(Written by Salathé & White)
Bond Nr. 2 has expired back in March 2009, and the buyer decided not to send it back. Instead, he sent us the following email:
I had some discussions with my daughter (the owner of Leslie's Artgallery in Luxembourg, Bridel) during the last weeks concerning the value of this project. She thinks that the concept is destroyed if the painting is not returned. I did not agree.
I decided to keep the bond.
The first painting was auctioned at a higher price than the debt indicated on the painting. The third was returned by the owner. The second will be kept by the owner. We have to wait until september 2010 to see what the Bond 4 owner will do.
We are of course glad to see that the bonds are treated differently, each according to the perception of their owner. One of us (MS) had a chance to meet with the previous owner of Bond Nr. 3 which was sent back to us (and later auctioned on ebay) in San Fransisco earlier this year. Shawn, the previous owner, expressed some disappointment in our decision the resell the bond quickly. However, we feel that our treatment of bonds as mere objects of value is at the heart of the project.
December 5th, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
Bond Nr. 3 is now on auction at ebay.
December 4th, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
Bond Nr. 3 expired in October and has been returned to us by the owner. Salathé & White have paid back the USD 1392 indicated on the painting. The painting is currently owned by one of us (Anthony White). It will go on sale very soon. Anthony says "I do believe that it is not art unless somebody buys it. You become an artist by selling art not by keeping it."
September 16th, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
Bond Nr. 6 is now for sale. Bond Nr. 6 is first rectangular Bond of the series.
We would like to point the readers of the blog to an interesting article in the NY Times about Damien Hirst's recent auction at Sotheby's. The article quotes New York art dealer Jose Mugrabi as saying "Today people believe more in art than the stock market. At least it's something you can enjoy."
We couldn't have said it better.
August 21st, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
Bond Nr. 5 is now for sale. This is the second of the three Bonds (Nr. 4 - 6) that we have worked on during our recent get together in San Jose, California.
We are very pleased with the resounding response to Bond Nr. 4 which has sold ten minutes after it became available.
August 15th, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
August 11th, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
We are pleased to announce that the new bonds (Nr. 4 - 6) will be for sale online in the next few days. We have worked hard on making even better art, and have come up with two slight modifications to the project.
The first modification is a redesign of the website which is now more in line with the aesthetics of our artwork.
The second change is the process by which the bonds are sold. Instead of being auctioned, the next bonds will be sold at a fixed price below face value. This allows us to guarantee that our bonds are a profitable investment.
The paintings will be sold on a 'first come first serve' basis. Subscribers to the mailinglist will be the first to be informed about new abvailable works.
August 3rd, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
Marco Barnig, the owner of Bond Nr. 2, sent us this picture
along with the following message:
"I am the winner of the second collaborative Salathé & White bond painting that has been auctioned in march 2008 on ebay.
This painting, combined with Marcel Salathé's Onethousand-painting Nr 658 and Anthony White's Money Series painting 130 €, are exhibited at Leslie's Artgallery, 66-68 rue de Luxembourg, L-6140 Bridel, Luxembourg (www.artgallery.lu).
Specific advantages make Luxembourg's Financial Centre a premiere place for wealth management and private banking and a main centre for investment funds. Various new products were developed, among them covered bonds, by applying the fundamental principles of the German Pfandbrief system.
This year Luxembourg is not only the heart of financial activities in Europe, but also the centre of the 'art of money'."
July 14th, 2008
(Written by Marcel Salathé)
During the recent talk at Google, I have also been talking about Salathé & White, showing our artwork to a larger audience than ever before. You can find a video of the talk here (or click on the image):
June 19th, 2008
(Written by Marcel Salathé)
Anthony White and I will get together soon in the Bay Area in California to create the next paintings for the Salathé & White Series.
On a more personal note, I am happy to report that I will be giving a talk at Google about onethousandpaintings.com soon, and I will of course also briefly talk about this project. It's an honor for me to speak to such a forward thinking audience.
April 29th, 2007
(Written by Salathé & White)
Congratulations to the buyer of Bond Nr. 3. This is the first wide format painting of the series.
April 25th, 2007
(Written by Salathé & White)
The auction of Bond Nr. 3 has started recently and will end on April 29th 2008.
