Contemporary Art World -101

People still need art in their lives, maybe now more than ever.  It’s been quite a month hasn’t it, and the burning question in my world is , “how’s the art market? ” The answer is “sloooow”.    But this will be my fourth recession (if you count the entire decade of the 70′as one), and frankly, in the past I’ve always done  alright in a downturn.  The agenda of my gallery is to provide beautiful, serious art at very reasonable prices.   In hard times, the competition of speculative, market-driven work looks shaky, and my artists are even better values  by comparison.  Still, I dread this  downturn that everyone says is coming.  Recent auctions for contemporary art in London were dismal, and for many of the galleries I’ve talked to, activity has ground to a halt. There are a lot of people milling around the galleries  in Chelsea.  There will always be hundreds of artists from all over the world wandering around looking at art.  But my friends tell me their buyers are not there.   We definitely feel a freeze as well.  The phone is not ringing as much and emails are not clamoring for attention,   but we are, amazingly, still selling art.    Not as much as last month, but way more than I’ve anticipated.

People still, desperately need leadership in their lives and that’s why I am so excited about voting for Obama on Tuesday and I’m praying that the results will give us a president who can bring us some hope.

So what else is new in the art world?  Morandi at the Met, Van Gogh at the Modern,  for sure,  Mary Heilmann at the New Museum.  Enjoy.