Arty Farty – Are You Serious?

I recently read an article discussing the ten most famous paintings in the world. It reminded me of a visit to an art gallery about twenty years ago. Don’t get the wrong idea here. I am not an arty person. I have a few original paintings in my house that I bought for the colours and the overall “likeness factor."

I have been lucky enough to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre Gallery in Paris. After queuing up for over an hour, I was bitterly disappointed. I never really liked it as a painting.

This painting gets over 20,000 visitors a day. It is credited as the most famous painting in the world. I felt I had to see it to say I had. I was unimpressed by its small size (77 by 53 centimetres).I could never paint like that. I’m not saying Leonardo da Vinci is a bad artist.

I admire paintings like “Birth of Venus” by Botticelli, “The Night Watch” by Rembrandt, and “The Last Supper” by da Vinci. I can see the skill in each one. The level of detail in each is truly amazing.

“The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh is much more appealing to me. I love the colours and the excitement that it instils. I have a couple of abstract paintings like this one, painted by Australian artist McBett.

“The Scream” by Edvard Munch also does nothing for me, except to scare me. I would hate to have it on a wall and come across it halfway through the night. He actually made five versions of the same painting.

The Mona Lisa is officially listed as priceless. Hypothetical values range from $800 million to over 1 billion. The Birth of Venus, The Night Watch, and The Starry Night are all considered priceless. Experts believe the open-market value is between $500 million and $2 billion.

Even the pastel version of The Scream sold at Sotheby's for $119.9 million USD

Mark Rothko "No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red)" below sold at a closed auction in 2014 for 186 million dollars. In 1951, Rothko created a piece meant to connect with our basic emotions, like his other works. Personally, I don’t see it.

So, this brings me to my gripe and amazement.  I started by talking about a gallery I visited many years ago.  On the wall was a painting that was selling for over $3000.  It was (as above), nothing but a white canvas.  The owner of the art gallery was horrified when I said I could go out this afternoon with a roller and bang out five of these.  Not bad for an afternoon’s work!

He tried to convince me that the artist who made it cost what it did.  I don’t disagree, but surely the piece of art also has to have some credibility.

[A/n: This is part of my ongoing quest to write at least one story for each of the Vocal communities. Only twelve to go.]

Till next time,

Calvin