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Monday, November 17, 2008

Visual Art "To say the party is over is an understatement."

Posted by Jen Graves on Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 11:38 AM

Sotheby's and Christie's can no longer cover their guarantees.

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oh boo fucking hoo. there are people who can't afford to feed themselves or their children. could we get a freakin' reality check here????

Posted by xina on November 17, 2008 at 11:44 AM

If we need to bail out the automakers to preserve its high-paid jobs for low-skill workers, then we really need to bail out the art houses: they provide even higher-paying jobs to even less-skilled art history majors.

Posted by David Wright on November 17, 2008 at 12:19 PM

Thanks for covering this. Working artists need to feed themselves and their children too. To the extent that the art market hit a speculative frenzy over the last fifteen years, more working artists - our friends, family and neighbors - were able to focus on creating rather than temping. To the extent that the speculative art frenzy is over, as heralded by this public disclosure at the high end, the pool of buyers at all price levels has just shrunk considerably. Artists who've been able to stay out of the labor market by selling their work may find themselves working very hard to compete for now-scarcer jobs in the quotidian world. Yeah, in a sense it's back to "same as it ever was" for the artist in America, but dang what a tough and sudden transition back to it this may be.

Posted by tomasyalba on November 17, 2008 at 12:45 PM