Sheer madness

[BobH]

I've thought for a while that the world was going mad, but this week it has definitely happened

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/the-right-to-duct-tape-a-banana-to-a-wall-for-art-has-sold-for-6-2-million/ar-AA1ut1EG?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=d7d1ec11506f46349d7ef678e565aad6&ei=13

If there are any art connoisseurs on the forum, perhaps they can explain this, cos it goes right over my head!

[Merc_Girl]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[mdsalemi]

Bob,

I am educated in art. I have a degree in art, a BFA (bachelor of fine art) from a prestigious school (Carnegie-Mellon University) known for highly respected programs in design, painting, sculpture along with drama, musical theater. Oh yeah—engineering and computer science too.

One might think this gives me a tiny leg up in understanding this. No—not at all. I also don’t understand NFT. Virtual art…

Noted pop artist Andy Warhol once put a urinal on a wall in a gallery. Upon viewing someone said, “…that’s not art! Anyone can do that!” To which Andy replied “yes, but I did!”

I shake my head at a lot of this nonsense.

[66andBlue]

It was actually Marcel Duchamp who placed a urinal on a wall in an art exhibition in 1917.
You can read all about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)
Duchamp was "involved in in the creation of an anti-rational, anti-art, proto-Dada cultural movement in New York City."
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-duchamps-urinal-changed-art-forever.

[Jordan]

I could have been a multi millionaire many times over.  I don't know how many banana's I've duct taped to the wall.  It just reminds me to have lunch.      What's the expression, a fool and their money are soon parted.  I just wish I knew more fools. 

I remember a few years ago a painting that I think consisted of 3 stripes of paint, sold for many millions of dollars.  I remember thinking, any third grader could have painted that.  I think art and crypto are the two places any fool can loose or make a fortune very quickly.

[Jonny B]

Gotta admit I saw this earlier today (I think it was in the NYTimes) and did the same thing, "What the h#* is this?" Complete insanity. I have seen others along the way with the same sort of approach. One of my favorites (tongue definitely in cheek) is minimalist art - that is a big white or black "painting" (or pick the color of your choice) on an almost piece-of-plywood size canvas - and there is a gallery filled with them. Just goofy.

[Cees Klumper]

I've collected art since around 1986, my wife is an artist. We own maybe 30 or 40 works from artists other than hers, never counted them. We've spent (for us anyway) considerable amounts for works we fell in love with and although we have sold some over the years, to make room for new works, most we still have and enjoy.
All that to say that, in my experience, as in music and sports, there is a very steep and exponential hierarchy in art values: 90% of artists cannot make a living from what they create, 9% do ok, and the top 1% are valued at 100 or maybe even 1000 times what all the others are, combined. Kind of like how Messrs Musk, Gates, Arnnault and Bezos have net worths in the stratosphere compared to us here. It's the way of the world, no real rhyme or reason to it.
So, if a gazillionaire wants to compete on the latest hot piece of art, he (usually he) will have to bid high. Like sports clubs bid in the hundreds of millions for, a hot soccer player.

[stickandrudderman]

One of the most disappointing days of my life was a visit to the Tate Modern in London where I saw various "paintings" by Mark Rothko that were considered to be of sufficient merit as to be exhibited there and were therefore worth millions.
Then there was that untidy bedroom by Tracy Emin. A scene familiar to half the people on the planet who are fortunate enough to live in a building......

[BobH]

I thought i read it was a crypto gazillionair who was the winning bidder, he gets a certificate of authenticity, if he's anything like me, he won't be able to find it in six month's time, wonder what happens then?

If any UK members are interested, you can come and see my untidy bedroom, my pile of bricks, my urinal, and i can easily tape a piece of fruit to the wall if that's what turns you on.  I draw the line at stuffed animals in a tank though, bit macabre

Entrance tickets are relatively cheap, please enquire

[Paul99]

I guess it all depends on the person buying. If you had $100 gazilion then a few million would be like a "normal" person spending 50p for the banana - which is the going rate for a nice banana.

