In reply to la:

The world is not going into an economic meltdown, there are traces of how these finanicial institutions got into troubles in the first place. If the financial system itself is sound and system functioning properly, and the problems are caused by men and not due to system failing, the market would eliminate the weaker players and it should be able to ride this wave and survive.
Creativity has nothing to do with the art market, one can't be an authentic artist if his or her motives for making art is to make money, although if someone is willing to pay me big bucks for my paintings I certainly wouldn't refuse.

In reply to Karl Fuler:

www.myartspace.com/ blog/2007/06/art-space-new...

There you are Karl, Kirsty Alsopp was after all very right in her assessment , don't you think ?

" Karl, you are surely the cleverest person, most independent thinker, in this Forum. "........and let me add what a relief to know that indeed true intelligent people aren't yet a rare commodity in Good Old England.... lol..... and that those ' holiday impressions ' aren't after all a burden of proof to the contrary !

The fact that one of them have 'surpassed' Pablo Picasso as MONEY is concerned it just shows the real state of affairs in the so called " Art World " rather than the state of the economy ... indeed as someone said 'Art is very promiscuous ' ... but then again Taste, Money and Aesthetics don't always mix that well as we already know ! ....

PS. : My favourite piece ... don't ask me why ! ... lol !

In reply to bamia:

Bamia,
I find your comment very destructive, all I was doing is voicing a reflection I had heard expressed in Southebys at the weekend before the sale, that was to the effect of the results of the sale would be an interesting barometer of what our society values, it was a light hearted comment maybe not as thought out as it could have been but certainly something that I thought would be worth hearing opinions on.
I really felt humiliated by your comment and my first thought was to never contribute to this forum again. It takes a reasonable amount of courage to put ones opinions forward in what is cleary a highly visible forum, considering the noteriety of this site. I know a lot of people that love SHOWstudio but have no desire to post here as quite understandably they do not want to be attacked precisley in the way you responded to my post.
If you imagine that this conversation had been in the real world in a cafe or at a dinner table then your tone of comment would be seen as totally unacceptable.
You should appreciate that the effect of your comments not just on this post but recently against other members of this forum has no other effect than to make people feel they no longer want to post at all. Is that in fact what your reason to be so rude is; to drive people away from this forum, and then to what gain.
I would not want to be talked to in that way in real life so why on earth do you think it is fine to do that here?
Finally, to SHOWstudio, you claim that this forum is moderated and that there are rules about personal attacks, I see no sign of this being enforced. If this is going to be a place where people want to contribute then this kind of response should not be tolerated.

In reply to la:

Sorry for hurting your feelings and humiliating you LA, I realise after reading your response that I shouldn't be so gung-ho with my postings.

And sorry to everyone else if I offended you, I would hate to feel that my sometimes-presence on this forum would ever discourage people from posting their true thoughts and opinions about fashion, art and culture.

I know there is no excuse for my hurtful comment LA, it's just sometimes your views on the world irritate me. I think that with your background in finance and with all that cash, you have a bit of a warped view on the world. A case in point is that you clearly see no distinction between 'art' and the 'art market'. To me, this is quite simply barbaric. However, who knows, if I was rolling in cash too, maybe I could succumb to the same commercially-tinted outlooks as you.

On the plus side, it is reassuring to know that while you clearly have consumer power behind you, you will never have what it takes to be a true artist. But then I suppose that deep inside yourself, you know this too. Leave the visionary ideas to me.

In reply to bamia:

Oh God ! How modest and "HONESTLY " repentant ! ..

" Leave the visionary ideas to me ." .... We must be really thankful and feel totally privileged that we "ordinary mortals" have Da Vinci, Einstein and Picasso , all in one package ' GUIDING " us ...... What an incredibly FALSE and MEAN character drowning in his or her ...... own " splendor and impressiveness " !! ... I think I need to go to the ........ Loo ! , with your permission ..... of course !!....:):):)

In reply to Galileo's Universe:

I thought Kirsty Allsop's comment about me was a meant as a sarcastic snipe.
Although I think Bamia's comment about La was a bit 'out of order', he/she has contributed some excellent comments to this forum in the past.