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Comment by sologoub | Hacker News Reader

At the low end of the spectrum, thanks to this mass produced "art", it's almost impossible to find anything painted by local artists in places like Paris, unless you go for the galleries, and even though I'm not sure it's all legit.

People will literally pretend to paint in public places, but then you walk a few more blocks and the same half-done painting is being "painted" and the same "portfolio" is being offered. Even in places that are being billed as being for local artists only.

I really hope that we can someday return to quality and authenticity from just quantity.

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I don't know anything from painting and never thought about painting or buying paintings so I don't really have any context. Is the main antagonism against this phenomenon that:

a- It's not local? b- It's not one of a kind / unique? c- It's of lower artistic production quality? d- There's deceit?

From my rough uncultured perspective, if I ever somehow thought I wanted to decorate my home and went out to buy something, only (c) has any real meaning I'd think.

In other words, is it ok if I'm eating a banana from somewhere that can grow banana en masse rather than a banana grown in my backyard?

If not, are people mainly objecting to the fact that the mass produced bananas are inferior (and this is true more often than not) or is it because of other reasons.

Re supporting the arts: Methinks its about the story (narrative). Authenicity has its own value.

Source: My SO is establishing herself as a working artist.

Is it because authenticity leads to a better artistic production value or is authenticity an end to itself?

I hope I'm not being insensitive or flippant. I'm just hoping these discussions leads to some sort of insight or solution. It's definitely super educational for me.

In other words, if 2 actors are playing this super emotional scene with equal artistic expression and actor A can do it well because he deeply connects with the characters experience and channels his own life's pains and struggles through the expression and actor B can't relate at all with the character but just trained super hard to be able to play any sort of role, is actor B a less desirable path for people wanting to become an actor?

I realize it's a bit of a wonky analogy because the painter in this case is both the actor and the screenwriter. Just trying to figure out if self conviction is a means to an end or an end to itself.

I don't know. Maybe try something I do: First "cold read" the artwork, then learn about it, then look at it all again. I'm very amused when my appreciation of the artwork changes based on context, for better or worse.

It’s all personal values - I think people from a given place experience and see that place different from me when I visit. Therefore, being able to “see” that place or people in that place through their eyes is valuable to me. Unfortunately, I find it exceedingly difficult to cut through the clutter of the fake local art.

Not to mention that it is a sham, which is a morally objectionable thing to me.

Not that I know anything about the local art scene in tourist hotspots like Paris, but has it ever been different?

I strongly suspect this kind of hustle (like most tourist hustles) has been going on for a long time, it's just that now the paintings have been imported from China instead of being mass-painted on the cheap more locally.

According to wikipedia [1], the scam has been going on in some form since the early 2000's. No mention of France or Paris in the wikipedia article though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_student_scam

Basically the painting and home/hotel decor industry is no different than any other industry. Everything that requires hand labor is mass-produced in China, from Christmas decorations to assembly of iPhones.

It's just that with things like paintings, some people consider it special as art, but this just goes to show that nothing escapes the mass-production of China.

We have testimonies from factory owners and artists that well known galleries in Europe essentially just sell stuff made in China. In the best cases an artist there touches it up, in the worst cases someone there just gives it the "ok".

This picture from an article in 2015 on the site, https://www.instapainting.com/blog/company/2015/10/28/how-to... exemplifies the robotic like assembly line of some of these paintings.

I think any prognosis here is dire. There’s no going back from where we are.

Sure there is. It all depends on what we, as society, value. So long as the market exists and is supported by enough people it continues. If society decides it no longer collectively finds a given market acceptable (not in the legal sense necessarily, as drug markets show, but as in willingness to pay and participate in), then the market collapses.

For the art scam, if people decide that generic keepsakes from tourist destination are no longer valuable, or send the wrong kind of social signal, that market will collapse.

Social change is possible, but I’d argue we have MUCH higher priorities in social change department over the fake art.

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