Charles Saunders's Grade's Grade
Art as a Financial Asset
Throughout history, art as an investment has been endemic to the art world, though with varying degrees of importance. However, the recent rise in demand for contemporary art, bolstered by a rise in disposable wealth among the world's richest, has inflated the price of art in both private and public markets to exorbitant, never-before-seen levels. With this increase in price has come increased visibility and coverage by press, critics, and other media outlets, and a strong degree of scrutiny has followed. The massive globalization of our financial sectors as well as the greater transparency and acceptance that investments have enjoyed in the eyes of the public have increased the desire to maximize returns from all sectors of the economy, and new theories of diversification and hedging incentivize investment theses with low or negative correlation.
Massive demand and an increase of consumers in the art market has provided a degree of liquidity that hasn't existed prior, lessening the stigma of reselling art, and helping to create a commodity-based art market that lends itself well to speculation and investment. With sought-after characteristics of sustained returns, low correlation to debt and equity, and a seemingly recession-proof model of sustained demand, the progression for financial institutions and funds to venture into the art world was inevitable.
Indeed, art has had a history of success in the investment markets, though with considerable volatility and controversy regarding its strength. In 2011, the art market outperformed the S&P (a common indicator of the stocks markets) by 9%, and returned nearly 11% to investors, which is an extremely significant margin in the investment markets. The Mei Moses All Art Index, an indicator of art performance, has recorded six years of returns in excess of the S&P. This index was constructing by Jianping Mei and Michael Moses, and was created using public auction house data over the past fifty years, on artwork that has been sold more than once to track changes over time. Until the 2000's, according to the index, art has followed a boom-bust cycle, peaking in 1990, with an average return relatively similar to stocks.
After 2000, however, commensurate with a giant bull market in the art world, art has consistently outperformed the stock market. Some articles have cited the overall market as growing at over 40% per year, However, results have been mixed; since the art market is extremely fragmented, with different geographic, style, socioeconomic, and quality segments subject to different drivers or risk and volatility, it is difficult to provide an overarching return with a definitive answer in terms of the strength of the investment market. It seems that in general, risk is greater than equity markets and return is generally lower, suggesting that its value lies more in diversification than as a primary investment. Below is a graph of the Mei and Moses art index, showing the variation in segment, in comparison to the S&P:
Mei and Moses concluded that art trends had a low correlation with equity markets, and generally outperformed stocks. There is clearly a lack of consensus in art market historical return valuation, no doubt due to the youth of the analysis and lack of agreed-upon metrics. What we can safely conclude, though, is that art can be highly useful in a diversified portfolio due to its non-correlation with other asset classes and the obvious increase in demand for its investment potential. Below is another analytical graph developed by Mei and Moses highlighting the increased returns of portfolios that include art as a hedge:
Contemporary art investment surged after 2000 for several key reasons. The increasing sophistication of the investment community became comfortable with conceptualizing complicated financial vehicles such as derivatives and credit default swaps, that eventually accepted art as another commodity that could be valued and traded in a specialist market. The availability of capital increased, with wealthy private and institutional investors having more money at their disposal after the market boom of the late 1990s and increasingly willing to take on more risk and diversify away from traditional investment portfolio into new areas of investing, such as art. A third factor was the perception that existing portfolios were failing to keep pace with inflation, through capital appreciation or through revenue flow, and were easily seduced by the rising prices of the art market, the sustained demand, and the perception that demand would always outweigh supply. Art indices and increased coverage on prices and returns helped legitimize art as an attractive alternative investment in this regard. Finally, in an era that saw a significant increase in the number of wealthy individuals, art became an attractive means of signaling wealth and status, with buyer's preferences shifting to an emphasis on appreciation of culture in the new millennium.
Another indicator of the increased demand for art, and the entrants to the art market, is the recent number of art funds that have been created. Art funds, in theory, are in a unique position to profit from the appreciation of art and the current bull market, as they possess several distinct advantages to dealers: they are capable of lower costs and overhead, as they don't require large exhibition spaces, they can employ a broad selection of expertise (unlike dealers who often specialize), the large capital bases provide unprecedented purchasing power, and longer, buy and hold investment horizons are possibly the ideal way to invest in art. Art is very unique, in that it a superior good (meaning as wealth increases, demand for the product increases) yet it is highly uncorrelated with other popular investment vehicles.
However, these funds have historically produced unexpected, disastrous results, suggesting an inherent weakness of art as a standalone investment. According to an essay by Noah Horwitz, 35 highly-publicized investment funds have opened since 2002, attempting to capitalize on the rising demand in the marketplace and the greater emphasis on art as an investment. Instead of utilizing art as a tool for diversification, the funds invested nearly 100% of their capital in art. Today, 20 or no longer operational, six have produced results below expectations, six are undetermined or haven't been operational for a sufficient time period to form a conclusion, and only three have met or exceeded expectation. This corresponds to an 8% success rate, and nearly a 60% failure rate, which are clearly dismal statistics. Only two of these "successes" have achieved returns over 6%. Non-traditional art investment funds have similar results. The Tosca Photography fund, long one of the successful art funds over the last decade, closed in October of last year, and is liquidating its collection, though it is achieving remarkable returns for its initial investors. It seems that regardless of the literature claiming successful returns on art, financial firms have been unable to capture it in the long term.
