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hank1 — Homework
Published: 2008-05-30 14:35:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 3549; Favourites: 102; Downloads: 0
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Description
Oils on canvas14 x 11"
1985
The original buyer of this painting is now in a nursing home, 91 years old. His daughter owns the painting and is so good as to bring it by for me to photograph properly.
I have no memory of having painted this, although I've done variations on this subject over the years in various media. What a surprise to see it again!
In the back of the canvas is a card that reads:
"Homework
Oils on canvas
14 x 11"
$85."
That's how it was for this beginning artist. I'd sell fine early works for practically nothing. It was uncanny how my sales in those days would come just at the time we needed to pay the rent. And we lived in an apartment that, in those days, $85.00 would just about cover a month's rent.
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Comments: 71
Thank you very much. I think I've got a kind of trade mark in painting hair.
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Wow, it looks so realistic!
This is really amazing painting, especially the lighting and details. And i just love how you did the hair, looks really awesome.
Awesome job, well done!
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Thank you very much, Martina.
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I like it...the artist comments are also interesting to read....memories....
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Thank you Gerrit.
Yes...memories...where have they gone?
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Try this: [link]
So subtle. Our favorite -- my wife and I.
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This has gone one too long and should never have gotten this far. My mistake was in trying to tackle something (the economics of art) I'm pretty ignorant of. Let me introduce the greatest philosopher in the history of mankind as my defender.
"[They were] doling [their] sentences out with cautious slowness, balancing [themselves] between word and intonation to hit the right degree of semi-clarity. [They] wanted [me] to understand, but [they] did not want [me] to understand fully, explicitly,]down to the root—since the essence of that modern language, which [they\ had learned to speak expertly, was never to let oneself or others understand anything down to the root." – Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged.)
"...maybe you actually are the greatest thing since sliced bread - but why you'd assume you're the only one with any perception is beyond me."
"If a euphemism is an inoffensive way of identifying an offensive fact, then 'the greatest thing since sliced bread' is an anti-euphemism, i.e., an offensive way of identifying an inoffensive (or great and noble) fact—in this case, [my artistic mastery]."
– Ayn Rand, How to Read (and Not to Write), The Ayn Rand Letter, September 25, 1972.
When I read "In other words, you're the most pitiful and ridiculous kind of "artist" there is, who sells empty but good-looking works while prodding his snout high in the air, acting as if he knew more than everybody and garnering a flock of admirers who agree with him."
I think, 'what kind of obfuscating anti-euphemism is this?' I see "...the impertinent malice of mediocrity boastfully holding up its own emptiness as an abyss to be filled by the bodies of its betters...."
– Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Yes, it is beyond the mentality of the likes of this kind of "thought" process. This is the result of not acquiring an independent thought, as if the writer just reached his conclusions via some kind of social osmosis. Or perhaps this kind of "thought" spews out like vomit from a drunkard. In any case, it's interesting that this comes at me from comments that ought to have been directed at my painting, "Homework". Interesting because homework (away from the mind destroying teachers) is where one has the opportunity to teach himself, as I have always done. Tellingly, the comments here totally ignore the greatness—yes, greatness of the painting. The comments ignore this on purpose. What is the purpose of the ad homonyms, the pure envy? What is the source of such drivel? It's a "typically modern quality: the arrogance of the concrete-bound, who takes pride in not seeing the forest fire, or the forest, or the trees, while he is studying one inch of bark on a rotted tree stump."
ibid.
"If you meet one of those (and they are ubiquitous), you will find the answer to his problems—and to the dilemmas of modern philosophy—in another passage from Atlas Shrugged: "Do you cry that you find no answers? By what means did you hope to find them? You reject your tool of perception—your mind—then complain that the universe is a mystery. You discard your key, then wail that all doors are locked against you. You start out in pursuit of the irrational, then damn existence for making no sense."
ibid.
To start out in pursuit of contradictions, you will find them. But they're not mine. They belong to you. Check not my premises. No, start always with oneself. Check one's own premises first.
My mistake was ever entering into an argument whose subject is multi-layered. Economics is not my skill. But I do know that when one tells me that "artists should lower their pedestals a little and be a bit more modest, even if sacrifice for art...." this is a mistake. I think the writer does not commit a mistake of morality—she's just searching. But it is a mistake of knowledge for which she can be forgiven being that I too don't know the answer.
Moreover, "There's only one passion in most artists more violent than their desire for admiration: their fear of identifying the nature of such admiration as they do receive. But it's a fear I've never shared. I do not fool myself about my work or the response I seek—I value both too highly. I do not care to be admired causelessly, emotionally, intuitively, instinctively—or blindly. I do not care for blindness in any form, I have too much to show—or for deafness, I have too much to say. I do not care to be admired by anyone's heart—only by someone's head. And when I find a customer with that invaluable capacity, then my [painting] is a mutual trade to mutual profit. An artist is a trader,... the hardest and most exacting of all traders."
– Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Now do you understand?
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Oh, ye of little spirit who borrow from the thoughts of others when thine own do not suffice! Allow me to fight fire with fire:
“Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.” - Oscar Wilde.
And I ask, who would be satisfied with a substitute should the original be at hand? Only those who do not have it.
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You are allowed.
I am satisfied with your "substitute". And fire back with another:
"Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." This is from a very little mind, Emerson.
