The Selling of standards or the standards of selling

Does it really matter? see this man's work

An artist plies his trade at the side of the road on the way to the newly renovated, multi-million dollar West Mall. They are pastoral scenes of the island, both imagined and real. They are colour by number, churned out, cheap canvases, baking in the sun. A sun permanently represented in the paintings in a yellow tinge. Anthuriums in bunches flank the paintings, also for sale. The public pass by, some stop for the flowers and idly gaze at the paintings. The artist has been at that lip of road for years and the paintings vary, but never change.

Switch to a spanking new, million dollar art gallery, where the beautiful are invited to an opening. Cocktails are served by a uniformed waiter and almost no one is really looking at the Art.

The scenes are predictably pastoral, the frames carefully chosen to suit the overall color of the work. Red dots begin to appear alongside and some people check the work against a print out rolled off a computer, that lists the names, numbers and costs of every piece.

What is the difference? Environment? Attitude, intention? Not all work in galleries should be sold on the roadside - they just feel that way.

All joking aside, some of the value difference is obvious. The cost of materials, the artists’ education and experience. So why is it that so much work looks warmed over? Artists say that the public hurt their creativity. When they try to do something a bit differently, the work doesn’t sell.

The cost of art materials always goes up. Framing is mandatory, and all the work you do has to be exhibited, because you never know what will sell well.

So is art in Trinidad and Tobago a crap shot?

There are artists who have come out of the blocks, passionate about their media, like Lisa O’Connor. Her first show was a major breakthrough. She dealt with familiar themes, her heavy layered technique and color usage kept her above the fray. Over the years, she has attempted to continue exploring interesting compositions amidst marriage and illness and children. Yet her first show still still stands as her definitive moment.

Above, Nikolai Noel from 2004

Looking further afield to the work of the young artist, Nicholai Noel. He has produced a dark, sketchy Sandman comics language of serious drawing and painting techniques that may not have sold as well as Miss O’Connor’s has, but he has made his peers sit up and take notice.

There are wonderful moments in the local art world, definite shining moments. Yet they silently go by. What is needed is writing that really looks at our history, exploring the tastes, styles and techniques of our artists. Serious reviews of their work. Really learn and understand their reasons for why they do what they do. What drives them? What challenges them? Where do they see art going?

I am always dismayed when I write about an artist and want to draw references to the patterns I have observed over time. Apart from my memory and that of other artists, finding hard information is extremely difficult to come by, and so the writing is crippled by lack of such information at hand.

As more work joins what already exists, it is important to understand what drives the market and why. But also, this buying public, do they really influence the art scene so dramatically that the artist is forced to be something other than themselves? - Adele

objet trouvé - the Caribbean throne

The play on Art and an object


Not a Francisco Cabral chair - Employing whimsical humor to a serious subject. Art, object and purpose

In Twentieth century western art, artists such as Marcel Duchamp began to test the boundaries to what could be considered as a work of Art. In 1917, at a whim, he submitted a readymade object and signed as an alias. This was to incite controversy and to upstage his colleagues. At the Société des Artistes Indépendants, an annual exhibition held by avant-garde artists, the work was rejected as it was judged to be not a work of Art.

Since then, the landmark piece, (Fountain, a men's urinal) has spiraled into the clarifications of what is and what isn't, and conditioned a public in believing so. The object had the quality and beauty which gave it meaning without relying on what its function meant. The environment, such as in an exhibition instilled a power where the work could be authenticated as a work of art.

Mr. Duchamp take on his rejection canonized the very piece. Yet, his meaning on his readymades showed a playful, whimsical, kinetic approach and to never allow the interference of others to judge one's practice.

It can be agreed upon that the uproar and plagiarism over the concepts of art is that it could be produced or assembled with the least amount of effort. Concept is deemed the golden rule and figuring out ways to construct these sculptures gave birth to contemporary artists like Jeff Koons and Damien Hurst for their refinement, and to a lesser extent, Tracy Emin for her simulations with readymades. What is clear is that the acknowledgment of these things gives it its relevancy.

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Shockart: An artist's intention to shock its audience or at the very least to invent a radical form of art. Such works are authenticated, only if accepted by peers of the art community.


The Caribbean throne, object, $30,000 -A antique potter's chair with a painting of a Tobago, landscape mounted beneath the seat

The 100,000 dollar question

Quality, quantity and value


An oil painting of dry fruit, asking price, $95,000 dollars, Trinidad, West Indies

This weekend’s art crawl with friends proved to be a dismal disappointment. We were all quite upset with the quality of work seen in most of the spaces. The question that kept coming up was, what is the criteria for ‘good work’? What struck us in particular was the fact that some relatively good pieces were sitting next to very technically poor pieces, and the prices were all relative.

What is going on in the local galleries at this time? Why is quality suffering? Why are standards suffering? There are more people able to buy art at the moment, and they should be educated and enlightened to the buying process.

Asking the assistant about some of the very sky high prices yielded the firm conviction that the artist requested that price. The figures we encountered began at TT$7000 for a work in oil to TT$40,000 for a living artists’ watercolour.

I have said repeatedly that I have no argument with artists wanting to make money. My argument is about quality and value.

I have been noticing the standard of framing, and it is getting cheaper and cheaper as works get pricier. However sometimes one would be inclined to believe that the work costs what it does because of the overly ornate frame.

I am very concerned about what is happening with newer artists and their work. I do not know how their prices are judged and how they increase over time, partiicularly when no real standards are set regarding progression of technical skill, or new techniques, concepts and the like. How do younger, up and coming artists set their prices?