Why is it so difficult to gauge the art market, and if there really are a history of high returns, why is it so hard to capture them? One facet of the problem is the difficulty in valuing a product that delivers no cash flows or has no inherent value. Most of valuation depends on the buyer, and the emotional connection derived from the artwork, the aesthetic qualities associated with it, and the following subjective value produced. Because art produces different effects for each prospective owner, valuations may differ greatly depending on who the buyer is, and thus prices are hard to predict and normalize. Other important drivers of value include market demand, which is the ultimate indicator of prices in the public auction market, and is very susceptible to manipulation and the "herd mentality" that assigns price based on perception. Liquidity is of paramount concern in the speculation and investment markets, and not as significant for long-term collectors; because art generally has a high face value, the confidence that it can be quickly and easily resold to capture future returns is extremely important for investors who need to ensure returns regardless of market conditions. Because there are no central exchanges for artwork, daily volume is severely limited relative to other forms of investment, art has an extremely high liquidity risk associated with it, and this risk will factor into prices, further inflating them. Prestige is also an important factor, as brand names of artists and auction houses lend considerable weight in determining price -- often an association with an artist increases value to a greater degree than the actual substance of the art, Damian Hirst being a prominent example.
Because of this inherent uncertainty, prices are given in an estimate range, allowing for substantial variation, with a high risk of incorrect valuation due to the lack of comparables for contemporary art. Other factors can include seller's motivations, which might be boredom with the piece or a desire to "cash out" and liquidate due to financial concerns, and buyer's motivations, which might be a particular attraction to a piece of art, or a desire to ride a market wave of momentum. These interest rarely align. Scale, size, quality of materials, aesthetic considerations, and condition can also produce substantial variation in price, and further complicates valuations. With so much variability in market valuation, unique to the art market as a whole, it is very hard for correct valuations and mutually agreed upon prices to be reflected in auctions, and as a result market inefficiencies and manipulation play a great role in affecting market activity. All in all, the inherent uncertainty of the marketplace complicates investing to a degree not found in other markets, and severely impairs the ability of professionals to engage in arbitrage or capital allocation, and maintains inflated prices and decreases expected and realized returns for investors.
Market inefficiencies are another factor that inhibits the success of the investment market. As has been shown, conflicts of interest, asymmetry of information, manipulation of public interest, and other problematic conditions prohibits the complete efficiency of the marketplace. Because art does not produce cash flows or pay out dividends, its value for investors rests entirely in its resale price, and because of the longer-term investment horizons, many factors can alter its price during the time between purchase and sale. Much of the cost consists of "sunk" items, such as transaction, storage, insurance, and shipping expenses, and since it is difficult to alter these line items, the only way to increase profit is to increase resale vale. Unfortunately, many unethical factors exist for this very purpose. The market is fraught with secrecy and manipulation, with the public market served by auctions in which the houses serve as middlemen. They are not subject to regulation or oversight; the government treats the art market as one that deals in luxury goods, and thus does not provide legal protection for its participants. Players in the public markets deliberately collude to deceive unsophisticated investors, lured by highly publicized prices and fanfare. Chandelier bidding occurs when dealers or agents attend the auctions and deliver fake bids to protect their artists and artificially drive up the price; the ultimate buyer thinks that the next highest price was a reliable indicator of market value, when in fact it lacked all substance. There is no transparency in the bidding process. The auctioneer functions as an effective agent for the seller, with guarantees, minimum bids, reservation prices, and other enticements, none of which are available to the public. The buyer pays almost all of the commission. Unsophisticated buyer enter auctions because there is no other way to establish value in the young auction market; unlike other industries, no two works of art are identical, there is no basis for comparison, and most of the value is subjective.
Auctioneers, when confronted with the deception, argued that removing this type of artificial bidding would remove "drama" from the market, and threatened to leave New York if regulation passed. The only guidelines successfully implemented required auctioneers to identify the pieces in which they had a financial interest, but even then, the identifications were minuscule, incomprehensible symbols in their auction catalogs that ultimately produced no change. Indeed, auction corruption has been rampant, as Alfred Taubman was recently sentenced to prison for his collusion in a six-year price fixing scheme with fellow auction house Christie's, an event that was perhaps indicative of a more endemic problem in the art industry. Assymetry of information is a problem that is more rampant than ever. There is little regulation, and certainly no incentive to disclose information to the public in an effort to increase transparency, a quality that is extremely important for investor confidence. For example, Damien Hirst's golden skull, entitled For the Love of God, was announced to be sold at a price of $100 million, which would make Hirst the highest-paid living artist in history. However, it was later revealed that the owners of the majority stake in the purchase were none other than Hirst himself and his gallery, in an attempt to inflate the price, increase his prestige, and perhaps save face.
