Reuters financial blogger Felix Salmon loves art and is fascinated by markets. So it stands to reason that he’s mostly skeptical when it comes to the art market. But when an artist takes the market as his subject, as William Powhida did in this drawing that Salmon bought, it lays bare many of the art world’s own contradictions. This inspires Salmon to a few observations of his own on the conflicted motivations of artists and collecotors:
Everybody in the system — artist, collector, gallery — has a natural desire to want to believe that an artwork is “worth” more than the collector paid for it, and that the trajectory of the artist’s future career will mean that in years to come, the collector will be able to sell it at a profit.Continue Reading