AllMovie

The cliché of the starving artist has been common for centuries, but for a small but growing number of artists, their creative pursuits are more lucrative than ever. The international market in fine art has been expanding at an impressive pace in the new millennium, and filmmaker Zoran Solomun examines this phenomenon and its consequences in the documentary Super Art Market. Super Art Market profiles a handful of successful art dealers and how they've been able to manipulate the market to their advantage (and that of their artists), sometimes making six and seven figures sales for contemporary works. But while Solomun's interview subjects clearly know a lot about art, they know even more about salesmanship, and one confesses that many of the paintings he sells are all but worthless once they leave the gallery. So where does this leave the diving line between art and commerce, and who knows what a painting or sculpture is truly worth? Super Art Market was an official selection at the 2010 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.