How much money does one ask for in exchange for a painting? $50? $100? $5000? And then I realised I’ve been asking the wrong question.
By the time my art is ready to sell, I’ve already won. The process of working through the art – discovering an answer to a question that kicked off the need to create the piece in the first place – is the reward. The final piece is kind of a secondary benefit. The question isn’t what is worth, the question is what did I learn?
So, why does the sale price of the piece still feel me with anxiety? Is it because if I price it too high, I’ll look arrogant? If I price it too low, I’ll be percieved as undervaluing it? Especially when we start to ‘compare the market’, or in other words, understand what people are paying for ‘similar pieces’.
But what’s similar about 2 different pieces of art from two different artists? The materials? The size? The complexity of the work or the time it took to complete? Even if these were exactly the same in material terms, should they cost the same? How does one value sentimentality or the meaning of the process to the individual artist? How does one value the ‘reputation’ of the artist? Some things don’t map easily to money – art is one of them – but we do it anyway.
Like most human/object relationships, the value of any one piece of art is fundamentally an individual choice. There is no set ‘commodity’ price for art, only averages. We attempt to map mental models of consumer goods around them – oil painting ‘last longer’ therefore are generall worth more – but it’s still all just theatre.
In the end, every artist will have their reasons for pricing their art a particular way, and every buyer will have their reasons for buying it. As long as those are clear, then any time art is made or sold, for whatever price, it’s worth it.