Uh-oh... Someone's come along and burst our bubble.

A friend recently told me about an art documentary they had seen on tv late last year, and urged me to watch it. 'The great contemporary art bubble', follows a guy called Ben Lewis, whose aim is to try and understand and figure out the reason behind the sudden boom in the contemporary art market, as well as the escalated price tags attached to so many contemporary art pieces recently, whilst the rest of the economy seems to suffer.

One of the first pieces of info you're hit with, is how much Andy Warhol's piece sold for... £33,000,000. That is just utterly, utterly insane. Think of all the good that could be done with that sort of money. It just makes you think all billionaires are mental. While the economy fell, contemporary art prices rose. Contemporary art has recently become mass produced, hitting 'new record prices'... Lewis found that during may 2008, banks had written off millions of pounds of bad debt, however, to Sotheby's (auction house), it' s as though the debt had never even existed! Sales were on the increase, not at a loss. Once prices are driven up, it creates a momentum that everyone wishes to get involved with. He found the likes of Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons's work, whether dead or alive, the prices continued to rise.

Art seems to have become a 21st century commodity, increasingly commercialised and the newest, hippest and most popular works are increasingly sought after. Risky and edgy art, like works completed by Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst are one of a kind, unique and controversial. People nowadays (well, I say people, what I meant was... millionaires/billionaires) have the capability and the means to collect iconic works. Gallery owners and dealers were being probed to escalate the prices and to fake bid on works of art to make sure they never fail to sell; after all... 'making money is art.'

We as fine art students are being gently prodded into becoming a part of this chain, but at what cost? We, as cravers of 'new art', are slowly deviating away from the notion of true, and truly fine art. It's nothing arty, it's just good business.
...Right? Well, I don't want to play my part!

'At particular times, a great deal of stupid people have a great deal of stupid money.' - Ben Lewis.