How to Buy Good Art for Less Than $100,000,000

2022-08-30 · review / recommendation · John · 3:37 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture · mode: Advice & reviews

John argues that art is for normal people and need not be expensive, pointing to cheap prints, thrift-store finds, online auctions, Artsy, auction-house websites, galleries and Indianapolis's Butter art fair, and says the art that means most to him is art he connects to personally, like his mom's painting.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Art on your walls connects you to beauty; art seems expensive and the art world gross, but art is for normal people; Nathaniel Russell's print

★★ John loves visual art and thinks it is good and helpful to have things on your walls that connect you to beauty, wonder and awe. — 00:00:00
★★ John cites a headline saying Paul Allen's art collection is to be auctioned for a billion dollars. — 00:00:00
★★ John says art is often very expensive and the art world can be kind of gross, so art doesn't feel like it is for normal people. — 00:00:00
★★★ John promises art is for normal people: art does not have to be expensive. — 00:00:00
★★ One of John's favorite artworks at home is Nathaniel Russell's print demanding snake poems now; he loves that, unlike political or consumer posters, it just wants snake poetry. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Cheap art: $40 prints, commissions, thrift stores, Dave's Star Wars paintings, eBay and Artsy auctions, Sotheby's and Christie's websites

★★ Russell's prints are $40 on his website, similarly talented artists worldwide sell work, and many take commissions via Instagram or Twitter. — 00:00:29 · Instagram, Twitter
★★ For really inexpensive art John suggests thrift stores and garage sales, and making a thrift painting great by adding Star Wars, as Dave of DaveRuinsArt.com does. — 00:00:29
★ John says Dave's prints are $20. — 00:00:58
★★ Art auctions are not only for the rich: eBay and Artsy.net run them all the time; a fundraiser auction now offers a work by Michelle Grabner, one of John's favorite artists, for $300. — 00:00:58
★★ For John, Artsy is like Zillow for art: a place to scroll and learn what you like, what things cost, and which galleries or artists to follow. — 00:01:27
★★ The two big auction houses, Sotheby's and Christie's, make almost all their money selling Rolexes and Warhols to the richest people, but anyone can visit their websites. — 00:01:27
★ John visits the auction sites partly to marvel that someone will spend a hundred million dollars on a Monet and keep it in a windowless storage facility. (playful) — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — Monet versus Boudin prices; galleries, art centers, art schools and art fairs such as Butter in Indianapolis

★★ Not everything costs like a Monet: works on paper by Eugène Boudin, Monet's teacher and one of John's favorite Impressionists, sometimes sell for a couple thousand dollars, 1/100,000th the cost of a Monet. — 00:01:56
★★ John points to art galleries, local art centers and art schools, where works are often for sale, and to art fairs showing curated selections of many artists. — 00:02:26
★★ John recommends Butter, this weekend's annual Indianapolis art fair featuring Black artists from the city and the world, with DJs and workshops: the coolest thing that happens in Indianapolis. — 00:02:26 · Indianapolis

00:02:55 — Art that means most is art you connect to personally: his mom's painting of the La-Z-Boy; sign-off

★★ John notes that Sarah is part of Butter's curatorial team. — 00:02:55 · Sarah Urist Green
★★★ The art that means most to John is art he connects to personally: a painting that looks the way his OCD feels, or art made by someone he loves. — 00:02:55
★★ John's favorite artwork at home is his mom's painting of the La-Z-Boy where he wrote Looking for Alaska; it brings him joy and solace, and he hopes viewers find art that does the same. — 00:02:55 · Sydney Green, Looking for Alaska (novel)

In the description and comments

★★ In a channel comment John asks viewers to say in the comments how they came to live with some of the art on their walls. — creator comment

Humor (significant)

John imagines rallies demanding snake poetry. — 00:00:29

“what do we want? Snake poems! When do we want them?”
After pricing a $300 artwork at two cents a day over 50 years, John voices the objection that he just turned 45. — 00:01:27

“You're not going to look at anything every day for the next 50 years. Thank you. Thank you for bringing that energy into the video.”
Someone will spend a hundred million dollars on a Monet only to store it in a windowless facility. — 00:01:56

“Wealth is a hell of a drug.”
Zooming into full-resolution images on auction sites costs them hosting money passed on to their customers. — 00:02:26

“so it's like a very indirect tax on the rich.”

Threads in this video

restate · What is art for? — The art that means most to John is art he connects to personally: a painting that looks the way his OCD feels, or art made by someone he loves. (00:02:55)

Mentioned

Central: visual arts

Also: People: Andy Warhol · Claude Monet · Dave (artist, mentioned from 2022) · Eugène Boudin · Michelle Grabner · Nathaniel Russell · Paul Allen · Sarah Urist Green · Sydney Green

Works: Looking for Alaska (novel) · Snake Poems Now · Star Wars

Organizations: Artsy · Christie's · eBay · Instagram · La-Z-Boy · Sotheby's · Twitter · Zillow

Concepts: obsessive-compulsive disorder

Places: Indianapolis

Events: Butter

Only in the description or credits: Contemporary Arts Center

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