Like many obscenely successful contemporary artists, my good friend David Schoffman hasn't touched a paintbrush in years. Instead, he sends a few digital images, some vague directions and a handful of clumsy sketches to his two top lieutenants in Shenzhen, boards his internal propulsion bowrider and waits.
Having his work fabricated in China has many obvious advantages. For one, the art schools over there churn out incredibly well-trained draftsmen with little or no prospect of monetizing their talents. All David has to do is send a short text with the words "pink," "red" and "pattern" and within a few days he receives a jpg of this:
With labor, shipping and tariffs the mark-up on a painting like this is typically around 2900%.
To consider Schoffman a sellout is like longing for the days of internet dial-up. Only graduate students do their own work now and within just a few years of earning their degree they're either teaching, painting someone else's paintings or if they are among the fortunate few, sending their own vague directives to artisans in the developing world.
Fortunately, all this is about to change. President-elect Trump has announced that his daughter Ivanka will no longer have her clothing lines manufactured overseas! As a Wiccan, a religious denomination that punishes duplicity by instant damnation, he is committed to avoiding even the slightest expression of hypocrisy.
Schoffman now faces a stark and cruel choice.
Does he continue with business as usual, pay the usurious import taxes and reduce his profits? (Art market analysts estimate the mark-up to diminish to 1900%). Or does he shift his operation to the United States.
Time will tell but one thing already seem apparent. Donald Trump will soon make American Art Great Again!
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