How much would you think this sculpture is worth, artistically - and what would you be willing to pay?
$6k ?
$15k ?
$30k ?
$100k ?
$500k ?
$2 mil ?
$10 mil ?
$18 mil ?
$24 mil ?
$31 mil ?
Take a guess at which one of these prices this sculpture fold for?
. . . . . . . . . .
Sold for 24 million dollars.
A large-scale metal sculpture by American artist David Smith has become the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction, fetching 23.8 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York.
The 1965 sculpture was finally snapped up by Manhattan dealer Larry Gagosian at nearly twice its high estimate of 12 million dollars.
Experts attributed the record price to the fact that most of Smith's works are in museums or permanent collections and therefore make extremely rare auction appearances.
I personally wouldn't have given $250 dollars for it...I think it stinks artistically. But then again, art is subjective I suppose.
Still, if it fetched so much because it is rare, then my gradeschool crayon projects should be worth a mint - there's not many of them that I have left.
I wonder if put them on eBay with a bunch of artspeak about "the wonderful style of this mid-western artist" if some jackass would give me a few thousand for one? Hmmmmmm...might be worth a shot. Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Yea, but remember, metal prices have gone up and gas is outa sight.
Posted by Jane Diaz (Member # 595) on :
Well, the juxtaposition of the tension between the unharmonious patterns is what makes it so pleasing to the eye. If he had used more neuter or flirtatious masses then the tensions of the massive shapes would have cancelled out the larger elements of mass and it would have had a more empathetic reproachment.... HUH?? DUH!!
Posted by Kelsey Dum (Member # 6101) on :
It seems if you want to get paaaaiiiiddd for your ART you have to die, or be rich to begin with and learn to shmoooze with the snobbies that wouldn't know art if it hit em in the face. I think the main reason people pay that much for something like this is simply for bragging rights..."I paid 24 mil for this sculpture...la ti da...whooptie doo. I might pay 24 bucks for a print but I guess I can't clutter my yard with that.
Like you said though, art is subjective and everyone is entitled to their own opinion...that's just a loooot of money!
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
What's this??!!
Another Bidder????
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
The high price tag means the council won't send them a notice for an untidy yard with scrap metal awaiting cartage to the recyclers. They get to keep their junk where they left it when it fell off the truck!
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
Unfortunately "Art" in general is perceived in the size of its price tag.
A struggling artist I know finally got her first exhibition. Nice work if you like "primitive" art.
She was told to add a zero to all her prices. "But that $240 painting only took a couple of hours ... $2400???"
Word got around the "in" crowd that her works could be a good investment and the exhibition sold out in days. Would that have happened at $240 a painting?
She never looked back, and now adds TWO zeros!
Wonder what the one she gave me early on is worth now !!!!
Posted by Russ McMullin (Member # 5617) on :
It does have some scrap metal value, without a doubt. The only thing it makes me ponder is how a committee agreed to pay that kind of coin for a big stack of metal shapes. I've seen some beautiful abstract metal sculptures, but this isn't one of them.
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
On a related observation to what Jon mentioned..
A friend was trying to sell his restaurant business for health reasons...After having been listed for 6 months with no serious bites he re-listed with a different agent who upped the asking price to almost double the original listing.
He sold it within 2 weeks at the inflated price.
"Perceived Value"
Posted by Bob Stephens (Member # 858) on :
I'm a huge fan of perceived value... I sell it all the time Posted by Felix Marcano (Member # 1833) on :
ROTFLMAO!!
Posted by bill riedel (Member # 607) on :
I would pay to see it blown up and carted away. I feel it is an insult to the real artists who are struggling to make a living. Maybe they judge the value by just how ugly they can make it.
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
Wait a second...
When Gump was 4, he combined Lincoln Logs, Sesame Street blocks, 2 Video tape boxes, a box of Cheerios, scrap 2x4s from the shop and came up with the exact same design! Time to call a lawyer...
