A New Sentimental Art Market Era Pt. 4 -artmarketblog.com

A New Sentimental Art Market Era Pt. 4 -artmarketblog.com

It has been said before that nostalgia prospers during recessionary times so, considering that the western world has just begun to recover from a major recessionary period, it would make sense that the art market is trending towards a focus on the nostalgic and sentimental.  The length of time that this era of sentimentality and nostalgia will last is anyone’s guess, but given that the boom lasted longer than most expected, the recovery time for the contemporary sector of the market could be just as long – except that it probably won’t be.  It would be nice to be able to report that the saying ‘Once Bitten, Twice Shy’ applies to the contemporary art market but, unfortunately, there are signs that the next puppets are already being groomed in preparation for the next inevitable contemporary cozenage.  The only question is how long it will take for the art market to once again become hypnotised by the glitz and glamour of the consumerist contemporary art regime.  In the mean time, it is great to see a level of intimacy, passion and involvement being brought back into the market that was conspicuously absent during the contemporary driven boom.

According to an article titled ‘Investors renew passion for modern masters’ ,which appeared in the Guardian newspaper, “When an alluring seated nude, La Belle Romaine, broke all records for a painting by the Italian artist Modigliani on Tuesday – selling for $69m (£42.7m) at auction in New York – the extraordinary price tag marked a historic moment in the art market. It shows that investors are turning back to the relative certainties of the modern masters and away from more risky contemporary art”.  This statement confirms that buyers are taking a much more cautious approach to the art market by buying works that they are more familiar with and have some sort of affinity with – a key characteristic of a sentimental art market era.  The care and thought that buyers are exhibiting when making purchases shows that they are seeking a much more intimate and passionate connection with the works of art that they are purchasing which is a trend that one would expect to see during a sentimental art market era.  Another key characteristic of this sentimental art market era is a sort of nationalistic sentimentalism that is likely to emerge as disillusioned collectors and investors who experienced the contemporary art market correction seek more genuine and justifiable reasons for purchasing works of art – reasons that provide a more fulfilling, intimate and involved art collecting experience as opposed to the cold and calculated commercialism that characterised the contemporary art market boom. Nationalistic sentimentalism can be defined as the purchase of works of art from one’s own country out of a sense of pride and sentimentality.

Both these characteristics allude to a market that is seeking a more intimate and involved connection with the works of art they are collecting or investing in.  I would expect that this trend will continue to develop throughout 2011 as the global art market attempts to heal the wounds that the emerging contemporary art market bubble inflicted.  This will be the last post on this topic for the time being unless any further corroborating indicators come to light.

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

A New Sentimental Art Market Era Pt. 2 – artmarketblog.com

A New Sentimental Art Market Era Pt. 2 – artmarketblog.com

The demise of the world famous Polaroid Company, and the subsequent sale of many iconic and nostalgic images from the Polaroid Company collection, is yet another example of an event that ties in with the onset of a new sentimental art market era that I began writing about in my previous post. A casualty of the digital age, the bankrupt Polaroid Company was forced to sell off 1200 photographs by artists such as Ansel Adams, Mr. Close, Mr. Wegman, Robert Rauschenberg, David Hockney, Robert Frank, Robert Mapplethorpe, Warhol and Lucas Samaras to pay off creditors. The June 2010 sale conducted by Sotheby’s attracted huge interested and managed to exceed expectations with a final total of $12.5 million – well above the high estimate – and a new auction record for Ansel Adams whose ‘Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park’ achieved the sale’s top price of $722,500. Along with the sale of the Lehman Brothers collection, the sale of the Polaroid collection is yet another art market event that evokes a sense of nostalgia; the sale of the Polaroid collection was a particularly sentimental occasion because it essentially represented the demise of an entire artistic medium. Together, these two events signalled the beginning of the end of an era that started with the art market losing its innocence with the Sotheby’s price fixing scandal that surfaced in 2000, and the world losing its innocence with the life changing events of 11th September 2001.

The art market era we are in the process of farewelling will be remembered for three things: the rise of emerging markets, conspicuous consumption and a voracious appetite for the work of daring young contemporary artists. As much as I am enjoying an art market far less obsessed with daring young artists and conspicuous consumption, I am sure that we have not seen the last of either of them. I do, however, believe that we have almost seen the last of the mania associated with emerging markets. The maturation of what were some of the last undeveloped art markets capable of playing on the world stage makes me think that the global art market of the future may be struggle to fill the void that these now rapidly developing markets have left. South East Asian countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia have all experienced rapid rates of art market development that have thrust many artists from these countries onto the world stage. Also experiencing considerable development are markets in regions such as Latin-America and the Middle East. Even China is taking steps to develop a more mature and accountable art market with the development of an art trading organization that will set an example in helping to regulate the art market. The Beijing Imperial City Art Trading Center is, according to an article from Xinhuanet, a “two-story art-trading center covers 3,700 square meters and includes different sections for displaying, trading and education”.

