You're absolutely right. It must still be cheaper to use human skill, but I see no technical reason this cannot be done using image processing (e.g. a Photoshop filter), robotics and/or 3D printing.
Clearly, the whole question of art as product has been endlessly addressed by Duchamp, Warhol and others - indeed, the whole Conceptual Art movement is in one sense a response to this question. But the sheer scale - and chutzpah - of this operation is staggering, and the fact it is using human skill and not automation makes it - oddly - appear quite modern and "disruptive" to Western eyes.
But... and this begs even more questions: I was talking to a well-known British painter just two days ago, and he was telling me his biggest (and most lucrative) market is China. So China is exporting cheap mass-produced art, and importing expensive, original art!
I would much prefer to buy something hand-painted (even mass-produced hand-painted). Because I want to know a person painted it. I want to know they put their brush in a big tin paint bin slobbered and muddy with old paint and then pushed the brush against the canvass to make the lines.
An intelligent image processing filter would be cool to, but I would want it for different reasons.
Even if talking about totally automated processes, "a robot arm painted this based on a photo" would be a higher-status product than "a printer printed out this image-processed photo".
I see no technical reason this cannot be done using image processing (e.g. a Photoshop filter), robotics and/or 3D printing.
In Japan, I watched a robot paint portraits of live models. A person would sit on a bench, the robot would look at him, then dip a traditional horsehair brush in black ink and paint on paper on an easel. It was outline brushwork with different pressures creating variations in line thickness. The result was quite good--very clearly the live model in front of us.
This was in Tsukuba "Science City"... 32 years ago.
Clearly, the whole question of art as product has been endlessly addressed by Duchamp, Warhol and others - indeed, the whole Conceptual Art movement is in one sense a response to this question. But the sheer scale - and chutzpah - of this operation is staggering, and the fact it is using human skill and not automation makes it - oddly - appear quite modern and "disruptive" to Western eyes.
But... and this begs even more questions: I was talking to a well-known British painter just two days ago, and he was telling me his biggest (and most lucrative) market is China. So China is exporting cheap mass-produced art, and importing expensive, original art!