These problems used to occur in other markets; the stock market experienced its share of price-fixing and collusion by experienced investors in the 1920s, and that behavior is now illegal. Finally, the press is hardly investigative, instead following the "hot" artist and driving public fervor, which leads to higher prices, which increases the incentive for further collusion and market manipulation. These issues of inefficiency and unethical behavior, together with the opaque prices, low liquidity, and large information asymmetries, help to produce a market that is still in its infancy and is hardly attractive to investors.
It seems like present markets are catching up with these line of reasoning, and the bull market may be over for the time being. The above analysis and the quality of art as a product with low correlation to other asset classes suggests that art may work best as part of a diversified portfolio of assets, used as a hedge investment against other markets or recessions. Art differs from most investment products in that it does not carry inherent monetary value, has no easily agreed upon valuations due to concrete monetary cash flows and discounted cash flow analyses, and are traded in a market with sufficient liquidity to ensure resale and consumer confidence. Not only does art fail to satisfy these requirements, but its very value depends in its uniqueness and scarcity. If art investment ever succeeded in becoming mainstream and ubiquitous, the result will be the commercialization of art, the mass increase in its production to meet the rise in demand, and its eventual homogeneity as arbitrage and mass scrutiny eliminate inefficiences and equalize differences in value.
This seems like an unlikely result according to the current state of the market and the unethical practices described above, and art would need to become an accepted product that required government intervention and increased competition with other auction houses and middlemen entering the industry, and perhaps several established exchanges. However, the very process of commercialization would ultimately destroy the scarcity and uniqueness of art, and thus its value; as art investing introduces art to the greater global consumer base, demand would skyrocket, and there would be artist who would mass-produce supply to meet demand and capture profits. Art would become homogeneous, and thus diminish in value as a signal of prestige and an aesthetic decorative piece, and the very investment theses which seek to profit off art's value will ultimately destroy it. In short, the process of the commercialization of the art market can ultimately lead to its demise -- art cannot function as a consumer product, as it provides no cash flow and has no truly functional value.
The art market is a long way from maturity as an investment industry, but for it to maintain any value in the future, it needs to retain its scarcity and uniqueness, something that is categorically lost with its opening to the world as a commodity product, which seems a natural byproduct of its increased popularity and vitality as an investment. As a result I think there is a ceiling on the amount of speculation that can be weathered by the industry, and natural supply and demand factors should provide enough pressure on returns to maintain this equilibrium. However, in order to achieve that state, systemic change must take place in the art market to increase government oversight, remove conflicts of interest, increase ethical behavior, increase transparency and valuation techniques, and increase competition. For the time being, art as an investment is best served through efforts of diversification, and as a fraction of a greater portfolio.
For an interesting Intelligence Squared debate on ethics in the art world, please view the series below, available on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpsTNdYeG6U
Arguments and reasoning cited directly are linked in the above text, but other works and articles drawn from include:
http://artmarketmonitor.com/2011/02/07/mei-moses-art-beat-sp-500-in-2010/
http://www.bfletcher-associates.com/article_5.pdf
http://www.artbusiness.com/osoquspeccoll.html
http://college.holycross.edu/eej/Volume28/V28N4P443_463.pdf
http://www.caslon.com.au/artfundsnote.htm
http://artmarketmonitor.com/category/art-funds/
http://www.economist.com/node/16990811
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2006/06/painting_for_profit.html
This is your homework assignments pages. Use it to post your final presentation outline and your final presentation (by adding an additional child page).
El Anatsui, contemporary artist of Ghana
El Anatsui is one of the most famous Ghanaian artists in the contemporary African art world, known for his unique sculptures. It was his abstract wood sculptures that made him one of the most distinguished African artists, yet it would be his experimentation with scrap metals and recyclables that would skyrocket him to international recognition5. He was born in Ghana in 1944 before the country achieved independence in 1957, and has lived in Nsukka, Nigeria since 1975 and works as a professor of sculpture at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The traditions and culture of both of these countries has influenced El Anatsui’s works of art. Works of art such as West African kente cloth and reliquary carvings are both native to these nations and can be found in pieces by El Anatsui4.
In addition to the aesthetic value of his works, there are underlying themes that can be identified. According to a New York Times article by Alexi Worth, “one of the adinkra symbols, sankofa, is an image of a bird turning back towards its tail; its meaning is sometimes translated as ‘return and retrieve’ or ‘go back and pick’. To Anatsui and his peers, sankofa symbolized their effort to find useful traditions” from both where they originate, other places in Africa, and even from the western world5. Anatsui’s art “makes very specific references to his self-representation as an African and this attitude allies him with a tradition of experimentation in which contemporary African artists utilize indigenous concepts and symbols in their search for significant form”10. Lisa Binder, the curator in charge of the Anatsui exhibition at the Museum for African art mentions, “traditional African objects, unlike European paintings and sculptures, are often highly adaptable, designed to be reused”. Anatsui clearly lives up to the traditional African way and creates his treasures from other men’s trash. His creative ability allows him to influence the art market in ways that very few artists, let alone African artists, have been able to do.
