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End of the first night, two tired artists, a media manager,
B&O, delegates from the embassy and directors of the hotel
gathers to compare notes and celebrate the success with malt
beer. We all sneak a look at the bottles and read the “0
% alcohol” printed on the sticker and then comfort ourselves
with the fact that it’s more suitable than fruit juice
and at least, there won’t be any hung-over artists in the
morning as we prepare for the second and last day of the exhibition.
I believe we only sold a few pictures the first night - but
in reality – we all worked too hard and talked to too many
people to really notice who of us sold what and to whom, the
only way of telling was by doing a quick scan that revealed more
and more red round stickers next to the works of art. A sales
log was kept judiciously and there was a perpetually growing
stack of business cards with notes written in the barely readable
fashion of the busy and standing-up.

Selling art, as such, is also deeply over-rated and an impossible
thing; I firmly believe that you can’t sell art as such.
It’s impossible because in the end of the day it is the
buyer who makes up his mind about what he sees in the painting
and therefore, what it means to him and also, for all practical
purposes, what it is worth to him…
This tends to be the moment when I, who probably
talks too much normally, step back and keep quiet. I like to
watch people’s
expression as they look at my art, I do not necessarily want
to hear what they say as I need to keep my own relation to what
I do but their faces and gestures tells me a story that a face-to-face
discussion cannot.
I find that people are generally afraid of expressing their
true relationship to the art that they see because they are afraid
of saying the wrong things and this is a shame. Art is exactly
what it means to you, as a viewer, and nothing else. The value
is what it is worth to you. For me, as the creating artist, the
price is a simple equation of my expenses and the cost of having
a wife and four children, nothing more, and nothing less.
I’m in fact sometimes afraid of speculation getting the
better of me. I know that I have become something of a brand
name internationally and I know for a fact that many art lovers
buy my works with speculation in mind and that is a thought I
have to keep out of my mind at all times.
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This is a 7 page article from my exhibition in Kuwait in
2005 where I was invited in honour of Queen Margerethe's
60th anniversary by the Royal Danish Embassy and SAS Radisson.
It was originally published as a 9 page article in Thoughts
Magazine, 2005.
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Page 7
PDF of original article
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