The past three weeks in this course have been very insightful. Being from an engineering background, I was not familiar with fine arts but this course was more than an adequate introduction to the art market. I have really enjoyed the topics covered and learning about the players in the art market. I especially really enjoyed Day 6 about Albert Barnes. The struggle that Barnes went through and the subsequent heads of the company was a story that really resonated with me. I truly appreciated the overlap in the key players of the art market. It was very interesting to see the relationships between artists, dealers, galleries, auction and the trends that take place across the art world. Artists like Jeff Koons, Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Damien Hirst, were very interesting to learn about and I enjoyed trying to understand the motivation and methods behind their works.
After taking this course, I can define the art market similarly as my first day definition, with minor differences. The art market can be described as the arena in which artists, buyers, curators, sellers, and the art-interested community, interact with one another. The dealers, and sellers seem to be the players with the most power, despite the fact that the commodity being distributed--the artwork--is produced and doesn’t exist, without the artist. In the art market, the artist’s life seems to be marked by a constant struggle and need for self-preservation_._ Initially, the artist struggles to develop a name for his or herself. He or she must define who they are, what type of art they are known for, and then must promote their brand to the community. This can be self-promotion and/or the promotion from the media, which the artist must ensure, will attract his or her desired audience. This media portrayal, if negative, acts as another point of struggle in the artist’s life. The drive for self-preservation forces the artist to connect his or herself with famous people in the art market, as a means of earning money and creating the opportunity to interact with more people who can help satisfy his or her need to survive. Powerful and well-known dealers can be the major difference between international and local success for an artist. Dealers like Larry Gagosian, have known to increase the price value of works by artists under their guidance exponentially. Through these interactions in the art market, the artist survives. He or she earns a living such that they are housed, fed, and have the ability to make more art so the artist can repeat this cycle. The cycle seems to continue until the artist has had enough of his or her art, or if the art-interested community has had enough of the artist.