50 minutes
June 2020
Download (MP4 SD)

State of the Art 2: Value

How is value created in the art world of the 1980s? Who determines what’s “good” and how are reputations built and sustained.

The film encounters a number of central figures as it journeys through some of the institutions in Germany and the United States that underpin critical and commercial value: the private dealers Michael Werner and Mary Boone, seen in her gallery on West Broadway in Manhattan hanging a show of works by A.R. Penck; collector and Hollywood producer Douglas S. Cramer, one of the key figures behind series like Dynasty and The Colbys; museum director Richard Koshalek, as he prepares to open the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; the critic Thomas McEvilley, writer for Artforum and other magazines; and the artist Mary Miss, working on a public project at Battery Park City Plaza.

Complete Series on DVD and download
Episode 1 History
Episode 2 Value
Episode 3 Imagination
Episode 4 Sexuality
Episode 5 Politics
Episode 6 Identity

More on our Blog:

State of the Art returns  6 November 2006
Basquiat and the return of history 19 April 2018