The painting at left, Asher B. Durand’s "Kindred Spirits" was recently sold at auction through Sotheby’s for a bid of over 35 million dollars, the highest price ever paid for an American painting.
The painting depicts artistThomas Cole and poet William Cullen Bryant together in a Catskill Mountains scene. Henceforth it will be housed (surrounded by a number of other classic American artworks) in a new museum in… Arkansas!
The painting was offered for sale by the New York Public Library and was purchased at auction by the Alice Walton Foundation. That’s Walton, as in the supposedly evil Wal-Mart corporation.
The noble Metropolitan Museum of Art and the courageous National Gallery of Art combined forces to offer a competitive bid, but were beaten by the hideous strength of the Walton Foundation’s malevolent checkbook. At least that’s how the struggle is being depicted in certain cultural circles. Some letters to the New York Times online have whined as if the transaction amounted to out-and-out theft.
True, if I lived in New York I would miss the painting, too. In a spirit of real restraint, Met spokesman Harold Holzer said, "We’re disappointed that the painting is leaving New York…". The disappointment seems very one-sided, though. I have not heard much criticism levelled at the New York Public Library for putting the painting on the auction block.
Disappointment I can understand, but the bittereness displayed by some hints at something deeper. See, this is another victory for the Red Staters, a sign of the ascendency of Flyover Country. Arkansas, for cryin’ out loud?!! And, to make matters worse, the evil Wal-Mart corporation is behind it all, no doubt punishing the Empire State for it’s icy rebuff to the retail giant’s expansion efforts in that region.
The planned museum, to be located in Wal-Mart’s hometown of Bentonville, will house a collection of national significance. How strange, that the evil and greedy Walton family would spend millions and millions of dollars just to bring a little culture to those who have never had access to such treasures. Southerners don’t have the capacity to appreciate great art, and anyway, don’t corporations always use their money to just make more money? Don’t they have some slave-labor factories to build overseas?
Am I biased by the fact that I will be living close enough to this new museum to practically throw rocks at it? Probably. We are as excited here as they are disappointed in New York. Look at it this way, y’all; Won’t there be plenty of culture left in New York? Can’t you spare a piece or two for us benighted hillbillys?
FIND OUT MORE.
I think that people who understand the history of their art museums would be embarrassed to raise a fuss about the Alice Walton Foundation. Many of the great contributors to museums included people who made their fortunes in part or whole from slavery. (And we won’t even get into the museums that have Ancient Egyptian and pre-Colombian South American art/artifacts that were pretty much pilfered and then sold to wealthy tourists. Or the artwork taken during various wars and campaigns.)
Personally, I celebrate when a foundation buys such a work, because it ensures that the public actually gets a chance to see the art – as opposed to private collectors and investment groups.
I’m not sure “embarrassed” is the word, maybe “saddened.” Sure, we all love art museums, but why ARE so many built on/with plunder, pillage, slavery, and exploitation? The Waltons are a 20th century reincarnation of the 19th century robber barons, amassing indescribable fortunes on the backs of little people (most of whom are invisible). I completely support the principles of the free market economy; what I don’t understand is why societies with a conscience keeping giving those who pervert the free market such a pass whenever they spend some (usually a very small percentage) of their ill-gotten gains doing something nice, for a change.
Being from Little Rock, Arkansas, I can personally testify that Wal-Mart has always been a necessary part of life… like nacho cheese or those delightful singing fish that you buy for your boss for Christmas. We don’t quite understand the hullabaloo that people have whenever Wal-Mart does anything since they’ve taken such good care of us.
I’m from central Illinois, and I always used to shop at Wally World — until they started building continent-sized “Supercenters” that enable a person to do all his shopping in one place, as long as you don’t mind parking five miles from the store, and then, once you’ve finally made it inside, walking a total of 20 miles or more to find everything you want. Their stores are just too big now. Besides that, they’re no longer content to compete with places like Sears or Kmart or Kohls or whatever — now they want to run grocery stores out of business too. I can foresee a time when we are all corralled into a Wal-Mart Supercenter Biosphere a la Logan’s Run. I simply refuse to cooperate any longer with their monopolistic empire building. “Woe to those who join house to house,” Isaiah said. Wally World is off our list of stores that we patronise.
I’m from central Illinois, and I always used to shop at Wally World — until they started building continent-sized “Supercenters” that enable a person to do all his shopping in one place, as long as you don’t mind parking five miles from the store, and then, once you’ve finally made it inside, walking a total of 20 miles or more to find everything you want. Their stores are just too big now. Besides that, they’re no longer content to compete with places like Sears or Kmart or Kohls or whatever — now they want to run grocery stores out of business too. I can foresee a time when we are all corralled into a Wal-Mart Supercenter Biosphere a la Logan’s Run. I simply refuse to cooperate any longer with their monopolistic empire building. “Woe to those who join house to house,” Isaiah said. Wally World is off our list of stores that we patronise.
