Contemporary artists in crisis: Gerhard Richter
ARTinvestment.RU   04 июня 2020

In a new segment, talk about the impact of the crisis on contemporary artists — in personalities

last week AI analyzed report of the ArtTactic, presenting the indicator of trust to the professional art-рынка present and future trade relations with art. In particular, the British analyst published a ranking of the artists, the sustainability of which the respondents report expressed the greatest confidence in times of crisis. We found it interesting to analyze the financial and marketing figures of artists to understand what is behind the position in the ranking — private opinion of persons involved in art-рынка or more-менее objective indicators. We start with the first number in the trust rating.

Gerhard Richter (1932), a German painter, the most recognizable and at the same time a successful modern artist in the genre of abstract expressionism. The main gallery, presenting author, — Magap Goodman (new-Йорк, Paris).

In that the market respects Gerhard Richter:

• for the fact that he became the first artist in the history of the Venice Biennale, awarded solely to represent his country in the national pavilion (1972);

• for a decisive rejection of figurative painting in favor of abstraction in adulthood — and relentless adherence to the chosen direction for the next 30 years;

• for fidelity, Marian Goodman, which has become a bridge for artists from Europe to the United States and represents Richter today;

• for the artist returned the fashion for abstract expressionism, providing for decades to the work of interior designers and supporters of this style;

• for making bottle label wine Château Mouton Rothschild, in 2017, the first place winner at the international wine competition;

• for the beautiful and inspiring a young generation of artists the documentary film "the Artist Gerhard Richter" (original — Gerhard Richter Painting).

what the market prefers not to remember:

• early works of Richter in the tradition of socialist realism of the GDR. After fleeing to West Germany, the artist went to pop-арт, and then in black and white hyperrealism — areas that were in favor in the European market;

• the exploitation of the events of September 11, 2001: aircraft with Richter in the day of the tragedy unfolded in the sky on the way to new-Йорк, and the artist immediately created a work with reflections of the towers-близнецов in the water. This in particular contributed to the success of his solo exhibition in 2002 at MOMA.

Gerhard Richter in facts and figures

According to Artfacts, to date, the artist has participated in solo and 325 1 550 group exhibitions and 30 of the Biennale, including the most prestigious — Venice, Documenta and Manifesta. A list of 107 international art-ярмарок in his career, starting with Art Cologne in 1967, in our opinion, very incomplete. At the moment the artist on a non-exclusive basis represent 66 international galleries, including market leaders Marion Goodman and Gagosian. The works of Gerhard Richter are at least 143 Museum collections, primarily at MOMA (new-Йорк), the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris) and the New national gallery (Berlin). 2015 Richter conducted 39 personal exhibitions in galleries and museums, including Gagosian gallery (London, new-Йорк), ingallery Marian Goodman (new-Йорк), the Metropolitan-музее (new-Йорк) and the Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao). To date, about 38% created by Gerhard Richter's works are in Museum collections (including almost half of all written abstract paintings), which is a unique achievement for a modern artist. Last scheduled for spring 2020 solo exhibitions — at the Metropolitan-музее (new-Йорк) — opened on March 4, just one week, was postponed to a later date in connection with the pandemic.

Despite the slight (8,2 %) decline in auction sales in 2018, Richter's work in the auction market have a positive balance of sold and unsold lots (on average 80% of sold items). In November 2019, his early painting Vogelfluglinie (1967) was sold for $20.5 million at Christie's in new-Йорке. However, the auction record for Richter was held in February of 2015 for $44.5 million at a London Sotheby's buyer got the abstraction Abstraktes Bild (599).

Works by Gerhard Richter are also in the leading guarantees of redemption in the case of Nebrodi provided by auction houses to sellers. Thus, according to the Deloitte Art & Finance Report, from 2015 to 2018, the total amount of guarantees issued by Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips under the work of German painter, amounted to $216,5 million — large sums in the aggregate were guaranteed only works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Мишеля Basquiat, Mark Rothko and Roy Lichtenstein.

table 1. The most successful auction sales of works by Gerhard Richter, 2015-2019

Gerhard Richter and the confidence indicator

the Most trusted among contemporary artists, Richter has used during the past 10 years, with small breaks in 2008-2010 and 2018. In September 2019 returned to the trust rating in the first place (from sixth) and, in the opinion of the respondents ArtTactic, is also the leader in the first half of 2020, we have interviewed experts believe that the market will Richter be able to survive the current crisis associated with the pandemic Covid-19. Closest rivals Richter in ranking recognized contemporaries — trio of artists with the same confidence indicator 71 of 100: John Baldessari (Marian Goodman gallery), George Condo (gallery Skarstedt) and SigmarPolke (gallery David Zwirner).

table 2. The indicator of confidence in the market, Gerhard Richter, 2005-2020 (100 — absolute trust and confidence in the future growth prospects 0 — total lack of confidence)

Gerhard Richter is the sole leader in the rankings of contemporary artists, which the respondents ArtTactic twice predicted a successful future in ten years — in 2009 (92 of 100) and 2000 (85 of 100), respectively. The second line with a small gap also twice took Cindy Sherman (Skarstedt gallery), the value — 86 out of 100 (2009), and 77 out of 100 (2020), respectively.

In 2020 Richter's work was exhibited at the auction-41 times in 34 cases (83 %) were sold for a total of $8.38 million Among the formats of the works were in the lead photo — 17 lots, followed by a small-sized painting — 13 lots, lottery products consisted of 10 lots, one of the works represented original graphics on paper. Any work claiming to be called "masterpiece", for obvious reasons the auction house for auction in 2020 is not yet exposed.

the artist's Market has already experienced one recession (2007-2009), when the author was recognized today's top-художника, and did so very successfully. Sale of a painting by Gerhard Richter in 2007 was similar: 55% of unsold lots. In the following, 2008, the number of lots designed by a German abstract artist auctions is artificially reduced, in particular price segment over $1 million in three auction season, by the fall of 2010, the volume of public sales of works by Richter have already exceeded pre-crisis levels — $76,9 million.

table 3. Sales of works by Gerhard Richter at auction, 2015-2019

Review AI Many of those who attended December's Art Basel Miami Beach in 2014 and have not met her on any work of Gerhard Richter, thought it was a career German abstract artist. The market also reacted to contain proposals for-другому: after just 3 months held the most successful sale Richter in auction history. The fact that in the year of its 150-летия the leading art Museum in the world, the metro has put a personal exhibition of the artist in his plan speaks of in vivo introduction 88-летнего Richter in the company of untouchables — from both critics and crises in any of their manifestations. Do not forget that the German rounded out the top five for the amount guaranteed by auction houses and lots, and above it — only gone artists (just the first "guaranteed top ten" living artists three: Richter, Christopher Wool and Peter Doig — protégé galleries Gagosian and Michael Werner). From the beginning of 2020 auction sale of valuable works by Gerhard Richter constantly tolerated by collectors and auction houses: first, from London to new-Йорк from-за "of Broksita", then — from offline to online, and today was just frozen and waiting for the resumption of trading physical. Six-foot spatula Richter, which he expertly works in the same documentary, it will probably be longer than marketing the leash, which he associated with art-рынком. But the leash keeps this Marian Goodman — and this means that he is in safe hands, guaranteeing the retention of taken height.

In the next issue of the series "Contemporary artists in crisis" we tell the leader of the rating of confidence among the young stars of art-рынка — Rashid Johnson.

Denys Belkevych, AI