BARBARALEE DIAMONSTEIN
93
for, since we a re now ta lking abo ut do ll a rs and cents and no t the
est heti cs o f it , was eva lua ted a t fo ur hundred thousand doll ars. Do
you think th a t is an eq uita bl e di stributi on ?
Lichtenstein:
Well , the a rti st, fo r one thing, can save some of hi s
production from each period if he is so interes ted in its poss ibl e
app recia ti on . Wha t hap pens if hi s prices go down ? Sho uld he pay
the sell er ?
Diamonstein:
How do you fee l abo ut tha t?
Castell i:
I
would say it would be eminentl y fa ir if the arti st, or, as Roy
po inted out , the dea ler, could take advantage of these eno rmous ri ses
in p ri ces. But
r
think it's just imposs ibl e, as he po inted out too, to
admini ster thin gs like tha t. There a re swaps, there are exchanges.
T here would be just an immense number o f loopholes that co uld be
found to avo id this. Also, the onl y arti sts tha t would p rofit from tha t,
would be the o nes tha t need it least.
L ichtenstein:
Yes, if tha t money went
to
a genera l reti rement fund fo r
arti sts, o r something like tha t, it would make sense.
Castell i:
It
would be entirely fo r tha t, even if admini strati on were
cumbersome. T he a rti st who rea li y sort of li ves very well , as Lichten–
stein or Jasper John s does, these a rti sts have a grea t number of their
own pa intings. And Jasper Johns and Rauschenberg too k advantage
of the ri sing pri ces.
I
clon 't think their situa tion rea ll y call s fo r it.
Frankl y-
L ichtenstein:
T here's something else, and tha t is th at the arti st in thi s
case sort o f condones the resa le; ana you rea ll y want a pa inting to be
hel d by a co ll ector, no t to be bought in o rder to be so lcl . For the a rt-ist
to
parti cipa te in th e apprecia ted va lue means tha t he sort of con–
dones these resa les, because he's going to make something out of it.
Diamonstein:
And you rea ll y want it to have a lov ing home?
Lichtenstein:
Tha t's right. But
I
understand tha t there a re other ways
of looking a t it. T here a re lo ts of things I'd like to see done for arti sts,
but that isn 't o ne o f them .
Diamonstein:
Wha t would you like to see?
L ichtenstein:
I
think some sort o f fund fo r o lder arti sts and funds for
the exhibiting o f work by younger a rti sts. One o r Ihe o ther. Or bo th .
Castelli:
The two ex tremes .
Licht enstein:
If
it could come poss ibl y from thi s resa le of a rt, tha t
would make some sense,
I
think .
Castelli:
And any body would be more enthusias ti c abo ut contributing
to
something like tha t, ra ther th an putting ano ther ten thousand
do ll ars in the price of Roy's o r J asper's pi cture.
