Isabelle Graw - The Economy of Painting: Notes on the vitality of a Success-Medium
Painting is usually associated with various aesthetic, emotional, symbolic, and economic values. In this talk, “painting” refers to all those (often non painterly) artistic practices that draw on the picture on canvas in manifold ways. I consider paintings, unlike normal commodities, to be unique material objects that bring their singular author and her privileged artistic labour into play. Against this backdrop it will be demonstrated how paintings are commodities of a special kind because they nourish the vitalistic fantasy that their value is somewhat substantial or seemingly contained within them. I will also consider the changed situation that has resulted from the global pandemic: If paintings’ special value depends on their unique materiality as something that can be perceived as I have argued, how is their value affected once they can only be contemplated in so-called “online viewing rooms”? I will propose that the value of paintings stands on shaky ground under such conditions.
Nov 11, 2020 12:00 PM
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