Art is a subjective thing, and it should be a subjective thing. And the difficulty of subjectivity is that it... — Tim Crouch

Art is a subjective thing, and it should be a subjective thing. And the difficulty of subjectivity is that it becomes hugely problematized when you start applying large sums of money to art objects. That's where it all starts to get a bit sticky.

Author: Tim Crouch

Insight: We all know art is personal—what moves you might leave someone else cold. But here's where it gets tricky: the moment a painting sells for millions, suddenly everyone acts like the price tag is proof of its worth. The subjectivity that makes art beautiful gets buried under objective numbers, and we stop trusting our own gut reactions. If it cost that much, it must be good, right? So we squint at it differently, trying to see what we're "supposed" to see. The real problem isn't that money exists in the art world—it's that money has a way of making people feel like their personal response doesn't count anymore. You liked it before you knew the price. You might feel completely different after. That shift reveals something uncomfortable: we're not as confident in our own taste as we'd like to be, especially when wealth gets involved. When millions are at stake, art stops being about what genuinely moves you and becomes about proving you're cultured enough to understand why it should move you. This matters beyond galleries too. It's why we're often more influenced by what things cost than by whether they actually work for our lives. The price becomes a stand-in for quality, and we forget that subjectivity—trusting what actually resonates with you—is the whole point.