Contemporary Art World -101

I just gave an interview on a beginners guide to the contemporary art market and I’m afraid I wasn’t very helpful.  The interviewer kept asking me about value and I kept talking about how necessary art is for the soul.  I think, that’s not what he wanted to hear.  He wanted to hear about how to value art.  Which is a difficult question?  Especially now, when no one knows the value of anything.

So here are some of my ideas about what is and what is not a good value in the contemporary art market.  Please note that this is a very different subject from investing in art.  Art is a crummy monetary investment, even now when prices are getting lower by the minute.  However, a wonderful work of art that you love pays millions of dividends in pleasure and enlightenment.

#1, Please remember that there is a price floor working here.   There is a minimum that a working artist should receive- some reasonable amount for his efforts.  Let’s say he makes 2 paintings a month and the gallery sells them for $3000 each.  Assuming that the gallery does sell 10 paintings a year, the artist receives $15,000 a year.  (Remember the gallery gets 50% of the sales price.) Now let’s also assume that the artist has a master’s degree and student loans to pay off.  Even with a day job, that’s not a lot to live on.  So please, never try to get a good sized painting for less than $3000.  It’s the least you can do.  And try to extrapolate that into works on paper which should sell for $500 – $1000 for an unknown artist.   That is a minimum for a one of a kind, unique piece of art.

#2 – However,   If the work on art you are considering is a giclee or any other sort of poster that is  merely a photomechanical reproduction of some existing painting – or any other kind of photomechanical print,  you should be paying between $100-$500 plus the cost of the frame – never over that.

#3   #2 does not apply to the entire world of original prints, in which the artist himself makes the template (or matrix) from which a lithograph, etching, or silkscreen is printed.  If the artists’ hand  is involved, it is an original,  even if at the same time,  it is made in multiple form.  A reproduction occurs when a photo is taken of a previously existing work of art and printed up.   #2 also does not apply to original photography in which the artist himself is involved.

#3   Always remember that,  although you never invest, you also don’t want to overpay.  You can always negotiate,  especially now.  Kathy’s Law of the Art Market -  Prices never  go down  - Discounts go up.  Just ask.  But don’t please go crazy with the discount, even if you can.  We need our artists and our dealers to be able to stay in business and ride this out.

#4  So what makes one thing worth $30,000 and the other worth $6000.  While both artists will typically have a good record of exhibitions around the country, the $30,000 artist is often included in non-profit spaces and  museum group shows.  Curators are familiar with the work, as are his peers in the art world, and he has been reviewed by major art publications.  He is therefore,   talked about within the art world, and  his work is  ”part of the contemporary art world conversation”.

#4a.  The $6000 artist might be every bit as good as her more expensive peers,  but might have one or more  market aspects going against her.  She might be over 40.  The  art  market keeps looking for the young,  even though many artists don’t begin to hit their stride till their 50’s.  She might be a recluse.  Often wonderful artists are waaaay too shy to expose themselves and their work to the humiliation of being rejected.  They never put themselves out in the market.  This is very common for artists who make art involving their emotional lives as opposed to art about politics, gender and other academically taught subjects.   Or the art might be just considered old-fashioned by the contemporary community.   In any case, these often quite good artists, are not part of the “conversation”

#5   Is the $30,000 artist, still worth $30,000 6 months into the recession?  Time will tell.     During the last big art world blowout in the early 90’s, many artists became literally stuck at their price level and, because of inflexibility, just didn’t sell any art at all.    As I have mentioned before,  artists have an emotional connection to their price level that makes it hard for them to lower prices, but the severity of this crisis might lower some expectations.  It will be interesting to see.

#6  Will the $30,000 artist be worth more in ten years.  Not necessarily at all.  But maybe, you never know.  That artist might turn out to be one of the most important and influential artists of his generation and his career might be rich and varied over his lifetime.  Every stylistic phase he enters might be full of resonance and meaning for collectors and especially,  for other artists.  And the value of that $30,000 might not rise in our lifetime because the art market never leaves the doldrums.  Or , as economists predict, we’re in for a whirlwind of inflation in which case everyone goes to the art market as an inflation hedge and the market – after this temporary swoon, continues it’s upward trajectory.  Your guess is as good as mine.