You know, I love art. Art is something that has always been around me. When I was young, my cousin would draw some of the coolest anime-inspired characters. He even created a game based on his drawings. As I got older, my first love was an arts student and it was through her that my knowledge of the arts really deepened. As an adult, I find immense joy in abstractionism, especially that of Mark Rothko. The Rothko Chapel is arguably the only place I want to visit in America if I’m honest (maybe Compton too because I mean).
But in any case, I will never call myself an art master or an art expert but I can definitely engage in an art conversation. And so, one thing I enjoy to do is go to art galleries. What is interesting about art galleries is that you literally stand in a room and look at art. It is the equivalent of a caveman going into a cave and looking at rock paintings drawn by a fellow caveman. But good art ropes you in. You find yourself lost in the brush strokes, depth in colour and material used.
What is also interesting is the price tag. I think we all know that art does not come cheap. Not even remotely. I read on the socials that there’s an artist who painted a canvas board black and called it “Portrait of God”. I do not know much about this painting besides the fact that it sold for R30,000. And obviously, people on the socials went in on the sale. Some were calling it money laundering and others were merely cussing the painter.
Look, I am a Rothko fan so I won’t even judge the painting. I don’t even know the inspiration behind it or anything about the painting. But one thing that stands out about art is that it is not for the middle class.
And that got me thinking. What have we normalised as the middle class? And I write in the context that most middle class aspire to become upper class. Yet, some activities of the upper class, as the middle class, we discard and judge. The question is why?
50 Cent once said that if you pull up at a stop light in a whoppity and next to you stands a Ferrari, if you ask the driver of the Ferrari to pull the window down, they simply won’t. But if you pull up at a stop light in a Bentley or Lamborghini, the driver of the Ferrari will pull their window down to hear you out.
There are quite a lot of ways to interpret those words by 50 Cent but it is safe to say that one of the interpretations of the quote is that birds of the same feather flock together. It is impossible to gain an audience with the upper class if you do not look the part.
And in most cases, when this conversation is brought up among the middle class, we tend to downplay it. We tend to switch on the safety switch by judging them. We look at a young successful woman and automatically we assume that there are things she is doing behind the scenes for her wealth. We look at successful men and automatically we assume that there are behind the scenes things securing his wealth.
To paraphrase Jay Z, in one of his songs he says that he got so successful that people blame the supernatural. And it is crazy because as young as I can remember, Jay Z has also been associated with the Illuminati or some dark social circle. Yet, from a practical viewpoint, we can see how Jay Z transformed himself to be taken seriously as a businessman. There are key turning points that one can visually point to. The upper class, even his biggest critics, do not deny these turning points as moments that accelerated his success.
The fact is, most of us in the middle class are not ready to make those decisions that will propel us into the upper class. Like some sadism, we find pleasure in the struggles of being in the middle class. We find pleasure in the subtle poverty that robs us of our dreams, hopes and aspirations. We find contentment in the little we enjoy. I wanted to say luxuries we enjoy but the truth of the matter is that most of us in the middle class do not know what luxury is.
And I’m alluding to true luxury, not even the retail LV purse or Gucci sandals. That is not luxury and the rich and powerful will tell you that’s not luxury. Yet this luxury is something we all want. It might not be material luxury like brand names and so forth, but it might be the luxury of time and travel. It might be the luxury to eat the finest pieces of steak. It might be the luxury to have the finest cloth touching your skin. It might be the luxury to read the rarest books ever produced.
And this is a luxury every middle-class individual seeks. We see it in the debt we incur to walk around with the latest iPhone. Such behaviour is indicative of a person seeking this luxury I speak of. And there’s nothing wrong with it. The fact that I would assume that there’s something wrong with it tells of the rotten wiring that programmes our thinking as middle-class individuals.
There is nothing wrong with wanting nothing but the best in life. There is everything wrong with finding nobility in financial struggle. There is everything wrong in finding humility in forced humbleness. If most people won the lotto today, their true colours would come out. Yes, some in ways we see in I Blew It, others in more subtle ways. Maybe they’ll buy gifts for loved ones but in quiet corners take pride in buying them those gifts. Maybe they will help out with community drives and thank the Lord for being able to do so but secretly enjoy the pride that comes with being a local hero. Most of us are wearing masks with locks that money can easily pick and unlock.
I believe being honest in this regard can help us have a clear understanding of what is our relationship with money and why we want it. If we as the middle class can go to Mr. Price Home and buy a printed stock footage on a stretched canvas and call it “art” but criticise the rich lady who has her portrait painted just for her and paid 100x the price of the Mr. Price Home artwork, it means we are still confused about our view and respect for money.
It means we still need to learn more about money and form a deeper meaning with it. It means we are happy driving in a Picanto while we are trying to get the attention of those in a BMW. Rich people do not buy art from Mr. Price for a reason. And it is this reason that we remain in the middle class. For us we aspire to transcend to the upper echelons of society, we need to unreason the false belief that money is wicked.
No, the root of money is not evil. And no, the love of money is not also evil. The lack of money is evil. Do you see people in Umhlanga and Sandton receiving food parcels? Do you see these people as the ones experiencing the ails of society? No, you do not. Yes, these places cannot be excused from evil as they usually are the hubs of the biggest criminal heists and organisations. However, in these areas, you can walk freely without fearing your life might end with a stray bullet or My Friend selling expired food.
The lack of money is evil. This evil in the poorest of the poor takes a physical form. In the form people cannot afford food, cannot afford housing and so forth. In the middle class, this evil takes place in the mind. At face level, you might not tell that the middle class lacks money.
They have a car and probably stay in a safe apartment. But what they don’t tell you is the stress they are in. What they don’t tell you is the mental hell they are living in because of their job. Oh no, the middle class will never speak of their mental poverty. At the end of the day, that’s what life has promised them. The study, work, die promise.
And because this is the promise they believed in, they will defend it even when they can see that it is not producing the life they desired. They will defend the debt they are in that is funding their lives. They will criticise the young ladies crying in Porches. They will criticise the young men dating the young ladies crying in Porches. They will criticise the immaculate attention to detail that the older rich women fuzz about. They will judge the older rich man on the artwork he buys.
And that is the reason that rich people do not buy art from Mr. Price. It’s not really about the artwork itself. It is about the value behind the reasoning for buying art from Mr. Price. And I use the term value very deliberately in this context and let me explain why.
Say you have R10 000. Perhaps this money saved up, it is your 13th cheque or something. And to keep the explanation simple, I will use art as an example. With the R10 000, the middle class individual will probably go Mr. Price Home and buy various artworks. A vase here, a painting there and a sculpture here and there. They will look at quantity over quality and be happy about it.
The rich man, with the same R10 000, will probably buy one or two pieces of artwork. They choose quality over quantity. Unlike the artworks bought in bulk by the middle-class individual, these ones bought by the rich man will retain value. In fact, if done correctly, they’ll actually increase in value over the years. And unlike the middle class who will resell or give their artwork later on (because it lost value), the rich man can use their artwork as collateral to acquire credit or resell it at the same price if not more.
So no, it is not money laundering, it is sound financial know-how of how money works that the rich will buy these artworks at those high prices. It is this financial know-how that most of us in the middle class have demonised and labelled as evil.
We need to change that. Especially us who want that luxury that is attained “by appointment only” or “POA”. We need to change our belief structure and understanding of what money is. Then maybe, we’ll stop buying art from Mr. Price too.
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