June 2nd, 2017: Contemporary Art Sale
 

I don't know much about art but I know this stuff sucks.

http://cellar.org/2017/artsale1.jpg

Sotheby's Contemporary Day Sale brought prices for this stuff that astound me.
I realize some of the artists are so famous even I recognize their work instantly, but dayam.

http://cellar.org/2017/artsale2.jpg

OK, they are from a famous artists, but they're not fun to look at. I only saw one black and white very simple nude that I'd like
to look up on the wall and be pleased. The rest were in the What-the-fuck-is-that category, or I-spent-how-much-for-that?.

http://cellar.org/2017/artsale3.jpg

In addition to the hammer price, and buyers premium, there's the cost of security and insurance. Fortunately the people who
buy this stuff will probably be asked to loan it to museums for periods of time, so that's time they won't have to look at it,
but still having the bragging rights at cocktail parties.

I find the one at the very top the most baffling. Sure, that's some nice marble varieties...but you could buy a marble makeover for every room in a house for that much! The top slab might be Carrera, just about the most famous and valued sculptural marble in the world--which is why, after several thousand years of statuary and architectural stone production, the Carrera quarries in Italy are running out at last.

Modern art has baffled me for decades. These days, if it looks like something Gwyneth Paltrow would buy, I pay very little attention...but I'm a snob that way. I like my art more traditional; more about a recognizable representational image. I've only been to a few exhibitions and major museum events, but those were well worth it: a little place in Seattle with lots of Wyeth family works many years ago, the Faberge Menagerie exhibit when it stopped in Portland, the traveling M.C. Escher show (I went through twice), and stepping into a room full of sketches and sculptures by Auguste Rodan at the Maryhill Museum--which included a signed plaster study for 'The Thinker'. I'll stick with my appreciating traditional art with basic, boring, no-stretching-limits representational images.

Modern art...reminded me of this, from Full Metal Jacket:

The Basquiat "Skull" that sold for 105 million bucks belongs in this gallery of crap, IMHO.
I like this deal better for another one of his:

https://www.houzz.com/photos/5080169...1-Jean-Michel-
Basquiat-eclectic-prints-and-posters

Burning it in public would make for good performance art at an affordable price.

https://www.theguardian.com/artandde...05m-at-auction

Hope that is better

https://www.houzz.com/photos/5080169...ts-and-posters

Third try

The painting in your first and third links match and appear to be different from the one in the second link which sold for $110.5 million.

Looking at his paintings, it's not surprising Basquiat ODed at 27. :eyebrow:

I did say:

"I like this deal better for another one of his"

The guy that bought it said that he knew it was worth it because others kept bidding and that he was looking forward to its beauty enhancing his wall.
Ain't no accountin' for taste.

...who were bidding because someone else was bidding against them...

People like that guy are probably a big part of what's wrong w/the world.:2cents: