From PBS to Priceless: Bob Ross Paintings Smash Auction Records
Bob Ross paintings have leapt from PBS airwaves to record-breaking auctions, proving his happy little landscapes carry serious market power.
At this year’s American Art Online auction by Bonhams New York, held from July 28 to August 7, the star painter wasn’t Cubist pioneer Max Weber, celebrated contemporary artist Paul Resika, or Hudson River School artist Thomas Doughty. The top two prices, both breaking the artist’s most recent record, were for paintings by Bob Ross.
According to a press release from the auction house, the sale included two similar mountain landscapes by the beloved “The Joy of Painting” host: Lake Below Snow-Covered Mountains and Clear Sky, which sold for $95,750, and the slightly more detailed Lake Below Snow-Capped Peaks and Cloudy Sky, whose record-smashing $114,800 price more than doubled its high presale estimate.
Artnet News reported that the previous auction record for a painting by Ross had been set only weeks earlier. Snow-Capped Barn and Trees Behind a Post and Wire Fence sold for $69,300 at the Americana Week: American Art auction at Eldred’s on July 25. According to Eldred’s, the painting was made for Season 16 of “The Joy of Painting,” and the consignor purchased it for $250 at a PBS auction in the 1980s.
“We’ve never done anything like this before,” Bonhams American art specialist Aaron Anderson told Artnet. Obviously, Ross is an important pop culture figure, with “The Joy of Painting” continuing to run on PBS and online 30 years after his death. Undoubtedly, his name, brand, and style are lucrative, with Bob Ross Inc. selling painting supplies, merchandise, and more, as well as training teachers. The question is whether his paintings are considered art or mere kitsch. He has paintings in the Smithsonian’s collection—something he famously stated in an interview that he never expected to happen—but they are in the Entertainment section of the National Museum of American History, not in the American Art Museum.
But art and mass appeal don’t have to be mutually exclusive; just look at Pop Art. Fans of Bob Ross praise his cheerful demeanor, gentle, accessible lessons, and the sense of nostalgia he evokes, all of which are arguably captured by his serene, colorful landscapes. Some critics and commentators argue that this serenity and nostalgia are key aspects of current culture, and if art doesn’t capture culture, what else does it do?
If nothing else, Ross’s paintings deliver exactly what his show offered: joy.
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