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Money

The Price of Art: Printed and Framed

Covet art at the price you are willing to pay.
All images courtesy the artist

Theoretically speaking, art is an object that should speak for itself. A Paris-based artist and philosopher who goes by the moniker Simon created the rebellious NUMBERS project as a snub to the art world. Simon manufactures pictures with their price printed on them to demarcate their monetary value as opposed to their perceived value.

For $100, you can order a basic canvas with whatever amount you want, ideally paying the value that is represented on the canvas. So if you want $500 printed and framed, you pay $500 straight. The pieces come with their own serial number. Simon tells The Creators Project it’s “a way for anybody to acquire a work of art: just decide what money you want to spend for it.”

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The art itself is reminiscent of the meditative nature of On Kawara’s silent date paintings that brewed over the news of the day. NUMBERS wants to let its logic speak for itself and is available in all currencies. Simon says, “The meaning that lies behind NUMBERS is plural, so to speak. It is a reflection about the price of things, not only in the art world. But it is also a way to be part of a movement that anyone can have access to. Not only people who can afford art. Furthermore, it does have a highly philosophic impact: the interaction created between an owner and a picture is one of total objectivity, made possible by the purely logical process that gives birth to a picture.”

Questioning the price of art is not very popular practice among art collectors and NUMBERS hopes to provoke the issue of overstatements of the art auction world. Are the prices for art arbitrary? And can NUMBERS elevate the act of purchasing framed numerals into an art practice?

To learn more about the artist, click here.

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