Art project from the early 2010s.
Below is the content from my website valueart.net (which I closed due to easier maintenance here on matthiaskamann.com).
What is “Value Art”?
Basically, Value Art is a series of seven identical, hand-painted, large, white canvas. The only difference is the numerical figure that is written on each. The first painting shows a “1”, the second a “10”, the third a “100” and so forth up until the seventh a “1.000.000”.
How much does each painting cost?
The value and price of each painting is the numeric value painted on each, in $ (USD).
Paintings for sale/sold
- $1.000.000 Buy now!
- $100.000 Donated to charity organisation
- $10.000 Donated to charity organisation
- $1.000 Donated to charity organisation
- $100 Sold, anonymous, Sweden
- $10 Sold, Karin C., Sweden
- $1 Sold, Thomas Himmel, Sweden
“What happens with the money if I buy a painting?”
The money will be donated. I will donate the full amount to one of the five trustworthy charity organizations below. You choose which one of them …
- Green Peace
- Save the Children (Rädda Barn, in Sweden)
- Red Cross
- Doctors without borders
- Amnesty International
After the donation I will publish the payment receipt, so you and everyone else can be sure that the money really went to the charity of your choice.
As soon as the money has been donated, your name (or company name) will be shown in the byers-list above, including a link to your website (or any other). Of course you can also buy a painting anonymously.
About
What is Value Art about?
The Value Art conceptual artwork deals with the question how people value and evaluate art.
Value Art confronts the viewers with the question how price influences peoples’ perception of the value of art or other things that have a monetary value attached to them. It deals with the subjectivity of value.
The project doesn’t only consist of seven paintings. The sales process also is an integral part of it. I want to see what people make of it. Do they evaluate my art with a different price than the one I attached to them?
I want to find out how people react on it, and whether the viewers agree on my valuation or price claim – the price for each painting is the value written on them, in dollars.
Artistic Goal
My artistic goal with Value Art is to make the viewers reflect on how they value things.
I would be glad if I could educate (make people reflect on the actual monetary and personal value of things they are surrounded with), provoke (“Is that picture really worth 1.000.000 Dollar?”) and entertain with the Value Art concept.
Value Art is also directed at people who (just like me) sometimes, when looking at art, think: “I could have done that myself!” :)
Inspiration
Some inspiration for Value Art came from the way people use to evaluate things, particularly based on prices. I also was inspired by the way art is covered in media. Why does the media mostly put the price in the center of attention when reporting about art? It rarely is the art itself and its message that is mentioned the headline.
Further inspiration came from Street Art (in this case I used spray paint with a stencil) and Modern Art (“reproducibility”, to underline this aspect, I added a pattern that reminds of a printing-effect, used in popular Modern Art paintings).
Facts about the paintings
Title (official): Value Art
Measures:
Height: 115cm / 45.3 inches
Width: 185cm / 72.6 inches
Depth: 5cm / 2 inches
Weight: about 7kg
Material: Spray paint on canvas (hand built)
Date created: November 2011
Original: Signed, Matthias Kamann (see picture in gallery)
Content: Black numerical figure spray-painted with special stencil on white canvas
How to buy Value Art
The price is the dollar value that is written on each picture – the “1” costs $1, “10” costs $10 etc.
To buy a Value Art painting please contact me.
The full payment amount will be donated to one of the following charity organizations – as a buyer of a Value Art painting you can choose which one of these will get your money.
- Green Peace
- Save the Children (Rädda Barn, in Sweden)
- Red Cross
- Doctors without borders
- Amnesty International
After the donation I will publish the payment receipt, so you and everyone else can be sure that the money really went to the charity of your choice.
About me
My name is Matthias Kamann.I am not an artist. Or maybe I am. Well, I should be since I created some artwork, right? But is “Value Art” actually art? You decide…
Born in 1980, I grew up as a farmers’ child. The last couple of years I have been living in a cozy, little town in Sweden, called Växjö. I graduated with a masters degree in marketing at the local university (Linnaeus University) – to which I earlier came as an exchange student from Germany.
Art and the questions it deals with, the provocation and the depth of the symbols always fascinated as well as irritated and inspired me.
With this art work as well as my future art projects I hope to reach many people to provoke, entertain and make them reflect about how they consume and are affected by marketing.
Your opinion
Let me know what you think about Value Art!
Send me an email to matthias (at) kamann.se
I would really appreciate all kinds of thoughts and comments, the good and bad ones!
