I’m certainly not the first person to ask why people buy art. It’s probably been debated as long as art has been sold. There are as many ways to market art as there are artists and markets. But I want to take at least a cursory look at some reasons why anyone bothers to buy something relatively un-functional.
1. Art has aesthetic appeal for the buyer.
Yes, this is pretty obvious. People buy art because they like it. If a piece of art isn’t appealing on an aesthetic level, why buy it? You buy a piece of clothing not just for function or price but because you like the way it looks on you, the way it feels. You might buy it for status, too, which we’ll get to in a moment. Remember that aesthetic appeal is not simply whether something is “pretty” or pleasant. I know people who are fans of hot sauce, but they don’t eat it all the time and with every meal. Maybe you like your mouth to be on fire because it reminds you that you are alive. Which brings us to the next point.2. Art resonates with something in the buyer’s life.
Again, aesthetics is not necessarily about being pretty or attractive but is often a matter of expressing truths that can’t always be instantly expressed. One of the jobs of an artist is to express the unexpressable.I know someone who adopted a little boy from Africa. She has a drawing of a white mama sheep and a black baby sheep. One one level, it is just a picture of some sheep. But for her, it is deeply symbolic of her adopting a child from a very different place, with very different skin, and how much she loves that child who is so different from her.
This is also why people buy art that matches something else in their house. Chances are, they have filled their house with a certain thing that resonates with them because it has special meaning.
3. Art makes the buyer feel special in some way.
You’re probably aware of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Having the means to buy something that isn’t a “necessity” is a special thing. You have a certain status now. And the art likely does, too, at this point. Or if it doesn’t, you believe it will, so it is a good investment.Pain?
All that is to say that art serves to alleviate a certain pain point for people. Which is why anyone buys anything, really.We buy food first because we’re hungry, then because we like it, and then to make a statement. At each point, there is a certain kind of pain.
While art isn’t inherently “practical” — a painting is just smelly pigment smeared on a strip of canvas cloth, after all — it has tremendous cultural and emotional value. Art is the byproduct of something that an artist does.
It sounds obvious and elitist, but artists do something that other people either don’t have the time, energy, or skill to do.
Art addresses something deep in the human psyche, satisfying a certain need that short-term entertainment can’t fulfill.
I think art and religion are very closely related.
The point
The reason I bring up this question is a big part of why my blog is here. On one level, the purpose of this website is to sell my art either directly or via a gallery or a curator, allowing my passion to put food on the table for my family. While my visual work is indeed a kind of shorthand for the truths I want to express, writing things out further cements my philosophy, which I hope resonates with potential buyers of my art.In the studio, I can focus on point #1 — the aesthetic appeal of my art — and continually make it better. But by writing and exploring with words, I can make point #2 stronger, saying something that resonates with people deep down. Then over time, I can work on #3, making art that has a certain level of status.
Recommended Reading
How and Why Do People Choose & Buy Art? (Robert Klonoski)13 reasons why people buy art (Agnese Aljena)
Why are so many people paying so much money for art? Ask David Zwirner. (Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker)
Why People Buy Art (Ann Rhea)
