My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard

I'm hoping this post will be approached with an open mind by both artists and collectors. It's not meant to close the, er, gap between fine art and toothpaste, but rather possibly to spark a conversation about something the entire art-selling industry seems to be struggling with: encouraging more people to spend their hard-earned money on contemporary art (thereby supporting working artists [and dealers :-)]).

The video in the link below has prompted me to wonder whether all the strategizing on how to get, for example, Silicon Valley's nouveau riche to warm up to collecting, has been going about it the in wrong way. If you're allergic to discussions about how to increase the numbers of people who buy art, you might skip the rest of this. If you're not, have a look... it's a short video:

Milkshakes — Understanding the Job

Mind you, the focus of that video is on how to improve existing products, but the central insight has made me curious about how it relates to collecting and how fine art is marketed and sold. In a nutshell, it made me wonder "What job do people hire fine art to do?"

I'll concede this is treacherous territory. Discussing art at all as if it were just another consumer product will naturally upset artists (and believe it or not, most dealers, who tend to see their jobs as a "calling"), but let me be clear that I don't feel this has anything to do with changing what artists want/need to make. But I do think it's helpful to consider this question in terms of breaking through what seems a resistance on the part of too many people to see themselves as someone who buys original art. 

And so, without further caveat, what job DO people hire fine art to do? Here's my off-the-cuff list (in no particular order) of how we have generally answered the essence of that question in the art world. They hire a work of art to...

• Support a living artist (philanthropy)
• Surround themselves with things that make them happy or inspire them
• Decorate their homes
• Bestow social status upon them (including Communicate their particular level/type of taste and Communicate their particular level of wealth) {side note: don't miss this amazing article by Rhona Lieberman in The Baffler}
• Fill an addiction
• Launder money
• Flip it and make money

What I learned from that video, however, is that none of those answers (which might be accomplished via a wide range of other purchases) are as specific to the "job" of fine art as the study in the video eventually found was the very specific job of a milkshake (versus a banana or bagel, etc.). What does fine art do that cars or jewelry or other collectibles don't do?

Joseph Duveen hit upon the answer that seems (or used to seem) most convincing here: fine art bestows as close a connection to immortality as humans are capable of attaining. Other treasures that might make you happy or bestow social status or even support those with high aspirations but limited resources will less likely be treasured or preserved as far into the future as fine art will. 

But immortality is all but immaterial to a generation fully immersed and seemingly consumed by the "now." One needs to care, let alone think, about the future before immortality becomes of any personal interest. And, so, perhaps the job those current non-collectors would hire fine art to do has nothing to do with immortality any longer. 

I'd like to believe we hire art to help us, in this blur of a race to our final finish lines, perhaps relearn how to slow down. Again, though, I'm not so sure how material that is to the majority of people living today.

And so I open it up to suggestions. What job do people today hire fine art to do?