Peter Lik

[Sirius Glass]

I think it's the "desperate to divert it to anyone else" tactic

What was the clue?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Artnet makes explicit what is implicit in the NYT article, but doesn't really add any new information:

http://news.artnet.com/in-brief/new-york-times-exposes-peter-lik-photography-fraud-264858

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Artnet makes explicit what is implicit in the NYT article, but doesn't really add any new information:

http://news.artnet.com/in-brief/new-york-times-exposes-peter-lik-photography-fraud-264858

The "Thomas Kincade" of photography. That cracked me up.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The "Thomas Kincade" of photography. That cracked me up.

+1

 

[Eric Rose]

Some of us create art, some of us create income. The two generally don't happen at the same time.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

Some of us create art, some of us create income. The two generally don't happen at the same time.

I have to agree with this. My partner works in visual resources at a major art museum, and wondered who Peter Lik was when I mentioned his name. She had never heard of him.

 

[jjphoto]

I have to agree with this. My partner works in visual resources at a major art museum, and wondered who Peter Lik was when I mentioned his name. She had never heard of him.

And why should she have heard of him? Lik sells decorative art, just like the stuff I see in my local framing shop.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Can you explain to a Yank

We have a term for this kind of bloke in Australia.

He's a wanker.

So a Wanker in Australia the same as a Tosser in the UK and a Jerk Off in the US? :confused:

 

[hoffy]

So a Wanker in Australia the same as a Tosser in the UK and a Jerk Off in the US? :confused:

Yep!

As for what JJ has said, I agree, he sells interior decorative wall hangings, that happen to be quite expensive.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I was in Carmel California

Yep!

As for what JJ has said, I agree, he sells interior decorative wall hangings, that happen to be quite expensive.

And there are tons of galleries in Carmel that cater to folks that have a lot of money but have questionable taste in art. Just think within blocks of each other there's a Bennette sculpture AND a Thomas Kinkade gallery.

 

[DREW WILEY]

My friend, Carmel has always been known as a place for great photography, but terrible paintings, even fraudulent ones. There was once a
full-time FBI detail hounding Carmel painting galleries. It happens to be illegal to sell seascapes by a famous French painter who happens to
be a mass-production assembly line in Mexico! But that is essentially what Kinkade was doing too. The world is not always what it seems.
And the porch cat as big as a horse happens to get run off by the gal kittie who is by far the smallest of the batch. In the world of "art", just
like in feline politics, there is simply no substitute for the art of the bluff.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Hi Drew. I didn't know about the seascapes. Very interesting indeed. I think it comes down to being educated in art. I don't mean going to college and taking classes, but just learn and know about cultural significance of art objects. I was at the Weston Gallery looking at the Michael Kenna exhibition and a seemingly rich gallery owner wanted a certain photograph, but only bigger one. I assume that bigger photo would fit her decor better. I think some rich art buyers see some art objects as mere consumer items like a toaster, while educated art buyers are buying a piece of art history or a piece of culture. This is only my guess since I'm not an art expert.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I once did quite well in Carmel, but every single print I sold was to a local, including certain famous photographers, Pebble Beach millionaires (or richer), etc. - never to a tourist. It's not tourist genre. Allegedly some of those prints are still around that neighborhood. Nice to know they're still appreciated. The Weston Gallery at that time sold quite a few big decor prints, but at low margins of profit. But they're real muscle has been in those vintage prints which were either inherited or bought cheaply, but are now highly collectible. I kinda get a kick out of this ridiculous Lik thing. If people just want a big splashy framed sofa print, they can pick one up from Ikea for two hundred bucks that actually looks at lot better than anything Lik offers. Just a bunch fur fluffing, as far as I'm concerned, to look bigger than one really is. But I'll never walk into one of his galleries again. I get literally nauseated by that stuff. With Kincade, I at least broke
out laughing. I'd never seen painting that atrocious before.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The problem with a print from Ikea so that it would include instructions, require assembly and have plastic white buttons which can never be inserted properly.

 

[marton]

I don't have any problem with a photographer such as Andreas Gursky selling Rhine II for over 4 million dollars, but there's something not quite right about this Lik fellow. He reminds me of artist, Jeff Koons, in that his work sells for huge amounts but doesn't sit right with me personally as far as quality, or the indefinable that sets great art apart. Anyway, good for Lik, I guess, because he can pull this off. Hopefully it doesn't weaken the market for photography over the long run.

 

[Ghostman]

I don't have any problem with a photographer such as Andreas Gursky selling Rhine II for over 4 million dollars, but there's something not quite right about this Lik fellow. He reminds me of artist, Jeff Koons, in that his work sells for huge amounts but doesn't sit right with me personally as far as quality, or the indefinable that sets great art apart. Anyway, good for Lik, I guess, because he can pull this off. Hopefully it doesn't weaken the market for photography over the long run.

Koons was a commodity trader before he became an artist, he understands markets, how to create, grow and sustain based on demand. He doesn't even make the art himself, he has artisans who do it and they are allowed to put their name on his art. I am a big fan of Koonz, when you see his work in a retrospective, it's clever and brilliant. It is well thought out and perfectly executed, you can see the narrative, lineage and concept in his work - he's a conceptual artist. You're bringing the whole question of what art and the value of it into the light, it is decided by the market and art historians. Any piece of art is worth exactly what anyone is prepared to pay for it, whether it's Gursky, Koons, Lik or van Gogh.

