Spoiler Alert: The Art Of Our Time Won’t Hold Its Value

The National Post has a story on Barry Avrich’s art market documentary that inadvertently reveals the shallowness and naiveté of the film. The National Post complains that art has become a commodity just after it quotes Avrich on being ignored by a gallery at Art Basel that would not sell to him.

By definition, a commodity is something that you can buy without connections or bona fides, it is an undifferentiated object defined by its use and price.

If that weren’t bad enough, the National Post goes on to give what it thinks is a coup de grace. But, not to be a spoiler, the art market already knows the answer to this question from decades and decades of experience: the vast majority of art sold will never have secondary market value:

“The central question of the film is whether art of our time will hold its value. People love buying words on canvases right now. Will that piece sustain its value five years, 50 years from now or be in the garbage?” asks Avrich.

How the exclusive contemporary art world has become more about who owns what than the work itself  (National Post)