppose network initially yeah it sort of really expensive habit written to be honest so I suppose everybody's got the vices but I'm a little it's my kind of passion in a hobby so that's where all my time effort and kind of spare finances go trends in the market may change and prices will shift but the popularity of modern and contemporary art isn't going anywhere you

Channel: Insider Business

Views: 5,931,763

Keywords: contemporary art, painter, modern art, christie's, sotheby's, artist, Business Insider, art, UK Original Video, expensive, museum, gallery, Business News

Id: YooFwA7xj18

Length: 6min 13sec (373 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 30 2019