I have a love-hate relationship with the modern art world. I'm a member of
CoCA, and as such I'm guaranteed at least one piece in every annual members' show. This year I entered a large-format print of one of my comics, and they asked for a price for it, and I put it as $175, thinking that was ridiculously high but I knew from other shows that that's pretty low all things considered.
It turned out to be the cheapest piece in the entire show, and while a lot of the works were serious art with appropriate prices, a lot of them were things like chunks of wood with nails hammered into them and a $1500 price tag.
I'm friends with the CoCA president and he wants to elevate the level of stuff and privately admits that a lot of what they show is complete and utter bullshit, but being president he has to be inclusive and can't actually say "no, this is bullshit, stop being such bullshit."
At one show opening there was a furniture dolly with some moving blankets piled on top of it, and I was joking about it with him as if it were a work of art, figuring that they just didn't get a chance to put some moving equipment before the doors opened. He cleared his throat and pointedly glanced over at one of the labels on the wall, which I took a look at.
The price tag was $5000.
Modern art, man. What the fuck.