Little small question : how do we give a price to a painting, what is the mathematical law wich can justify the shown price? Is there any mathematical equation like y=a x+b ? or something closer to x³+y³=Y³ ?
There are many factor (the X one is one of them for sure. let’s have a closer look …
At first, we have the size of the art, then the painting used, if the art is framed or not, the time spent by the artist to achieve the piece, the artist reputation, how and where the art is exhibitied, if the piece is unique or original, the amount of series and many other factors…
- The size.
In most of the cases , this rule is true, particularily when it’s in an art fair on a sunday afternoon, when exhibitiors are not yet famous. Price will be more expensive for a big sized art. But the price don’t evolve linearily with the size : square meter price will be slightly more expensive for a small painting, requiring more work, in comparison with a big sized canvas. Working on small canvas require more time and accuracy as the viewer will stick his nose on it and watch for all the details.
- Technic
One said that oil is more expensive than acrylic, than charcoal is more valuable than lead pencil, etc…. I won’t give my opinion on that as you always can find a counter-example. It’s true that some technique require more experience and skills than others and require more time to achieve (eg next chapter), and sometimes few techniques don’t ast well during the time, making them less expensive to buy. (eg ; acrylic can crackle after few years and few drawings can melt down with a long term exposure to the light.
- Framing.
A framed art cost more than when unframed. Always true . The amount of the frame is in a range of 2 euros ( A4 size in a 2 euros shop) for a watercolor to few hundreds boxes for a large sized frame with glass. For the canvas, wood is the most expensive thing, and will cost more than a plastic thing. from 50 euros to 10.000 euros (gold leaves technic and extra large size). Just take in account that a frame shouldn’t be more expensive than the picture itself. It’s not a law, just patently obvious…
- Art exhibition.
We are closer and closer to the real and meaningfull factors : this one is really huge. A famous and good art will be shown everywhere, and will gain in popularity. This will contribute to the artist popularity. the more you get exhibited, the more the price will increase. Just in case you don’t understand why your painting don’t have a good popularity despite a permanent exhibition in some place :Â the exhibition places don’t have the same impact. Exhibiting in a cafe is good, but it will be better in a gallery, and an advertismeent board will be more valuable…
- Originality
This is hot stuff : something unique and innovant will break all the laws and this is should be the first thing the artist should follow : create something new., something different. Not easy to see when you don’t have a good art culture. So that’s why all the “Artmonger” attend to all exhibition openings, and have facility to find what’s really new and never seen before. So one of the pilar of the reputation, when working continuously about something new and different.
- Séries.
Artist usually work in series, waves of inspiration, with a first new thing coming from nowhere (Raw idea), then follow his inspiration and exploit the concept, with improvement, pushing his investigation further, then the declension of the concept with a skillfull technic and a small artistic value. Even if it’s not the usual creation scheme, we can see that art loose their artistic value when done too much time. The first of the serie even if the technic is not perfect is always the most valuable.
- Artist reputation.
Last one. This one is based on the artist previous works and past exhibition . This is such a mix of all the previous factors i mentionned, and most of the time people just give a price with the eyes shut.
Well, a new work is always hard to estimate and you can follow tha artist reputation to assign a price, if the artist is able to keep is artist integrity : painting what he think he had to paint, and not what the people expect him to paint. And this one will be among the next writings i expect to writer soon…
Well, this is a big thing that trying to clarify the art market specially when tha laws become a bit tricky : Let’s talk about two examples of the art history :
- Van Gogh has never sold any works during his life. Ok, few of them : one bought by a farmer to fix the roof of his barn (big hole inside, the size of a painting) and the other one bought by his brother.
- Minimal art can also reach some incredible prices, like the ” Tract”, monochrom white art by Robert Ryman (72,4 x 66,3) estimated between 71 000 and 99 000 euros.
Les voies de l’art son impénétrables et les Å“uvres que l’on aime n’ont pas de prix.
