Friday, 4 May 2012

What Valuing is This?

Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust
Is Edvard Munch's The Scream really worth $120 million? Obviously someone thinks it's worth that much, having just won the auction to buy it for this tidy sum, as reported in "Edvard Munch's iconic artwork The Scream sold for $120m" (2012).

The BBC News article reports that an anonymous buyer's bid of $119.9 million for Munch's pastel surpasses the previous record paid for an artwork, Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust. The article notes that this pastel work is one of four versions of The Scream created by Munch, and the only one not in a Norwegian museum. It is also unique in having a poem written by the painter on its frame. According to the BBC News, the former owner, Petter Olsen, whose father had known Munch, decided to sell it so that more people could see "and appreciate this remarkable work" (¶ 14). The Sotheby's auctioneer who oversaw the record breaking sale describes it as "a moment that I cherish" (¶ 19) while firmly asserting that it was worth the record price because it is one of the most famous and iconic images in popular culture.

The Scream
Although I think the Picassos mentioned in the article display much greater value as art than do Munch's strongly emotional pastel and its three sisters, I wasn't particularly surprised at the impressive price paid: impressed, certainly, but not surprised. As the BBC's arts editor, Will Gompertz, notes in his sidebar, of the various factors that play a part in determining the price of artworks, in this case, simple economics might have played a stronger than usual role. As Gompertz says, "demand for Grade A art far outstrips supply" (2012, sidebar).

Boy with Pipe
But is The Scream, or any piece of art, really that valuable? The word valuable here could mean so many different things that this question is hard to answer. I think the simplest satisfying answer is that it's obviously worth it to some people, and if they place that value on the object, then it does in fact have that value, whether Grade A or not, at least in the financial sense of the word value. (Are we really satisfied with this answer?)

As far as artistic value goes, I don't think it's nearly as good as the two Picasso works mentioned in the BBC article, copies of which I've included here. Picasso seems to me to be one of the truly great artists of all time. His work shows a deliberateness, a degree of control, and especially emotional control, that I think makes the Munch work look a bit like the excessive and uncontrolled melodrama of a soap opera or B grade action movie. Now, I very much like some of those very crappy B grade films, things like the Terminator films, or the film version of Dan's Brown's truly awful The da Vinci Code, but I would never claim that they have much value as art; their artistic value is approximately zero, and in the case of Dan Brown's writing, well below zero. Perhaps the Munch isn't that bad, and I concur with Sotheby's auctioneer in wishing its new owner every satisfaction with his very expensive new wall hanging.
__________
References
Edvard Munch's iconic artwork The Scream sold for $120m. (2012. May 3). BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17926519
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1 comment:

  1. Peter.AUA5 May 2012 at 08:54

    We're reading the BBC News because although well written, the articles are mostly short and written in relatively easy language. But there is also a downside as you've probably already noticed: almost every "paragraph" is really only one sentence. And this means that when we're counting down the paragraphs to correctly cite a quotation, the numbers quickly become a bit large, and it's a very tedious business. I found it a challenge counting down to ¶ 19 for this post.

    There is a solution: you may, if you prefer, read and respond to an article in any other source on the "Looking for Something to Read?" list on the right. But if you choose a source from Dilbert, we want a very substantial response.

    However, for these first response writing exercises, I think that it's better to stick to the relatively short and easy-to-read BBC News articles. A reasonable aim for someone planning to take TOEFL or an equivalent is to be able to comfortably read The New York Times or The Economist. If you have a bit of free time over the weekend, you might like to browse those publications and compare the writing in them with that of the BBC News - the links are on the right.

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