News-Antique.com - Jul 19,2010 - In my last post I began to make comparisons between the gold market and the art market from an investment perspective. Today I want to begin winding up this series of posts by looking at one of the most important, but also one of the most controversial qualities, which is common to both art and gold, and which is crucial to both the gold and art market. And that quality is beauty. Gold undoubtedly has an intrinsic beauty, and hence an intrinsic value, that makes it attractive to a large number of people. Just take a look at how many people wear gold jewellery and you will get an idea of how popular gold really is. The World Gold Council summarises the allure of gold quite nicely with the following statement:
“Since the beginning of time, the intrinsic beauty, warmth, sensuality and spiritual richness of gold has earned it pride of place as the favourite metal of jewellers. Gold has inspired craftsmen to create objects of desire that unite us with our emotions. In the Middle Ages, alchemists attempted to use their magic to make gold from other metals. They believed that gold was a source of immortality, and so it was used in medicines designed to fight old age and prolong life.”
With art, however, the debate continues to rage as whether or not art actually does have intrinsic value. I think that it is time for me to settle this debate once and for all. Some art does have intrinsic value and some art doesn’t. Let me explain. Many people struggle to define beauty when it comes to art, but I don’t find it that difficult. As art is a visual medium it would make sense that beauty, in relation to visual art, must therefore involve the art object it’s self. What else would it involve, I hear you ask. Well, a lot of art these days involves much more than the visual component of art (ie. the art object). Take conceptual art for instance. Conceptual art may not even involve a visual component at all; the art object is usually replaced by a concept. You may have noticed that contemporary art often involves a component other than the art object, even if the work is not conceptual, and even if there is an art object. If you go to any contemporary art gallery or museum, you are likely to find that many of the works are accompanied by lengthy explanations that on needs to read to fully appreciate and understand the visual component of the work. Combine this fact with the fact that many modern and contemporary art objects would NOT be considered beautiful by most people (if by anyone at all) and one begins to understand that visual art is no longer about beauty, or the art object for that matter. The purpose of art underwent a fundamental change with the onset of the modern era. Social, political, philosophical and cultural issues infiltrated the art world
