A Whole Lot of Money

Originally Posted Thursday, November 14, 2013

I talked to my mother last night.  

"Did you see on the news where those paintings went for a hundred and forty million dollars?!?"

"Yes, I saw that." 

"They were hideous.  Why would anybody want those?" 

"Well. . . he is a very famous painter." 

I like the paintings myself, and I like art, but I, too, am stunned.  Not by the fact that somebody wanted them, of course, but that they sold for one hundred and forty million dollars.  Imagine spending the most money you could possibly spend on a painting  How much?  What's the most you can spend on a car?  A house?  Have we gotten close yet?  After you buy the painting, you will need a place to keep it.  It is mind boggling. 

How much was Bacon worth when he died? 

On the other hand, Warhol had plenty of money.  He was a moneymaker of a man.  Or maybe this is not "on the other hand."  Bacon may have been, too.  I don't know.  He ran with some of Warhol's crowd.  I'm thinking particularly of Peter Beard who was a friend of Jacqueline Kennedy/Onassis and her family.  And of Truman Capote, I think. 

I don't know how to explain all that to my mother.  In trying, I begin to discover that the difficulty may not lie in her understanding.  I begin to understand it all less and less. 

I understand that Bacon was 142,000,000 times the artist I am.  If anyone wants to buy one of my pictures for one hundred dollars, we can knock off a couple zeros there.  I might be more chipper knowing he was only about a million and a half times better than I.  Of course I'm kidding.  I should only compare myself to photographers.  "Rhein II" by Andreas Gursky sold for $4.3 million in 2011.  It measures 73"x 143".  The buyer of this photograph is unknown, but I'm betting he lives in a BF place. 

I love art.  I'm glad its worth something.  I just want in a little bit.  Commodify my pictures if you will so that I can pay for some things.  I'll put them up for auction. 

Going. . . going. . . .