Nobody can deny 1-Direction their right to be popular or produce canned music. Nobody can deny mediocrity and nobody can deny Peter Lik his place there. He got how to create and sustain a market, bravo. I don't like his work, it's Kitsch and gaudy but who am I to determine the value i it? I can't see how the sale of his picture could damage the photography market at all? If anything it'll give it a boost as a medium and extend its reach. More people can make more money producing lurid HDR Kitsch.

Let them eat cake!

 

[marton]

Koons was a commodity trader before he became an artist, he understands markets, how to create, grow and sustain based on demand. He doesn't even make the art himself, he has artisans who do it and they are allowed to put their name on his art. I am a big fan of Koonz, when you see his work in a retrospective, it's clever and brilliant. It is well thought out and perfectly executed, you can see the narrative, lineage and concept in his work - he's a conceptual artist. You're bringing the whole question of what art and the value of it into the light, it is decided by the market and art historians. Any piece of art is worth exactly what anyone is prepared to pay for it, whether it's Gursky, Koons, Lik or van Gogh.

Nobody can deny 1-Direction their right to be popular or produce canned music. Nobody can deny mediocrity and nobody can deny Peter Lik his place there. He got how to create and sustain a market, bravo. I don't like his work, it's Kitsch and gaudy but who am I to determine the value i it? I can't see how the sale of his picture could damage the photography market at all? If anything it'll give it a boost as a medium and extend its reach. More people can make more money producing lurid HDR Kitsch.

Let them eat cake!

We studied Koons at University, I do know how his methodology, and that's exactly why I don't like him. I like what you've written but I disagree. I think he should just go away, his work says nothing and inspires nothing. Soulless, lifeless, oversize and garish. But then why should he? He is making a fortune. In this post modern age, I know anything goes, but personally speaking I'm a big fan of the late and great art critic, Robert Hughes, where he calls this stuff for what it is - junk food. It's a junk culture and I have a preference for slow art. But then, society goes the way it goes.

 

[doughowk]

The cultural gatekeepers criticize Lik for going around them; but they proffer, as evidence of their superior value judgements, the works of Warhol, Hirst, Koons, Gursky, Soth, etc. ad nauseam. The only good thing about Lik and the rest is that they're reducing the world's inequality for in the long run those outrageous values will not hold up.

 

[hoffy]

The cultural gatekeepers criticize Lik for going around them; but they proffer, as evidence of their superior value judgements, the works of Warhol, Hirst, Koons, Gursky, Soth, etc. ad nauseam. The only good thing about Lik and the rest is that they're reducing the world's inequality for in the long run those outrageous values will not hold up.

Interesting comment this one.

I do wonder how this parallels to what Warhol was doing and the reaction to his work back in the day. I suppose, aesthetics aside, Warhol wasn't producing "Limited" runs of 1000.....

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Hurry while supplies last:

https://www.artbrokerage.com/search/?q=Peter+lik&q_m=&q_pA2=&sort=&sort_price=&sort_date=

 

[Trail Images]

Peter Lik

Hurry while supplies last:

Dead Link Removed

WOW, I'd only say it left me speechless scrolling through that link.....

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

And why should she have heard of him? Lik sells decorative art, just like the stuff I see in my local framing shop.

They have a decorative arts council and department at her museum too.

But yes, you are exactly right.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

I work in the art department of a university in California. I've seen how much money and effort that goes into art training. Most aspiring artist can't stop with an undergraduate degree if they want to be seriously considered by galleries and museums. I see a dozen or so MFA students enter the program and get into huge debt. There's a colleague that work in the sculpture shop that has a BA and and MA in art from a university across the causeway. Now he's applied for and have gotten in to the MFA program here. I told him he was nuts spending all that money. He told me that he'll teach undergrads while he works on his MFA and attends his classes tuition free for 2 years. A lot of very talented people have passed through here and if they're lucky, they might get into galleries and possibly get a faculty position at some college and university. I've never seen a more motivated and starving lot. I'm ambivalent about the art world with famous artist like Jeff Koontz and Damien hirst.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Hirst is certainly a poser who knows how to manipulate the system. I pretty much despise his industrial approach to his pieces, in which he is now only the designer, not the craftsman. But one thing I will say about him, is that he has an incredible sense of hue and balance in the
specific manner he levitates all those big dots. Lik is nothing of the kind. Even his gross Photoshopping is pathetically unsophisticated. He has zero sense of color. "Colorful" in the sense of sheer noise, yes, color - emphatically no. He's a zero in color, composition, just about anything I can think of as having artistic merit, other than presentation on big surfaces. Guess if you want something on your walls that looks like a giant Hamm's backlit sign in the local trucker bar. But the average black velvet Elvis rug has more talent going into the image than most of Lik's grossly faked abominations.

 

[blansky]

In case we are having a problem seeing the forest for the trees, the lesson here is quite obvious.

Does McDonalds sell billions of burgers because they are great burgers.

Does Rolex sell millions of watches because they are the best watches.

It's called marketing.

In case you haven't been paying attention, that's the name of the game.

The products are good or bad according to you personal opinion. But it has no bearing on the sales figures.

If you toil in your basement making masterpieces, chances are you will die broke. With your integrity intact.