I really like what Robert Genn said today in his twice-weekly newsletter:
Paintings
are tangible. They don't float in clouds. Paintings have pride of place in
prestigious museums and noble homes. Framed for strategic walls and inner
sanctums, paintings become the love-objects of our lives.
Paintings, like bars of gold, are assets of investment
and hoarding; a treasury that may span generations. "Artists," noted Salvador Dali, "are
manufacturers of wealth."
Unlike the grinning and
contrived poses snapped at barbeques, or the mug-shot of an uncle whose schnoz
is memorable but whose name you've forgotten, paintings are true connections
with a singular and real person. That person is you. When people collect art,
they also collect the maker