People like Elon Musk make a few million every few minutes.  It is obscene but that doesn't count any more.

[Jack the Knife]

One of my best friends manages the "alternative digital asset portfolio" (crypto, NFTs, that kind of thing) for a hedge fund and the shenanigans the "investors" get up to would make your head spin, especially the Chinese investors (or gamblers.. hucksters.. scammers..), which the purchaser of this thing is. There's almost always some money laundering con involved, or else trying to remove money from their country. To them, this is like owning a Nail of the True Cross or a supposed piece of Napoleon's genitals or any other bric-a-brac that this special market will collectively agree has great monetary value. It transcends whatever it actually is, it's just arcade tokens to be exchanged for something else at some point when they find another bagholder. It's a highly abstracted idea of "ownership" of "art". And long-term value doesn't matter, just value in 6 months or so.

I recall during the pre-COVID initial real estate run-up that lots of multifamily in Honolulu was selling to Chinese "investors" at a 1-1.5% cap rate. Same idea, just a place to park some money away from China. It boggled my mind at the time until I figured out what was going on. You can see similar things in any exclave around the US or, say, in London. To this day, South American oligarchs spend ridiculous amounts of money on ridiculous things in south Florida just to get money out of their country.

I remember when the banana-on-the-wall thing happened at Art Basel or Art Miami or whatever it was right before I left Miami for good -- but that one was a "mere" $120k. It's all performative and there's a long history of it. I'd just have my microscope on Maurizio Cattelan to see where the money goes. :^)

[mdsalemi]

It was actually Marcel Duchamp who placed a urinal on a wall in an art exhibition in 1917.

Well, SORT OF. You see, he submitted under a false name it but it was never displayed, and not on a wall. But I digress...

Now, Andy Warhol was a tour de force graduate of the same school I went to, albeit years earlier. When I attended so did Andy's nephew James Warhola. So stories about Warhol were regular. Everyone sort of hoped that "Uncle Andy" would come and visit Jim and his alma mater but it never happened. What Warhol did in perhaps tongue in cheek homage (and maybe that was the story that went around school) was his own version, called the same name as Duchamp's Fountain. But, instead of a real urinal that didn't get displayed, it was a photograph of a toilet that was displayed and sold as a "silver gelatin print" which is a fancy art term for...a B&W photograph! Like most of Warhol's creations, it made money...and as a print, repeatedly!

When I was in design school in the 70s, I took a trip with a classmate on holiday to Chicago. We went to an art exhibit and gallery opening one evening, and this was my first exposure "in real life" to the ridiculous. The featured art, in the dark basement of the gallery, were multiple wooden troughs, all painted matte black, (as was the entire basement) and in the troughs were piles of pure white chalk dust. The only illumination (aside from the fire exit signs) was spot lights on the chalk dust. It was art for display only, and could not be moved of course. WTF?

What made me annoyed was that this was an "art project" where the artist was funded by the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts). This is a taxpayer funded branch of government that gives grants (read that: MONEY). Though just a student I felt that this was a huge waste of the few tax dollars I contributed to the economy.

[GM]

"Art is what you can get away with" - Andy Warhol

[mdsalemi]

… And I just read about this jam this morning for the first time…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Earth_Room

[BobH]

More madness (at least as far as i'm concerned)

Touch screens in modern cars, personally i hate them all, can't see them in sunlight, fingerprints all over them, trying to press the correct icon on a bumpy road when your finger's moving up and down.  This one takes the biscuit, it's larger than the TV in our house!

Warning lights, our cars have, what 5 or less warning lights?  Modern cars can have over 100, and apparently many drivers don't understand most of them, and ignore them. Most just frustrate me, hence why they probably get ignored.  I put a heavy parcel on the back seat today and spent the whole journey being warned that it didn't have a seatbelt on. 

Low tyre pressure monitoring, pumped up all four the other day, only for the screen to carry on telling me two were still low, when i know they weren't, tested them again, all were fine.  Seems the warning light doesn't go out until you drive at more then 100MPH, or you need to wait until until a full moon!