Sentimentality is an unavoidable consequence of the maturation process that the few previously undeveloped art markets have undergone over the last few years. The hype that usually surrounds the “discovery” of an untapped, undeveloped art market has to be replaced by something when there are no longer any underdeveloped markets to discover. Those previously undeveloped markets also need to replace the momentum that an emerging, developing market experiences with a more long term and sustainable source of momentum. Emerging art markets are usually developed using fresh, emerging talent because it is easier to introduce unknown fresh talent into the contemporary art market than it is to introduce unknown (from a global perspective) established masters to the modern/classical art market. As one would expect, when the momentum associated with an emerging art market runs dry, that market will begin looking to the past for new sources of momentum and thus automatically develop a more sentimental and nostalgic market.

To be continued……………..

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

A New Sentimental Art Market Era Pt. 1 – artmarketblog.com

A New Sentimental Art Market Era Pt. 1 – artmarketblog.com

As the tainted artistic fruits of the great Lehman Bros. deception begin new lives in the hands of far less unscrupulous owners, the art market continues along a path of reminiscence and reflection that I believe signals a new, yet perhaps to be short lived, era of sentimentality. The beginning of a series of much hyped fire sales of the Lehman Bros. art collection could be seen as the start of a symbolic cleansing – the moment that the unjustifiable excesses of a once heady contemporary driven art market were finally laid to rest (at least for now). Ironically, one of the most successful lots of the recent Sotheby’s auction of Lehman Bros. items was a Lehman Bros. sign from their UK office which fetched 34,000 pounds, more than 15 times the 2-3,000 pound estimate.

The Lehman Bros. sale revealed two types of sentimentalism driving the market. Firstly, there is the sentimentality being exhibited by those investors and collectors whose unpleasant experience of the contemporary art market correction has evoked a highly nostalgic response that seeks the safety and stability of the historically familiar. Secondly, there is the sentimentality being exhibited by more optimistic collectors and investors who see events such as the collapse of Lehman Bros. as historically significant events, albeit significant in a negative way, that offer the potentially profitable opportunity to acquire a souvenir of the event to be sold some time in the future. The successful sale of the Lehman Bros. signs, and the popularity of works from the Lehman Bros. collection that were by more established artists with proven track records, is evidence of both forms of sentimentalism.

Although the runaway train that was the contemporary art market has now well and truly been run off the rails, the wounds of the fall from grace that the contemporary art market experienced are only just beginning to heal. In the absence of the superficial and short lived pleasures that the contemporary art market provided, and with memories of the correction still fresh in their minds, collectors and investors appear to be seeking solace in the familiarity and safety of the past. It is important to note that not all contemporary artists have been completely abandoned; however, the focus has shifted from freshly created works by emerging talent to more classic and historically important works by the doyens of the contemporary art world – the classic contemporary if you like. In other words, when I refer to a focus on the past, I am referring to the recent past as well as the distant past.

The recent major auctions of Asian art at Sotheby’s and Christie’s are a good example of the focus on classic antiquarian objects as well as the classic contemporary with buyers paying well above the odds for works considered to be historically significant and museum worthy. With regards to the wider Asian art market, there has been a noticeable process of maturation that has been taking place over the last year or so. This maturation has seen collectors and investors develop a more considered and connoisseurial approach to the art market. According to a spokesperson from Sotheby’s regarding the recent Asia week sales “The market is getting mature and we can see the results. Collectors want important historical works from big artists”. Another Sotheby’s expert, Kevin Ching (Sotheby’s CEO in Asia), mentioned in a press release that “Along with Asia’s growing wealth is a hunger for collecting and owning great art that is broader and deeper than ever before. There is also a healthy and growing awareness that the experience of collecting requires an investment of passion that can pay great aesthetic dividends”

To be continued…………..

