A forum on the WetCanvas site is discussing art sales – up, down, and if so why? No simple, single answer of course, with different artists, media and location obviously factoring heavily in sales success. However, a fairly consistent opinion was there was less recognition and appreciation for fine craftsmanship and high quality. We’ve been the “throw away” society for quite some time, with almost a resigned expectation that a purchase won’t last.
Now toss in the digital media revolution on top of that mix. That latest iPhone in your back pocket does a right fine job of taking pictures. so people take thousands a year, looking at them for a second or two before digitally filing them away for later, a time that likely never comes with other distractions (or more pictures) vying for attention. Those phone monitors and computer and television displays have amazing resolution (especially when remembering the first PC color monitors) and present those transient pictures with remarkable clarity.
The WetCanvas discussion postulated that younger generations, immersed daily in this image overload, didn’t have an appreciation for fine art and weren’t buying such for their homes or apartments (with the purchase of the former often delayed by student loans). Several hundred for a painting? Spent instead on the latest game console or next generation phone. Looking at the same picture every day doesn’t seem to be of interest, and several artists painted a fairly bleak (sorry, couldn’t help myself) long-term forecast for artists.
Recently I was able to spend a week in England split between the Cotswolds and the Lake District – both delightful areas with miles of (very narrow!) roads to explore, castles, hiking trails and delightful villages right out of Harry Potter or The Hobbit. One visit was to Snowshill Manor, once the home of Charles Wade, a very eclectic collector that focused on craftsmanship. He cast his net wide, with typical art being a fairly small subset of his thousands of acquisitions. The items on display, many left exactly how he had arranged them, do show the remarkable breadth of art and craft and quality developed by mankind over the centuries. Some of the objects are immediately recognizable, like classic Chinese curio cabinets and jewelry boxes, but others are rather more unusual, such as exquisitely detailed tiny bone carvings made by French prisoners of war from the Napoleonic era. Do make a point to stop in if you are in the area!
Hopefully Wade’s appreciation for art and fine workmanship will persevere and not all will be made transient and oft forgotten.