Capitalism's Influence on Art

I think the Thomas Kinkade “art” machine and the Art Capital Group business discussed in the New York Times this week are both disgusting movements that exploit art and therefore strip it of everything it is supposed to represent in our world. By seeing art only for its monetary value, they are destroying the other values art intrinsically carries. Their ability to do this arises specifically from the recent obsession with assigning art value—a few hundred years ago, nobody asked “How much is it worth?” when analyzing a piece of art, but rather questions like “What does it mean?” This curiosity has been lost as art has become more of a possession than a thing of inexplicable beauty.

The idea that someone can own a piece of art can be startling. I distinctly remember when I went to see Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel a few years ago. I was very excited to see this renowned piece of art, but was completely taken aback by the signs saying pictures were prohibited, not because the flash would damage the works, but because some company in Japan owned the rights to the Sistine Chapel. How can you own something that was put there for everyone’s enjoyment? This concept reminds me of the lyrics to the Counting Crows song “Big Yellow Taxi” (They took all the trees and put ‘em in a tree museum / And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them). I feel like trees, just like art, especially art created before these ridiculous modern notions of copyright and possession existed, belong to the public for worldwide enjoyment.

It is absurd of people like the Art Capital Group and Thomas Kinkade (and his corporation) to take advantage of society’s valuing of art, in both an appreciative and lucrative sense, for their own personal gains. I think that the Art Capital Group is the guiltiest culprit, but I also think that if a few years down the road Kinkade was hit by financial burden and tried to get a loan for his works from the Art Capital Group, they would be worthless. His works are to the art world what Harlequinn romance novels are to literature; that is, they are cheap, meaningless, mass-produced works which are designed with the obvious intent to take advantage of a particular consumer niche. Neither of these groups supports the true art world; they are both corrupt capitalist groups adulterating one of the purest human enjoyments to satiate their inexcusable avarice.