Several years ago I participated in a grand opening of a gallery…I had one work in the window & two others in the gallery in strategic places…My mum owns a wine agency & I told the gallery owner I would take care of the wine…The reason I said this was because I was tired of drinking cheap wines at gallery shows & wanted to ensure that my guests got something good…The only way to do this is to shell out for the wine yourself…I got the last 16 bottles of Bisol Prosecco, a company that my mum works with & a product that I knew everyone would love…At around $25 dollars a bottle, I spent $400 dollars to do this…I also arranged for the water company upstairs of the gallery to provide a free water cooler with taps filled with clear pure filtered water…
The Bisol Prosecco was wonderful…The art was ok, the salesmanship ok, the people ok, but the Bisol Prosecco was wonderful & I knew that that would steamroll over the occasional mediocrity in the other elements…& it did…
The year is now 2011, 5 years later…My mum now has a sparkling wine from Italy, technically not a Prosecco because it is made in the region just next door of the Prosecco region, which doesn’t count for the naming rights, but the grape is Gerla grape which is the real Prosecco grape…The price is also half, at $13.95…It is called Epsilon, & it is from a winery that is not famous…
So what do you get for half the price? Well, Epsilon is good, it is sparkly, it is a nice looking bottle & the name is memorable…How does it compare to the Bisol? Well, I would say that on the finish, the Epsilon is maybe slightly, ever so slightly, bitter, while the Bisol was not bitter at all on the finish…That is all…A very subtle difference…Ok, maybe the Bisol was slightly softer, slightly sweeter, than the Epsilon…Just a nudge…But subtle…
What is the difference really? Well, for double the price you get something that everybody loved, that was a show stopper, that was guaranteed as a crowd pleaser…For half the price you get something that is ok, that is pleasant, that works as a gift as a thank you for a favour, does not break the bank, something you could safely mix with peach juice to make a Bellini without crying that you are wasting the good stuff…
I think this is the same with art…Sure you can buy something much much cheaper…Sure you may raise your eyebrows at the cost of something you love…But the really great art, the stuff that is sweet all the way along, with no catch, is going to cost double what the everyday art is going to cost you…Cleaning up that bitter finish costs the maker double…Each & every tiny little detail is going to cost…
The next time you raise your eyebrows or your voice at how expensive a work of art is & compare it to that perfectly acceptable piece you saw at the outdoor fair on Saturday, the next time, think before you speak…The expensive work of art may be better, oh in such a tiny subtle way, but better, & that better means no bitter ending on the finish, or some other detail that might turn out to be an awfully big thing when you are serving it or showing it in tony Yorkville at a grand opening of a gallery…I mean, can you really afford to serve cheap sparkly at your next opening or show cheap art? Aren’t your guests worth it? (The fact that the art at the show was uneven is probably another blog post, but suffice it to say it was a brand new gallery with a brand new owner & he was as green as a green apple when it came to artists…)
