Presentation is an important part of any sales transaction, and art sales are even harder to disconnect from it. Modern art fails nowadays to play the pivotal role of being revolutionary , inspiring, the center of attention, becoming more and more secondary, serving as an element of decor. Most of it is acquired to complete the neutral, textural or pale colour need, for visual comfort . In most of the places, art doesn't have to intrude , to question or to scare people away. It has to show the status of the people who can afford it , the grand scale of their solvency, but to carry only small stories for small conversations , little significance that will make the owner look good.
So much so, that the artist , being left with the choice of fighting for a spot place on the potential patron's wall , needs to shed the raw and sensitive feel of his art, for shiny silvery and ash golden frames or boxes that will blend in with the tasteless beige or white , that the en vogue designer recommended it .Of course that the interior designer knows better what is good for the walls, the framer knows better what suits the work, everybody knows better than the creator of the art work .
These and many other thoughts , like how much my husband will dislike the price of the frames - any price- were just popping into my mind, when , reluctantly, I entered the framing shop today with two of my rolled canvases under my arm. And I was right, because I was asked to pay an arm and a leg - and a divorce , I will add - even for the modest of them all, for these frames are an artist's nightmare.
Waiting now impatiently to see them framed , before next weekend , one natural wood and the second white , shadow box style .
