Value judgment

« It's a real addiction : by dint of perceiving the signs of dearness, by dint of identifying beauty and honorability, we end up no longer considering as beautiful something that does not sell for a lot » Thorstein Veblen, Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), Gallimard, p.87.

There was a morning, there was an evening. Thus could begin the tale of a never-ending story between the work and its audience. A story that perpetuates itself through the ages like an obsessive and convulsive evolving cognitive disorder that never ceases to modulate our perceptions of the artistic world, its market, and its players. A psychosis of definition to better understand the shifting values ​​of contemporary creation, its times, its spaces, its dogmas, and its rebellions.

For twenty years that I have been painting, I have realized the insolubility of the simple equation that seeks to resolve the adequacy between the artistic value of the work (quality) and its economic value (price). It is to be noted that it becomes even more amusing when one has to introduce a component inseparable from the other two : individual value (Desire of the one who acts to acquire in leisure, intellectually or financially), because this is in reality the whole real problem of the equation. The individual constantly tries to reassure himself by defining things, classifying them and hierarchizing them to better define the contours which will allow him to make choices. This word « choice » is the key to all our human adventures, but we try in vain to dissolve it in a mastery of notions, concepts, meanings which themselves depend on our choices. Because yes, even the definition is cultural. Starting from this randomness, it is difficult to judge the value of things in a universal way other than by imposing a point of view which will be that of the strongest. A war of the senses in every sense of the term.

But wouldn't there be another form? ?

In 2010, I wrote this in preparation for my exhibition « Peyi-la » at the Rémy Nainsouta Cultural Center : « … « A space-time » that I try to put in color on the canvas, above the canvas, beyond the canvas. Seeking an imperceptible anchoring, a sensation of invasion of the mind to put the being in the work and not in front of the work, the gaze in the universe of the canvas rather than on the subject... I seek to translate in this way the duplicity of the multiple approximations of society, in its universal environment ». I was and still am in an attempt to change the way of thinking about the relationship to the work of art. A way of being oneself the work that one looks at, of thinking oneself rather than thinking about the work that has already been created. To create the universality of sensation through the gaze of each person rather than that of meaning through its technical and relative definition. I write all these things with my imprecise words but it seems to me that the problem of the equation is there, before our eyes and its solution too.

The solution to the equation would be the work itself. Because whether it's artistic or economic value, everything depends on the individual value of the person viewing the work. What are they looking for? ? what does he know ? These two questions are essential because they define its intention, and from this intention will arise the economic value of the work. For my part, I remain convinced that the artistic value of the work is not a variable that is relevant in economics and even less so if we are talking about speculation.Only economic value matters : media capacity, notoriety, rank or social category… A whole set of things which allows the purchaser to enjoy satisfaction : that of satisfying a desire. This is the essence of consumption, the satisfaction of a desire. Art is consumed like all other products, with a positioning ranging from low-cost to luxury. A positioning that depends much more on marketing, media coverage, and packaging than on the product itself, as with all other consumer goods.

However, I find myself dreaming of that moment when the return to the consideration of artistic value will no longer be an icing on the economic cake, but rather a central notion based on the sensory experience that the work invites us to experience in each of us. A value of shared self-expression, of the rediscovery of our senses which have given us today's knowledge and not of the « definition » purely technical imposed. A value that will undoubtedly force us to put people back at the heart of our thinking.

Goodÿ – September 24, 2020