Rapid
Posted by George Perkins (Member # 156) on :
I've never figured out the "art" deal either. I watched the film Pollack and his stuff looked like my work table at my old shop.
Posted by Sam Radoff (Member # 4972) on :
artists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
all of us are doing art in almost everything we do . my question is what if someone offered you 24 m. for apeice your art ?????????
YOSEMITE SAM
Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
quote:Originally posted by George Perkins: I've never figured out the "art" deal either. I watched the film Pollack and his stuff looked like my work table at my old shop.
Pollack's problem...and it isn't really his problem, cause he's dead...is that he used Benjamin Moore house paint, and all of his paintings are peeling off of the canvases now. The last laugh is on him.
Posted by David Wright (Member # 111) on :
Go the "buying a Mac" thread and you will understand a little about perceived value. It must be worth it if they are asking, right?
To boot, when you end up buying over priced merchandise, you defend them to the ends of the earth for charging that much. Otherwise you have to admit you are a sucker.
Posted by Ricky Jackson (Member # 5082) on :
Looks like someone walked into a machine shop, saw a bunch of aluminum billets laying around, or maybe bought them at a military surplus auction, tigged them together and called it "art". I guessed $30K. Boy my art just took a price hike!!! Todd Gill you are one sick puppy!! Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
I think they hired a guy to haul it away
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
Heheheheee....I remember about 30 years ago, a sign shop had a couple of sheets of 4x8 masonite tacked up on the wall. They used them to ckean their brushes and rollers.
They also has an Interior Decorator who would call them with a size and color combination he was looking for. They then cut out the appropriate section, framed it and sold it to him!
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
It's not a piece of art. It's the framework at the end of day 1 of one of Grandpa Dan's creations. Posted by Bill Lynch (Member # 3815) on :
The first sign painter I worked for used to keep a piece of masonite on the wall by the bench to stroke out his brushes. The resulting design (usually a nude) would inevitably be purchased by a fascinated customer. Art is definately subjective, probably the most successful and popular artist now is Thomas Kincade and I can't stand his stuff.
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
that sculpture sure has no appeal to me, what a bunch of junk. fools & their money
quote:I've never figured out the "art" deal either. I watched the film Pollack and his stuff looked like my work table at my old shop.
I have a piece in my shop thta once hung in an art show. It is the carefully disassembled bottom panel of a normal galvinized aluminum garbage can. It is very weathered & dented from the years. I struggled to un-crimp the joint between the sides & the bottom to achieve a nice aged & ragged edge, rather then cut it free.
The best part of its asthetic appeal is rooted in the fact that I paid $25,000.00 for it. At that time it was a complete garbage can & it came complete with a fully functioning sign & screen printing business at no extra charge.
Years of 1-shot enamels & Naz-Dar screen inks were disposed of through that can in the form of messy clean-up rags, wads of "skin" off the top of cans, & other waste left over from color mixing. The bottom of the can was quite thick with the conglomeration of debris bonded through the natural adhesion of wet paints & inks. When I retired this can from daily service & converted it to art... I peeled of the last inch of filthy looking debris, & in the process broke the skin of the earliest years of ink residue revealing an intrestingly random array of freshly exposed (& still slightly wet) original bright hues interspersed by the texture & juxtaposed beauty of aged metal & a slight dusting of genuine trash particals.
OK.. maybe you have to see it to appreciate it, but the final punchline to this story is the rest of the can. It also hung in the art exhibit. It was splayed out into a nice arch, 3 ft. wide, 2 ft. tall, & leaning back slightly on some old recycled flat bar from my shop. I completed the piece by screwing a perfectly drippy old 1-shot can down in the lower left corner, put a well used multi-colored brush handle & stir-stick in the can, & hung (with a concealed screw)an ancient(& dirty)paint roller handle up on the top right corner.. along with a genuinely used old paint rag.
That piece was bought by an art gallery for their front display!
