The old saying, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” was illustrated last month at a Christies’ art auction held in Hong Kong.
Buste de femme by Pablo Picasso sold for NZ$44 million.
A 1944 painting created by famous Spanish painter and sculptor, Pablo Picasso was auctioned, selling for $HK196.75 million…that’s a staggering $44 million in New Zealand dollars!
Christies’ result, as top art dealers in the Asian market left me boggled at the price-tag art commands, while wondering if it was love for its beauty, or love for its investment potential that was the motivation!?
Murray Smith
My appreciation of art is broad – but not all encompassing. Finding art beautiful and appealing is after all, subjective and about personal perception. There’s many works by Picasso that I appreciate but this particular oil painting on canvas titled, ‘Buste de femme,’ done in the abstract geometric style known as Cubism, is among those I find unappealing…owning it however would be amazing because of whose signature is on the work!
Universal benchmarks don’t really apply for objectively determining value or beauty for anything in life. So…what causes us to put value on certain things – and why will one person perceive something as eminently desirable, whereas another won’t? Circumstances and life-experiences can shape what an individual values above everything.
I’ve written before about a rich, older lady on board the Titanic as it was sinking. She insisted on returning to her stateroom, exasperating crew members trying to usher her onto a lifeboat. They assumed her quest lay in retrieving diamonds or costly jewellery— rather, she returned clasping several oranges.
Crisis, compels the re-evaluation of priorities! In times of health and plenty, complacency abounds. Right now, humanity faces a critical, desperate ’spiritual’ crisis which most fail to even grasp. Like the woman clutching her oranges, our plight is perilous.
You see, we all carry the sentence of death as a result of our sin — that means eternal separation from God. The good news is that Jesus Christ was nailed to a cross taking upon Himself our death penalty sentence. In that dreadful occurrence, Jesus suffered as OUR substitute, making an ‘exchange’ possible. He demonstrated unsurpassed love for us in His beautiful act of atoning mercy. The prophet Isaiah described it this way, “His appearance was so disfigured, beyond that of any human being and His form marred beyond human likeness…He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.” (Isaiah 52:14 & 53:2)
In other words, Jesus not only became sin for us; He became ‘ugly’ for us. The ugliness of all our sin was placed upon Jesus as He bore in His bodily torments, the penalty for our sin. At that moment it was hard to look at Jesus, yet in this life-changing moment, what Jesus accomplished is beautiful and precious beyond anything else. Our forgiveness and reconciliation to God has been made possible.
It’s true, ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’…maybe you’ve never seen the inherent beauty in Jesus, missing the eternal value and importance of all that He offers you. With fresh eyes and an open repentant heart, will you take another look?
Paintings, Fruit and Glasses on Table with Picassos. Photo: pexels.com