In the 1970s, Anatsui began to work with broken ceramic fragments and used them to create his works of art11. These structures too had a deeper meaning in addition to their aesthetic beauty. The pieces had allusions to ancient Nok terracotta sculptures, West African myths about the earth, and cultural references to the use of clay11. The ceramic works depict the shattered and devalued histories to from an impressive new whole11. Anatsui also spent his time in this decade making sculptures that recombined signs and symbols in three-dimensional form, created by chopping, carving, burning, and etching wood. He was very well recognized for these wood structures in the African Art market.
Twenty years later in the 1990s, Anatsui “made a crucial shift from working with hand tools to carving with a power saw” which allowed him to cut through blocks of wood. This cutting would leave jagged surfaces, which he said were analogous to the scars left by the Europeans during the colonial encounters with Africa11. It wouldn’t be until his recent style of sculptures, the metal wall reliefs, that Anatsui, would achieve major international acclaim.
During the last decade, Anatsui has created intricate metal wall reliefs assembled from thousands of Nigerian liquor-bottle tops “into visual patterns of stunning sensory impact, transforming this simple material into forms that recall painting, sculpture, and tapestry, among other established art forms”11. These artworks, called Gawu, depict iconic wall reliefs that look like “medieval chain mail or jeweled robes fit for a king”4. This Gawu exhibition was originally organized by the Oriel Mostyn Gallery in Wales in 2003, toured in Europe, and then finally made its way to the United States. After five years in the United States, the works were then was relocated to the Smithsonian Museum4. On display are a few of Anatsui’s pieces that were created in the midst of his rises to international fame and exposure into international art circles4.
In the international art market scene, Anatsui is one of the more unique African artists because he is a successful African artist based in Africa and not the West like some other African artists. Only a few African artists have been able to “avoid the condescension of well-meaning Westerners” and eventually move out of the “atmosphere of benighted sympathy”4. Most of these artists typically relocate and make careers in the West, like Yinka Shonibare a British-Nigerian artist who resides in the United Kingdom. Considering the most influential and well-known contemporary artists, “Anatsui is exceptional not only being African but in being an African who has remained in Africa”4, a unique feat.
In this exhibition some of his works include:
Adinkra Sasa: Notably one of the darkest works in the exhibition. This relief contains hundreds of black labels woven in swaths. Adinkra is a traditional cloth that is typically used in funerals4. In this piece, Anatsui carefully crafts a work of art using “traditional weaving, minimalist sculpture, and references to the slave trade” and makes a very serious and solemn work of art.
Crumbling Wall: This 13 foot tall, 18 foot wide wall is made of rusting perforated plates that were used to grate cassava, a very common dish in the West African diet. "My concept of a wall is something that not only hides but reveals things," explains Anatsui. "Your eyes can't see behind it, but your imagination projects and your curiosity is aroused."
Many Moons: This is a multicolored wall relief that depicts a variety of techniques and patterns used to compose it.
Peak Project: One of the first pieces in this exhibition, this piece is a combination of 36, three-foot tall cones made up of golden lids from evaporated milk cans and resembles a mighty mountain range.
The largest North American collection by Anatsui is encompassed in his exhibit titled When I Last Wrote to You about Africa11. The collection is seen as a reflective look back on his 30-year career. Included are examples of his monumental wall hangings and floor installations, as well as acrylic paintings, ink drawings, from different time periods in his career. This showing in the United States is the first time that many of these works have been shown outside of Nigeria.
Some works in this exhibition include:
El Anatsui’s works on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art “demonstrate the creativity at the heart of African resourcefulness”4. His sculptures have been made from a variety of unique materials like evaporated milk cans, cassava graters, and aluminum seals from the tops of liquor bottles. These distinctive works have achieved critical acclaim for their power and beauty4. Other Anatsui works are presently owned by the British Museum, and the Pompidou Center in addition to the Smithsonian4. Anatsui has also displayed his works in the 2007 Venice Biennale where the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s curator of Modern art was “blown away” by the wall hangings5. These pieces were quite different from the others that were present in that Venice Biennale. While most other things were pessimistic and depicted images of ruination, Anatsui’s works were uplifting5. This viewing of Anatsui’s Gawu exhibitions is considered by many to be his “break-out moment” in which he became an international name. By the end of 2007, a Sotheby’s auction had featured a reproduction of an Anatsui work. This truly marked that now “Anatsui had joined the big leagues”5.
