Few days back, it was found that a painting titled "Head of a Man", which since long had been marketed as a work of Van Gogh, and was apparently worth 21 million dollars, was actually not his work.....Fair enough. But what gets me is the sentence that has usually been following this news bite everywhere: that the painting is no more worth the prized amount!! Thankfully, WaPo has this redeeming quote from Gerard Vaughan in their coverage:
"It is very important to make the point that it's not a forgery," he told reporters. "There is no evidence to suggest that someone produced this picture ... to pass it off as a work by Van Gogh."
Valuing a work of art by just the "name" of the artist? Art appreciation assumes a totally new dimension!!
7 comments:
Milk is $3, that's ridiculous enough!
Hehe, Khakra, that was funny!
Wow! This is really ridiculous. Its like saying 'I love that poem but I won't read it again cos its not by my favourite poet'. I mean, the art critics must have seen something in it all these years.
Sbkt:
Indeed! and great analogy! i guess its all a status symbol game.....
and it happens in literature and music too! not quite in the same way, but say, in terms of the "coolness" factor. Its way much cooler to say that you love a celebrity/famed author than saying that you loved a newbie's work.....
"and it happens in literature and music too! not quite in the same way, but say, in terms of the "coolness" factor. Its way much cooler to say that you love a celebrity/famed author than saying that you loved a newbie's work....."
ya, that's true. That's one thing I really like about science: you can't pretend.
it's a reminder, dear desikanya, that superficiality rules. it's the 'status' of owning a van gogh that matters.
sbkt:
I agree, you can't pretend. but heirarchy persists in this field too. we are all familiar with folks preferring one article over another because the former is published in a high flying journal-is that always synonymous with quality of work. something to think aout, eh :).
bee:
i agree, status symbol it is :).
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