Reaction to Dave Hickey's lecture

Mark Bleier

Dave Hickey delivered a humorous and effective art lecture about selling without selling out. He explained how people are becoming too infatuated with the price of the art and not the beauty of art. Art works are becoming too expensive and in return, it is diminishing the meaning of real art. Real art should not encompass an outrageous sum of money, which is created by the transaction of the buyer and seller. Unfortunately, artists mostly develop their work with prices and money on their mind.
The art market place has drastically changed from the transition into the twenty first century. In the twentieth century the art market place was a ‘finite market place,’ which means that there was always more works of art than there were people to buy them. That is not the case today. People are buying numerous pieces of art at a time. I feel that this is becoming a big problem. People have forgotten the real meaning of art and cannot even look at an art piece without wondering the price of it. Artist should go back to creating and showing art that they actually believe in, instead of creating art for the money and collectors. Art in supposed to be fun and not concentrated on money and capital gain. Hickey also states that the art world consists of greedy artists and stupid collectors and these are the people who get hurt. Greedy artists and stupid collectors is exactly what negatively affecting the art world today. When I listened to that, it really occurred to me how ridiculous the art market is becoming. People need to stop worrying about the price of art and start enjoying the beauty of it.

Dave Hickey’s lecture is similar to the documentary on the “Mona Lisa Curse,” by Robert Hughes. The Mona Lisa Curse outlines how the art world in too consumed with money and prices. The Mona Lisa created an art market which is capitalistic and commercialized. Collectors buy any type of art work that they can get their hands on and I feel that it is ruining art within galleries and museums. The art market is not even about the art anymore, it is about how much money the seller can make off the buyer. Collectors do not need hundreds of art works, but they feel they do in order have bragging rights. Hickey talks about how there is an abundance of money is circulating in the world and jokes that it is hard to get your hands on some without selling art. Art has become too capitalistic as means for collecting money.

I think that Dave Hickey delivered an interesting and influential lecture on art. All the arguments that he made, I agreed with. The art market has changed throughout the years and it became mostly about money. Art is now about selling to the collectors and the consumers.