Art paralysis

I've been thinking a lot lately about why some people will spend $600 on a pair of Manolo Blahniks but they won't replace their college dorm room posters with original art. This article about art buying anxiety in the New York Times last week explains a little of it, at least from a New York art market perspective.

There's a snootiness factor that is sometimes well-deserved, though I haven't experienced it as much in DC as in NYC. Regardless of where they're located, galleries can be intimidating for many reasons. But I think the way to overcome this fear is to educate yourself. Look at a lot of art, read about art, and seek guidance from arty people you trust. Of course, overcoming art paralysis is much more complex than that. I haven't figured out how to untangle the issues of social class distinction and value judgments based on art. It's not enough simply to advise people to, "Buy what you like." You must buy what you like, but you must do so with an informed frame of reference. We need a mechanism for providing unbiased advice and information from people who have nothing to gain from whether you buy a particular piece of art or not.

Some highlights from the article:

“If you are in the process of decorating a home, you know what the sofa costs; you have a good idea of what wallpaper costs,” he said, but art is different. “People don’t like spending big numbers on things they don’t understand. They understand the boat, the fur, the car, but for lack of homework or lack of taste, they just don’t understand art.”

. . .

Art paralysis takes many forms. In addition to the would-be buyers who are intimidated by galleries, there are those worried about making an unfashionable choice; those obsessed with investment value; and those who return to a gallery for months, even years, never buying a thing. (Some of these suffer from a form of art paralysis that Stephen Nordlinger, the president of the Foundry Gallery in Washington, calls red dot syndrome — a desperate longing only for those pieces bearing the red dots that show they’ve been sold.)

. . .

One major reason for art paralysis, many experts say, is the feeling that when buying art you are opening yourself to ridicule. “Art has always been a barometer of class,” said Jonathan Santlofer, a Chelsea painter and novelist. “If you buy the wrong thing and people come to your house, you’re exposed.”

. . .

“When it comes to artwork, I don’t know that I know the value. Are you buying it for enjoyment, or are you buying it for investment? If you buy some Yves Saint Laurent or Halston, you know that you are getting value.”