The Price of Everything

I really enjoyed watching this, but I don't know why.

It didn't reveal anything new about the art world or the art market. It had some interesting art in it, but nothing earth shattering.

I think it was simply that many of the participants -- artists and collectors -- clearly cared so much about their artworks and, moreover, seemed to be good people. That, I think, is what made it so enjoyable.

Love 'em or hate 'em, the people who occupy the world of contemporary art pull no punches in this very well researched and produced documentary.

Enlightening. Maddening. Comforting. Inspiring. There's something for everyone in this doc. It's truly an insider's look into contemporary art and richly illustrates how it's produced, marketed and offered for sale at auction.

The stars are the "biggies" of the art world: Curators, collectors, critics and, of course, the artists themselves. Opinions are spread over the entire spectrum and as a documentary, the makers of this film are most democratic. No points of view are favored over others.

I was very impressed by the production values, the editing, private access, candid interviews and well....the artworks shown.

I will certainly be watching it more than once. Rated: 10 Stars as it's, as they say, "The Real Deal".

These documentaries lamenting the hyper-ueber-capitalization of the art world are now coming out in a steady stream. The overarching theme is the effect that the commodification of art is having upon artists themselves. As portrayed here, artists are either adopted as protégés by powerful art brokers, or they are completely ignored and destined to live out their lives in a state of penury. Meanwhile, many ¨collectors¨ are really investors looking to flip artworks in the manner in which they flip real estate--purely for profit.

This particular version of the story offers especially derogatory portraits of corporate-artists (for lack of a better term) such as Jeff Koons, but also of the dealers who negotiate what are apparently trades in many cases (to avoid tax debt), and the collectors whom they woo. Once again, I come away with the impression that the collectors and dealers being interviewed have no idea how sad they come off to the people watching the film. They must think that they are going to be famous for these appearances. At most, the collectors featured may attain a modicum of infamy for their motley and sometimes aesthetically repugnant juxtaposition of large numbers of works whose only true connection is found in their insanely high ticket price. As for the dealers? Just ordinary opportunists who have seized upon a peculiarly lucrative development in the history of art.

It seems safe to say that this film will will not encourage people to become collectors and may in fact contribute to the prognosticated pop of the bubble. Fortunately there is no effort here (as in Blurred Lines) to lobby for regulation of the art market, which would be a complete and unmitigated disaster. Just look at the effect that government intervention had on art in the USSR...

All I can say is that there are some truly insipid and awful people featured in this film.

It's important to be able to separate the documentary quality from the subject itself. Whilst most of us will be fascinated with the world these people live in, that should have no bearing on whether the documentary is good, bad or indifferent.

The film itself is high quality in terms of production, access to artists, retailers and buyers. It's interesting to see the varying viewpoints from each. But, for me, there needed to be some more critical questioning of each source. Without this there's a very fine line between deterimining whether you're watching a bonafide documentary or a subtle mocumentary. I would like to have seen interviewees being challenged more - from the over-zealous critics reading too much into the classic artists' works to the artists producing what many would consider to be the works of the untalented who have jumped on the bandwagon to con the gullible.

The film is a very easy watch and I think most of us will be left shaking our heads at the shallowness of the art world. The term "The emperor's new clothes" springs to mind and you're just wanting the producers to be that little boy at the side of the road who shouts out that the emperor is naked. I know I was shouting it lots!