pricing paintings- another view!

Here is Rudbeckias I - which I did earlier this year and have now posted to a new album on the website- scroll down to "View Loraine's paintings"... So, I actually have some of 2014 posted already- a new record for being up to date. It is priced at my usual rates-haven't got to being a really expensive artist yet. It is interesting,  however, to read about prices for the "superstars". There is a new book out "The Supermodel and the Brillo Box -Back Stories and Peculiar Economics from the World of Contemporary Art"  by Don Thompson that is mostly about big names with big prices and the globalization of the art market. This is a world well beyond life here on the West Coast- where it is all in the name and the hype. One model of art pricing is Tobias Meyer's rule. Meyer said that art prices must be judged against an anchor price like that for a prestigious New York apartment. If the apartment costs $30 million, the Rothko painting that hangs over the fireplace in the living room can have the same value.  Compare that to even inflated Vancouver-area house prices and we are nowhere near that kind of pricing. Even  for a well-known, well-respected artist like Gordon Smith, the price for a large painting might be $40,000.  Many of the Granville Street gallery artists sell for under $10,000  - and you would hardly get a shed, let alone an apartment for that.  In fact, here the painting may well be priced less than the sofa it hangs over. Different worlds and different prices. Here, I think it comes down to people buying what they enjoy and they no doubt get more enjoyment from their purchase than the fellow in a $30 million apartment who is mostly buying a signature in the hopes of impressing others.