Wednesday 28 December 2011

Butt-Ugly Artworks That Are Super Expensive

image credit

Sometimes it seems that the uglier and more confusing the artwork, the more expensive it gets. Can you believe the painting above - No 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock - is worth $140 million?

1 comment(s):

mister anchovy said...

What sort of painting do you think should be worth $140 million?

In the late 40s, Mr. Pollock and a few colleagues turned the American art scene on its head. American art came into its own with Abstract Expressionism. Just about everyone I know can look at a tiny little 3 inch picture of one of his works on their computer screen and tell you that it is a representation of a painting by Jackson Pollock, even if they have never seen one of his actual paintings in the flesh. How many artists can you think of that share that distinction.

The value of art can't be pried away from its historical context. Mr. Pollock made a bunch of incredibly important artworks and died young. His paintings are rare and also they're fragile, in that he didn't employee normal artists' paints or methods. OK, so $140 million is a huge amount to value any artwork, but on the scale of things, I'd have to value Mr. Pollock's work very high.