Modern Art on Villas

Felix Salmon submits:

Modern art in villas is one thing, but I also have to mention something even more impressive: modern art on villas. Ghanaian artist El Anatsui showed three of his gorgeous shimmering tapestries in Venice this year: two were installed in the Arsenale, while one was hung on the exterior of the Palazzo Fortuny.

The outdoor tapestry was by far the most impressive. The three are very similar in terms of size and materials (discarded soda cans, mainly, and other urban detritus), but the ever-changing Venetian light, and the occasional light breeze, helped the exterior installation rise above the two indoors.

Interestingly, the tapestry on the Palazzo Fortuny is exactly the same size (360 x 240 inches) as the larger of the two tapestries in the Arsenale. But it seems much bigger, since it almost covers an entire building. And walking through the Arsenale, where the pieces just get bigger and bigger (the youngest artist in the Arsenale, Emily Gould, might also have the largest acreage of wall space), one becomes inured to size.

Installing art on the outside of buildings is in general a good way of reminding people how big it is. Either that, or, like Richard Serra, forcing people to take a long walk through it. A large painting in a white-cube gallery is now so commonplace that viewers are becoming deadened to sheer scale.

What does this mean for the broader art market, where paintings still often seem to sell by the square foot? Maybe that there is a law of diminishing returns when it comes to size. A big painting will be worth more than a medium-sized painting, and a really big painting will be worth more than a big painting. But a really, really big painting? That's beginning to get silly.