Resorts at Sea: May: The Cost of Art

The 1980s was when the cruise line industry began replacing their older ships, some dating back to the 1950s. Today ships measure anywhere from 150,000 to over 200,000 gross tons. Can you imagine getting excited over a new ship that’s a mere 36,000 tons? Well, that was the size of Carnival’s Tropicale in 1982, arguably the first ship of the modern cruise industry.

These new ships had to be decorated, and whenever a new ship debuted, the phrase “million dollar art collection” was usually attached. But what did it take to decorate the ships in my Resorts at Sea study?

Early indicators found that when taking account for inflation and size of ship, the cost of art was comparable. However, as I'll explain later, I didn't factor in all the variables.

 

At left is a sketch by Bernard Perlin for one of the hall spandrels for President Hayes.

At right is an entry from Perlin for the Rio Hudson-class competition. (Images courtesy

of Bernard Perlin and Michael Schreiber.) Below is a page from the April 1941

issue of American Artist magazine with the Rio Hudson competition highlighted. 

The first numbers I got were courtesy of David Hendrickson. I had the results of the Section of Fine Arts competition for six ships of the President Jackson-class, he had the announcement. So like baseball cards, we traded. A total of $6,940 ($115,900 today) was allotted for each ship. Bernard Perlin won two commissions: hall spandrels and library mural for President Hayes for $3,150 ($52,590). While they furnished him with the marinite panels, he had to provide the paint plus whatever else he needed to do the job, so I'm not sure what he netted. There was a second ship art competition in the spring of 1941 for the four ships of the Rio Hudson-class, but money and interest was waning.

The second number came from Henry Dreyfuss' book Designing for People (1957). Dreyfuss wrote the art budget for Independence and Constitution was $100,000 each ($972,000).

I had delayed this post in order to recheck my math, but I found I wasn’t comparing apples to apples. Art collections on today’s cruise ships are a mix of newly created artwork and purchased art. By purchased art I mean works that have already been created and found at a gallery, or part of a corporate collection. Holland America, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity have amazing collections. Holland America recycles art from past ships, dating back to 1938’s Nieuw Amsterdam, plus new works, plus antiquities several centuries old. Celebrity has pieces of Olympic (Titanic’s sister), Normandie, and United States in specialty restaurants. So while the numbers give some indication, there's no real correlation.