Response to Dave Hickey's Talk

The talk given by Dave Hickey from the University of Nevada Las Vegas was a very enlightening talk. He seemed to really feel that the art world has been corrupted. Hickey’s feelings towards art, was that it should not be sold. Art is not a part of the business world. It is about emotion, not money. Hickey asks why people are worrying about money. He says, “The art market in the 21st century is a finite market,” which means that supplies are limited within the market. Also, the economy is always changing which does not help the purchasing of art work. There are more pieces of art work than there are people to buy it. Hickey also states that people become sick of seeing similar pieces of art, therefore will not buy similar pieces of art.
Dave Hickey believes that this entire problem with the selling out of art is a result of the death of installation art and an escalation in available capital. This, he believes created the world that we live in today. He also thinks that the death of post modernism was around the time of September 11th, 2001.
I don’t know if I agree with everything Dave Hickey is saying. I think that it is inevitable in today’s society that art is going to be sold for high prices. I don’t think that art should be produced solely for the purpose of selling it, but I think it is somewhat of a necessity to today’s economy. People centuries ago, had to make things to sell in order to get by. I believe that it is very closely related that struggling artists don’t mind that they sell their art for money. I do think that some pieces of art are being overlooked because of the state of the economy. However, I think it is inevitable for art to be sold and for it to become a great success.
I agree with Hickey on the idea that artwork is only going to be sold because it is what dealers are showing. There is a lot of artwork out there that is probably never going to be seen because someone does not think it is sell-able or does not think it is main stream enough to sell. In the art world however, I feel that it is easy to find someone who enjoys a piece of art that someone else could hate. Therefore, I do think that it can be limiting what people are seeing and viewing as art because of what the dealer’s opinion is. The dealer obviously wants to get the most profit possible out of selling the art work so I do think that it is very probable that they do not choose artwork that is different from the typical painting.

The “Mona Lisa Curse” documentary given by Robert Hughes talks about every aspect of art, from the museums, to the paintings, and even to buying and selling. I believe that art is sold because it is what people think is best economically for the world. I think it has become a habit or a way of life in the art world. I don’t know that all people see it as a bad thing because not only are you helping the economy but you’re being able to take into your home a piece of artwork that you truly like. I think that people are making too big of a deal about buying and selling art, just because I don’t think art is made just for that purpose. Duplicates may be produced for the purpose of buying and selling, but I think original paintings or sculptures still have the same value as they used to. I think art is still a form of expression and that these artists are still enjoying creating their art and that people still enjoy viewing it. So therefore, I don’t really see how buying and selling is such a huge issue in the art world today because I don’t believe that art is initially created solely for the purpose of selling it.