This week I found myself in the middle of the Pacific on a cruise liner. Amid an endless supply of karaoke, suduku, water aerobics and guessing competitions Quantum of the Seas had its own version of Park West Gallery.  As with some 100 cruise liners, the gallery provides its version of higher culture in the form of a collection of paintings, prints and sculptures to be auctioned. Whatever you might think about commercial art or the high pressure selling of art, cruisers pack the auditorium to take part and be persuaded via the art lecture.

This was a collection of ‘original’ works from contemporary artists and prints from masters such as Chagall, Rembrandt and Dali on display. It all sounded very impressive to an audience who seemed to know little about art but were happy to pay for a souvenir touted as a legacy or family heirloom. Original? That depends upon your definition of the term. Park West specializes in what it calls ‘graphic works’. These consist of mass-produced reproductions of the original paintings all signed by the artist and released in limited editions. Some are giclée prints – a term for high-quality inkjet prints worked over by hand to look like paintings with brushstrokes layered over a printed image to give it a more “authentic” feel.

Of course, nearly all of these works are anything but unique, and most of the time, the copy you bid on won’t be the one shipped to your home. Park West will ship you an identical copy from its Michigan warehouse, where over a million frameless works are packed in like sardines, rather than going through the trouble of turning over the on-board collection. However, the auctioneer I spoke to bemoaned the work he was going to have to do at the end of the voyage in packing up everything on board and handing it over to Fedex for shipment back to base and then receiving another collection.

The auctioneers themselves are interesting. Apart from the seeming preponderance of male artists on offer, the auctioneers are mostly male as well. The one I had discussion with pointed out several times that he had a degree in art history but that is not the norm. Their ranks are drawn from used car salesmen, fitness instructors, watch salesmen from Louis Vuitton and the odd Moet champagne expert which comes in handy when dishing out glassfuls of fizzy water to patrons. Claims that the art in the care of any one ship is worth $3 million may be open to question but the 1200 auctions every month is not.

So, just who are the 200 artists being promoted? You’d be hard pressed to have heard of any of them and even longstanding pop artist Peter Max is anything but a household name and the best you can qualify his work with is ‘in the style of’. Even that arrangement has become strained in recent years. Max has suffered from dementia, as did De Kooning, and stopped painting. Erstwhile assistants churn out versions to be signed by the master. The relative obscurity of most of the artists might be part of the reason that the auctioneers rely heavily on gimmicks, presumably designed to encourage the audience to get in on the action and make a bid. What the auction I saw resembled was more a London market stall selling knock-offs than Southebys even with auction paddles to wave.

There was no indication as to what artists got out of all this. One would hope that they get a percentage of every sale rather than a one-off up-front payment for the ‘original’. The recent strike by screenwriters revolved around lack of payment for repeats and sale and resale of art, signed or not, can create the same ethical dilemma. I guess it all depends upon how the contract is written.

Surely not all of the up to four thousand people on a liner are totally naïve and believe that they are being an active part of the art market? Statistics suggest that most would never go near an art gallery in their lives. Whether they are getting their money’s worth is open to question. Park West had been subject to nearly a dozen lawsuits in a decade alleging abusive sales practices and the poor woman who tried to sue Park West some years ago ended up with a lifetime ban from cruise ships. But then again, people go on cruises to spend money and convince themselves that they are living the high life once reserved for the aristocracy. Buying a piece of art would certainly qualify as ‘high life’ in that no matter the bargain offered by the auctioneer, you come away with Art and only a certain class of people buy art. Whether it ends up as wall decoration or investment matters little.

The old adage when dealing with used car salesmen is caveat emptor and when the on-board art bargains cost as much as a used car, perhaps caution is to be advised unless the overall cultural experience is worth it no matter what.

 

 

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