Some things just shouldn’t be for sale

24 May 2007 2 Comments

by madsilence in Advertising, Popular Culture Tags: Art

My friend Debbie is an ardent fan of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. A copy of Klimt’s painting, The Kiss, hangs on her living room wall. Now I’ve found the perfect gift for Debbie. Ehrman Tapestry is selling needlepoint kits using designs from patterns appearing in Klimt’s paintings. Apparently Ehrman Tapestry has developed and marketed needlepoint designs inspired by Man Ray and the Surrealists, Gustav Klimt, Andy Warhol and the Pop Art movement.

Incorporating images from the fine arts into popular culture and the decorative arts is nothing new. Stephen Cabot Clark, son of American millionaire Edward Cabot Clark, was a great fan of the French artist Henry Matisse. Early in the 20th century Stephen decorated his New York City mansion with 12 of the Frenchman’s paintings, redecorating the mansion to match the pictures, with gaudy flowers and bright floral rugs, pillows and tablecloths. Matisse was reportedly irate when he saw it.

The great museums of the world use images of great artworks on sale merchandise. Books, posters, scarves and ties, t-shirts and caps, posters, calendars, mugs, postcards and refrigerator magnets are available, adorned with the works of Van Gogh, Matisse and Klimt. The museum stores of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, and Museum of Modern Art, as well as Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, offer a wide variety of merchandise. The Museum Store Company provides one of the largest collections of museum and art reproductions.

In some cases images of great artworks have become so famous as to grow to iconic proportions. Universally recognized, these images are representative of some primal factor moving within the American psyche. Grant Wood’s American Gothic is instantly recognizable, having adorned countless t-shirts, posters and magazine covers in a myriad of variations. The Scream by Edvard Munch is another such image known across the world that captures the fears and uncertainties experienced by so many of us.

Vincent Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait of 1887 has even been incorporated into a commercial for a new allergy medicine for itchy eyes called PATADAY™. I’m sure many of you have seen this commercial and the relief that comes into the eyes of Van Gogh’s portrait after application of the ocular solution.

It’s probably a good thing that images of great art are brought into many homes through posters, mugs, refrigerator magnets and television advertising. I just can’t help but feel that we are shamelessly exploiting our cultural heritage, undermining the integrity of and diminishing great works of art in the name of commercialization. Art is visual imagery meant to elevate our emotions in an aesthetic experience. Over-reproduction of artistic images can deaden the aesthetic sense through constant repetition. Some things just should not be for sale.

~TAB

Related Links: Vincent Van Gogh: Corporate Shill