Portrait of a market

With Irish 10-year bonds at 7.601%, a little escapism is called for: Federico Etro has a nice piece on the market for art.

14 replies on “Portrait of a market”

@Pat
Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an “escape” from the perceived unpleasant or banal aspects of daily life. It can also be used as a term to define the actions people take to help relieve persisting feelings of depression or general sadness.

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@Richard,

Love the article! There’s more than a touch of ‘stating the bleedin’ obvious’ about it though. Pity the authors didn’t go into how some artists (I think Carvaggio was among them, but I may be misrepresenting him) who developed a more straightforward way of preserving their market position: they just murdered their competitors.

Didn’t Caravaggio also “cheat” a bit using the camera obscura tecnology to “project” his subject? – so wouldn’t put too much past him

17th century painters could actually paint. Hearing Irish artists complaining about BoIs sale of their splotches on canvas was really disgusting. Art, like property, was another example of an overpriced bubble; a bubble breeding shoddy quality works at that.

Perhaps one positive effect of the recession might be forcing artists to actually become competent at producing paintings again. I suspect the tone might be sullen and gloomy, but they should at least be trying to match the masters of old.

@ObsessiveMathFreak

I see you don’t limit disparaging remarking to just economic theory – modern art seems to attract your no doubt well informed scorn as well. At least your consistent

obsessivemathsfreak,

a good bbc documentary on the same including when Hirst started buying hirst art just to stave off the inevitable

7.66% or 518 basis points above bunds. “We have to stay to convince the bond markets”? Who’s fooling who?

@wow

Was it this one? I suppose Hirst’s equity buyback is another similarity between artists and central banks or public companies.

This debate is no longer academic .Guards lashing into kids sitting on the ground, dragging girls away by the hair. Disgraceful.

Escapism is only appropriate Richard, as you well know, if there is nothing that can be done.

It makes life bearable for a while, until the next fix is acquired.

The present depression can be averted only in prospect by thrashing out the facts and ascertaining the true causes. At present, the gloom can be alleviated if there is something positive that can be done about the problem.

I think there are many things that can be done. Don’t you?

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