The western art market has expanded with its new found appreciation for African works. Artists like Anatsui, Shonibare, Berni Searle, and more are gaining international fame and a greater following. The African presence in the art market allows the art world to expand. New artists, dealers, sellers, and buyers, marks a transformation and evolution within the art market. The art serves as gateway to a lifestyle and perspective that few Westerners truly understand. Newer artists, not to mention the unique styles each of these artists brings, may cause an emergence of a new era of art---an era that is marked by innovative genius, and a different style of creativity.
An interview with El Anatsui:
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34119/a-conversation-with-el-anatsui/
Videos of El Anatsui:
General Information about Anatsui: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vILNOM_Pe38
Interview with El Anatsui: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z271K6iqv8w
Installation of Anatsui’s work “Between Earth and Heaven”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7UBvknG8c4
References and Interesting Links:
2http://www.archives.gov/research/african-art/
3http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/gawu/about.html
4http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/03/20/ST2008032003103.html
5http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/style/tmagazine/22nigeria.html?pagewanted=all
6http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34119/a-conversation-with-el-anatsui/
7http://www.africansuccess.org/visuFiche.php?id=160&lang=en
8http://www.artnet.com/artists/el-anatsui/biography-links
9http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/artists/anatsui/index.shtml
10Picton J, Houghton G, Kawaguchi Y, et al: A Sculpted History of Africa. African Arts, 32:91-92, 1999.
11http://blantonmuseum.org/exhibitions/details/el_anatsui_when_i_last_wrote_to_you_about_africa/
THE ELECTRONIC ART MARKET: BUYING AND SELLING ART OVER THE WEB
Introduction:
The buying and selling of art typically makes one think of an auction house, a gallery, or some other traditional brick and mortar means of transacting business. Those means still do dominate the art market in terms of transacting an enormous amount of business. Despite the recession, worldwide sales of art almost amounted to a staggering $80 billion in 2011 (Skates 3). Of this amount, $10 billion is sold by way of auction - three times the amount sold in 2000 (Artprice 7). Needless to say, in terms of dollars, the art market is big - very big. But even bigger, is the total sales of all goods made over the Internet. The United States Commerce Department reported that in 2010 alone, online shoppers electronically purchased over $160 billion worth of goods. While there is no specific published data on the amount of money spent buying art online, it comes as no surprise that a lot of people are buying and selling art by “point and click” over the internet. While transacting art online has had its ups and downs, and is not without concerns, such as authenticity, it nonetheless remains a major dynamic of the art market. In this wiki page, I will detail and analyze the business of buying and selling art online and its major players. I will also discuss the concern over authenticity (fakes / forgeries) that is an issue in the art world, particularly when it comes to buying artwork over the internet. An analysis of the tangible aspect of art and its effect on internet purchases will also be made. Finally, I will conclude this wiki by discussing and offering an answer as to whether the auction houses and galleries are doomed because of the Internet.
I. Shopping For Art on The Internet:
As long as you can afford the item, there is nothing easier than sitting down at your computer and buying something online, either by paying a set price or through an auction. And artwork is no exception. As the New York Times reported in June of 2011, online sales of art (“given up for dead not long ago”) are now becoming “an increasingly important part of the future of the [art business]” (Kennedy 1). As Hans Neuendorf, CEO of Artnet.com says, more important than the increase in comfort with online commerce, is the “increase in the last decade in the number of people who spend money on contemporary art as a pastime or as an investment. They tend to see online art sales as more accessible and transparent than sales in the gallery world” (Kennedy 3). Michael Moriarity, Chairman of Skate’s Art Market research, says that Internet technology “has reached a point [where the online art] business is really gaining traction (Kennedy 3). The nature of online art sales was the subject of a 2007 Harvard Case Study of Saffronart.com, an online auction site for Indian artwork. Professor Khaire was quoted by the New York Observer:
The Harvard study, she says, shows that the online sales model works in industries where items are resold multiple times, such as automobiles; where research can create transparency; and where the buyer can get a full sense of the object they’re contemplating purchasing. “It’s unlikely you would buy something online from a Brazilian clothing company because the sizing is unfamiliar,” says Ms. Khaire. “But you just might buy a piece of Brazilian art.”
Brady, New York Observer, 6/16/10.
II. The Major Online Players:
Artnet and eBay are the most significant companies in the online market for buying and selling art. On any given day, there are at least 50 pieces or art selling for $1 million or more on eBay.com. Just last month Artnet.com reported what it says may be the most expensive piece of art ever purchased on the Internet - a Warhol (Flowers) that sold in an online auction for $1.3 million. Each site spends a considerable amount of time and money developing the art aspect of its ecommerce business – a category that is eBay’s fourth largest (Skates 7). A search I did just this morning reveals that there are approximately one and a half million items classified as “art” being offered for sale on ebay alone. They categorize their art offerings into three major groups: 1) Art from Dealers & Resellers (1,262,189 items); 2) Direct from the Artist (176,896 items); and 3) Wholesale Lots (19,719 items). While artnet.com does not list the number of works being offered, it does appear to number in the several thousand. What it does interestingly list on its site is the most notable sales in each category, for example a “contemporary” work by Louise Bourgeois, Ode à l'Oubli, which sold in 2009 for $209,000 on its online auction. Although the recent Skate’s report finds that eBay is the best infrastructure for online art sales (Skates 7), I think Artnet’s user interface is a lot more straightforward and provides a better breakdown of the different categories of art being auctioned.
