'Money Creates Taste'
Several years ago I bought a Jenny Holzer wooden postcard from Tate Modern’s shop. Printed on one side is the statement (or Holzer Truism) ‘Money Creates Taste’.
On the other side there is a space for a message, stamp and address. I’ve never sent the postcard (I only really use second class stamps anyhow). It has remained unused and unsent in my living room; part art object part ironic message for anyone who sees it. Holzer’s statement is bold and clear, the red typeface chosen adding to the sense that these words are powerful, important and meaningful. But, of course, the message also undermines itself. We are instantly made to question, does money create taste?
Last Sunday, whilst sitting in the Bertha DocHouse cinema at the Curzon Bloomsbury (do go if you haven't), the relationship between money and taste was also being thrashed out. This time via a documentary on the art market entitled The Price of Everything. The Curzon state: ‘As artworks are auctioned for outrageous figures, Director Nathaniel Kahn investigates the capitalist hijack’. Artists, dealers, collectors, art historians and auction house curators all have their say in this fascinating look at the current state of the market. It becomes self evident that contemporary art has created its own currency, a marker, a luxury brand and a trading entity. The characters selected for the documentary allude to the fact that this current trend cannot sustain itself and the market is heading towards, for want of a better term, a crash.
Everyone seems to be aware of their place within the process, from creator to dealer to seller to buyer and it becomes clear that there is, as the title suggests, a price for everything. But, even if this is the case, the film also demonstrates how artists love to create and collectors love to collect and, although artworks are linked to a price tag, there is still a drive that relies on a passion for artistic creativity. Larry Poons, for example, fell out of favour with the market as he developed his style and refused to simply produce ‘1960s Poons dots’. The documentary shows him continuing to work today, painting with thick impasto paint with his fingers on huge canvases that surround him. This setup is reminiscent of Monet’s Water-Lilies at the Orangerie Museum in Paris mentioned in my blog on 31/10/18. We hear how Poons dropped off and how this might be the moment for his resurgence in the art market. Poons isn’t bothered, he is happy that his more recent works are getting shown and the market appears to be keen to promote an unseen group of works to re-establish Poons in an ever veracious market. I was also rather taken by Stefan Edlis, a collector and philanthropist in Chicago, whose apartment was filled with wonderful artworks. He acknowledges that he always chooses works he and his wife love and want to live with, much like a beautiful piece of furniture. He refers to his spreadsheets to tell us what he has bought, when and for how much. He also reveals how he no longer pays for artworks, rather he trades his in. At one point, he states he can be a wolf in sheep’s clothing but also a sheep in wolf’s clothing. What is clear is he is passionate about the works and this is highlighted by his donation of a substantial amount of his collection to the Art Institute of Chicago. He wants others to see and appreciate the works he has lived with and loved.
Returning to ‘Money Creates Taste’ or the relationship between taste and money. I wanted to finish with the new £20 that will be introduced in Britain in 2020. Part of a nationwide vote, it will feature JMW Turner’s self-portrait which is currently on display at Tate Britain, one of his most significant paintings, The Fighting Temeraire, and the quote ‘light is therefore colour’ from an 1818 lecture by him. To me, this in an interesting twist on taste, money and creativity. One of Britain’s greatest painters will be seen forevermore linked to pound sterling, taste has now created money. As portrayed in The Price of Everything art really is currency.