March 30th, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
Recently Salathé & White have written to both Standard & Poor's and Moody's to see about getting our Bonds professionally graded.
March 18th, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
We are pleased with the auction of the second Bond Painting. The painting has been sold to somebody in Luxembourg. We congratulate the buyer who has not only aquired a painting that we expect to increase in value significantly, but also the right to return the painting at about twice the price paid in March 2009, which would be considered a good return on investment.
It is close to impossible to make such good deals anywhere in the world.
We are currently in talks with a well known gallery on the east coast of the United States to exhibit the third bond while on auction.
March 1st, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
Bond Nr. 2 will have a face value of EUR 1369, and its maturity month is March 2009.
Salathé & White would also like to announce that Bond Nr. 1 has not been returned during its maturity month of February 2008.
February 28th, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
Auction for Bond Nr. 2 will start on Saturday, March the 8th.
February 9th, 2008
(Written by Salathé & White)
After an excellent and long holiday break, we're back. Auction for Bond Nr. 2 will start in the next few days.
December 10th, 2007
(Written by Salathé & White)
We will both take a much deserved holiday until next year.
Our mailinglist subscribers will be informed as soon as the next auction starts.
November 21st, 2007
(Written by Salathé & White)
Salathé & White are pleased with the auction of the first Bond Painting. We spent a lot of time talking about what we expected the Bond to sell for and generally, we did not expect the price to exceed the face value of the Bond Painting. If felt good to auction the painting on eBay because it was the buyer setting the price rather than the artist, and we bypassed the art bureaucracy machine at the same time.
From having fourteen different people bid on the first bond we also expect a great deal of interest in our second Bond Painting auction which will be starting soon. To keep updated on all Salathé & White projects and auctions make sure you subscribe to our mailing list.
November 9, 2007
(Written by Salathé & White)
The auction of the first painting has started today.
November 8, 2007
(Written by Marcel Salathé)
In March 2007, I was invited to a public debate about the value of art in Winterthur, Switzerland, along with another artist, the director of the art museum Winterthur, and the director of Sotheby's Switzerland.
Although I can't remember everything that was said that evening, I remember vividly how the moderator asked the director of Sotheby's if she would recommend her clients to buy one of the onethousandpaintings series. She said she wouldn't right now, because it was still too early to say whether it was a good investment or not. Although I could feel that half of the audience (mostly artists) felt offended - art as an investment, what a horrible reductionism - I thought she had a perfectly valid point, and that in her position, I would probably say the same.
In retrospect, that moment was the starting point for a range of discussions I had with Anthony when I visited him in Australia (see Anthony's entry below). Consider a rock band, for example. The band knows they do something right when they start selling millions of CDs. Millions of people can approve or disapprove their work by buying or not buying their music. With an artist that only creates unique items, it is a whole different story. The artist will get famous when his artwork is sold at high prices, rather than at a high volume - but why would someone pay a high price for an artwork when the artist is not yet famous? In that regard, the art collector's dilemma is exactly the same as the financial investor's dilemma: how to know when to buy early before it's too late?
For me, this is what the first painting of this project is about: To artistically reduce the painting to a value in the most extreme way we can think of, and to minimize the risk for a collector to buy a painting. To play the game of the art market, a game that everyone plays although everyone is reluctant to admit it. To announce, proudly, that we find the game fascinating, that we want to understand it, experiment on it, work with it, and that we see a whole range of possibilities to express this fascination.
When art becomes investment, let investment become art.
Back in January 2006, before onethousandpaintings.com went online, I wrote in my first blog entry: "I have no idea whether it will fly, or whether it will remain largely unnoticed, like the majorities of websites out there." Today, I feel exactly the same: the same uncertainty, and the same excitement at the start of a new project.
Let the game begin.
November 6, 2007
(Written by Anthony White)
Earlier this year I had Sala staying in my studio for two weeks. Everyday at some time the conversation turned to how do you value art? After a while the conversation moved on to variations of the same theme such as what makes art valuable, why do people value art in different ways, when does a painting become a good investment, why do forgeries have no value when the original can be worth millions of dollars, why do people care what art is worth.
I never got tired of this conversation. Looking back I can see that these discussions lead to the formation of Salathé & White and also the Bond Painting.
I would really love to keep this first painting. However I know that it will not be art unless somebody buys it.