EFTA02325585.pdf

From: Karyna Shuliak < > Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2017 1:30 PM To: Subject: Why Pay $15 Million for a White Canvas? - Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-11-14/why-pay-15-m=llion-for-a-white-canvas Why Pay $15 Million for a White Canvas? A canvas by Robert Ryman fetched $15 million =t auction this week, creating a milestone in the history of =hite- on-white painting. More stories by Leonid BershidskyNovember 14, 2014, 1:32 PM EST by Leonid =ershidsky It is what you see. Photographer: =inda Nylind/Hayward Gallery via Bloomberg In a record chttp://goo.gl/s6ayzP> month for New York art auctions, one standout =as an all-white work that sold for $15 million. Even if one lacks =a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Painted-Word-Tom- Wolfe/dp/0312427581"==ata-web-url="http://www.amazon.com/The-Painted-Word-Tom-Wolfe/dp/031242=581" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" style="color: =gb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%;" class="">Tom Wolfe's =ourage to doubt the value of contemporary art, the =ulti-million-dollar price tag for some white paint on =anvas cannot but raise existential questions. White paintings are something of a =hilosophical tradition. Kazimir Malevich started it in 1918 with "Suprematist Composition: White =n White": Source: The =useum of Modern Art Here's what he had to say about it in the catalog for =he Moscow exhibition where the cool white square on a warmer white =ackground was first shown: I have overcome the lining of the =olored sky, torn it down and into the bag thus formed, put colour, =ying it up with a knot. Swim in the white free abyss, infinity is =efore you. American artist Robert Rauschenberg created five "White Paintings" in 1951. He =ent further than Malevich in his rejection of substance, simply rolling =hite house paint onto smooth surfaces. EFTA_R1_01244901 EFTA02325585 Source: San =rancisco Museum of Modern Art Composer John Cage, author of the =amous piece of silence known as 4'33", described the paintings as landing =trips for invisible motes and shadows. Rauschenberg called them =locks: If one were sensitive enough that you could read it, =hat you would know how many people were in the room, what time it was, =nd what the weather was like outside. Many artists have tried to follow =onvincingly in Malevich's and Rauschenberg's footsteps, with little =uccess. Muscovite Vladimir Weisberg devoted much of his working =ife to painting ethereal, mostly geometric shapes in shades of white on =hite backgrounds. He explained: Color exists but it constrains me. =t's better when feelings, consciousness, an understanding of truth have = claim on me, I am not afraid to liberate myself from =olor. Weisberg's=work was too strange for the Soviet Union's tame official art scene, =nd his first big exhibition took place three years after he died, =n 1988. One white-on-white painting, =ith just a hint of shyly glimmering shapes, sold for $139,280 at =otheby's in London in 2006. A stitched-together white canvas by =ustralian-born Lawrence Carroll was valued at between $23,200 and =32,200 at a Sotheby's auction in Milan. It failed to sell. So what is so special about the =961 work by =merican conceptualist Robert Ryman that fetched $15 million in New York =his week? Or the nearly identical one below, also by Ryman, which =old for $5.2 million yesterday? Source: =hillips via Bloomberg It's white in a slightly different way than his =redecessors' work, or his own previous oeuvre (he painted his first =hite canvasses in the 1950s), but it's still, well, white. Ryman's explanation of his fondness for the purest of all colors =choes Rauschenberg's: White has a tendency to make =hings visible. With white, you can see more of a nuance; you can see =ore. I've said before that, if you spill coffee on a white =hirt, you can see the coffee very clearly. If you spill it on a dark =hirt, you don't see it as well. The most probable reason for the =rice lies outside the realm of art, even defined broadly as a =ymbiosis of painting and explanation. Alexander Rotter, co-head of the =ontemporary art department at auction house Sotheby's, simply decided =hat Ryman needed a push. "I thought there was really something to be =one with the market, that's why it's been priced so high," the New York =bserver quoted him as saying of the untitled painting. "The =ublic needs a great piece to elevate the market and give it an =ndication of where it could go. The sky is the limit for this =ainting." Clear thinking from leading voices in business, =conomics, politics, foreign affairs, culture, and more. Share the View If one wanted =o be poetic about this piece of marketing wisdom, one could say Rotter =s talking of the same sky whose lining Malevich claimed to have =vercome. I'm more inclined to call it cynical. In the end, the value of =rt is in the emotions it conveys, its power of holding one's eye and =ccupying one's thoughts. A white canvas may have had the requisite =owers in 1918 or even in 1951, because it made a radical statement. In =014, it's meaningless. The business decision behind the insane price is =he only true piece of art in the case of Ryman's works. Even in the highly unlikely =vent that certain art lovers are moved by the spectacle of =nadulterated whiteness, there's no need to pay millions of dollars for =he pleasure. They can simply follow Rauschenberg's advice: "Want =ne? Paint one." 2 EFTA_R1_01244902 EFTA02325586 This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of =loomberg View's editorial board or Bloomberg LP, its owners and =nvestors. = To contact the =uthor on this story: Leonid Bershidsky =/span> at <mailto > To contact the editor on this story: Mark Whitehouse at Before it's =ere, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN =ORE <https://bloom.bg/dg-ws-core-bcom-al> Most Read =/div> 3 EFTA_R1_01244903 EFTA02325587