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

Portraits as Art Market Currency Pt. 6 – artmarketblog.com

Portraits as Art Market Currency Pt. 6 – artmarketblog.com

As the final post in this series I want to summarise my findings, but before I do I want to reiterate the reason that I wrote this series of posts on Portraits as Art Market Currency. The catalyst for this series of posts was, and still is, the continuing saga relating to the supposed instability of some of the world’s most significant economies. Economists and journalists have been making predictions for quite some time regarding the supposedly impending crisis that range from “the extent of the crisis is being grossly exaggerated” to “it is only a matter of time before we experience a catastrophic global financial crisis”. Even though opinions relating to the extent of the crisis vary greatly, it seems that a majority of experts believe that there is at least a significant chance that there will be a series of negative events relating to the economic status of some countries in the near future. Although it is unlikely that a complete global financial meltdown will take place, hypothesising on the effects that such an event would have on value of the art market reveals extremely interesting information regarding the way fine art is valued, and the way we assign value to art objects. This information is extremely useful for investors in fine art as it highlights the importance of having a strategy, and provides indications of how that strategy should be structured.

The reason I made the comparison between portraits and currency is because the way we assign value to currency can tell us a lot about the way we assign value to fine art. For several decades there has been heated debate surrounding the way currency is valued – a debate that stems from the global change to a fiat money system from a Gold Standard. To recap , the Gold Standard “was a commitment by participating countries to fix the prices of their domestic currencies in terms of a specified amount of gold” (US Library of Economics and Liberty). The benefit of the gold standard is that currency essentially had intrinsic value because it was basically able to be exchanged for a certain amount of gold. According to gold expert Paul Nathan in an article on Kitco.com “The intrinsic theory of value holds that worth or value is contained within an object. It holds that economic goods possess value inherently, innately, despite the market, despite supply and demand, i.e., in spite of men’s values, choices, and actions”. The Fiat money system, on the other hand, is currency that a government has declared to be legal tender, despite the fact that it has no intrinsic value and is not backed by reserves. Historically, most currencies were based on physical commodities such as gold or silver, but fiat money is based solely on faith. Because fiat money is not linked to physical reserves, it risks becoming worthless due to hyperinflation. If people lose faith in a nation’s paper currency, the money will no longer hold any value.

What I found particularly interesting when researching this topic is that the art market can essentially be divided into two different markets – one market that has similarities to the Gold Standard, and another market that has similarities to the fiat money system. Just like the fiat money system, the contemporary art market relies very much on faith in the artists whose work is being bought and sold. The value of the work of contemporary artists is dictated by the galleries who sell the work with buyers basically expected to have faith in the valuation set by the gallery. Just like with fiat currency, if people lose faith in a contemporary artist then their work is severely devalued, or even rendered worthless. The market for classical figurative works of art, on the other hand, resembles the gold standard because of the intrinsic value many of these works contain due to their physical characteristics and their status as historical documents. Regardless of what happens to the art market or to the reputation of the artist in question, such classical figurative works of art (portraits in particular) will always have significant technical, historical and documentary value; just as currency backed by gold will always have value regardless of what happens to the economy of the country whose currency is backed by the gold. When it comes to art investment and wealth preservation, the security and stability of the value placed on a work of art is extremely important. Although the glamorous world of contemporary art market speculation may seem to be the most popular and most viable method of profiting from the purchase and sale of art – fine art is, by the very nature of the art market, a long term investment. In fact, the benefits of investing in art can only really be taken advantage of when a long term approach is taken.

To finish with there are three important points that I want to emphasise:

1. the long term value of a work of art is linked to a certain degree to the extent to which one can disassociate the work of art from the artist, and the extent to which one can assign value to the actual characteristics of the art object as an independent entity.

2. the value that can be placed on portraits because of their status as historical documents is the sort of future proof intrinsic value that will always remain with the portrait and cannot be disassociated from the portrait. It is this sort of intrinsic value that makes the portrait a good candidate for use as currency.

3. when it comes to art investment and wealth preservation using fine art, it is possible to take a strategic and mathematical approach that virtually guarantees success over the long term. This sort of approach requires, however, require discipline, patience and objectivity.

Part 1:
http://artmarketblog.com/2010/08/10/portraits-as-art-market-currency-pt-1-artmarketblog-com/

Part 2:
http://artmarketblog.com/2010/08/19/portraits-as-art-market-currency-pt-2-%e2%80%93-artmarketblog-com/

Part 3:
http://artmarketblog.com/2010/08/31/portraits-as-art-market-currency-pt-3-2/

Part 4:
http://artmarketblog.com/2010/09/10/portraits-as-art-market-currency-pt-4-artmarketblog-com/

Part 5:
http://artmarketblog.com/2010/09/17/portraits-as-art-market-currency-pt-5-artmarketblog-com-2/

