Art's Value: Commodity or Companion?

Artworks are valuable in different ways. They have commercial value as investments and marketplace commodities as well as having personal values. We buy art for different reasons, with our own definitions of value entering into our decisions.

illustration of art as commodity

Art's Value is What it Means to Us

I know that art's commercial value is assessed by factors other than its personal meaning to individually. Factors affecting commercial values are more familiar to commodity-traders and investment banks than they are to me. What interests me most is whether an artwork has personal value. If yes, what makes that happen?

These questions recurred during a sought-after trip to France, where we lived for some months in a rural cottage near the village of Rognes in Provence. I'd invited an artist friend from Aix-en-Provence to have lunch and catch up after years. We sat outdoors at a patio table and talked while eating a simple and delicious meal of local cheeses, bread, wine, and salad. We talked for hours about much in our lives and, of course, some of it was about the ups and downs of making art, selling and buying it, the exhibitions we'd seen and those in which we'd shown our work.

I woke up the following morning thinking about our conversation. What do we want from art, visual art in particular? Why do we make it, seek it, purchase it? I wondered why some people value art in their lives and others don't. What role does art play in our lives? What does it do to us or for us? I suppose the answers to these questions relate directly to what art might mean to us as individual artists, art-viewers, and art-buyers.

Much has been written about art in terms of art interpretation, art history, art critique, art evaluation and appraisal. But my thoughts were travelling on a more personal level. No generalities quite fit when we're thinking about individuals and their different inclinations or preferences regarding art .

Why am I drawn to this one?

Value Appraisals for Art

Commercial art appraisals are not irrelevant, but they are based on factors and larger trends than what interests me here.

Meaningfulness and Value

Meaningfulness contributes to Value, whether or not commercial speculations are in play. The more an artwork means to you, the greater its value. I consider that a good rule of thumb for large and small art investors. It's not objective. One person may value a painting primarily because it garnered the highest auction price: commercial price gives it meaning for them. Another person values it because it's one-of-a-kind, without necessarily caring what makes it unique: scarcity gives it meaning. Yet another person values it because their friends or rivals do: social-rank gives it meaning. These considerations contribute to art's value for sure. We're curious to see the highest-priced artwork in world, or the rarest, or the one receiving the most likes on social-media. Our culture and its preferred value categories affect us all. But, aside from these factors, the meaning I'd like capture is located somewhere between the viewer and the actual work they look at.

How to Grasp What an Artwork Means?

Much written about the meaning of art refers to modes or styles of painting, like Modernism, Impressionism, and Abstract Expressionism. Art-history books as well as museum and gallery blurbs offer views on how a particular artwork relates to or breaks with trends and historical contexts. All such information is helpful for widening and focusing our appreciation of an artwork. But when we come to view an artwork in reality, that's not what hits us personally (unless we're art historians). We look at a unfamiliar painting, read the blurb, and still some of us wonder... "so what?"

I wouldn't dare say what an artwork should mean. But I'll hazard that it should mean something -- affecting us in some way, eliciting feelings, associations, nudging us to stay with it a bit longer or to come back and see it again. It takes a bit of time, though, for a new work of art to register. More than the 10-second average looking time tallied across museum-visitors (see the Art of Looking).

Content

If we don't "get it" when looking at a new artwork, content is a good place to start. Representational art usually has a story to tell and looking tells it to us. Abstract art is less accessible as a story, but just follow the visual marks, shapes, and colours and your reactions to them. If we spend a bit of time looking at just these visual aspects of the painting, they tend to register on our sensory system ... and from that comes a wealth of perceptual information and related feelings, associations and, yes, meaning.

Inspiration and Intent

Sometimes knowing what inspired a work helps us derive meaning from it. If artists also tell us their intent, or what they sought to do a particular artwork, this short-cuts the process of figuring this out for ourselves. Trouble is, authentic intent is often hard to put into words and resorting to art jargon is a pain. But, once we've got a glimmer of the artist's intent, we can register if this is how the art impacts us or not.

Process

Knowing a bit about the artist's method or process in making the work can also help us get "inside" the artwork. But what seems especially important is the viewer's own process in looking at the art. What happens when we look? Are we affected? If yes, the artwork has some meaning for us: even if we don't "like" the work, it has some significance in its impact on us. If nothing happens, we just walk off. Even then, consider that the same work viewed again at another time might get to us. Like with people, the impression made by an artwork sometimes depends on it being the right time and place.

To summarize, what the art says (content) , how it was made (method, process), what it seeks to do (inspiration and intent ), and whether or not this is achieved (subjective impact) contribute to the artwork's meaning. Useful artist or gallery statements could focus on some or all of these points.

Le Musée Intérieur: artworks that reside in our minds and feelings (collage by Janet Strayer)

Art's Meaning for Viewers

Viewers, themselves, rarely write about their reactions to art. If you scan the multitude of online posts of artists' work, the occasional commentaries from viewers are typically brief glosses of "like" or "congrats" or "hmmm".

It's difficult to articulate how an artwork affects us, especially on the spot. I remember two different occasions when I saw someone cry when looking at a painting. The first was a man looking at several figurative works. He didn't speak to me but wrote in the gallery guest book that the intimacy he felt in connection with the work was unusual in his solitary life. The second was a woman looking at a abstract painting who, a bit embarrassed, spontaneously explained that she had no idea why she cried, but that the work affected her (and subsequently came back to purchase it).

Art Buyers

Not all of us can afford to buy original artworks, I wish we could. On the other hand, some who can afford it, don't at all. They might spend a small fortune on shoes or cappuccino machines, but not on an original painting. It puzzles me, but I think the reason lies in the central issue of value and meaning. We all agree, more or less, on the state of these in relation to shoes or cappuccino machines, but original art has a value unique to it.

Those who do buy artworks likely have assorted reasons for their purchase that include decorative fit, souvenir, investment, the allure of owning a unique original, culture-credit in possessing fine art, as well as a genuine interest in and love for the artwork. In the last instance (the one that most interests me), the artwork does something to or with you. It isn't always something nice or pretty, but it's something that registers personally, makes you see more deeply or differently, makes you feel something that matters to you. You feel something in the artwork that you need or want to feel. It acknowledges a part of you, stays with you, and holds something for you worth keeping sight of, perhaps changing a bit as often you look at it. That art becomes a companion, not just a purchased commodity. I'm excited and grateful to purchase an artwork like that, and over the moon if I create one that connects that way!

Art Is a Valued Companion

Seeing and experiencing art as a companion may be too personal a conclusion for some. It's based on my introspections while painting a work that is significant to me, on my reactions to artworks I've been able to purchase over the years, and on those I wish I could have. It certainly doesn't happen with every artwork I see. I've learned that art which affects me changes over time and exposure to art.

I think the companion/commodity distinction offers a useful insight to those who question the value of art. As a commodity, art may be a good investment, a decoration that fits well with a given setting, a unique thing that draws attention, or whatever external reason led to its purchase. Art that engages a relationship means even more. It gains the subjective quality of being a companion: sharing some one's life while also contributing something to it. That kind of artwork remains vital and alive.

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