Off Topic Why are some paintings

Considerably more expensive than others? Take Van Goghs Sunflowers for example. Why is that particular piece of art considered priceless yet another painting of flowers in a vase is worth nowt?

 

Pointless asking mate he can’t hear you

 

Ah'll tell yers arl what. That's a fooking good question

 

Likely many artifacts....they are worth what someone will pay for it...

Unlike say gold, which you cannot eat or drink or even build something with it..so why does it have value, or even bitcoin?

 

Van gogh was ridiculed in his time. Laughed at.

 

It's because you're buying into the soul of the painting, the history and the influence. It was absolutely groundbreaking and tells a story that has no words.

If you don't get it there's no way to explain it ...

... if you do get it there's no need to explain.

 

The arty farty world always amazes me. You could comes across a bit of crap that looks like a school kid couldn’t be arsed to put much effort into and it’s rightly deemed to be worthless. If it’s later discovered to be by a ‘named’ artist, that same piece of crap is suddenly ‘worth’ millions.

 

Is, of course,correct

 

I used to think the same about De Kooning, then I watched the documentary. A good way to answer your question is to have a go yourself, you never know.

 

Took the bairn to see the Mona Lisa. She just looked at it and said "is that it?!"

 

It's not impressive in my opinion.

It's worth seeing just so you can say that you've seen it. I liken it to Ayers Rock which I don't 'get' at all.

People will say that it's their dream to go to see it and I think 'but it'll look exactly like you've seen it on the telly, a big rock'

 

Good question and I don't know the answer. I don't think there's a single painting by Van Gogh or any other famous classical painter that I'd actually want to hang on the wall in my house even if I was given the original for free. I can appreciate the history of a piece but from a purely visual perspective I don't really like any of them.

On the other hand I refuse to hang anything bought from Next or B&Q on the wall even if it's a nice pic so maybe there's an art snob in me after all.

 

The Night Watch was the first time I saw a painting and thought I was looking at a masterpiece. I actually dragged the mrs along to the Rijksmuseum in February to see it for her first time, but it is being digitally scanned in insane detail and is pretty underwhelming in the current setup. Hope that changes.

Some of the other Rembrandt paintings there are just as good and you don't have to view them through a greenhouse.

 

Number of reasons. Quality of the artwork being one of them. Been the Van Gogh museum and while not my cup of tea, you can see the lad had a bit talent with the old brush strokes. Nightwatch I thought was immense, but that went down like a lead brick when Rembrandt delivered it. And art has always been associated with wealth, the whole Renaissance painting was only possible due to wealthy donors throwing cash at artists and it was only wealthy folk who could afford to have their own portraits done.

 

i've seen Lowrey's and i thought a 10 year old kid could have painted them, then you see Constable, and rembrant. I am often down the louvre each weekend as you lads now, and i reckon there is exerstenstenionalism with the best artist which one cannot perseive, mind i have been on the strong stuff tonight lol.

 

My art teacher used to 'drone on' about Van Gogh and 'the light' in the south of France where he painted his most famous works. I used to roll my eyes.

It wasn't until I went there, and specifically to Arles, that I got what she was talking about. A bright yellow Ferrari might look a bit daft parked outside the Deaf Club in an overcast downpour but it would look resplendent in the sunshine of Casino Square, Monaco.

Don Maclean seemed to get it ...

 

Ditto. Its nowt flash.

 

Breughel. Belgian I think. The detail in his paintings are superb.

 

Small as well

 

It’s the coppers fault. If someone had knicked Van Goghs Sunflowers, the whole of NSW police will be on the case. If I rang Parramatta nick up to say “I’ve just sketched a load of flowers in a vase and some ocker has robbed it”, they would tell me to rack off and slam the phone down.