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

Portraits as Art Market Currency Pt. 4 – artmarketblog.com

Portraits as Art Market Currency Pt. 4 – artmarketblog.com

With this post I want to explore an analogy between music and fine art that I believe will help make further sense of the portraits as art market currency concept that I am attempting to explain. When it comes to classical music – ie. art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times – a situation exists where the skill and ability of the musician/s playing the music is more important than their profile or level of fame. Although it would be preferable to have the original composer play the music if that were an option, at the end of the day it is the quality of the music being played that takes precedence over who is actually playing the music. In other words, the actual music produced is usually more important than the person who produced it.  The reason this is significant is that the concept I am trying to explain focuses on the value of the actual result of the artistic process, the artistic product, as opposed to the value placed on the artist and their persona or profile.  I chose classical music to illustrate this point because of the high level to which instrumental classical music can be disassociated from the people producing the music and valued according to the technical and constructional characteristics of the composition – in a similar way that figurative portraiture can be valued independent of the profile of the artist (a concept I will explore later on).

When it comes to the eligibility of something to be used as currency, one of the most important characteristics that something must have is the ability to be able to be judged/evaluated according to a universal set of criteria and standards.  It is the universality of the classical music language combined with the technical and intellectual nature of the compositions that should theoretically allow any classical expert from any country to judge a composition or performance by the same standards and criteria, and come up with the same or similar results.  Although opinion regarding a particular piece of classical music may differ from critic to critic due to personal preference, a critique of the technical and compositional characteristics of a traditional classical musical score by a classical music expert should theoretically be similar to that of every other classical music expert because such  a critique is more of a scientific analysis than an artistic analysis.  According to Joshua Fineberg, a composer and Harvard University music professor, in an article titled ‘Classical Music: Why Bother?’ written for salon.com, “If one believes in the intrinsic value of art, then — contrary to most contemporary ways of thinking — taste and social construction are of decidedly secondary importance. Composers often speak of pieces being well constructed or clever, sometimes even brilliant, and then go on to say that they don’t particularly care for them. This is because personal preference is seen as being much less important and enduring than these other, harder-to-define criteria. Even real Shakespeare-haters are unlikely to criticize the quality of his verse. We can all feel the genius even if we are not all sensitive to its charms (or at least this is what I tell myself)”.  What is interesting is that Fineberg’s musings about classical music are totally applicable to classical figurative art, and classical figurative portraiture in particular – just replace the term “composers” with art historians or art critics.

To be continued……..

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

Wyeth and Rosseau at Brunk Auctions – artmarketblog.com

Wyeth and Rosseau at Brunk Auctions – artmarketblog.com

Courtesy Brunk Auctions:

Auction to take place on September 11-12, 2010

Few painters loved hunting dogs more than classically trained American artist Percival Rosseau (1859-1937). “A man should paint what he knows best and I know more about animals than anything else,” he said. Rosseau’s benefactor, industrialist Samuel G. Allen
(1870-1956), shared his affection for hunting dogs. He helped found the Amateur Field Trials Clubs of America (1917) and the English Spaniel Field Trial Association (1922). Two of the Rosseau paintings in the sale are of Allen’s spaniels: A Tripple (sic) Point: Bob, Prince and Ned 1924 and End of a Perfect Day, Allen’s Flag and Queen 1923. Each carries a pre-sale estimate of $40,000/$60,000. Samuel Allen owned at least five Rosseau paintings; Perfect Day was one of them and there is a possibility that Allen also owned Tripple Point.

Rosseau immortalized Samuel Allen’s dogs. Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) did the same for the people he knew and loved. “I’m involved with the people I paint,” he once said. “They are not people I paint and send home.” The sportsmen who posed for Wyeth’s Shore Pine 1939 were his life-long friends, Milton Teel and Maine fisherman Walt Anderson. The scene is Turkey Cove, an inlet near Port Clyde, Maine. The 22 ½ inch by 30 inch watercolor over pencil on paper (est. $60,000/$90,000) was sold by Macbeth Gallery in New York in 1940 and given to the consignor in 1955. Walt Anderson also posed for Wyeth’s Sea Dog, a portrait of the red-bearded old salt owned by the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Lot 0322 Andrew Wyeth (Pennsylvania/Maine, 1917-2009), "Shore Pine, © 1939",

Andrew Wyeth is one of America’s most popular painters. His Shore Pine,
1939 depicts two of his many friends in a skiff on Turkey Cove, Maine. Signed lower left “Andrew Wyeth” the 22 ½ inch by 30 inch watercolor is expected to bring $60,000 to $90,000.

