Page 64 - Studio International - September 1966

Art prices current

Morality and money by George Savage

The Age of Victoria - the age of sentimental hum- thing hardly imaginable today in the almost reli- permanent values and an attention to quality.
bug-saw the beginning of the prejudice against gious hush which pervades the sale-room. This has Renoir was a great painter, and in an appropriate
coupling art with what it takes to buy it. Certainly been because until the last century or so art has setting his finest works are superb. This setting,
it did not exist before Ruskin began to associate always been valued as interior decoration, and, for however, is not a public gallery, but on a boiserie
art and morality with a facility which endeared the most part, the highest prices today are still above a canapé or a Louis Quinze commode. Renoir
him to some sections of Victorian opinion, but paid for works which fulfil this function. Quite could also paint very badly. So can Picasso, whose
we may be certain that the artists themselves had recently, however, I came across a reference to the trivial works with any other name would struggle
no hand in it. Those I have known liked money as `Divine Michelangelo', which is symptomatic. The to get a bid. As much could be said of the revered
much as the next man, principally because it word means 'pertaining to the Deity', which is Van Gogh, and although it may be blasphemy to
represented freedom of choice. carrying adulation a good deal further than seems say it, I should greatly prefer to live with the
The dislike of money in large quantities which either wise or justified. I should, for instance, enjoy Bridge at Arles than to suffer the tedium of the
exists in some quarters today is entirely irrational, hearing Benvenuto Cellini's comments on the Potato Eaters. The job of the painter is not to pro-
and largely a product of envy. Money is a medium subject, as well as those of Michelangelo, who was vide us with social documents but pleasantly to
of exchange, and I doubt whether any artist himself under no such delusion. fill a space on a wall, something which he can do
would like to be paid for his work in cases of The art of painting would come to no very great supremely well.
oranges or chests of tea, although he might feel harm if this aspect was once more restored to its Painting ought to be a record of the visual imagi-
slightly more disposed to accept a house or an auto- rightful prominence. Despite the pseudo-philoso- nation of the artist, and to be the work of a man
mobile. When the extortions of the tax-gatherer phizing which often accompanies the presentation who has cultivated this faculty, as well as the
have been satisfied money is a much more prac- of paintings today, they nearly always finish on technical facility necessary to set it down com-
tical form of reward for labour than anything else. somebody's wall, unless they find their way to a petently and intelligibly. If he is wise he will
The principal objection to the enlargement of public gallery. recognize that the single-minded pursuit of his
what is often called the public sector by fantasti- As an instance of what happens when this simple chosen profession largely unfits him to make intel-
cally high rates of taxation is precisely that it fact is lost sight of, I quote an extract from an ligent comment in other fields. Nothing, for in-
makes unwarranted inroads into the freedom of the exhibition catalogue of a few years ago: 'In the stance, is more absurd than the modern spectacle
individual by limiting his power of choice, and heat of his discovery of a new resin it was natural of actors and popular entertainers making pro-
therefore it increases the power of other people to that all figuration should melt,' the discovery being nouncements on matters which are strictly the
choose for him. The art-market represents an `not of conventional assemblage mannerisms... realm of politics or economics.
opportunity to choose for oneself. The spending of but of the powerful transfiguration of these The work of Manet is among the highest priced
public money by others necessarily perpetuates the materials in a new visual unity, where identities are in today's sale-room. Cezanne's paintings are not
taste of those who are entrusted with the task of lost only to be regained in the very act of their sought for whatever theories he might have had
selection-a taste which is heavily slanted towards metamorphosis'. I do not propose to take this about the nature of art, but because they are works
the requirements of the public gallery. apart to try to find out what it was intended to of great visual beauty, whatever that old-fashioned
The American system of tax-relief on gifts to mean. The Americans, adept at appropriate word might mean today. This ought not to escape
museums and art-galleries ought, in theory, to be coinage, have a word which describes this kind of the notice of buyer and artist alike.
superior to our own, if only because it should offer nonsense very well. They call it' gobbledegook'. In
an opportunity for the cross-fertilization of the the English vernacular it might well be termed
taste of public gallery officials with that of the indi- `blinding with science'. Whichever way up I read
vidual. In practice, however, it has led to the pur- it, no meaning is apparent to anyone accustomed
chase of works likely to be accepted by public to using English as a means of communication. Recent prices for sculpture at Sotheby
galleries. Painting ought not to be an esoteric cult only to be
We must credit those who were responsible for the explained by its acolytes in this kind of language. Honore Daumier Spirituel et Malin A bust, 5 3/4 inches
founding of these galleries with good intentions, They have, in the English language, an instru- in height, of Antoine Maurice Apollinaire, Comte
but they have, in fact, had an extremely dele- ment so flexible and expressive that it can hardly d'Argout. Bronze, stamped with initials M.L.G. and
terious effect on art as a whole by distorting its be matched, yet they can only produce a fog of numbered 27/30. Illustrated by Bouvy and Gobin, who
function. Paintings, and most other things, need to verbiage for which we strive in vain to find a both reproduce the original terracotta. £1,050
contribute to a coherent scheme of decoration, to parallel. To write clearly one must necessarily Medardo Rosso Donna Ridente (Petite Rieuse) Wax
be part of somebody's immediate surroundings think clearly, and this is doing neither. over plaster. H. 14 inches. Executed in 1890. Provenance,
and an expression of his personality, as well as The buying of works of art for investment is also the artist's grand-daughter. See: Margaret Scolari
that of the artist. The late Emil Bührle quite regarded with distaste in some quarters, as though Barr, Medardo Rosso, New York, 1963.
£1,800
rightly regarded an art collection as a work of art it were a form of sacrilege- a point of view natural Donna Ridente (Grande Rieuse). Wax over plaster. Exe-
in itself, in the same way as the individual paint- enough if one starts from such premises as a belief cuted in 1891. H. 21 3/4 inches. Provenance: the artist's
ings, sculptures, and other elements which form it. in the divinity of painters and in painting as its grand-daughter. See Barr, op. cit. £2,000
To hang paintings in a gallery containing nothing terrestial manifestation. But buying for investment, Auguste Rodin Eustache de Saint-Pierre Bronze,
else is to give undue emphasis to some aspects at especially at a time such as the present when signed, dedicated 'A mon ami Mengue' and dated
the expense of others. critical standards are low, is likely to be a salutary 1907. A figure from Les Bourgeois de Calais, 19 inches in
With the exception of medieval times, when influence rather than otherwise. Buyers are im- height. £2,050
Europe has been aptly described as something pelled to stop and count the cost of their pur- Main Industrielle Bronze, signed, and inscribed 'Alexis
between a charnel house and a lunatic asylum, the chases, and to consider whether they are likely to Rudier, Fondeur, Paris.' H. 8 1/4 inches. £1,300
art-market has always flourished. Even during the withstand the test of time, which ultimately must Le Frire et la Soeur. Marble, signed. H. 17 inches.
nineteenth century a spanking price at Christie's have its effect on what is offered. Recorded by Somerville Story, Rodin, 1961, No. 60.
was greeted with a hearty round of applause, some- Wise investment necessarily requires a search for L5,000