TOKers:

I just took advantage of the Thanksgiving promotion by HBO and watched  
their 2018 documentary "The Price of Everything."  It's very well done  
and, like the subject of "contemporary art" being examined (through  
the lens of a Sotheby's auction &c), totally superficial.  Near the  
end, one of those interviewed about where this was all heading said,  
"I can smell the smoke."

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.thepriceofeverything.com_&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=KQkgbQC380_mf2MaFTO0cZ3sqIYW9IOxn54LSvItNZE&s=BUs03NVMmGfNphAEkdXKAQ4ApThv6K2_yu0X9vqRNaQ&e=

In the closing sequence, a fellow is interviewed and asked if "art" is  
really needed.  His answer was, "Well, probably about as much as  
religion . . . But not as much as freedom."  How ELECTRIC of him.

This reminded me of the trip that Debbie and I took to the Antiquarian  
Book Fair a few years ago at the Park Avenue Armory.  My mission was  
to interview those selling "incunabula" (i.e. books printed before  
1501) to see what they might think about the transition from SCRIBAL  
to PRINT.

I did this by asking if they also sold manuscripts and, in particular,  
how much of the manuscript world made it into print.  Their answers  
were surprisingly uniform, "Maybe 25%, or so.  Probably less."  Oh,  
how we forget.

This past year we went back -- only this time on the hunt for early  
Aristotle.  Especially medieval manuscripts.  As it turns out, none  
are for sale.  But a 14th-century "Pseudo-Aristotle" in French could  
be had for $37,500 (negotiable, or so I recall.)  It is a quite  
remarkable version of the "Secret of Secrets," apparently first  
composed in Arabic and intended to reveal what Aristotle gave as the  
"secrets" of warfare to his pupil Alexander.

Obviously, much of what was ORAL was lost to SCRIBAL, since not every  
chatter was worth writing down.  So, it shouldn't be a surprise that  
much of what was SCRIBAL was lost to PRINT, since most of it wouldn't  
sell anyway.  Or, that much of what was PRINT was lost to ELECTRICITY,  
since nobody thinks that way anymore .  Oh, how we forget.

The collector who is at the center of the film is Stefan Edlis and his  
wife Gael Neeson.  They made a deal with the Art Institute of Chicago  
(where my daughter thought about going to college, before settling on  
Pratt) that would display their Warhols perpetually -- except for a  
"Liz" that was initially only on a 6 month loan.  Then Gael went out  
an bought a "perfect" reproduction.  Complete with the imperfections.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.artic.edu_artists_37219_andy-2Dwarhol&d=DwIBaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=KQkgbQC380_mf2MaFTO0cZ3sqIYW9IOxn54LSvItNZE&s=swj1wQX-Em0k_i5NDvU2H6GZSqLTCWM5lg2N1B0kCWw&e=

When Stefan was asked about this, his reply was, "Now you've stuck  
your finger in the wound."

I wonder what DIGITAL will mean for "art" -- which Andy Warhol  
famously said is "Whatever you can get away with" (as captioned in  
Jerome Agel's "The Medium is the Massage," presumably taken from one  
of Marshall McLuhan's files) -- and, indeed, for memory.

Mark

P.S. I have a collection of Durer and Rembrandt etchings.  Yes, they  
are all fakes, but pretty good ones.  In the late 1970s, the East  
Germans decided that they could run-off a series of "restrikes" using  
the copper-plates in the basement of the East Berlin "Staatsmuseum"  
(originating in the "Kunstkammer" of 16th-century Joachim II, Elector  
of Brandenberg.)

The first one I bought was at a shop in Weisbaden, where I was on a  
"diplomatic" mission.  It is a Rembrandt "self-portrait" as an  
"alchemist," that is typically called "Doctor Faustus" or "The  
Alchemist at Home in his Study," originally executed in 1652, produced  
in four "states" and officially known as B.2701.

In the Cold War hunt for "exchange currency," the East Germans did  
many creative things.  They struck a deal with the Print Mint in  
Berkeley to resell these "restrikes" and I bought probably 30+ of  
them, often giving them away as Xmas presents.  I still own seven of  
them, including Rembrandt's "Ecce Homo."

I also have photographs of the original Durer "Knight, Death and the  
Devil" (one of which Nietzsche apparently gave to Wagner, plus another  
to his sister, the mayor of Nuremberg gave one to Hitler in 1933 and,  
about which, Jorge Borges later wrote two poems), "Saint Jerome in his  
Study" and "Melancholia I."  I've gone over my etchings (not prints,  
actual copper-plate "strikes") and the photos with a magnifying glass.  
  Maybe some differences in the "melancholia" gown.  But I'm not sure.

Now I'm studying the Teutonic Knights (as a continuing part of my trip  
to Poland), who, as it turns out, wore the same armor as Durer  
depicted in 1513 (alas, minus their black-crossed tunic).  Oh, how we  
forget -- but, thanks to digital, not for long.

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