Lot 0317
Percival Leonard Rosseau
(Louisiana/Connecticut/Fayetteville, North Carolina, 1859-1937), “A Tripple [sic] Point; Bob, Prince and Ned, 1924”, signed lower right “Rosseau 1924” and signed and titled verso, oil on canvas, publishing rights label verso for Brown & Bigelow “Subject Number 1312”, 26-1/8 x 38-1/8 in., original wood shallow-cove frame, draw crackle, fiberboard between canvas and stretcher, crackle, flaking top left, abrasions at edges, canvas loose, grime, retouch in areas of draw crackle mainly located in background; frame with popped corners, abrasions
Possibly Samuel Allen, Denton, North Carolina; Brown & Bigelow, New York (label verso); Private Collection, North Carolina
Estimate: $40,000 – $60,000
Reserve: $35,000

Lot 0318
Percival Leonard Rosseau
(Louisiana/Connecticut/North Carolina, 1859-1937), “End of a Perfect Day, Allen’s Flag and Queen, 1923”, signed lower right “Rosseau/1923”, title, notes and date inscribed by the artist verso, oil on canvas, 26-3/8 x 50 in., original carved and giltwood frame,
original stretcher and tacking edge, crackle, cupping, points of abrasion, points of retouch in sky and at draw crackle, card between canvas and stretcher (by artist), recently cleaned.
Acquired from artist by Samuel G. Allen; owner of the dogs; by descent to the consigner.
Estimate: $40,000 – $60,000
Reserve: $40,000

Lot 0319
Percival Leonard Rosseau
(Louisiana/Connecticut/Fayetteville, North Carolina, 1859-1937), “Stylish Work”, signed lower left “Rosseau 1923”, dated, inscribed and titled verso card, oil on canvas, 9-1/4 x 23 in., original gilt wood frame with glass,
good condition, card between canvas and stretcher; frame with chips and losses to corners
Arthur Ackermann & Son, Inc., New York (label verso); Private Collection, North Carolina
Estimate: $2,000 – $3,000

Lot 0322
Andrew Wyeth
(Pennsylvania/Maine, 1917-2009), “Shore Pine, © 1939”, signed lower left “Andrew Wyeth” and stamped verso with reference number “A667”, watercolor over pencil on Arches paper, 22-1/2 x 30 in. (page), modern gilt wood frame,
hinged in, paper tape and adhesive residue verso all edges with toning through to front approximately 3/4 in.
Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1940; by gift to consignor, 1955
Estimate: $60,000 – $90,000
Reserve: $60,000

For more information, contact Jerry Israel (telephone: 828-254-6846 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              828-254-6846      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              828-254-6846      end_of_the_skype_highlighting) at Brunk Auctions,
Asheville, North Carolina

http://www.brunkauctions.com

Art Market Hedge Trends – artmarketblog.com

Art Market Hedge Trends – artmarketblog.com

Although investing in fine art is considered to be a hedge more mainstream investment markets, a new trend has emerged that has seen numerous attempts to launch projects that aim to introduce alternative methods of investing in art as a hedge against the traditional method of investing in art – purchasing a work of art and taking physical ownership. One such project is the collaboration between artist Tom Saunders and art collective Idefix Bloc which with an exhibition of Saunders’ work titled SHOP + OFFICE held at murmurART gallery East London. What makes the SHOP + OFFICE exhibition so unique is that Saunders was not offering his work for sale in the traditional sense. Instead of collectors and investors purchasing physical ownership of an art object that Saunders had produced, as would normally be the case, Saunders offered potential clients the opportunity to purchase the right to buy his art in 10 years’ time for £1 for an immediately payable fee of £2000 pounds, the price that Ferguson Solicitors, the UK law firm, believes is the correct price for an “option” contract, which is essentially what Saunders is offering. Basically, you can pay £2000 now for the right to purchase any piece of the artist’s work in 10 years time for only £1. The lure for investors is the potential to earn huge profits if Saunders becomes a highly successful artist whose work sells for large sums of money, or at least significantly more than the £2000 investment. Saunders’ work could, of course, turn out to be worth less than the £2000, but that is the risk investors take. There are, however, contract provisions that cover premature death or non-production.

Over in India, another innovative art investment project has been started by an Indian entrepreneur. Indian investor Arun Rangachari, chairman of venture capital firm DAR Capital, has purchased the rights to the entire life’s work of a reclusive Italian artist by the name of Montanari, who has lived in seclusion for the past 18 years. Rangachari is building up an art collection, of which the work of Montanari will play a significant part, with the intention of setting up an art fund in the future. Before selling any of the paintings, Rangachari plans to increase the value of Montanari’s work by holding exhibitions and building a foundation dedicated to the artist’s work. According to artnewspaper.com ‘His (Rangachari’s) first art investment consists of 40 paintings by the Italian artist Americo Montanari, with the option to buy many more……..When asked why his art fund would succeed when other ventures, including Indian-based funds, had recently failed he said: “Our entry level will be affordable, we’ll be focusing on artists who have not yet built a reputation and we will have no hidden costs, everything will be up front, so we’ll be quite different from everyone else.”’

