What value do you put on Art?

WHAT VALUE DO YOU PUT ON ART?


Unlike the price of a bacon pig, putting value or price on works of art proved to be a lot more murky.
Value has different meaning to different people. There is the value in an aesthetic sense, the value in terms of what it is worth monetarily in the market place and of course, culturally and spiritually. I do not intend to deal with all of these issues here, but rather discuss the prices paid by  individuals and corporations in terms of their tax advantage.

A few years ago ,while running a modern print gallery in Hobart, I found  it necessary to carry out valuations for the Australian Taxation Office. Our gallery acted for some three to four hundred artists of various nationalities. We imported graphics mainly from Japan, Europe and America. Those of you who are not familiar with the expression limited edition original prints, it covers such items as etchings, lino and woodblocks, silk screen, litho images and any other printed image produced by artists in a limited number. The general public then, as now ,tends to confuse the term print with reproduction. Unfortunately English, unlike German doesn’t have a special word, which is unfortunate. I had selected original graphics as our speciality ,because they are light, easy to freight, and they offered me the opportunity to deal in the best current art works available in the world.

On face value, you would think the task  of valuation would be fairly straight forward, but taxation departments don’t operate that way. The reason of course is ,that there is no such thing as value for works of art, other than their inherent aesthetic and cultural value. The price of any art work is very arbitrary. The price is simply what a person or organization is willing to pay at any given time. Prices change not only in a historic sense, but vary from country to country depending on their different cultural values.

Why is all this important? Well in Australia ,a person or corporation may donate an art work to a public galley or institutions and claim the value [price] as a tax deduction. In the tax department’s view this required a professional valuation. Now you may feel this is straight forward, but in reality there are many valuations. There are auction prices, but these may vary depending on whose there bidding, there is the gallery or dealers price and the artist’s price. These prices are constantly changing depending on how popular a given artist is at any given point in time. Many 19th cent Victorian artists who commanded high prices during their life time, now arouse little or no interest with the buying public.  If you are looking at fine art as an investment be aware that fashions change ,and the chances are you are paying an inflated price in the first place.


I have seen a Dali litho sold at auction ,signed within the  print, not after the image has been printed. This means that you have no idea how many copies have been made, whether they are authorised by the artist or not, part of a deceased estate, or simply the plates or stones have been acquired by a third party who are just printing money. Then there are artists who will sign reproduction and even number them for sale to a gullible public.

Early Australian art collections were full of competent copies of the old masters ,and well known art works, sent out to the colonies to eager settlers wanting to establish some cultural identity. I still remember in the early fifties , when Rudy Kirmann tried to sell paintings door to door around Sydney ,being told by the occupant they had all the art works they required ,pointing to reproductions hanging on the wall. Gratefully times have changed.

However to return to my topic, the correct price or value of work. We have all heard of paintings being sold for two, three times or more above the estimate at auction. With original prints there is the unknown  edition size. I have found a supposed edition of 100 copies being released three times! In some countries print makers are required to run off a cancellation print and register the copy with the relevant authority. Such prints are produced by scoring the etching plate for example diagonally from corner to corner ,so it can not be used again.

All these issues were major problems when doing valuations for the Tax Department. The bureaucrats in Canberra continually challenged the valuations .They assumed that the valuations were always greater than claimed. They seemed to suggest that I was receiving some sort of under the table payment, so that the donor could claim a greater tax rebate . In the end I decided the task was not worth the stress, and refused to continue valuations. Over the years ,I had always attempted to arrive at some average price. The reality is that the true value of art works is in their aesthetic worth, not some newspaper headline price or the name at the bottom. It’s what we feel about the work. Does it speak to you in some way. What do you think?

Creative Drawing.

Peter Kreet. "Seated Nude."
Pen & ink.

There are several approaches to drawing depending on the personality of the drawer. An analytical mind may feel that accuracy should score highly on any scale of competency. At the other end would be people who greatly value the spontaneous, even the gestural act of mark making. Then there is the drawing of children were the inner instinct of what a child feels about what they are representing has central place. This type of drawing greatly appeals to me as it is that free spiret, that spontaneous interpretation of what ever is being drawn, it's life force that is so wonderful.

Spontaneity has many faces, children's drawing most certainly is one category, Matisse and his fauve friends form another. They loved the life and vigor of this open approach in both drawing and painting. Drawing is more than simply an exercise in hand and eye co-ordination, it is also a journey of investigative possibilities for different ideas. Its' practice, unlike painting demands a far more intimate approach. A certain degree of intentness is required without the author descending into a ridged interpretation of their subject.

A sketch demands a rapid path to produce a free expressive outcome, otherwise the result will be tentative, unsure of itself. There must be a ridged economy of means, so the visual outcome is to a certain extent symbolic, a blue print if you like. An expressive sketch dosen't need correction to any extent, it is purely a moment , an impression of a situation or moment in time. To me this the most rewarding drawing and naturally the most difficult to obtain. It must capture the moment, attempt to capture and possess the subject.
Many critic will argue that this is a very emotional and not a professional approach, but I feel this is the most intimate way of interpreting the world.

A viewer needs to move up close to a drawing, to create a close relationship in order to fully understand the dialogue. The intent in drawing is simply to make an immediate mark on a surface without inhibitions, to express your relationship with the subject. Creative drawing allows another person to view the world through an others eyes, to see the world through their prism and experience and understand an others temperament towards our world.

Peter Kreet "Japenese Bridge, Hoi An"

Peter Kreet "Waiting for the bus"
Brush & ink.

Life's Blank Canvas

Peter Kreet "Greek fishing boats Ithica"

Pencil sketch on paper $240

Nothing can be more intimidating than a large white canvas waiting to receive it's first mark.
The birth of anything has a similar sense of expectation and drama. After all life is a journey and it's start will always be a mix of joy and awareness of the hazards ahead. David Malouf once in a radio interview suggested that the successful novel started with the tack of getting your characters up onto their feet down what they do.

Paintingg is no different, personally I always play classical music in the background to focus the mind on the
task in hand. The music overrides secondary thoughts forces me to think about the shapes, colour and  texture felt in the music.Once the first commitment to a visual statement has been made the work starts to take on a life of it's own. My task is to to understand what the picture requires in order to bring it's full fruition, the realisation of my aims and hopes. This does not always happen of course and in many ways reminds me of Cavafy's inspiring poem Ithaca.

It saddens me that the study of classics has so declined in recent years and Homer's tale of Odysseus return Ithica is unknown to many of the younger generation. I shall indulge a little  here and record Cavafy's poem Ithica for those unfamilar with his poetery.

                                                    ITHICA
As you set out for Ithica
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonian, Cyclops,
angery Poseidon- don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keepyour thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonian, Cyclops, wild Poseidon
_ you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one
May there be many summer mornings when
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations to buy things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go learning from scholars.

Keep Ithica always in your mind
Arriving there is what you're destined for
But don't hurry the journey at all
Better if it lasts for years,so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithica to make you rich.

Ithica gave you the beautiful journey
without her you would never have taken to the road.
But she has nothing more to give you now.If you find her poor,
Ithica has not defrauded you,
With all the great wisdom you have gained
With so much experience
You'll have understood by then what Ithica means.

                  C.P.Cavafy ( 20th cent. poet)