Skate’s Art Market Research reports that as of December 23, 2011, the following companies lead in the online art market. 
(Skates 9-10)
III. Christie's and Sotheby’s Online Auctions:
The major auction houses have an online presence (Chrisite’s Live and Sotheby’s BidNow) which allows registered users to bid online. While internet sales have significantly increased at both houses (ArtPrice 17), live bidding at their auctions is still the focus of their business model (Montage 3). Even with as much as 28% of Christie’s buyers bidding online, the average price of an online sale is “only $8,123” - compared to the global lot average of $48,900 (Montage 3). It seems that the two major auction houses, perhaps because of the Sotheby’s online failure about 10 years ago, are reluctant to go full force into an online business model. I think the reason is twofold: First, the fact is that their traditional model is successful and still growing. Second, the notoriety and sensationalism of their auctions is a basic part of their branded status in the art world. Major sales from a live auction are reported on the network news – which is great (and free) publicity. Internet sales, however, don't even have close to the same powerful media dynamic. And while some may compare an online bid to a bid placed on the telephone, the electronic bid loses an element of reality, and possibly has some skepticism as to its validity. For instance, is the electronic bidder someone who has no intentions of buying and is only bidding to manipulate the system – kind of like a spam email that you’ve won a million dollars? The strategy of the auction houses with regard to online bidding simply seems to be that they’ll take an online bid from a qualified buyer, but they are not significantly promoting it as a means of developing their business. In other words, if their existing business model works, they’re not going to do much to change it. Michael O’Neal, Senior V.P at Christie's, says that “Christie’s and Sotheby’s are not in direct competition with the Art Market’s dot com startup ventures – they are above them” (Montage 3). So for the time being, it appears that the two major auction houses are pursuing their traditional means of live sales in the auction house, while not excluding those that want to bid online.
IV. Authenticity – Fakes and Forgeries:
As much as the Internet has positively transformed the market place for buying and selling most anything, it has come at the price of numerous scams. With buying art online, the concern is with fakes and forgeries -- basically not knowing if what is being purchased is real or not, and what, if any, guarantee come with the purchase. Probably the most notorious case of fake art being sold on eBay is that of Ken Walton, an attorney who turned into an Internet con man. He came to the attention of the FBI when he made the front page of the New York Times after he sold a Richard Diebenkorn painting for $135,858 on ebay. The problem was that he forged the painter’s signature. He wrote a book about his scam titled: Fake: Forgery, Lies, and Ebay. Here is a photo of the first page of his website, www.kennethwalton.com.
Here is an interesting YouTube interview with Walton about his sale of fake artwork on eBay.
The reality is that fraud in one form or another has and always will exist in the art world. Even the major auction houses have been tricked by scammers. It was not very long ago, that Christie’s sold a fake Basquiat for over $200,000. (Artlyst 1/5/10). If a major auction house can get scammed, it can definitely happen to anyone, especially over the internet. The case of Michael Zabrin of Chicago is very telling in terms of the problems with buying and selling art online. Even though he was previously convicted of criminal theft in the past, he still was able to sell fake Picassos, Lichtensteins, and Chagalls on eBay. What was reported about the nature of his business leads me to believe that there will always be vulnerable buyers online: “When some customers realized they had bought fakes, they returned them. Zabrin acknowledged that he then waited a few months and resold them to someone else” (Artdaily.org). It's almost unbelievable how easily people can get scammed online.
eBay definitely needs to do whatever is possible to insure the authenticity of any artwork being sold, especially any expensive pieces. They should require some sort of authentication before a major item is listed, for example, a background check on the seller, the item and maybe even require an official provenance be provided before the item is listed for auction. Ebay and other online sellers of art need to instill confidence in the buyer, by most importantly, I think, offering full refunds in the case of a fake. All this of course is easier said then done given the nature of the Internet. There is no perfect fix for the problem of fraud in the art world, whether it takes place online or at the auction house. Sellers, Internet companies, dealers, etc. simply need to stand behind the authenticity of what is being sold online. And buyers need to educate themselves as much as possible and proceed with caution when it comes to buying art – especially on the internet. History has shown that a seller’s positive feedback on eBay alone is not enough. Buyers need to look beyond what the website or seller says when it comes to something as complex as purchasing expensive artwork.