The Chinese are also getting in on the act with Chinese financial corporation Shenzhen Artvip Cultural Corporation recently going public with China’s first openly traded art portfolio. The portfolio, which comprises of 12 paintings by contemporary artist Yang Peijing, is being traded on the Shenzhen Cultural Assets and Equity Exchange (SZCAEE) in the form of 1000 shares. All 1000 shares sold out on the first day of trading for a total of US$354480 with profits from trading the works of art to be dispersed by Artvip as the works are traded. According to artinfo.com: ‘Established in 2009 by the Chinese government, SZCAEE functions as an alternative platform for the trading of a wide range of cultural assets — including artworks, luxury goods, and films — as part of the Chinese government’s attempt to commercialize, diversify, and regulate the public exchange of such cultural properties. SZCAEE plans to offer a second 1000-share portfolio, featuring 40 works by Yang Peijiang, sometime in the future.’

Interestingly, each of the above projects are focused entirely on the work of a single living artist, which is comparable to investing in a single business. The benefit of focusing on the work of a single living artist is that the future output of the artist can be controlled by a certain degree by those with a vested interest. There is also the potential for a much larger return from the work of a living artist as a result of the progression of the artist’s career. In terms of downsides, the most obvious downside of investing in the future of a living artist is the uncertainty. Whether the rewards are worth the risk is yet to be seen……..

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

Predicting Art Market Profit Potential Pt. 1 – artmarketblog.com

Predicting Art Market Profit Potential Pt. 1 – artmarketblog.com

Using auction prices to identify trends and determine whether the price being paid for a particular artist’s work is on the rise is all well and good, but by the time the price of an artist’s work begins to rise in a rapid manner, the best opportunity to profit from the price increase is likely to have already passed. Auction price databases such as artprice.com and artnet.com are extremely useful but they are really only useful for artists who already have an extensive auction sale record. What if there were a system that was able to identify those artists who are most likely to achieve market success before they actually do?. Well, you may be pleased to hear that there is. By looking at what is essentially one of the most influential factors that determines the success of an artist’s career, namely how many exhibitions an artist’s work is included in and how important those exhibitions are, ArtFacts.net is able to rank artists according to their fame and popularity in the cultural sphere as well as in the commercial gallery sphere. That ranking, according to ArtFacts.net, is generated according to the theory that the greater number of shows the artist has, the greater will be the fame of a particular artist. And, as we all know, familiarity generates demand, and increased demand equals increased value (usually). I don’t think that anyone can dispute the fact that museum and gallery shows make artists more saleable and raise the price of their work.

The way that the ArtFacts.net Artist Ranking Tool works is by assigning different points values to particular types of exhibitions and the different institutions and galleries that hold these exhibitions. The number of points assigned to an artist depends on the importance of that institution/gallery exhibiting their work and the amount of exposure that the exhibition gives the artist in question. According to the ArtFacts.net website “Solo shows are worth more than group shows or art fairs. Documenta, in Kassel, Germany, is worth more than the Venice Biennale. Public museums count more than galleries. And different museums have different weights. Those in cities like Paris or New York count for more. Small museums and university museums count for almost nothing”. There does of course have to be some sort of criteria to determine whether an artist is worthy of being included in the system which is where the eligibliity criteria come into play. For an artist to be ranked they must have a sufficiently international presence which in the case of ArtFacts.net means those artists that have long term ties with at least three countries. According to ArtFacts.net “A.R places great importance on the international representation of artists. Only artists operating in international structures will be chosen as a primary value source. The reason why A.R does this is because it recognises the worth of mutual knowledge. Only artists who are common to diverse societies, countries and/or cultures will be really important and therefore create a kind of brand or universal value (like a standard). So the A.R uses internationality as a standard for the basic calculations.”

To be continued…………..

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

SF Camerawork Benefit Auction 2008 – artmarketblog.com

SF Camerawork Benefit Auction 2008 – artmarketblog.com

112 Laurent Millet Untitled, 1999; from the series Mon Histoire Avec Les Pierres; toned gsp, 24 x 20,” AP, signed on verso, $1,800/2,800. Donated by Robert Mann Gallery, NY.

The 2008 SF Camerawork benefit auction includes some absolutely fantastic works that should appeal to all collectors of photography and art investors. With 183 lots and a wide range of works there is sure to be something to interest anyone so take a look at the catalogue now to ensure that you don’t miss out.

