Random Ideas about Value in the Art Market
March 10, 2009 at 8:18 pm | In art investment, art market, art price, art prices, art recession, collecting art, contemporary art | 2 Comments
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. Continue reading Random Ideas about Value in the Art Market…
Why the market got sooo excessive and what will happen next
January 29, 2009 at 6:04 pm | In Art world, art market, collecting art, contemporary art, judging art | 7 CommentsI’ve always blamed the excesses of the contemporary art market on Warhol. Warhol’s art came out of Duchamp, yes. ( Marcel Duchamp was the guy who exhibited a urinal and said it was art.) The grand idea is that art is anything that an artist says is art. Great. But Warhol, being a product of his time, added a devious twist. The “anything” he chose to be art, was branded commercial images from the media. As you probably don’t recall being too young, it was the proliferation of homogenized media in the 60’s that fed the cult of celebrity and the growth of a consumerist society. Warhol was a child of the 60’s in that all he really cared about was buying stuff and being famous. So, of course, his art reflected the time. He was a self-manufactured brand and subject of his art was how branding created a need for a consumer product or celebrity. So why was Warhol, who recycled the photographic images of our consumer/celebrity culture, so popular? The answer is what I call the Warhol paradox. Continue reading Why the market got sooo excessive and what will happen next…
We need art in our lives not in our portfolios
January 4, 2009 at 9:59 pm | In art investment, art market, art price, art prices, art recession | Leave a CommentArt is a crummy investment but if you love it and need it, now is the best time to buy it. It is a crummy investment because you must love your art, and enjoy it’s pleasures every day. If you purchase for investment and see dollar signs instead of art, it is not good for the art or for your soul. In the unlikely case your art appreciates in value be very thankful that you did not have to pay more for the same pleasure. Continue reading We need art in our lives not in our portfolios…
This is the best week to look at art!!!
December 2, 2008 at 6:19 pm | In Art Galleries, art market, recommendations | Leave a CommentWe all still need art. This week everyone who is anyone – who is not me – is off to Miami this week for Art Basel. And therefore Chelsea is empty, making it the perfect time to look at art. Among the many wonderful exhibitions to see this month are Joan Mitchell at Cheim and Read, Tomma Abts at David Zwirner Gallery, Robert Moskowitz at D’amelio Terras, and especially Tom Duncan at Edlin Gallery. One might note that most of these recommendations are for painting exhibitions.
I’ve been thinking about the effect the economy will have on the art being shown in Chelsea Continue reading This is the best week to look at art!!!…
What happens now
November 23, 2008 at 2:58 am | In Art Galleries, Art world, art market | Leave a CommentNow that the art market is in free fall, we’re all scratching our heads wondering what to do next. I say we should get a bunch of art dealers together and all go to the movies on Wednesday afternoons. Can you imagine anything more self-indugent? and more fun? But really what starts happening is that we all increase our marketing efforts – so you’ll see more emails, blogs etc., from your favorite dealers. And then, some folks will give up. Continue reading What happens now…
Transparent web site
November 23, 2008 at 2:37 am | In Art Galleries, art market, art prices, gallery web site | Leave a CommentOne of Lisa’s painter friends remarked to me about my how lively my web site is, and contrasted it to that of her gallery which is much more staid, and typical. So many random people compliment me on my site and I’m proud of how it differs from most galleries. It’s amazing how a web site reflects a personality. Continue reading Transparent web site…
Attitude Sells Art
November 16, 2008 at 8:12 pm | In Art world, art market, attitude, contemporary art | 1 CommentWe had a wonderful opening on Thursday of amazing paintings by Lisa Breslow and we even sold several. They’re really soo beautiful, they’ll sell in any market.
But I want to write today about the importance of context in the selling of art. I have this theory that half the people in the world need to have their art presented on a silver platter. Otherwise it’s not important enough for them. The other half of the world is like me. When I look at a piece of art I think, “Would the work still speak to me if I saw it hanging in my gas station?” That’s my test. Unlike most of my colleagues, my definition of good art is that it can stand on its own. I would love it if I saw it at Sam’s Shell. It shouldn’t need explanation, back story, or verbiage. Continue reading Attitude Sells Art…
My fool-proof art investment strategy
November 10, 2008 at 11:27 pm | In Art world, art market, collecting art, contemporary art | 1 CommentUp until last month, I had the greatest, totally fool-proof strategy for making lots of money in the crazy world of hot-off-the press art. Of course, I never used it myself. I don’t like art as investment. Right now, however, nothing is gonna to work. There are big auctions tonight and tomorrow night and things don’t look good. For the past 4 years, so many of us have looked in open-mouthed disbelief as prices soared beyond – waaay beyond – the logical. People were spending stupid money on last year’s flipped Richard Prince and over produced Murakamis. How does the art made yesterday get to be an asset class? Didn’t anyone remember 1991????
But one day the stupid money will be back and my strategy will be viable again. Continue reading My fool-proof art investment strategy…
May we live in interesting times
October 30, 2008 at 6:35 pm | In Art world, art market, art price, art recession | Leave a CommentPeople 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. Continue reading May we live in interesting times…
The Cult of the Young
September 8, 2008 at 11:00 pm | In art market, collecting art, contemporary art | Leave a Comment“It is much easier for an art dealer to find new artists for old clients than it is to find new clients for old artists” – Peter Plagens on What Drives the Contemporary Art Market
I read this in the New Art Examiner in the late 70’s or early 80’s and it struck me then – as it does now – as a logical explanation of why the art world takes some lucky number of kids straight from MFA programs and makes them overnight art stars. Articles in the Times talk about how art dealers hang around the studios at Columbia, or Yale – about how a particularly promising pick has 3 or 4 dealers competing for him, like a football scouts hanging around high schools. But it was always thus. Continue reading The Cult of the Young…
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