It’s funny because Wal-Mart can’t get rich on its own. The powers that be have created something that people feel that they need or want and are willing to spend their money there. I personally don’t see anything wrong with that. I live in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, the birth place of Sam Walton where we still have a small Wal-Mart and if you say anything bad about Wal-Mart around here–well…them’s fightin’ words.
S: “It’s funny because Wal-Mart can’t get rich on its own.” Quite true, but the same thing could be said about Rockefeller, Carneige, Chase, etc. (the men, not the myths/foundations they created). Golly, let’s thrown in slave-holders while were at it. They can’t get rich on their own either. So what? Certainly, times have changed, and the blatant exploitation of old time steel and coal is harder to see with retailers, but that does not mean it can’t happen.
G: “Walmart’s taken good care of us.” I’m happy for you. I am concered for the people who work there, and seem to have a disproportiante share of horror stories to tell about their treatment. (I know, they can quit and work elsewhere. A morally thin solution to an old problem.)
I admit I didn’t pay much attention to Walmart until they donated a ton of money to my alma mater, for the naming rights over the stadium, and named it after a daughter who, it turns out, had paid for a student to take her exams, and more particularly, till they decided they wanted to drop one of their behomoth-for-less places in our tranquil semi-rural community (less than 5 miles from ANOTHER of their stores) and they couldn’t give a damn about what that is doing to our neighborhood and the values we built it into. All they know is it looks nice to them. Now, maybe if they say, “We’d like to compensate you guys the $ 25,000 that you could each lose in resale value on your homes once we build here.” Maybe then, they might show a conscience. But I’m not holding my breath.
“The Waltons are a 20th century reincarnation of the 19th century robber barons, amassing indescribable fortunes on the backs of little people…”
Ed,
I am no expert on Wal-Mart, but it seems to me that what they are guilty of, in the eyes of most of their critics, is being really big. I am not saying that they are beyond criticism, but who are these little people whom they have robbed? One might suspect that the overseas workers who get paid pennies on the dollar for their work might fall into that category, but would many of those people have paying work AT ALL if not for retailers like Wal-Mart?
From my experience, Wal-Mart’s success has been primarily due to a carefully planned and meticulously executed process of distribution that allows them to bring products and customers together with great efficiency. Less efficient Mom-and-Pop stores have, of course, suffered because of the competition, but that is not a result of any direct action on the part of Wal-Mart. That is a choice that customers have made.
But perhaps you have information that I don’t. That is always a possibility, and I am ALWAYS open to correction.
They have those delightful smiley face mascots. I like the one dressed as Zorro, since he slashes prices.
And it’s a real slam on Wal-Mart as a business that the family that owns it has a dippy daughter who cheated on tests.
It’s shocking that they’d expect anybody to shop at their stores after having such a bad apple in the family.
People should go elsewhere and pay higher prices rather than shop at a store owned by an imperfect family.
After what the daughter did in college she should never be mentioned in public by her family again. For the rest of her life they must tell everyone how ashamed of her they are.
I completely support the principles of the free market economy
But of course Wal-Mart has been the beneficiary of much more than free market economics. I don’t think tax breaks for big business is one of the principles of a free market. So there’s nothing contradictory about supporting a free market and opposing Wal-Mart.
Hi Tim: I don’t have the detailed info for or the time/interest in going after Walmart in a blog. What you and other have said is not wrong, it’s just, i think, incomplete. Maybe you didn’t see my last post above. Anyway, I would question just one thing, the idea that Mom & Pop are less efficient. I just wonder, less efficient at what? At making pizzas for $ 5.99 PIZZA DRONE instead of, say, $ 6.99 that M&P would have to charge? OK, maybe so. But it seems to me that small business, incuding family businesses, farms, etc, might contribute something to society besides dollar-cheaper pizza. They contribute, sometimes at least, family cooperation, lessons in the home, a sense of who customers are, golly, all sorts of intangibles. THAT never gets figured in the discussion. I just wish it would be. BTW: I have no desire for 40 acres and a cow, as much as I admire Chesterbelloc. But it scares me when a man becomes a billionaire several times over because he sells shirts and soap cheaper than the guy across the street. Golly, it’s not like Walton (we could name others: Tom Monaghan, Ray Kroc, etc.) invented something really new (a la Bill Gates, or maybe Henry Ford) and changed society. Walton is simply the ultimate middleman. Maybe it’s just me. All that money and power in so few hands. It makes me nervous.
Gummi, my point was that the Walton family shows incredibly poor judgment, or great hubris, in naming a college stadium after a daughter who, not simply has no accomplishments of her own, but actually cheated her way through college, of all places. Such monumental misjudgment gives us some reason to question their judgment and motives in other areas. I don’t think (A) a whole family should be condemned for the misdeeds of any particular member, or (B) that a family need constantly protest against a cheater in college. But I don’t it outgageous to suggest that neitehr should they name college stadium after her, just because they are rich enough to do it. For the rest, feel free to shop wherever you want, by all means.
