Picasso Breaks All Records

Picasso still sells big. He sells bigger now than when he was still around and producing some his most famous paintings. And if you think that's an easy thing to do, imagine Gone with the Wind topping the box office next week.

Yes, if Picasso was a film, he would cause lines longer than the Great Wall of China to form outside movie theaters. If he was a book, he would be responsible for the death of more trees than Harry Potter himself. If he was a play, he would bring down the house every single night and if he was a song, he would probably be performed on American Idol at least once every season.

Sylvette, a 1954 oil on canvas, was sold for an astounding 6.5 million dollars in Sydney on June 19, thus shattering the previous record, a mere (!) 3.48 million dollars, a fact that produced a general euphoria among Australians, galleries and art collectors.

The question that I can't help but ask is: why? What is it that makes a single painting so valuable to so many people? Aren't there more noble causes in the world if one wants to spend so much money on something that could be referred to as an eccentricity? What makes Picasso paintings so indispensable? And, to take matters a little further, will the twenty-first century eventually produce its own Picasso?

It's obvious that we cannot evaluate art with any of the standard measures of commercial value: it's not about cost and it's not about time or effort invested. It's not even about beauty or talent or aesthetics. Art is about an era and all that it entails. It's about perception and nostalgia. It's about ideas and ideals. Art is the memory of the details and as such it obeys to rules all of its own.

In our current society, individualism is promoted everywhere and art is no exception. There are no great schools, no collectives of artists, no cultural or artistic movements that gather public attention. Artists deem themselves unique and in many cases they are indeed just that. But it takes more than a unique talent to create a Picasso, a celebrity of sorts. It takes worldwide acceptance of the importance of a work of art. And also a strong sense of collectivity, camaraderie and support from within the artistic ranks.

We value our Picassos more than ever because we can't be certain that we will produce them in the present or the future.