Pricing contemporary art. Part 1
ARTinvestment.RU   09 июня 2020

Feminism, artists-бренды and accelerating career — main markers of the past decade, market

In may 2020 AI held webinar "Pricing and valuation of art", held in the atmosphere of hot discussions in the air. Guest webinar was Anna Lipskaya — assessment specialist art and founder of d ART Method (London). Continuing the theme of the webinar we offer our readers a series of articles Anne Lipski on pricing and evaluating art in the context of formation of contemporary artists. As usual, when opening the new heading of the first article — introductory, intended for immersion in a theme, it concerns the main trends with which artists and the entire contemporary art market came up to 2020.

the coronavirus Pandemic has severely hit all areas of the arts. International museums are planning new rules and restrictions for visitors, major auction houses and fairs urgently transferred all the sales online-формат, galleries testing the remote means of communication with collectors. Perhaps only artists manage to find the positive side of emergency: the complexity and limitations have always served as a rich source of inspiration.

it is too early to make a prediction about what will happen to the international art market in the coming years. But it is already clear that there will be many transformations. And while we are watching the development of events, it's time to stop and remember what changes we have seen over the last decade and what trends are especially significant.

Correction of the history of art — on course for artists

One of the main achievements of the last decade — increased attention to the creativity of the beautiful half of humanity. Albeit late, but the accelerated recognition of artists is gaining momentum. Industry art realized that the artist is significantly undervalued compared to their male counterparts, both from a historical and a market perspective. Most failed to achieve significant success in life. For example, the paintings of Jackson Pollock are known around the world, and the work of his wife, no less talented artist Lee Krasner, is familiar to all. Or the surrealist photographer Dora Maar in the first place known as the Muse of Pablo Picasso. There are many examples, and so lately the art world has devoted great attention to this issue.

International funds actively acquiring the work of artists in their collections, exhibitions dedicated to them and emphasize their historical significance. Museums and galleries also fill in the gaps and often organize exhibitions for artists. This trend is especially strong in contemporary art, where commercial galleries are committed to supporting career artists and to have at least half of the female names from the total number of artists in the representation. Thus, it is possible to see all the variety of themes, ideas and artistic practices of artists. And here distinguished contemporary art, in which all relevant — from concise, succinct statements Jenny Holzer to massive installations Phillida Barlow.

the Market reacts to changes even faster: almost every major sale we seeprice records artists. Of the last significant stand out sales transactions with the works of Ruth Asawa, Louise Bourgeois and Pat Steyr. Revaluation of works by artists — is perhaps one of the most positive trends. We have to learn a lot of new names in the history of art and to observe their influence on the history of art and the dynamics of prices.

Artists brands

In 2008, British artist Damien Hirst shocked the art-рынок contract c Sotheby's on the sale of their works. This was the first attempt of direct collaboration of the artist with the auction house, without the participation of the gallery. A risky move, but, contrary to fears, everything went well. Was sold 223 works, almost all of them exceeded price expectations, and the total auction revenue was $200 million at a Later time, analyzing the results of the work back on the market, we see that these acquisitions were not a good investment. However this event turned the traditional view of artists about their capabilities. Today, many prefer to take control of their career and only partially rely on services galleries. Artists use a variety of channels to promote your art: meet the collectors, participate in fairs, organising sales. Successfully creating your own brand gives artists considerable weight and a competitive advantage. If before the galleries were focused on the retention of collectors, but now their attention turned to authors: galleries be agents for their artists, compete for leaderboard and send everything to promote them. In this cooperation the importance of the role of the gallery should not be underestimated. The gallery builds a balance between the cultural significance of the artist and his market value is controlling his reputation and interpretirovat art ideas. Quality create its own brand, opens for artists of many creative and financial opportunities. This is exactly why market leaders tend to use all the tools of growth, both independently and through galleries.

the Acceleration of the artist's career

Obviously, every year the internal processes in the arts are developing much faster. This is especially true of a creative career.

Today, artists have the opportunity to achieve the success — recognition of the community, strong financial performance, creative freedom, etc. — is much faster than before, when it all usually came only in adulthood, or after death. Now those artists who understand how to manipulate the system much faster can come to its goal.

In fact, there are four main catalyst for the career of a young artist: gallery, curator, critic and collector. Having support from them, you can very quickly go from struggling artist to sought-after masters. Today this position is as important as and hundreds of years ago, but only our contemporaries no longer need to spend years and make major investments to meet them. The modern artist has the ability to reach a wide audience, to talk about their work and to establish direct contact with galleries, curators, critics and collectors, that is, to use the tools that you need to apply forour own promotion.

the Auction house open to artists of any level, whom they see potential. In the past, the artist took years of successful sales in the gallery, before his work came at a major public auction. Now even the leading auction houses arrange specialized auction of young and emerging artists. Moreover, on the main evening auction near masterpieces meet contemporary works created recently. The same applies to online-продаж: nothing prevents the artist to make our own work on the platform and on the same day to communicate directly with the collector.

And yet the openness of art-индустрии does not automatically guarantee results for all participants. Efficient use of all channels available today, depends first of all from the artist himself. Undoubtedly, additional factors such as favorable economic situation and institutional support, are important and especially relevant now to maintain the talent and industry as a whole. However, as history shows, the most rapid recovery will be those artists that adapt to the situation and use this time to strengthen their own creative voices.

In the next article we will talk about how artists can affect the value of his art today.

Anna Lipskaya, d’ARTMethod (London),
cpecial for AI