Why should one buy art ?

When buying art should one view it from buying something that is creative or should it be from the perspective of it being an investment such as buying equity ? This thought came to me recently because of a number of recent conversations.

A few weeks ago, my wife and a  friend visited a Delhi based " senior artist " with a view to buying one of his paintings. While discussing the pricing, he mentioned the price was Rupees xxxx per square inch, instead of pricing each individual painting.  

While talking to an old friend about art his view was that one should only purchase established artists or " masters".

Also one of our friends who is an artist herself, is  initiating an effort to promote some of the up and coming younger artists. Thanks to her, we are beginning to see their works. One day while visiting one of the artist which she wanted us to see, she mentioned that the artist is now willing to sell his work  at one third or one quarter of what his work was selling a couple of years ago. She felt bad that the artist was being forced to sell his work at these prices.

I did not respond but my feeling is that art is increasingly becoming a business which depends on marketing and it is a question of demand and supply. After all if the established  artist quotes you a price on a per square inch basis, you know that it is no longer an issue of creativity, but a matter of producing enough to meet the demand. ( " I think I have painted six square inches worth Rupess Two Lacs today - time for me to take a break "). If you are an artist who is reasonably well established, you will produce only a limited number of pieces every year to maintain its market rate.After all you don't see established artists lowering the prices when times are good.In buying their works you are investing.

In my opinion if you look back in history you will find that art has always been a form of  flaunting your wealth whether it was by the Romans or Greek emperors or the religious orders by building huge temples and Churches.. As the Church accumulated wealth and built huge cathedrals whether it was in Italy or Russia, they decorated it with  icons or religious symbols initially made out of gold or silver. Gradually they decided that these huge edifices needed some color and began to commission artists. During the late fourteen hundreds and early fifteen hundreds, the Italian Renaissance period you had among others,  the “trinity of great masters “Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Their greatest and best known works were for the Church.It was the ultimate patron.The Cathedral was your gallery and your greatest marketing medium with a guaranteed daily footfall. The bigger the Church where your works adorned the walls or ceilings the more visibility you got and became more marketable which lead to further commissions.

Following the Italian Renaissance you had the emergence of the merchant princes such as the Medici's who became art patrons. From glorifying God the artists began to glorify their patrons through portraits or family portraits.  By painting for one of these families you could be sure of getting such commissions from others who wanted to keep up with the Medicis.

Even in India, the patrons of the arts were the rulers and nobility . Some  Islamic art painting which have recently commanded record prices are books of paintings such as Baburnama or Shahnameh, done by anonymous painters,  glorifying   the rulers and their achievements. Most miniature paintings were about the life style of the rulers at work or play,  whether  they were the Mughal emperors, or the hill rajas. The artists were anonymous but employees of the court. They did not have to worry about feeding their families. 

In the eighteen hundreds you saw the emergence of the art dealers and the galleries who represented or knew  rich and powerful patrons whom  they could convince to buy your art. That is when art became an organized  business. These included people such as the famous German family Thurn und Taxis , who made their fortunes in the postal service and breweries, the Rockefeller's and of more recent times, the Satchi brothers.If you sold your painting to one of these "collectors" you could be sure that you were established .


Based on my limited knowledge of art , the patronage is now by the collectors and well established galleries and museums. If you are able to have one of your paintings in their collections, or have a solo show by one of the prominent galleries or auction houses you can leave the line of starving artists. If you are Damien Hirst and you can stuff a dead cow or a shark, or like Subodh Gupta weld a collection of stainless steel utensils and get the Satchi's or one of the collectors  to buy it ,  you will  have other wannabe's wanting to do the same ( " you know one of  his works  is in the MOMA collection ") and  you would be laughing all the way to the bank.  I have seen toilet bowls in museums being displayed as art and if you let your imagination run wild and are able to convince some sponsor to fund you , you could go around the world  like Christo  wrapping  islands in plastic or curtaining a valley  in the name of art. 

I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that buying  art  in today's market is akin to an  investment in the financial markets and hence the emergence of art funds.Most artists,  like every body else are in it for making money. Nothing wrong with that since we all have families to feed, but when they start spinning stories about  what went on in their mind or what it represents, it becomes a bit difficult to accept. Perhaps  the " senior artist" has the right attitude. So don't expect me to shed tears for artists when times are bad. In financial investments at least  you get a dividend or there is liquidity. That is not necessarily the case for art. 
 For that reason I am not keen to pay a large amount for a "master" but would rather buy something that I like particularly if it is reasonably priced. 

Having said that and totally  contradicting myself, if I did hit the jackpot, I would like to gift  my self an Anish Kapoor stainless steel sculpture.