Custodians of Culture: Schoolyard Art, The Mona Lisa Curse

The piece that was listened to, which is titled "Custodians of Culture: Schoolyard Art: Playing Fair without the Referee" by David Hickey is very similar to "The Curse of the Mona Lisa" by Robert Hughes, the piece that we viewed in class. The Mona Lisa piece introduces the aspects of art, and how people dedicate their lives to finding the best work of art, with the most value. People want to find the "true value" of certain pieces of art. The Playing Fair without the Referee piece elaborates that there are many people out there that truly value art far more than money. Money is something that is very important to many, however, like the Mona Lisa video shows, people truly like art more than the money they have. Those who enter the art world are not entering it for the money they may receive from their works of art. They enter it because they want to create pieces of art that will truly mean something to somebody in some way. This is the reason why people buy works of art, the pieces they purchase has had some sort of effect on them as people. Both pieces, stated above, also mention in some way or another that creating art strictly for money is pointless. If you are not true to your artwork, and believe that it trully has value, there is no point in attempting to sell it. A piece of art with no good intention will have a pretty good chance at not selling in the art market.

Money has emerged as something that is hated amongst true artists that believe in the true meanings of great works of art. The speaker of the podcast, Dave Hickey, refers to the fact that money has extraordinary benefits, however, he sees no reason for it to be so important in general, especially in the art world. The speaker in the Mona Lisa Curse, Robert Hughes, agrees with such a statement, he makes this very clear in his video. Hughes hates the fact that price for a work of art has become more important then the actual meaning behind the work. Art was created to convey some sort of meaning or feeling, it was not created so that people could take it and manipulate it to be worth money. Hughes stated that "The price has to do with promotion and publicity, and not with the quality of the works themselves." He reassures that nobody cares about the quality of their works these days, they only care about the money they receive for them. By the beginning of the 1960s, starting with The Mona Lisa, buying art was not for meaning, but for financial gain. Hickey mentions the same things in his lecture, that being an art dealer today simply consists of sitting around waiting for a piece of art to come in, and simply giving it a random number to sell at. It consists of creating value, however, no "real" value.

Dave Hickey mentions in his lecture that art is no longer determined to have value by museum staffs, but by the communities. The people in the community decide what they believe to be valid, meaningful art. The community gives works of art "public virtue." However, he goes on to say that the ties between the museums and communities have been broken and no longer exist as much today. The reason for this in his opinion, much like Hughes' reasons in the Mona Lisa Curse, is what is referred to as "non-commercial" art. Examples of this would be arts like performance art and installation art. "Non-commerical" art means non-object based, which in turn means that the introduction of these types of art leaves the rules of value irrelevant. This meaning that no value rules can be applied to something that is an immaterial object.

The value of art is very important to men referred to above. Both Robert Hughes and Dave Hickey strongly disagree with the direction the art world has taken. The movement away from value and virtue to money and financial gain is poisoning the art world we know today. Art should be created solely because people want to have some sort of influence on those that view their pieces, the want for money should not be the contributing factor to art work.