[Reader-list] Jerry Saltz says Art Market is "Magic Mushroom"

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

Jerry Saltz spealing @ Art Basel Miami Beach

"This Is the End: the Rising Tide of Money Goes Out of the Art World
and All Boats are Sinking"

"We won't be talking about the prices anymore. Marketability will no
longer equal likeability."

Artists like Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami—"Artists who have
become the gods of Mammon," he said—may find their reign coming to an
end.

"Sometimes when you think you are playing the system, my friends, the
system is playing you," he said. "These guys, what happened is they
think it's a big deal to make art about the market, and the problem is
that the market is not a real thing. The market is a combination of
many, many things. It's a magic mushroom…it's a place to support
junkie-like behaviour in public."

"Where you're going is not hell, it's heaven. This is the art world a
lot of you younger people have always wished for, and it has come. It
has come."

Andrew Goldstein/REUTERS/LUCAS