The institution
A collection issued as capital and held in perpetuity.
$1,000,000,000 currently on view
Betz Capital Collection is not a gallery in the commercial sense, and not a bank in the fiduciary one. It is an issuing house that has chosen the manners of a museum: a room, a wall label, a catalogue, a covenant with the visitor. What it issues is art. What it withholds is the sale.
Ryan Ellis Betz treats the photograph as a banknote and the banknote as a photograph. The market, the body, and prayer remain one medium. What changes here is the assignment of value. The house writes a face value in billions so that looking cannot be casual.
The work presently on view is a unique chromogenic print. It is accessioned, serialised, and held in perpetuity. It is not a security. It is an artwork dressed in the full costume of money, so that standing in the house becomes an act of trust.