whole lot of millions

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41628340/ns/today-entertainment/
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/41478992/ns/today-entertainment/

So a Warhol and a Picasso recently sold for 17M$ and 40M$ respectively, each breaking their presale estimates by far. So while the rest of the economy may be down, art seems to be one of those things that always manages to stay around. Prices for great artists has been going up and up, and every few months, some kind of record seems to be broken. Whether it's Pollock's #5 in 2006 for 151M (the most ever), or a Monet for 79M in 2008 (#18 overall), the astronomical prices of art and the value of art in general continues to grow despite a recession. And while indisputable masters like Picasso dominate most of the "most expensive ever" list, more recent (and controversial) artists like  Basquiat, Hirst and Banksy are all on the rise as well. I don't know about anyone else, but i think that's very exciting and should be exciting to any young artist. There's obviously no guarantee that your work will be worth anything close (or anything at all) to these three artist in the future, and how "famous" you get while your alive is usually directly related to the prices your work demands, but the fact that the art market hasn't collapsed is an uplifting sign to me. It says that, even if the buyer's aren't art officianados, people see art as a very valuable part of life, something worth money, and something worth owning, and I believe that this isn't restricted to the ultra rich.

I'm not planning on making a million bucks next time i show, but the reality is that art seems to be important to enough people to at least warrant some optimism that there will be a market for work, at least good work, for a long time to come. And, as an artist, a vibrant market is all you can really ask for.