Up to tricks - 746
Me to husband: “Pick a number between 1 and 1,000″
Husband: “746″
As easily as that did our passions collide. His is for maths, mine for art.
onethousandpaintings.com is an online art project which offers the numbers 1 - 1,000 for sale as works of art. The number and the demand determines the price.
The cynics will say “anyone could do that” but the thing is, the idea is the art, not just the physical canvases. I think there’s something beautiful about being part of a project which will be seen allover the world.
I wonder in 20 years time will there be a group exhibition of all the numbers, bringing art and owners together, thanks to cyberspace?
Sala, the artist, has an interesting post in his blog today. He sold 36 paintings in February, 20 in March, 6 in April … and 194 today! That’s largely thanks to posts by Seth and Boing Boing. I heard about it from Brian. Seth says he might donate his to MoMA, Sala couldn’t ask for better marketing!
What do you think? Is this art?
Brian Baute said,
June 1, 2006 @ 4:32 am
I think it’s art, and I agree with you about the allure of participating in a worldwide phenomenon. I’m a huge fan of Sala’s project. It reminds me of the 2000 Bricks project, which is also starting to get some buzz.
I hadn’t seen Sala’s blog post about his sales numbers, and that’s a fascinating trend he’s got there. I did some further analysis on it and graphed it, calling it “The Short Tail“.
jkent said,
June 1, 2006 @ 9:46 am
Thanks for your comment Brian - and best of luck with your own 2000 Bricks project!
Brian Baute said,
June 1, 2006 @ 2:11 pm
I graphed the sales history of One Thousand Paintings and posted the results at 2000 Bricks. It’s interesting stuff.
Belinda Moxham said,
June 5, 2006 @ 11:25 am
Sala’s work reminds me of The Money Series by Anthony White. ANthony has been working on his series for over two years. You can see it at www.anthonywhite.net