"An image of the Rhine by German artist Andreas Gursky has fetched $4.3m (£2.7m) at Christie's New York, setting an auction record for a photograph. Glass-mounted panoramic colour print Rhein II, created in 1999, is one of an edition of six works. It beat the previous record of $3.9m (£2.5m) achieved by an untitled 1981 colour print by Cindy Sherman, who is the subject of all her own works. He said he carried this idea for a picture around with me for a year-and-a-half. In the end I decided to digitalise the pictures and leave out the elements that bothered me, he added. Christie's said the viewer was not invited to consider a specific place along the river, but rather an almost 'platonic' ideal of the body of water as it navigates the landscape."
Taken from bbc.co.uk/news 13th Nov 2011
I was in monday afternoon's class and we were all having a discussion on this particular photograph and whether it is worth the "£2.7m". I agree that the image is particularly poor and a bit bland to look at, but you have to also consider the amount of time it MIGHT have took the photographer to get exactly what he wanted (so he might have been aiming for this look?) or how many he printed, etc, etc. However I am not saying that I agree with the price it was sold for, I personally think that it is ridiculous to be paying £2.7m for an image that to me, is not an intresting picture to look at. Also the price might suggest what type of person bought the picture as paying £2.7m speaks that you have a lot of money to spend!
ReplyDeleteI would never buy this picture for £2.7m and I think the person who has is a complete idiot with no artistic taste. However I can see the type of person that would buy this photograph, as the picture is very linear and bland, it would reflect the personality of the person. Personally I think this photograph is boring, has no inspiration, no focal point and even bland colours. For £2.7m this picture best be printed in all four walls of the room!
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