The work For my Art does not wait for its viewers’ response. Instead, it turns to them, as if asking for their reaction: “donate me”, “don’t pass by without stopping”, “help me create my art”, “respond”, “get involved”. A beggar with a golden arm touches on a very charged issue in the art world: the relationship between the art work and the need (or the will) to market and sell it – in order to make a living and profit from it.
In his ironic way, Bartal presents the tendency of many artists to “beg” to gain support for their art, and even to turn this tendency into a habit, or a career.
The viewer cannot stop himself from asking some critical questions: what is the relation between a work of art and its manipulative monetary value? Is it right for the art work to go out to the street and ask for donations? Does any artist really need financial support? Or can artists disconnect from their patrons and work independently, without the “crumbs” that fall off people with means.