Reaction to Dave Hickey

Dave Hickey’s sense of humor and insight to the art world make his podcast, Custodians of Culture: School Yard Art: Playing Fair Without the Referee, a funny, yet serious insight to the new and modern art world. While at times he appears to lose his train of though, Hickey manages to present his listeners with the idea that over the past forty or so years the art world has undergone a vast transformation. This transformation revolves around the transition from art as a mode of expression to art as a part of capitalism and the economy.

A major aspect of Hickey’s talk revolved around the development of art as an expensive commodity. Hickey stated that in an “art bubble”, money gets sucked in but it breeds greedy artists and stupid collectors. He discusses how artists started pricing their works at astronomical prices in order to get the most money for their work. This concept was also touched upon in Robert Hughes' documentary The Mona Lisa Curse. Within the documentary, Hughes enlightens viewers as to the absurdly high prices that some art pieces have produced. Both Hughes and Hickey believe that this inflation in prices has caused Americans to lost site in the beauty of art, and instead have created “monsters” in the form of greedy artists and collectors whose sole purpose is to make the most money.

I found both Hickey’s talk and Hugh’s documentary interesting because of this idea of massive amount of money within the art world. Its sad in a way that art has lost some of its aesthetic value and for some it has merely become a numbers game. Both men discuss the decline of museums and their power, which is something one does not often think about during a museum visit. Within the documentary, Hughes mentioned the prices of both some “famous” works and newer works and its mind boggling that someone would spend millions of dollars on art merely as an investment. It’s refreshing to see people like Herb and Dorothy Vogel, who collected art for the love of the art. For every Herb and Dorothy, however, there are hundreds more collectors who are merely concerned with the prestige and economic gain from owning artwork.

Another interesting point presented by Hickey is his idea of the art market place. He explains that the market place is finite, meaning that there will always be more works of art than people to buy them. This causes a ripple effect; if art does not change, no one will buy more. The market place encourages change, however, Hickey feels that within the institutional market, nothing changes. He thinks that instillation art does not change and that arts recreate different works merely to make money.

Overall, Hickey feels that art has lost its public significance and virtue through the evolution of the art market. While fifty years ago art was displayed din museums for its aesthetic value and public virtue, art today is created for the mere purpose of making up to millions of dollars from collectors willing to pay the price for prestige within the art world. While there seems to be no cure for this growing trend, perhaps speakers like Hickey will be able to remind people of art’s aesthetic value, as opposed to its monetary value.