Adam Ruins Everything - How the Fine Art Market is a Scam | truTV

Good news, aspiring artists! The world of fine art is manipulated financially AND extremely exclusive!

About Adam Ruins Everything:
In Adam Ruins Everything, host Adam Conover employs a combination of comedy, history and science to dispel widespread misconceptions about everything we take for granted. A blend of entertainment and enlightenment, Adam Ruins Everything is like that friend who knows a little bit too much about everything and is going to tell you about it... whether you like it or not. 

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Seen across multiple platforms in 90 million households, truTV delivers a fresh and unexpected take on comedy with such popular original series as Impractical Jokers, Billy on the Street, The Carbonaro Effect, Adam Ruins Everything, Hack My Life and Fameless, as well as the original scripted comedy Those Who Can’t. The fun doesn’t stop there. truTV is also a partner in airing the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

Adam Ruins Everything - How the Fine Art Market is a Scam | truTV

[sarahholman]

You're talking crap Adam! That all-white painting I bought for $3, 000, 000 was worth every penny!

[birdocalypse]

Fun fact, Daniel Radcliffe actually was able to buy the painting after the artist found out he wanted to buy it as he was a huge Harry Potter fan.

[kittygrimm]

Here's the *really* scummy thing about this: if you're an artist and you're planning on selling or commissioning your artwork, you have to rate your prices by the size of the piece and the materials used to make it. Since the materials used to make it are not cheap, naturally, nor are the results. HOWEVER, more often than not, the resulting price is nowhere *near* as expensive as what you'd see in a gallery. This is just another way the fine art world is cheating you out of your money. You'd get a better deal by simply supporting local artists.

[TheWhitePhoenix]

Most of us who graduate from a fine art school realize this. Students are selected by professors who succeed while others are left to flounder in obscurity.

[c.m.]

Yeah, as an artist myself, I can say this much: It's an open secret. Everyone who's studied art knows that your actual skill is largely irrelevant, but your ability to market yourself and network your way into the fine art world. None of my professors in the art program pretended it wasn't a crooked system, only that there are niches you can worm your way into besides being a high art artist (like working at the museum, running a small studio, illustration work, etc.).

[takeongeek]

This is a good reason to support indie artists and buy directly from them. It makes me sad so many excellent artists won't get the prestige they deserve, but at least we can support their work and let them know it is appreciated.

[koulfurno]

"Paintings are just trading cards for rich people."

[roxyspamcake]

Hmm... Bansky suddenly makes a whole lot of sense, trying to be anonymous and un-marketable by painting on walls, yet still having people cut his work out and sell it for millions. That's gotta be frustrating.

[JamesFryerCreative]

Having been in the art business for many years, I can confirm this. There is great art out there, but you aren't likely to see it at the posh galleries. Many cities have artists' studio collectives where many artist have studios in one building, this is your best bet for seeing anything good.

[chakatfirepaw]

Canada has partly blocked the "buy and donate art" tax dodge: The value given by the appraiser hired by the owner isn't what matters. It's the valuation by the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board that the Canada Revenue Agency uses, and even then the art has to be deemed 'significant' by the CCPERB for there to be any tax credit.

A recent donation to run afoul of this is a collection of ~2000 Annie Leibovitz photographic prints donated to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia: The donating family bought them for $4.75M, (half up front, half contingent on the tax credits paying out), had them appraised for $20M and donated them. The ruling: Only 762 of the prints were culturally significant, (the rest were just additional copies of published work), and they were only worth $1.6M.

[dracolithfiend]

Oh and BTW anyone who donates when a store (Walmart, McDonalds etc) asks for you too should know that you are paying their taxes for them.

[someoneonly]

"Please sir I just want one painting thar doesnt talk to me, why are you doing this to me" 😂

[avinashkatiki]

The title "Adam ruins everything" is wrong, it should be "Adam enlightens everyone".

[laurenvelentzas]

While “fine” art is a total scam, don’t let this discount art *movements* as scams. Basically every art movement at least partially resulted from a desire by artists once considered the outgroup to question the upper class art world and prove this exact thing: that there is no one definition of what makes good art. And when those movements started to become profitable rich assholes swooped in and claimed them so they could have the money. Suddenly the style meant to push back against the establishment become a part of it.

TLDR: good art is what you think looks pretty, whether that be a Renaissance portrait or ketchup on a canvas

[trublgrl]

The Art "Industry" is not the Fine Art business. Every day, thousands of talented artists who hone their craft every day are working to sell you their art for nothing or nearly nothing. Advertisement art has been more beautiful and innovative than fine art since the sixties. Comic artists produce enormous quantities of art that serves a story, as do storyboard artists and animators. Digital art in video games is the bleeding edge of design and rendering, whether photo-realistic or highly stylized. Our media culture surrounds us with beautiful things at all hours of the day. To create a collection you love, just save the things that appeal to you, and if you want, grab some frames, print out your favorites, and put them up on your walls, you'll be a collector in no time!

[ryanclemons]

So selling on deviantart is closer to a real art buying and selling then real now that is funny.

[lilygoose]

Museum person here: the IRS has standards for qualified appraisal that correspond with the value of the artwork. (I.e. the more it's worth, the more art history clout the person has to have who is determining how much it's worth) so typically, if it's a valuable painting, and thus a valuable tax write off, the museum themselves or a qualified, unaffiliated expert is usually determining the price. source: IRS publication 561

[SomeGuy-tykr]

I feel a little guilty because I only watched this because I already hate the "fine" "art" world. Probably should not indulge my prejudices.

[JacobHollis]

Knowing the truth about these so called "fine artists" makes me feel better about my art.

[srbrant]

As an artist, I want to take a flamethrower to every lazy, dozen-stroked canvas that gets praised for being “genius.”