I have observed that the pattern is for the first show to do very well. After all, family and friends are very excited about supporting the artist. The second show is usually a bit less endorsed and the third show, takes even longer to happen, and the sales become even smaller. The prices sometimes stabilize, but here is where the selling and value becomes murky.

As a gallery hopper, you may like a certain artist and then see their work many years later for much more than you recall. Obviously there has been a resale value, and this is happening all over the world. Artists see their work selling for figures they never got when they made the work, and that is why Jeff Koons is one of the savviest artists in the world. But that’s another story.

In Trinidad and Tobago, what needs to be known is what is the going rate for watercolour, acrylic, oil, sculpture and other types of works? What is the cap for the heavyweight artists, the middling and the newcomer? Are these prices based on longevity? Skill? What about value? Is value really judged on genuine talent? Or on bragging rights or artists illness pushing up the desirability?

Many factors make art in Trinidad and Tobago worth what it is, and in response to this article, the argument may be that the buyers and sellers know what they want and what they are doing. That may be all well and good, but we have seen that the art market’s selling of work has shifted downwards in terms of quality, and that must be discussed more fully. - Adele

What exactly is quality in a Trinidadian context? Part 1

Jason Nedd's painting of Tobago and representational of its culture, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies

Whenever I write, I usually find that somewhere in the text lies the next possible article that causes me to go away and think about an angle to another question. Yesterday it was the idea of quality and what would these standards look like in Trinidad and Tobago. I have been asked on several occasions what constitutes good Art? This question is asked with great sincerity, by most. People really would like to feel that they have a good eye for it. So much so that they are willing to buy poor replicas of works by Van Gogn and Da Vinci or more recent local works like David Moore and Anthony Timothy.

I remember when Mr. Moore was making prints of his Rockwellesque pastiches of disappearing life on the islands. Even then, friends and acquaintances would engage me in heated discussions about Art. The question then was whether he was cheapening both Art and himself by creating such work. Today his work stands as very representative of a period. In some ways, it is a sad testimony of a time, because as far as I can summarize, he no longer works in Trinidad or produces work for Trinidad and Tobago. This is from talking to people who know him, but I will still leave that up to speculation and keep this open. He may return at this writing and flood the market place again.

David Moore painting from 1992, ( Arima, Trinidad West Indies)

What is clear with the work of Mr. Moore is that he grappled with something that artists are still dealing with in Trinidad and Tobago, and that is, how to represent what interests him about the country in a way that is visually appealing and lasting. My continued concern is in the repetition of these themes. Unlike other places in the world, of the hundreds of artists who make work on the islands, many of them do so in very similar ways, creating similar works.

There is always a market for a painting of a gingerbread house, a pastoral scene, a washer woman walking along a pristine trail to a small thatched house in the distance. Today these images are hard to reconcile when signage stating, stop the smelter factory along dirt roads laden with poles that are jumbled with wires suited for cell phones and Internet access, and that same little house has no place in a world that demands that such a life is one of poverty that can only be perceived as quaint on canvas. When I speak of quality or value, what I am talking about is an understanding of art production in Trinidad and Tobago for itself. A clear assessment of what is made and why.

So if one can say that we have five hundred landscape painters, four hundred and sixty eight wood sculptors, then we can begin to ask questions like, what engages the wood sculptor as opposed to the metalsmith or the person doing pottery? How much of the work is for high production and how much is made for on special consignment.

But also, once the number of people practicing is known, and this can be done by checking sites like the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago, what has to be known, is, if a number of artists are all painting birds, who of the bird painters are considered the most skilled and why? Is it the photorealism? Is it the composition? The technique? At one point in art in Trinidad and Tobago, this was easy to state. People spoke about an artist’s ability to paint something in such a way that it made you feel that the thing was a photograph. But with the huge advances in photography and the inevitable change in tastes, that ability to create photorealism eventually fell away as the thing to look at. It helped for a moment to distinguish a certain group. The yearly show of artists best work at the National Museum did much for Art, but again, eventually it went the way of the wind.

Today, good art is relative to the press that work gets in the papers. If you want to know who is good or very good, apart from the luminaries who are constantly in the media, the playing field falls away quickly Is it wise to rate artists anyway? I do not believe that what I am suggesting is a rating, but a greater awareness of what is made in Trinidad and Tobago and why? Who do Artists like themselves? Do these artists support each others’ works? If so, how does this support encourage high standards of work in the future?

There is Studio 66 run by Makemba Kunle and Women in Art run by Frauline Rudder. How much these two examples manage to set standards is unknown. One can also ask the question, how does the work of artists in Trinidad and Tobago impact on or even influence work in the other islands or the other islands on us, if at all?

Francisco Cabral's chair, Trinidad, West Indies

Ever so often a small group appear on the horizon and tries to set themselves apart with a type of work. Yet very little is written about this, or followed up. Finding out about one such luminary like Francisco Cabral will lead you to a basic dead end. He’s possibly in Miami. He’s left Trinidad for good. He sparked and now he’s gone.

Of those who stay and keep their names prominent, Jackie Hinckson, LeRoi Clarke, Peter Minshall and Wendy Nanan, to name a few, they are more focused on producing their work, as they should. What you do see, is that the frame shops that are now also doubling as galleries, all artists are subject to spending a great deal on framing their work for show, and that represents a certain value and standard. It can even be argued that the frame influences the sale of the work. - Adele

Below: A television soft drink ad showing a fairly accurate interpretation of art work at a gallery opening in Trinidad and Tobago.