Founded in 1974 San Francisco Camerawork encourages emerging and mid-career artists to explore new directions in photography and related media by fostering creative forms of expression that push existing boundaries. Camerawork has presented almost 400 exhibitions highlighting local, national and international contemporary photographers in its thirty year history. Camerawork is also instrumental in bringing traveling exhibitions to the Bay Area. In addition to photography, Camerawork exhibits artists working in installation, video, film and related media.

On the 6th of December SF Camerawork will be holding their annual benefit auction of vintage and contemporary photographic art the proceeds of which support SF Camerawork’s exhibitions and educational programs. https://secure.sfcamerawork.org/auction2008/index.html

Highlights of the auction include works by: Berenice Abbott, Uta Barth, Richard Barnes, Marco Breuer, Ellen Carey, Binh Danh, Judy Dater, Robert Dawson, Robert Doisneau, Kota Ezawa, Larry Fink, Jim Goldberg, Doug Hall, Ann Hamilton, Todd Hido, Pirkle Jones, Michael Kenna, Dinh Q. Lê, Michael Light, David Maisel, Richard Misrach, Herb Ritts, Jack Spencer, Catherine Wagner, William Wegman, Edward Weston, and many others.

Auction catalogs are free and available at SF Camerawork and other local galleries. Catalogs also may be ordered by telephone, fax, or e-mail.

Absentee bids may be submitted online via our new secure online bidding feature, or printed and faxed or delivered to SF Camerawork.

Auction Date:
Saturday, December 6, 2008 at 1 pm (Registration begins at 11 am)

Preview Exhibition – free
November 6 – December 5, 2008,
12 to 6 pm

Special Evening Reception – free
Thursday, November 6, 5 – 8 pm

Place:
SF CAMERAWORK
657 Mission Street, 2nd Floor
(between Third and New Montgomery Streets)

Admission:
$40 for the general public;
free for SF Camerawork members

The full catalogue can be viewed here:
https://secure.sfcamerawork.org/auction2008/auction.html

and absentee bid forms can be found here:
https://secure.sfcamerawork.org/auction2008/AbsenteeBidForm.pdf

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.

Oz Art Auction Bargain Hunting – artmarketblog.com

Oz Art Auction Bargain Hunting – artmarketblog.com

With the Australian dollar considerably weaker than it was six months ago at around $0.64 US dollars there are plenty of bargains to be had for international buyers whose dollar is in better shape than the Australian dollar. The New Zealand dollar is even lower than the Australian dollar at $0.55 US dollars but New Zealand doesn’t offer the same diversity and number of works to choose from as Australia does. There are quite a few art auctions due to take place in Australia and New Zealand during November so I have compiled some highlights from a few auctions that may be of interest to art collectors and investors from all over the world.  There are also some excellent works by Australian artists being sold but as they are probably not of that much interest to international readers I have focused on the international works.  With the Australian dollar expected to rebound next year however, it could be worth looking at the works by Australian artists which could then be resold into the Australian market if the Australian dollar rebounds as expected.

Mossgreen Auctioneers:
http://www.mossgreen.com.au/auctions/current.asp?idExhibition=988
Monday 24 November at 2.30pm The Estate of the Late William Bowmore Collection

Lot number: 1017
Triptych
Coloured lithograph
FOLLOWER OF VON AVONT, Pieter
Signed Francis Bacon lower right, numbered HC
46 x 99cm
$3,000-5,000
http://www.mossgreen.com.au/auctions/artwork-detail.asp?idImage=22096

Lot number: 1023
Study from the human body 1979,1980
Coloured lithograph
BACON, Francis
Initialled HC, Signed Francis bacon lower right
84 x 65cm
$3,000-5,000
http://www.mossgreen.com.au/auctions/artwork-detail.asp?idImage=22101

Bonhams and Goodman:
http://www.bonhamsandgoodman.com.au/auctions_catalogues.php?auction=248
Australian Fine Art
25 Nov 2008
Level 1, 540 Malvern Road, Prahran, Melbourne, VIC

Lot No. 8
John Russell (1858-1930),
Sydney Harbour (1925-1930)
oil on canvas, 50.6 x 70.5cm
Estimate on request.
http://www.bonhamsandgoodman.com.au/lot_details.php?lot=71864&auction=248

Lot No. 45
Tracey Moffatt (born 1960),
Something More 1 (1989)
cibachrome print on plexiglass, 118.5 x 152cm, Provenance: Ms Deborah Rando, Sydney
Estimate $55,000-$75,000
http://www.bonhamsandgoodman.com.au/lot_details.php?lot=71901&auction=248

