|
Volume CXXXI, Number 21 |
 |
Value in convergence
MATT SPOONER
STAFF WRITER
How do we determine the value of a piece of art? Is it
determined by the artist who created it? By its price at auction? By the
history surrounding it? "Pointed Pairings: the Valuing of Art,"
the new exhibit which opened last week at the Bowdoin College Museum of
Art, uses a different approach to help explain this ancient question.
Rather than explain outright why certain pieces of art are
worth more than others, the exhibit puts two similar pieces of art side
by side to show, rather than tell, how art accrues value.
"It's really almost a guessing game," said Curatorial
Assitant Caitlin Nelson. Only a brief description of each of the pair
is given initially, so patrons can try to determine for themselves which
piece is more valuable. Once they've made up their minds, they can turn
over a card to see an explanation of why each is worth what it is. Reading
about the value of a wide variety of pieces teaches patrons about the
countless vantage points from which the value of artwork is assessed.
"We are deliberately drawing attention to the notion
that the value of art derives from a variety of factors," said Curator
Katy Kline, who conceived the exhibit after seeing a similar show in London.
The exhibit draws mainly from pieces in the permanent collection,
including two silver spoons which appear to be very similar to one another.
However, an explanation of why one is worth far more than the other is
provided: it is due to the fame of the person who made it. Other "pairings,"
which include rugs, portraits, chairs and coins, are each intended to
show a different way of assessing value.
The exhibit opened last Thursday with a lecture from New
Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wechsler, who was also short-listed for both
the Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Award for his book Mr. Wilson's
Cabinet of Wonders. In the lecture, entitled "Value in Convergence,"
Lawrence used the exhibit as a launching pad to ruminate on everything
from the nature of value to the work of artist JSG Boggs, an artist who
makes precise drawings of currency and then attempts to "sell"
them to restauraunts in order to pay for his check. The final piece of
art is the bill, the receipt and whatever change is given. The rabid manner
in which collectors covet Boggs's work is another example of how any sort
of work has the potential to become enormously valuable for unusual reasons.
So does the exhibit finally tell us how we determined the worth of a piece of art? Although it explains many of the ways in which collectors do so, even scholars admit that in the end the true worth of a sample of art can never be universally decided upon because, after all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.