Ed-
It is possible to look at this new museum and art collection as a kind of cultural distributism. 😉
I am in complete agreement regarding the intangibles that smaller, family-oriented businesses entail. Unfortunately, this is something that got left out in the blind headlong “progress” of the twentieth century. It is a problem vastly bigger than Wal-Mart. Do you know how hard it is (thanks to zoning laws and building codes, etc…) to actually live where you work? The old idea of the family living right above the “shop” had a great deal going for it, and is now almost impossible.
I’ve no idea if the Waltons and their meal ticket, Wal-Mart, are good or bad for America and the world. I do know that I don’t shop there because I don’t like the most of the stuff they sell and I don’t like the chaotic feel of their stores. The market will compensate. Trader Joe’s seems to be doing pretty well and I much prefer the product selection (for groceries) and ambiance.
The real question is did Jimmy say he will be living in or near Bentonville? Did I miss an announcement. He will be sorely missed in San Diego if this is the case.
Bobby G-
This was posted by Tim Jones (me). I live near Bentonville. Oddly enough, my career is not associated with Wal-Mart at all. I just like it here.
Have no fear! Jimmy is, as far as I know, firmly ensconced in San Diego.
Whew!
In a related matter I would like request that Jimmy use a larger font (large enough to leave ABSOLUTELY no doubt that any oversight is due to my lack of attention to detail) for identifying post authors.
Well, another thing I’m not happy about is that almost all the stuff Wal-Mart sells was made by Chinese slave labor (note: because China is a Communist dictatorship, all Made In China products are made by slaves). But then that’s not a problem exclusive to Wal-Mart: it’s because our nation has a policy of favoring China in trade.
I tend to be anti-Walmart for several reasons. First is the way that they do business; telling manufacturers how much they are going to pay, (which if the company wants to stay in business and make a profit means going to less expensive places to make the stuff. ) I’ve heard many tales on their tactics by selling items at a loss, to drive out the small specialized stores, and then when there is no more competition, raising them again.
Another reason that I am against them is that many of their employees do not make enough for health insurance and depend upon government aid for that.
Unfortunately, even us Target shoppers have to buy Chinese made stuff, it is unavoidable. (But, I do try.)
Wal-Mart is a classic economics case of a market defect. Wal-Mart has a two pronged strategy that enables this.
1) Wal-Mart establishes a monopoly on low wage jobs. They intentionally have stayed away from large, i.e. competitive, markets except for relatively recently. Why would people take these low wage jobs? Simple, they are available. They were particularily attractive for the nontraditional workforce. That workforce consists of farmers’ and other professionals’ wives, teenagers, and college students. This removed business from professional service positions that did pay real wages. The only real remedy to this, unions, have been ruthlessly targeted by Wal-Mart wherever they have come up.
2) Wal-Mart is the largest buyer for goods in services in most markets around the country. While the GDP is significantly made up of our 50 largest metropolitan areas, every company has market territories throughout the country in which they compete. Even with large stores in major cities, companies would deny themselves a significant portion of the rural market without doing business with Wal-Mart. Now, instead of having 10,000 to 50,000 corporate buyers which served submarkets, you have 1 company serving the whole territory and an assortment of other buyers. The fewer buyers you have, the less quality there will be. This is comparable to the old logging town where the logging company owned the housing and the hardware store.
It’s amazing how this thread proves the point. Instead of discussing how suitable it is that a painting from the Hudson River School (which celebrated The West, which back then was pretty much The Less Easterly East) should wind up in the Ozarks (which feature lots of similar hills and wilderness), we discuss The Evil That Is Walmart. Heh.
Most of the Dayton Art Institute came into being through public-spirited and perfectly respectable citizens.
Okay, and Mr. Patterson, but as a robber baron he was a pussycat. He only mistreated his executives. Anyway, he saved Dayton from the Flood by turning NCR into a rescue and relief center, so he still can do no wrong.
Even the huge DAI collection of netsuke and Japanese art was collected legitimately. Just really really cheaply. It was right after WWII. The guy who bought ’em was rich, and people wanted money for survival more than Granny’s kimono-related art objects. Once the guy figured out that people had such very cool stuff and would sell it, he went to work. The sheer amount of stuff is amazing; they can’t put out even a fraction of it at one time, so they rotate stuff frequently.
I guess we’re just a little too boring to do Big Evil.
(Pause for someone to denounce aviation as a tool of war and oppression.)
Maureen, did you read TJ’s origainl post? I see the line therin “That’s Walton, as in the supposedly evil Wal-Mart corporation.” I think posts picking up on that original statement by TJ are quite within the etiquette of blog commenting.