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…
Trip to Africa and today’s art market
October 14, 2008 at 6:38 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentI can’t believe it – I’m gone for two weeks – a life long dream of safari in Africa - and I come back to total financial chaos. One of our group did get their Blackberry occasionally going in the bush of Kenya, so we did get cryptic ominous headlines ie World Meltdown, Wall Street Gone to Hell in a Handbasket – stuff like that – but we were a million miles away and had only one job - to see the lions, cheeta cubs, giraffes, and baboons (I loved the baboons) etc. up close and personal. It was amazing, and now that I’m back, I’m so glad I went while I still had money. I never would have gone now that I’m poor again. Oh well, easy come…
So what about the art market? I have to say it’s been awfully quiet around here. Continue reading Trip to Africa and today’s art market…
The Cranes of Chelsea
October 1, 2008 at 8:27 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: chelsea, real estate and art
September marked the beginning of yet another art season, and it’s been seven years since I moved my gallery from 520 Broadway to 20th street in West Chelsea. I moved into my new gallery on September 18, 2001, only seven days after the world-shattering events of September 11. Everyone was still in shock, devastated by the loss of life, by the loss of our sense of security. We had the job of starting a new art season and putting together a new space, and yet it was hard to believe that anyone would ever want to buy art again. Continue reading The Cranes of Chelsea…
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…
All art galleries are different
September 8, 2008 at 10:17 pm | In art market, collecting art, contemporary art | Leave a CommentTags: Add new tag, art business, Art Galleries
There are almost 400 galleries in Chelsea today and just as every artist is different, and the market for every artist is different, so is every art dealer and his gallery different. Every “gallerist” – the current terminology -has his own agenda – aesthetically, financially or socially. Continue reading All art galleries are different…
Some factors that determine an artist’s prices
September 8, 2008 at 7:59 pm | In Art world, art market, art price, collecting art | Leave a CommentWhy an artist gets a particular price for a particular work is the $64,000 question. As we see so clearly now, markets for everything from stocks to tulip bulbs to internet companies can be totally irrational and volatile. However, the art market has NO bottom line, NO eventual bankruptcy, no logical basis for any valuation except for the perception of the art world – art historians, critics, collectors, gallerists, etc. The way this art world values one artist over another or the even value of one work of art by an artist over a similar work by the same artist, can be seem capricious and illogical and often is. Continue reading Some factors that determine an artist’s prices…
How do you establish prices for art – It’s a mystery
September 8, 2008 at 6:53 pm | In art market, art price | Leave a Comment
Good Question!!!
Naturally it depends on the kind of market you’re working with. Prices of paintings by historically important artists who have been at auction are readily available on line. It’s simple and relatively inexpensive to get an auction history. For the commercial market – ie. your Ertes, Dalis and other way overpriced limited editions, the prices are a function of the buyer’s naivete. Continue reading How do you establish prices for art – It’s a mystery…
What should I look for in a good painting?
September 8, 2008 at 5:17 pm | In collecting art, good art, judging art | Leave a Comment
Remember what I said before – you have to look, look, and look some more. The more you look, the faster you learn to recognize clichés. So often a newbie art looker will be totally impressed by the realism in a picture, but then, after looking at millions of similar pictures – landscapes, ducks, etc. come to recognize that none of these hundreds of paintings have anything unique in their style. You simply cannot tell the paintings of one artist from another. In fact, anyone can learn how to paint if they want to learn and sometimes it seems to me as if everyone is an artist. Making a nice painting is not hard work but making an original painting is. Continue reading What should I look for in a good painting?…
How to tell good art from bad
September 8, 2008 at 5:14 pm | In art market, collecting art, contemporary art | Leave a Comment
There is no bottom line in the art world, no numbers to add up at the end of the year to tell you how good something is. Value – and I’m talking artistic value now, not financial value – is always only a matter of perception. But here are some points to note. Continue reading How to tell good art from bad…
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