V. The Tangible Nature of Art and the Internet:
The senses are an important part of any purchase. Yet, when you buy something in cyberspace, you can’t touch or feel it, or see it in person, like you would in a store. Unless you are buying something that you have already experienced holding, like an iPod, it’s hard to assess the subtleties like color and texture. Yet, “fashion,” which is almost always has a touch and feel aspect about it, is a major category of eBay sales (Skates 7). With art, its tangible nature is key; the buyer needs a sense of what is being offered, which in some part I think explains the popularity of the preview / inspection for any major auction. But the remarkable thing is that despite the difficulty in assessing the tangible nature of artwork online, the fact is that the internet is still is a significant means of buying and selling in the art market. I think one can say that the telephone bidder from China or Russia who doesn’t, for example, attend the inspection of a Warhol or Hirst piece being auctioned off, is really not much different than the internet buyer bidding on the same item. While it may not replace the senses involved in viewing something in person, a printed or online catalogue seems to work just fine – at least for those in the art world willing to buy without inspection. If the auction houses can sell multi-million dollar pieces of art sight unseen (or only seen in a catalogue,) then the internet should not be handicapped by an inability of the buyer to fully assess the tangible aspects of a piece of art. This is why I believe that the more advanced a web site is in terms of presenting artwork, for example, videos, high pixel digital images from different angles, etc., the less important an in-person inspection is for the buyer. Artnet’s web site, with its multiple photos from different angles and zoom feature, is a good example of how the buyer can ascertain the tangible aspects of art being sold online without seeing it in person.
VI. Technology in Reverse - Online Auction Sites Go Brick and Mortar:
In what is probably the best indication that the electronic art market will probably never replace the traditional means of transacting art, both Artnet and Saffronart have recently taken physical exhibition spaces. As was written in Art Radar, "this paradox reminds us that the marketing of art is still much more about human relationships than the pixels of a pretty picture.” While I don’t think this signals that the Internet model of buying and selling art will decline, it does reflect that a live presence in the art market is always a good thing. A few months ago, The New York Times wrote that there will always be art buyers who still need a “little live reassurance from human beings that what they are seeing and reading about on the screen is what it appears to be” (Kennedy 3).
Conclusion:
An eBay auction in cyberspace is like a football game without a live audience. The essence of the live auction is not participation by everyone in attendance; instead it is the sensationalism and marketing dynamic it gives the art market. That is not to say that online art auctions are a dying aspect of the art market. To the contrary, I think the future for the electronic art market is bright as it has been able to survive despite major obstacles and failures of some companies. The issues of authenticity and the tangible nature of art, which while important, do not seem to have significantly deterred the buying of art online.
While I agree with Professor Finley that the internet has taken out some of the “fan fare of the auction experience” (wiki comment), I believe the auction houses and the galleries (especially those affiliated with branded dealers), will continue to be the standard for buying and selling art, particularly any significant works. The power of the branded auction houses and their media coverage is a key component of the success of the art market. For those that can attend the preview, it may be just as important as the auction (if not more so) in terms of being seen amongst the art market players - something that can't be done over the internet. And while going to the inspection may make bidding on line more comfortable, it cannot replace the live auction. Yes, art can be bought and sold without a Christie’s or Sotheby’s. But the people in art world (and probably most all people) love the sensationalism associated with a major auction – it fuels the art market in a way that neither eBay nor any online art auction can. They also like how the star-power of a branded dealer increases prices and notoriety of artists, which in turn I think helps grow the market. So while I believe that internet art sales will expand, I don't see it significantly changing the dominance of the auction houses and galleries in the art market.
References:
Goodman, Calvin. "The 'Net Value of the Art Market." American Artist. Volume 66, Issue 714 (2002)
http://www.montagefinance.com/content/news/article/The%20Art%20Market's%20Presence%20Online.pdf
http://www.nyfa.org/level3.asp?id=449&fid=6&sid=17
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol5/issue3/adelaar.htm
http://imgpublic.artprice.com/pdf/trends2010_en.pdf
http://artmarketmonitor.com/2009/08/31/internet-is-changing-art/
http://www.dawn.com/2011/08/28/discourse-a-new-breed-of-buyers.html
http://news.cnet.com/Online-art-market-brings-creations-to-the-masses/2100-1017_3-240228.html
http://technorati.com/lifestyle/article/internet-and-the-art-business-revolution/
http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/art-on-the-internet-one-painting/
http://skatepress.com/files/Skates_Annual_Art_Investment_Report_2011_part_1.pdf
http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/02/17/e-commerce-sales-rise-148-2010
http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=35470&int_modo=1
http://hbr.org/product/saffronart-com-bidding-for-success/an/808027-PDF-ENG
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I. Introduction
Appropriation in visual art
According to Tate Glossary, appropriation is “direct taking over into a work of art of a real object or even an existing work of art” (Tate). The practice of appropriating others’ works can be traced back in history. Examples are abundant, and it’s not surprising that such popular image as Raphael’s Judgment of Paris (1515) was copied time and again throughout history. One of his colleagues Marcantonio Raimondi made an etching of the image, which was then copied by Marco Dente da Ravenna. Édouard Manet’s famous Le Dejeuner Sur l'Herbe is known to have derived from a portion of Raimondi’s etching. After Manet, there have been numerous parodies of the motif, including that by Pablo Picasso (Harvard).