Posted by Frank Magoo (Member # 3950) on :
I may be whack, but I like it!!! It exhibits an overall balance w/irregular forms, yes! I like it.......have to go w/Sam on this one...
Posted by Tim Whitcher (Member # 685) on :
A local artist was commisioned by the city to create a series of columns that were supposed to represent various stages of the County's history, to be erected in a new park. Not knowing anything about the project, I saw the columns being erected as I drove by the park one morning. After a few days of seeing no further progress, I asked a friend of mine "When are they going to put a roof on the new picnic shelter?" After he stopped laughing, he enlightened me. $100,000.00 of "art".
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
This has nothing to do with OP's pic being here . . . but everytime I hear that thing about 'percieved value' mentioned with regard to something like this kind of 'art' I always think of that story: 'The Emporers New Clothes' . . . . .
Ok MrMc & Sam, so you like it. That's fine, I mean appearantly someone else liked it enough to have it sitting there . . . . but was it really WORTH 24 mil?? Did somebody get ripped off??
I wonder, if bids were taken, what would all the different prices & designs be?
By the way, is is supposed to rust with time?? Because to me, that is the only way it could possibley become interesting . . .
It's kind'a funny, but had I not known the price, or if the price would have been . . .mabey like $10,000, I still would'nt necessarily want it on my place, but I would've had a lot more appreciation for it as an abstract.
Funny how that 'perceived value' thing means something is supposed to automatically be worth more than it is simply because it has a huge price tag, and not for what it actually is . . .
lol 'percieve' . . . what? Is that like ESP? To me, you ought to pay exactly what something should really be worth . . . so I 'percieve' the value of this peice was over-priced for what it is. Knowing the bottom dollar made it of less value to me. Not more.
I'm not fooled. The emporer is butt nekid.
Posted by Sam Radoff (Member # 4972) on :
ARTISTS,,, I think most of you are missing the point . I didnt say I liked or disliked the sculpture, WHAT I SAID WAS IF SOMEONE GAVE YOU 25,000,ooo $ for a piece of your art would you take it , or tell them its only worth 250 $ YOSEMITE SAM
Posted by Steve Purcell (Member # 1140) on :
You can sell an overturned garbage can for a million bucks.
Just wear a black smock, a beret, and ask for it with a straight face.
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
Who missed the point? Most of us replied about the value of the peice.Obviously, if a person does'nt like the thing they might consider paying what it'd bring in scrap metal . . .
I said I think someone should pay what something is really worth, so I'm saying I would NOT have charged 24 mil for this peice, (and I would'nt own it at any price.) If they insisted I receive 24 mil for it, well . . . I have a lot of favorite causes most of that would go to.
[ November 14, 2005, 11:06 PM: Message edited by: Sheila Ferrell ]
Posted by Joe Endicott (Member # 628) on :
Personally, I love this kind of sculpture. But that one pictured in the original post appears to be David Smith's CUBI XXVII , and the piece that sold for 23.8 mil is this one, CUBI XXVIII :
If the price went that high at auction, it means at least two very wealthy people thought it was worth nearly 24 mil. If I had crazy money like that...there's no telling what I'd spend it on.
I wanted to quickly add a link to my favorite large scale metal sculptor: John Henry, Sculptor Take a look...it's cool stuff.
[ November 14, 2005, 11:38 PM: Message edited by: Joe Endicott ]
Posted by Dawud Shaheed (Member # 5719) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jon Butterworth: Unfortunately "Art" in general is perceived in the size of its price tag.
A struggling artist I know finally got her first exhibition. Nice work if you like "primitive" art.
She was told to add a zero to all her prices. "But that $240 painting only took a couple of hours ... $2400???"
Word got around the "in" crowd that her works could be a good investment and the exhibition sold out in days. Would that have happened at $240 a painting?
She never looked back, and now adds TWO zeros!
Wonder what the one she gave me early on is worth now !!!!
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Rolling On The Floor]](graemlins/rolf.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
![[I Don t Know]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
