The ideal of true art is difficult to reconcile with the fact that art is a commodity. It is its crux to be for sale, and its legitimacy is called into question if it has to be sold like any other commodity. Nevertheless, it is ideally priceless. Its autonomy – the best that art has to offer itself and us – could not be outweighed by any money in the world, which on the other hand is one of its best selling points. This does not mean that selling or owning works of art should be rejected in principle. It is not the exchange of art for money that is problematic. However, the business with art becomes a threat to its existence when its use is exhausted in financial speculation, of which it becomes the object and in which it loses its aesthetic value. On the other hand, the notorious tensions between art and the economy need to be intensified in such a way that they become a productive force. Because art as an aesthetic concept with its own rules and immanent potentials and at the same time as a social technique (John Roberts) is inextricably interwoven with real production relations, a scope opens up in the confrontation with it that can be used artistically and exploited commercially. It is important to understand this tension from a historical perspective and to continue to work on it in the best possible way for the future.

The publication is published on the occasion of the exhibition Das Beste vom Besten. Vom riskanten Geschäft der Kunst at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (October 19, 2013 – January 5, 2014).

With texts by Wolfgang Brauneis, Hubertus Butin, Gerrit Gohlke, Hans-Jürgen Hafner, Barbara Hess, Christina Irrgang, Alexander Koch, Holger Kuhn, Hannes Loichinger, Astrid Mania, Christian Nagel

Published by Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 2013
Edited by Hans-Jürgen Hafner
77 pages
Softcover
German
ISBN 978-3-92597-478-6