Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur sold at auction for $106.5 million

Today there was an article in the New York Times about Picasso’s 1932 painting “Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur (Nude, Green Leaves and Bust) having been sold at auction for $106.5 million, which is a new world record. The previous record holder, the Giacometti sculpture, “Walking Man I,” was sold for $104.3 million at Sotheby’s in London.
I receive the NYT in my email inbox, and am always checking for updates. When I read the headline for this article, I wanted to see which painting it was. The painting makes me think of an artist studio. Starting at the bottom left corner of the painting, my eye is drawn to a plate of oranges in the foreground. Could this be an homage to Picasso's birth is southern Spain where orange trees line the streets, or a symbol of an artist's studio with random plates of fake fruit as models for still lifes? Moving slightly upward, I am drawn to the violet-hued white skin of the sprawled-out female nude with a splash of yellow hair and my eye comes to two black lines that look like arms carrying the body from the torso and neck. Moving upward still, there is a head on a greek columned pedestal (again, am wondering if this is Picasso's homage to the classical Greeks) with a dark shadow behind it, and yes, suddenly it appears, the blue/black shadow melding into the blue curtain, the shadow of a profile of a man. Could it be Picasso himself? And just slightly left of this, just touching his lips and eyes are the bright green of a plant whose stems look like snakes, but leaves look like clovers. The thought "Who would spend that kind of money?" never occurred to me until I started reading some of the comments after the article. My God! People sure do have opinions about the sale of this painting. There were those that thought this person was an idiot for spending that sum of money because the painting was not one of Picasso's best. I don't know if that guy was an art critic or not, but no matter, he pontificated as though he were. Another guy said that if the average American were given $10,000 they would spend it all on fast food. Haha! That's probably true... but just as insulting as some of the other comments. One woman railed on about all the orphanages that could have been bought up, children cared for, problem solved. What is she doing to help the orphans, I wonder. I wrote a comment for the Arts Beat blog, and now can't access it. Oh well. Here's the link. Mine should appear on page 3 or after on the comments section, in case you are interested in reading.

The fact is, this painting sold for $106.5 million and, that is the way that one person chose to spend their money. It may turn out that this person is a philantropist who has given their money to numerous causes, including promotion of the organic slow food movement, saving the orphans and the whales, and giving money to educational institutions to promote the arts in education as well as in greater society. Or, it may turn out that this person is a fool with too much money and nothing better to do than cruise Christie's auction house for more crap he doesn't need much like some women I know who cruise the shelves at Loehmann's or some other retail hell. This guy is just doing it on a bigger scale. Maybe.
Or maybe this person is spending is money the way we all do... where each of our values are. The bottom line is that art is not valued by the average American the way it is in some other countries. In fact, I would go out on a limb and say the person who bought the painting might not even be American. Probably French or British. The French love Picasso and claim him as one of their own. The British are interested in accumulating their wealth in the form of collections of art which eventually get placed in museums for public viewing.... in museums that are usually free to enter. Now, a country that allows free entry to view art is a country that values art. They of course accept donations to maintain the buildings and collections, and some museums charge for the privilege of visiting special exhibits and collections. This all seems generous and more than fair coming from New York where the cost to enter the Modern Museum of Art (MoMA) in Manhattan is $20. If you are going to the museum on a date with your honey, this is expensive, by try to take your honey out to Yankee Stadium, and you will double or triple that price. Or, maybe the purchaser is Japanese and wants to acquire Western art pieces for the investment. All of this makes me wonder, Is baseball better than art? Is baseball art? Are art auctions a game? Do the Japanese buy art and begin ball clubs in the effort to become more Western? Raises a lot of questions...