What makes art "art"? Part I
Here you’ll find the opposite realities of two art experiments. One is like selling art for pennies on the dollar and the other? well, you’ll decide yourself.
On a chilly January morning in Washington DC subway station, a man in a baseball cap and a t-shirt opened his violin case and set it up in front of him before picking up the instrument to start playing. It was shortly before 8am, in the middle of the rush hour. And the for the next 43 minutes, his music filled the entrance to the subway with the most beautiful classical pieces. He played six classical pieces, including several pieces by Bach, Ponce and others.
When I was a kid, I went to a music school where I studied piano, took monthly exams, practiced solfeggio and memorized pages and pages of sheet music every year.* So even without knowing anything else, I am in deep appreciation and deep reverence of anyone who can play any instrument, especially a violin. Violin is considered by many to be the hardest instrument to learn. One of my early regrets (and I don’t have many) is not keeping the violin that my dad played when he was a kid. It was given to him by a blind violinist and had the most beautiful sound. But I digress.
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Here is the summary of the 43 minute subway violin concerto:
1097 people walked by the vionist, 27 people gave money, 7 people stopped and listened for any period of time. Total money made $52.17
Let’s raise the curtain on some of the mystery.
The music played?
Bach’s Chaconne. It is widely considered to be one of the most difficult pieces for a solo violin, both technically and musically. As the article mentioned, “many try, few succeed” in playing it. It was written by Bach between 1718-1720.
“The Chaconne has transfixed listeners for centuries.” Composer Johannes Brahms, in a letter to Clara Schumann described the piece like this:
“On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind. If one doesn’t have the greatest violinist around, then it is well the most beautiful pleasure to simply listen to its sound in one’s mind.”
The violin?
1713 Stradivarius violin which is now more than 300 years old, even older than Bach’s Chaconne. At the time of the subway experiement, probably worth over $4 million, and now over $14 million. It still had the original varnish and hasn’t been refinished.
“People attribute aspects of the sound to the varnish. Each maker had his own secret formula.” Stradivari is thought to have made his from an ingeniously balanced cocktail of honey, egg whites and gum arabic from sub-Saharan trees.” Quite a recipe that defies time if you ask me.
The man?
Joshua Bell. A virtuoso that commands sold out concert halls.
And yet, only a handful of people stopped lured by the spell of the violin, and only one recognized him.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If a masterpiece is played in the subway, but no one recognizes it, is it still a masterpiece?
If art is made in the privacy of your own home and no one sees it, is it still art?
I’m tempted to say yes to all three, but is it true? what makes art “art”?
It was an experiment put together by the Washington Post journalist, Gene Weingarten. I highly recommend reading the whole story, it has so much details, truly beautiful journalism. I included the link below.
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Here is the short 3 minute video in the subway.
*****
And now, the other art experiment. Enter Art Basel Miami 2019.
Maurizio Cattelan, an italian artist known for provocative and satirical art, taped a banana to the wall, called it “Comedian” and put a price $120,000 on it. Sold. With a caveat and a funny starving artist twist. Because of course, another performance artist, David Datuna, decided to use the banana as part of his “starving artist” performance, took the banana off the wall and ate it. I remembered it created more controversy than the original “performance”. People were questioning the value of the art and the artist’s motives. You don’t need to worry about the art though. The banana was part of an edition of three, so it was replaced after the eating incident.
Another later edition of the banana sold in 2024 at an auction in NYC for $6.2 million to a cryptocurrency entreprenuer. (There could be other renditions of the bananas that were displayed in different places, I chose not to track them all down).
***
Let’s do an experiment. Imagine, you’re going for a walk in your neighboorhood and see a stand on a side of the road selling art, what would be the maximum amount you would be willing to spend? $10? $50? $100?
Then, imagine you are walking past a trendy gallery in SoHo NYC. What would that maximum amount be now? Of course it depends on your individual budget, but it will definitely be higher. $1000, perhaps? more? Because of the environment and the specific purpose of the galleries, we automatically expect higher prices which we also associate with the higher quality and curatorial abilities (whether that is true or not).
Now imagine that the art you saw in your neighboorhood stand that you would be willing to pay for $100 is exactly the same art that you see in the trendy SoHo gallery for $5000. What happens then? Before we even start disecting the actual pricing models in the art world, what makes art “art”?
Is status important? Brand? The artist signature on the painting? The location where we buy art? Does it have to be controversial? conversational? contradictory?
***
There is a popular urban legend where Pablo Picasso asked for a million dollar for the sketch he made on the napkin at a cafe. The admirer who saw Picasso doodle on the napkin and asked Picasso if she could have it, was appalled. “It took you just a few minutes?” she exclaimed in disbelief apparently. To which Picasso replied: “It took me 40 years to draw this in a few minutes”.
It could have taken Maurizio Cattelan and David Datuna 40 years to get to the point to be brave enough to tape a banana to the wall, call it art and then eat it. Still is it art? is it a performance? is performance art?
So many questions.
All we can do at this point is do what Rilke says “be patient toward all that is unsolved… and try to love the questions themselves”.
In the meantime, I’d like to ask you, what do you think that makes art “art”?
From my creative journey to yours,
Diana