Who would you think this painting is by? Monet? Renoir? No, this painting is actually by a small, 8 year old boy from Britain named Kieron Williamson. This is one of his paintings called "Windmill at Sunset." There is an article about him here: http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=39932.
This is similar to what we have been discussing in class about how media attention can create a huge amount of interest in certain paintings, or artists. One of Kieron's paintings sold for about $235,000. This brings up the question of whether it is the value and meaning of the painting that warranted this price, or was it the fact that the artist was 8 years old? It is interesting because, now, the media has created a sort of "snowballing effect" where the media attention to Kieron is compounded by the expensive purchases of his works, creating an increasing "mystification" surrounding him. Whether or not Kieron's fame and success will follow him into adulthood is unknown. It also remains to be seen if Kieron even wishes to continue painting into adulthood.
I agree that Kieron's artwork is being "mystified" and its value is soaring so high because of the media. There's no doubt that Kieron has an amazing ability to paint with water colors and he seems to have developed it at an extremely early age, but the artwork itself is not any better than any other artist. I'm willing to bet that had some of his paintings been done by a 26-year-old it wouldn't have sold for nearly as much even though the actual paintings themselves would be exactly the same. Kieron is indeed something special for painting so well so young, but is he producing artwork that's worth $235,000? I would have to say no.
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