Yes. The market sets the price. It has set the price. ' value ' is subjective. Here the ' value ' would have seemed to justify the price to the buyer.
Hi Fahim,
I agree. It's in line with my personal view on art, which literally is "Artifact", i.e. something that was (skillfully) created. Some definitions do not even require the skill (when art is taken as artificial), but I prefer to stay close to the literal Latin meaning, 'a skillfully made thing'.
wiktionary.org said:
Etymology
Alteration of artefact, from Italian artefatto, from Latin arte (“by skill”), (ablative of ars (“art”)) + factum (“thing made”), from facere.
Apparently, the technique used by Barnett Newman, can be described as skillful. We had a museum incident with one of his works (titled:"Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III") being damaged by a disturbed person with a Stanley knife in het "Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam" on March, 21st 1986. The following restoration caused quite a controversy, because the special technique used by Newman to apply the paint (causing a special depth in an otherwise uniform color), was destroyed by apparently simply using a paint roller by the restoration studio who got the assignment, and did a poor job.
As for the price someone is willing to pay, it's up to them. I think it's ludicrous, the money could have been spent on something beneficial to human society instead. But that's just my opinion, who cares, the art industry(!) doesn't. Art has been commercialized, it has become a commodity.
I can recommend those interested to try an get a hand on the documentary called: "
Who gets to call it Art". It shows that the Art in that period was made into something bigger than it perhaps was mostly by one influential individual,
Henry Geldzahler.
A really sobering documentary about the "art industry" is also worthwhile to see, it's called "The great contemporary art bubble", by art-critic and filmmaker
Ben Lewis. It demonstrates that it can be an industry, with art dealers bidding on their own on auction lots, to boost the price. I don't know if
this link to the documentary shows correctly outside the Netherlands.
Cheers,
Bart