Over the centuries, there has been an uncomfortable tension between art and money:
“I asked him for some of the money I need to continue my work. He told me to come around on Monday. I went on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and there was no money. On Friday someone else came to the door and threw me out. I’m discouraged about getting paid for this job.” Michelangelo, May 2, 1506. (the patron was Pope Julius II and the commission, never completed, was for Julius’s 3 story tomb and 40 statues)
“An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision” said James Abbott McNeill Whistler and William Blake “Where any view of money exists, art cannot be carried on.”
At the other end of the spectrum was perhaps Andy Warhol for whom: “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”
Perhaps for many it could well be summed up by James Newell Osterberg, Jr. (aka Iggy Pop!!) “When it comes to art, money is an unimportant detail it just happens to be a huge unimportant detail.”
Break-a-Brush!
David
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“When bankers get together they talk about art. When artists get together they talk about money.” Oscar Wilde
