Money art, artists have used money as a metaphor for years now. As they say, money makes the world go around. Money can spark a lot of thought process, I believe artists incorporate for various reasons but this reason being the main one.
Take a look at Ben Allen's piece titled "Life Sucks"; below .. it makes you think what money is, what it means and how it influences our lives.
Money art is created/made to highlight the influences of it in our lives.In its heart, however, the genre works on connections between money and art, which are complex, tortured, and incredibly romantic.
What is Money Art?
At its political advantage, money art questions how wealth is spread in society, and also how the art marketplace works. Society nowadays is obsessed with money and artists are implementing that obsession into their artwork. Keep in mind the symbolism that comes with money as well.
While the splashy, crass functions of Money Art capture headlines, a complete secret background of 20th-century art could be written about more nuanced and oblique methods into the form.
These are functions that challenge and consider the ways that currency works in contemporary society for a source and symbol of both shame and power, and as a tool for trade.
Art made using Money as it's metaphor
The Pop Art king himself loved incorporating money into his art. Cash was one of Andy Warhol's favourite subjects and he talked openly about how much he adored.
Early in his career he realized that the potential to earn money from artwork. In 1962 he left the job 192 Dollar Bills, comprising rows of published dollar invoices silkscreened across the face of a canvas.
He returned to the subject in 1981 using a set of paintings and drawings such as Dollar Signal 1981. The picture is produced of a mark pen-and-ink drawing which has been screen-printed onto a white canvas. In such functions Warhol intentionally presented the notion of art-as-money.
"I like money on the wall. Say you were going to buy a $200,000 painting. I think you should take that money, tie it up, and hang it on the wall. Then when someone visited you the first thing they would see is the money on the wall."
The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) (1975)
A great example of money art is famous street artist Alec Monopoly, he's built a career for himself using the Monopoly man, Richie Rich and other characters in his artwork. Most of his of artwork, or should I say all of his artwork revolves around the metaphor of money.
He started depicting the familiar figure of Mr. Monopoly, which resonated with individuals within an apt metaphor for corporate greed and a stand-in for Wall Street crawlers such as Bernie Madoff.
Madoff ran the biggest wall street Ponzi Scheme ever seen on wall street. He introduced the figure along with other Pop personalities brandishing bags of money, such as Scrooge McDuck, Richie Rich, along with the Simpsons's Mr. Burns.
Asked whether we ought to be taking him at face value or using a certain level of irony, he states his job can't be reduced to easy criticism of the wealthy. “I want people to see how Wall Street and the capitalistic are ingrained in the culture, and how this translates into all of our lives,” he says.
The other side of money art, is where artists purposely see how much their art can fetch in value and/or use materials that will value an art piece for a ridiculous price!
Take Damien Hirst's diamond-bedecked skull as an example, For the Love of God (2007), is classic Money Art, since its price tag--a trendy #50 million, or about $100 million at that time--is an integral part of the item. (And of course its own markup in the documented #12 million invested to create it.)
Richard Prince's more harshly appropriative functions --such as those replicating with just minor alterations that the job of professional photographers--additionally depend, given that portion of their ominous allure owes into the looming sense that they're backed by a willingness to litigate at period (another kind of burning cash ).
So, also, are definite fresh cost-intensive sculptures from Jeff Koons, whose fiscal arrangements --as recorded in recent suits --possess the intricacy of property bargains.
In Conclusion
Money being used in art as a metaphor has gone on for years and, by the looks of it, it will only continue. This generation is much more obsessed with money than the past, so seeing it incorporated into artwork only makes sense from an artists point of view. In Comparison with baby boomers and GenX'ers.
If they were young adults, Americans belonging to the Millennial generation -- those born after 1982 -- Believe Cash, Fame and Image more Significant than values Such as self-acceptance and being a Part of a Neighbourhood, according to this study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
A coin is merely a part of metal, stamped with signals to give it symbolic significance, to give it a value, a value that varies with all the vicissitudes of its economic existence, or, if no more legal tender, together with its own lifetime as a collectable.
A painting is a sheet of canvas, stretched on a frame to ensure it is tight, which is then coated with pigment, brushed using a picture, a indication that gives it value, a value that varies with all the vicissitudes of its aesthetic and symbolic lifestyle, using its product value. This makes many debate whether Art is a Commodity or not?
Both are spheres of social action that take symbolic values. ... Artwork and currency come together every time the worth of both are traded within a marketplace --in exchange involving artist and client/patron, between customer and dealer, between competitions for interpersonal authority.
3 Famous artists for their use of money in Art are pop art legend Andy Warhol, Alec Monopoly and Ben Allen. Also make sure to check out Mark Wagner, he makes art of money .. literally!