I’m suspect about coupons, sales, and other gimmicks to sell artwork. To me a bin of scratch and dent limited time special deals direct from China artwork has its purpose – for example when you need something cheap throw up on house your flipping, to decor a dorm room for eight months, or cover up a whole in the wall in the trailer where you ducked your drunken spouse’s punch.
Black velvet Elvis’s and sofa sized stylized cougars might look fine next to the Courvoisier bottle in Leon Phelps “The Ladies Man” bachelor pad…
…but I think the average home owner is looking for a bit more class than something selected by the product buyers at Walmart or CVS. Seriously the buyer who source the $5 king sized bottle of pickles one day and old Granny underwear the next are not exactly the “art consultants” I want picking out my art collection.
The worse nightmare of anyone hanging Ikea art or any other mass purchase, mass retailed artwork in their home is a guest commenting on it. “Oh my son just bought that for his dorm room. Did you pay $19? If you paid more than $19 for it you were ripped off. Don’t you just love Ikea? So cheap.”
Personally I like to be surprised when I enter someone’s home. I like to see some originality, some sense of personal style. The worst is being able to recognize the source of every piece of furniture and every fixture. Yup, saw that sink and faucet at Home Depot displayed right next to that tile. Oh there is that Pier One mirror. I wondered if anyone would buy that.
Hard to be original when you are shopping in mass market retailers. Especially with artwork when local art can be purchased so easily with a little more effort an often at prices not much more than buying mass produced “fake” art from China.
The others are selling more paintings at lower prices — like Huang’s former pupil Wu Ruiqiu. His business “Shenzhen Artlover” ships 300,000 paintings a year and is one of Dafen’s model companies. The businessman is dreaming of industrial mass production, complete with assembly lines. The creation of every painting would be divided into standardized production stages. Ruiqiu wants to “get into the business of oil paintings the way McDonalds got into the business of fast food.” By the end of the year, he wants to have set up an art school for training talented new painters — even if mass production doesn’t require all that much talent.
Makes stop and think about the quality experience you surround yourself in your home and how your present your home to other. Would you serve McDonald’s hamburgers at home to your family and guests? Come on over folks, I’ve perfected the cheapest way to feed you and while you are here, check out my collection of barging basement art knock offs.