<table><tr><th>From:</th><th>Karyna Shuliak &lt; &gt;</th></tr><tr><td>Sent:</td><td>Saturday, July 29, 2017 1:30 PM</td></tr><tr><td>To: </td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Subject:</td><td>Why Pay $15 Million for a White Canvas? - Bloomberg</td></tr></table>

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-11-14/why-pay-15-m=llion-for-a-white-canvas

Why Pay $15 Million for a White Canvas?

=hite-on-white A painting. canvas by Robert Ryman fetched $15 million =t auction this week, creating a milestone in the history of

More stories by Leonid BershidskyNovember 14, 2014, 1:32 PM EST
by
Leonid =ershidsky

It is what you see.

Photographer: =inda Nyland/Hayward Gallery via Bloomberg

In a record chttp://goo.gl/s6ayzP> month for New York art auctions, one standout =as an all-white work that href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Painted-Word-Tom-Wolfe/dp/0312427581"==ata-web-url="http://www.amazon.com/The-Painted-Word-Tom-Wolfe/dp/031242=581" sold target="_blank" for $15 million. rel="nofollow Even if one noopener" lacks =a style="color: =gb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%;" class="">Tom Wolfe's =ourage to doubt the value of contemporary art, the =ulti-million-dollar price tag for some white paint on =anvas cannot but raise existential questions.

White paintings are something of a =hilosophical tradition. Kazimir Malevich started it in 1918 with "Suprematist Composition: White =n White":

## Source: The =useum of Modern Art

Here's what he had to say about it in the catalog for =he Moscow exhibition where the cool white square on a warmer white =ackground was first shown:

I have overcome the lining of the =olored sky, torn it down and into the bag thus formed, put colour, =ying it up with a knot. Swim in the white free abyss, infinity is =efore you.

American artist Robert Rauschenberg created five "White Paintings" in 1951. He =ent further than Malevich in his rejection of substance, simply rolling =hite house paint onto smooth surfaces.

## Source: The =useum of Modern Art (cont.)

## Source: San =rancisco Museum of Modern Art

Composer John Cage, author of the =amous piece of silence known as 4'33", described the paintings as landing =trips for invisible motes and shadows. Rauschenberg called them =locks:

If one were sensitive enough that you could read it, =hat you would know how many people were in the room, what time it was, =nd what the weather was like outside.

Many artists have tried to follow =onvincingly in Malevich's and Rauschenberg's footsteps, with little =uccess. Muscovite Vladimir Weisberg devoted much of his working =ife to painting ethereal, mostly geometric shapes in shades of white on =hite backgrounds. He explained:

Color exists but it constrains me. =t's better when feelings, consciousness, an understanding of truth have = claim on me, I am not afraid to liberate myself from =olor.

Weisberg's=work was too strange for the Soviet Union's tame official art scene, =nd his first big exhibition took place three years after he died, =n 1988. One white-on-white painting, =ith just a hint of shyly glimmering shapes, sold for $139,280 at =otheby's in London in 2006. A stitched-together white canvas by =ustralian-born Lawrence Carroll was valued at between $23,200 and =32,200 at a Sotheby's auction in Milan. It failed to sell.

So what is so special about the =961 work by =merican conceptualist Robert Ryman that fetched $15 million in New York =his week? Or the nearly identical one below, also by Ryman, which =old for $5.2 million yesterday?

## Source: =hillips via Bloomberg

It's white in a slightly different way than his =redecessors' work, or his own previous oeuvre (he painted his first =hite canvasses in the 1950s), but it's still, well, white. Ryman's explanation of his fondness for the purest of all colors =choes Rauschenberg's:

White has a tendency to make =hings visible. With white, you can see more of a nuance; you can see =ore. I've said before that, if you spill coffee on a white =hirt, you can see the coffee very clearly. If you spill it on a dark =hirt, you don't see it as well.

The most probable reason for the =rice lies outside the realm of art, even defined broadly as a =ymbiosis of painting and explanation. Alexander Rotter, co-head of the =ontemporary art department at auction house Sotheby's, simply decided =hat Ryman needed a push. "I thought there was really something to be =one with the market, that's why it's been priced so high," the New York =bserver quoted him as saying of the untitled painting. "The =ublic needs a great piece to elevate the market and give it an =ndication of where it could go. The sky is the limit for this =ainting."

Clear thinking from leading voices in business, =conomics, politics, foreign affairs, culture, and more. Share the View

If one wanted =o be poetic about this piece of marketing wisdom, one could say Rotter =s talking of the same sky whose lining Malevich claimed to have =vercome. I'm more inclined to call it cynical. In the end, the value of =rt is in the emotions it conveys, its power of holding one's eye and =ccupying one's thoughts. A white canvas may have had the requisite =owers in 1918 or even in 1951, because it made a radical statement. In =014, it's meaningless. The business decision behind the insane price is =he only true piece of art in the case of Ryman's works.

Even in the highly unlikely =vent that certain art lovers are moved by the spectacle of =nadulterated whiteness, there's no need to pay millions of dollars for =he pleasure. They can simply follow Rauschenberg's advice: "Want =ne? Paint one."

## Source: =hillips via Bloomberg (cont.)

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of =loomberg View's editorial board or Bloomberg LP, its owners and =nvestors.

To contact the =uthor on this story:
Leonid Bershidsky =/span> at:  <mailto: >

To contact the editor on this <u>story:</u>

Mark Whitehouse at

Before it's =ere, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN =ORE <https://bloom.bg/dg-ws-core-bcom-a1>

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