What Makes Art “Valuable”?: 3 Factors that Elevates the Work
Strive not to be a success, but rather be of value.
-Albert Einstein
Do you ever wonder why one artist gets paid in millions, and others are "starving"? With the contemporary global art market on the rise and living artists shattering auction record prices, what makes an artist more "valuable" than others?
When we think of value, the first thing that comes to mind is the financial results. In our society, especially in the US, we underestimate the creative value and equate our success with monetary value. We forget that innovation starts with creativity, imagination, or idea. There is a misconception that a unique idea creates value. A vision without implementation is just an idea on paper, and innovation cannot exist without the concept.
In the art world ecosystem, artists generate their creative value by mastering their technical skills and transforming their visions and ideas into material forms. Throughout the artist's career development, their creative values are measured culturally, economically, and socially.
1. CULTURAL VALUES
First, cultural values are art historical significance and institutional validation. To raise cultural relevance, artists need to create and find more opportunities that showcase their work and credibility as artists. The art market is saturated, and the migration from physical venues to virtual platforms has been accelerating. To stand out from the crowd, the artists also need to reassess their creative values and ask themselves what technical problem they are solving and how they are expanding the art historical cannons through their work.
2. ECONOMIC VALUES
Art's economic value rises when the artists gain recognition at major international art fairs, galleries, museums, art galleries, auction houses, and collectors. The other factors that drive an artwork's value are provenance, authenticity, condition, exhibition history, and quality in the secondary art market. For collectors, art in the secondary market is a safer investment than the primary market since the work has already been vetted and culturally validated. For artists in the primary market, they need to approach their economic value strategies differently.
Artists have challenges when it comes to putting "value" on their work because of the subjective nature of art and the crippling mindset of the "starving" artist. Marketing for artists is vital yet a terrifying and daunting task for managing their careers as a business. Hence, artists rely on galleries and art dealers to handle the "business" aspect of art for centuries. Many "starving" artists carry a false belief that marketing involves sleazy sales tactics. For successful artists, marketing is a vehicle for a solution as long as it's intended to generate value beyond the economic perspective. Innovation eventually increases the financial value. It occurs when one identifies the problem by brainstorming and asking the right questions, testing for validity, and presenting the solutions in a way that benefits one's ideal or dream clients, audience, or the marketplace.
3. SOCIAL VALUES
Lastly, social value is probably the highest value in the artist's career. The long-lasting legacy and social impact are the ultimate goals for any individual and institution. It's the timeless solution that creates an effect and has an influence on subsequent generations. Many legendary artists left their marks by challenging social and political conventions and barriers ingrained in our history and culture. The pandemic has rapidly shifted our culture, society, and political landscape within a year, and more opportunities are on the rise. As an artist, it may be helpful to think about how are you are reshaping our world through your contributions to our culture and society's challenges.
The role of the artists is to offer simple solutions to our challenges through their extraordinary ability to distill and express our complex emotions into visual forms. It's not the convoluted solution that adds value. A simple solution doesn't mean "dumbing" down; it demonstrates understanding the problem and addressing it more creatively. As Einstein said, "if you can't explain simply, you don't understand."
How do the legendary artists measure up against these three values? See my previous blog post, "how artists made career transitions," and created an impact and legacy in the art world.