Over the past months many inquiries about prices of my art works, often in other languages . I wanted to respond to this question at some point but it’s difficult as my prices are fluid depending on circumstances which also fluctuate. In galleries my prices at retail are rather high but in sales to museums they have been more modest. Then too the question is necessity sometimes when needing income to pay a debt quickly my prices might be very modest. Pages from my notebooks seemed to be $100.00 but if a work has a particular personal content I might ask quite a lot more , other times I virtually give them away, always depends on circumstances.
The portraits started at $600.00 in the earliest iterations but more recently the price point has been $2000.00 after many years of inflation and feeling the prices were too low. Commissions I think might be higher still unless it was a personal relationship a friend or some picture possibility that intrigues me. Here again prices of portraits fluctuate depending on circumstances and given my poor health and age I would think I should ask for more since any portrait might be my last. Also consideration must be given to the enormous prices more famous contemporary artists ask for portraits which also make my prices seem very modest. Even commissions have been modest in price driven often by the necessity of paying the bills!
As to the large works I have in inventory again and often I have asked too little and regret selling them and the difficulty in collecting even modest amounts . Of necessity again things were sold inexpensively to pay rents and other debts. I understand the peculiar nature of my art work does require an unusual client. But then too my art often has had distinguished provenance and prices do derive in part from past successes . The Walker Art Center bought 3 large paintings in 2010 for a considerable sum adjusted somewhat to the non-profit status of a museum and my delight to have the paintings find a permanent home. But I honestly don’t recall the amount I was paid or how those funds were dispersed to pay debts and other taxes and bills! But I was pleased and 2 years later those paintings were exhibited in the museum in an exhibition that brought me more sales and commissions . But my record keeping is at best sketchy as usually sales are small and money vanishes quickly at the supply shop and or other expenses. I would say though that I would set $14,000.00 as a bottom of price for most of these big paintings . And then again that seems modest given prices asked for works on paper by me in galleries.
It’s very personal art work and most of it is originals, not prints after 1970 I preferred working for zines and magazines , newspapers rather than art prints . I respect artistt’s prints as a genre but I just wanted to make more notational works in notebooks and drawings on paper. So my inventory of notebooks, sketchbooks and works on paper is huge. Some notebooks in museum collections were acquired for modest prices given they would be kept carefully and were taken through curatorial decision making. They become semi-public works in collections preserved hopefully for a long term. Some individual collectors have notebooks as well with some understanding that these books or other drawings would have a destiny in other collections. Again modest prices to trusted agents.
Finally , I haven’t meant to avoid the question of prices though I am not explicit given the nature of my work. Also as I approach 81 years of age with an inoperable cancer and adjacent maladies I would hope a market for my art would continue after my death. But given the circumstances our old world things seem quite uncertain at the moment, which I suppose is every moment in the long history of this world and it’s art. What is saved and what perishes I’d a bit of a mystery which lies in the future that I will not live to see. But I do hope some profit will come to my beloved spouse and my friends and those who have shined on my art. But the value of things is somewhat driven by unknown forces and the mysteries of human desires. Prices are odd measures but lately I’ve been trying to make priceless art. It’s become my obsession and it’s given me a lot of pleasure and amusement. How high a price is too much, out of reach etc. really like Fra Angelico or Seurat or any great master when do things become priceless? It seems to me that immortality is the measure of great art and that dear reader is a pearl without price. ( no editor) .