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Ah, you're against consistency. That would explain all your contradictions during your conversation with *Dragonfly22 .
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This is truly gorgeous, the composition, the lightning, everything. I have to admit that, seeing the price initially struck me, but not because I really had the notion of the real price, but because I've heard of other pieces (abstract pieces that I don't even understand) cost about 4 times that. I read somewhere that before you used to work for a cheaper price, and proportionally, you sold more, and it makes me think- isn't that better? I have no idea about economy, but I think the only parameter should be the artists personal effort. People sometimes say "hey, art is expensive" but why should it be? If an artist spent, say, a whole day (which is little time, in my opinion) working on something, and he had little trouble, then why put a price that goes even against his own belief (of course, I'm talking about a minority who doesn't think art shouldn't cost an eye and half the other)?
I think that especially in these modern times in which art is not as popular and is... could we say in decadence? artists should lower their pedestals a little and be a bit more modest, even if sacrifice for art (they always talk about 'art for art's sake' why not try 'sacrifice for art's sake'?). If the prices decrease and the popularity ascends, won't they reach a pinnacle in which they all can find a good balance? The problem, as I see it, is that if some artists decide the price arbitrarily they'll be biased by the other's prices. So let's say one sells a nude for $5,000, another artist with the same talent and quality won't sell his for half that, he'd feel stupid. So it's a really tough decision, cause even if you feel the "fair" price, the comparison between others will certainly influence you.
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I think you've understood this a tad more personal than it actually was. I was speaking more about the economy of art in general. And I was alluding to the question of who decides the prices and why. I wasn't saying your artwork is expensive, for I made clear in the beginning that I'm pretty ignorant about that anyway. And I know that good art is not accessible to everyone.
In short, I just think you can't go to the extremes: you can't sacrifice your art because it's not fair to the artist. But then, to sell at mind blowing prices (and I'm definitely not implying you are) is unfair too, in my opinion. I think there may be no limits to the price of a piece you really love. And that's a little subjective. But I feel, (and I may be wrong) that I wouldn't be happy selling my art for a quantity above my expectations. That just depends on the artist. And I admire you don't care about what others think, that takes courage.
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Well, but it's sort of contradictory then. I mean, if you find that sort of spiritual satisfaction when your relatives and friend rejoice their spirit with your paintings, then why not sell a little lower than what you really think it's worth, so that it becomes accessible to more people? You don't even have to do it for the money, since you said that doesn't matter much. And since you'll, more or less, get the same profit, why not give it a shot? Also, I think you're exaggerating when you say the controlled market would sell that painting today for about $85. I wish the market were so generous.
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Hey, I was only curious about prices in general and voicing my theories, but I'm very sorry if you mistook it for an attack. I certainly appreciate your art and have praised it before so I hope you understand.
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Even after so long since I first encountered your work, it still never ceases to impress me greatly. I can only hope that I can acquire the fund to commission you some day. It will certainly be an honor if so.
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We'll have to wait and see then. Thank you for thinking of me this way, and for the praise you offer me.
I can count on both hands the number of commissioned works I've done. All were portraits (one mostly an animal). All were done from photographs, most with invented backgrounds. And all but two met my demand that I be the photographer based on the principle that only I, as the artist, can see what I would choose to do if painting from life. Two I looked at the commissioner's photo for weeks to months before I found something appealing to me, and selected out from their photo just that and only that. Two were in trade for medical bills, one of which I included Carel Fabritius' "The Goldfinch" [link] I thought I'd submitted the portrait of Dr. Bridge's Son but see I haven't. Look for it next. I don't have the portrait of his daughter in which I painted Fabritius' "The Goldfinch".
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I find it hard to believe that such a work of art sold for so little, but we all have to eat, I guess ...
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I would let the market determine what I could earn. For many years my base price was $65.
Here are a few more:
[link]
$65.
[link]
$85.
[link]
$25.
[link]
$65
[link]
$65
[link]
$65.
In those days I was working on five oils at a time, producing as fast as I could in order to learn my craft. As a layer on one was drying I'd work on another. And pencils always along the way.
Today I don't care if they sell. I put the prices I think they're worth and...they don't sell so often.
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Could be why mine don't sell either ....
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Excellent painting! At least worth $3,000! But yes when you are young and with no name you have to sell your masterpieces.
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Thank you.
And now I'm old and still with no name and have sold two works this year, both for $4000.00. And the gallery takes 50%. In today's economic climate $2000.00 goes about as far as $85.00 went twenty-five years ago. But I have no complaints either now or then. It's the working that matters. Stand by for new work(s) finished soon.
Thanks again, my friend.
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Well at least you've made a few sales! Looking forward to seeing your new works!
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Thank you David.
Much appreciated.
Robert
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Wow, this is very beautiful. You are excellent at using light and dark contrast... I admire your work a lot!
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WHAT A FOUND TREASURE. I AM SO GLAD YOU GOT THIS BACK FOR THIS PICTURE. THAT HAIR IS OUTSTANDING...WOW, YOU CAN DO HAIR FOR SURE...LOVE IT AND THE RED DRESS TOO.
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Great picture, captures the subject very nicely.
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And thank you very much. It makes me happy that you enjoy it.
Robert
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This is awesome. Kids learning. Its a beautiful thing.
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Daphne,
Thank you very much.
Robert
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Steve,
Thanks very much,
Robert
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