Sotheby’s
http://browse.sothebys.com/?&cat=1&event_id=28869&g=1&i=1&sale_id=AU0724&nb=1&dp=Australian+Paintings
Important Australian Art
Auction Date
Session 1 | 24 Nov 08, 6:30 PM

LOT 75
ANDY WARHOL, AMERICAN, 1928-1987
MICK JAGGER
18,000—25,000 AUD
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159504428

LOT 8
IAN FAIRWEATHER, AUSTRALIAN, 1891-1974
FAMILY GROUP
180,000—250,000 AUD
http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=159504434

Deutscher and Hackett
http://www.deutscherandhackett.com/catalogue6/index.html
important australian and international fine art auction
melbourne 26 november 2008

046 ANDY WARHOL
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (From the Reigning Queens series), 1985
(1928 – 1987, American)
colour screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
99.5 x 80.0 cm
edition: 5/40
signed and numbered at base of image
stamped verso: © Andy Warhol 1985
Printed by Rupert Jasen Smith, New York
Published by George C.P. Mulder, Amsterdam
ESTIMATE: $18,000 – 24,000
http://www.deutscherandhackett.com/catalogue6/lot_number46.html

048 FENG ZHENGJIE
Pinky #1, 2001
oil on canvas
26.0 x 22.0 cm
ESTIMATE: $10,000 – 15,000
http://www.deutscherandhackett.com/catalogue6/zhengjie_feng1.html

Art and Object NZ
IMPORTANT PAINTINGS + SCULPTURE
Thursday November 27 2008
http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Details/ID/36

011
Brent Wong
Meditation
acrylic on board
title inscribed, signed and dated 1970
960 x 1210mm
$65 000 – $85 000
http://www.artandobject.co.nz/Auctions/Browse/ID/36/LotID/011

image:
Brent Wong
Meditation
acrylic on board
title inscribed, signed and dated 1970
960 x 1210mm

$65 000 – $85 000

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.

The Rise of the Value of Surrealism – artmarketblog.com

The Rise of the Value of Surrealism – artmarketblog.com

There is no doubt that Surrealism is a highly undervalued and under appreciated movement that has the potential for a significant increase in desirability and value in the not too distant future for reasons that I will explain later on. The most famous Surrealist artist would have to be Salvador Dali with the other major Surrealist painters being Jean Arp, Max Ernst, André Masson, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Pierre Roy, Paul Delvaux, and Joan Miró. It is interesting to note that if you go to google and search for “dali auction record” (with quotation marks) you get no results but if you search for “warhol auction record” you get 47 results or if you search for “picasso auction record” you get 29 results. Even more interesting is the fact that the auction record for Picasso is US$104 million dollars and the auction record for Warhol is US$71 million dollars whereas the auction record for Dali is a mere US $3.6 million dollars. Is Dali any less important or an less talented than Picasso or Warhol? The other Surrealists don’t fair much better with Andre Breton, the father of the Surrealism movement, managing an auction record of US$3 million and most of the other major players achieving around the same prices for their Surrealist works with a few exceptions.

The most successful of those artists who dabbled in Surrealism based on the value of their work would have to be Joan Miro who has a current auction record of $16.7 million for the work ‘La caresse des étoiles’. According to the Christie’s catalogue entry for this work “It is a 20th century masterwork in the most profound sense, for in addition to its exceptional pictorial qualities as a work of art, it offers illuminating insight into the tragic drama of modern history in which it was created”. The phenomenal price achieved for ‘La caresse des étoiles’ can, however, be attributed to the history and provenance of the work, it’s cultural and historical significance as well as the fact that Miro chose not to become a fully fledged member of the Surrealist movement in order to remain free to experiment with other styles. For these reasons the price achieved for ‘La caresse des étoiles’ could be considered to be anomalous.

The main reasons that Surrealism has failed to achieve the same success as other art movements is that Surrealism is relatively ambiguous, ill defined and difficult to understand which make the works much less attractive. Also, many of the artists who produced work that is considered to be Surrealist were not solely dedicated to the pursuits of the Surrealist movement and did not adhere to the rules and regulations of the movement which makes the task of contextualising Surrealist artworks even more difficult. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica “The work of these artists is too diverse to be summarized categorically as the Surrealist approach in the visual arts. Each artist sought his own means of self-exploration”

Surrealism is, however, beginning to receive the attention and respect that it deserves which is being reflected in the market for Surrealist works.

to be continued…….

image:
Pierre Roy
A Naturalist’s Study 1928
Le Cabinet du naturaliste

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.

November 2008 Art Market Review Video – artmarketblog.com

November 2008 Art Market Review Video – artmarketblog.com

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.