Bottom right-hand corner of Marcantonio Raimondi’s Judgment of Paris
Edouard Manet.Le Dejeuner Sur l’Herbe. 1863.
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/typo3temp/zoom/tmp_6bc85624379d7063df66ee62e74962d4.gifhttp://www.musee-orsay.fr/typo3temp/zoom/tmp_6bc85624379d7063df66ee62e74962d4.gif
Pablo Picasso. Le Dejeuner Sur l’Herbe. 1961.
http://www.join2day.net/abc/P/picasso/picasso212.JPG
Avant-garde artists as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque incorporated objects like newspaper pages and wallpaper into their Cubist collage compositions (Tate). Then the Dadaists like Marcel Duchamp challenged the definition of art with his ready-mades and were followed by the Surrealists that made use of real objects like a telephone (e.g. Salvador Dalí’s Lobster Telephone) (Tate). In the 1950s, Abstract Expressionist artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns and Pop artist like Andy Warhol also appropriated found images in their works. However, it was mainly with the American artists of the1980s that appropriation was used extensively and boldly. Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, and an English artist Damien Hirst are among the most ardent practitioners of appropriation still thriving to this day. Appropriation art has many opponents that criticize its debatable lack of originality and integrity. In order to delve further into this issue of plagiarism, it is essential to understand how the copyright laws came about and what regulations are laid out by these laws as well as the differences between the various types of appropriation employed by some of these aforementioned artists, because the application of copyright laws differs depending on the kind of appropriation in question.
II. History of copyright law in art
- Hogarth’s Act
The Engravers’ Copyright Act is often referred to as the Hogarth’s Act for William Hogarth’s active involvement in its campaign. With The Rake’s Progress, he had first devised the subscription system to “…prevent the Publick being imposed upon by base Copies, before he can reap the reasonable Advantage of his own Performance…” (Paulson). However, the print sellers’ exploitation of Hogarth’s works continued, and their selling their copies at low prices negatively affected the sale of his originals, which, along with the low quality of these copies, led him to become the promoter of the enactment of Hogarth’s Act. It was fundamentally an extension of the regulations of the Literary Act of 1709 to prints. It granted the copyright period of 14 years at first (Later, it was increased to 28 years at Hogarth’s widow’s appeal). The petition to the Parliament was especially powerful because he drew attention to the matter of the overall quality of England’s art as a whole. It argued that protecting the rights of the artists would lead them to produce more innovative works of higher quality and benefit not only these artists but also the buyers, as well as the print sellers. Hogarth deliberately postponed the publication of his long-awaited Rake’s Progress print series to benefit from the Act, which took some time to be in effect. Once in effect, the Act reduced the number of instances of piracy, although it did not completely eliminate it. Hogarth had available smaller copies at a cheaper price for those who could not afford the original and allowed copies of his prints but only once authorized by him. Hogarth’s Act laid the groundwork for the future establishments and revisions of the copyright laws.
- Copyright Law of the U.S.
The first federal copyright act inaugurated in the United States is the Copyright Act of 1790 (Rudd). The Statute of Anne of Great Britain had not been extended to the U.S. The Philadelphia Convention in 1787, James Madison and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney submitted proposals that would allow Congress the power to grant copyright for a limited time and later became the origin of the Copyright Clause in the United States Constitution. The Copyright Clause granted copyright and patents "to promote the progress of science and useful arts". The Copyright Act of 1790, almost an exact copy of the Statute of Anne, granted copyright for 14 years and allowed it to be renewed for another 14 years. However, The Act covered only books, maps, and charts. Artworks were included until later.
Copyright Act of 1976 is probably the most significant for our purpose because it was only by this Act that artworks came under the protection of copyright law. It put down five exclusive rights for copyright holders: the right to reproduce (copy), the right to create derivative works, the right to sell, lease, or rent copies, the right to perform the work publicly, and the right to display the work publicly. 17 U.S.C. §106. The duration of copyright protection was extended to 50 years after the author’s death. It was further extended to the author’s life plus 70 years under the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act.
Changes in the duration of copyright term
Fair use is one of the most important provisions made in the 1976 Act. According to Judge Pierre Leval, the copyright law represents “a recognition that creative intellectual activity is vital to the well-being of society. It is a pragmatic measure by which society confers monopoly-exploitation benefits for a limited duration on authors and artists (as it does for inventors), in order to obtain for itself the intellectual and practical enrichment that results from creative endeavors” (Leval). However, certain appropriation of existing images is permitted under the “fair use” doctrine. Copyright Act of 1976 provides that "the fair use of a copyrighted work . . . is not an infringement of copyright"'
The U.S. Copyright law recognizes that “the copyright does not protect ideas, but only the manner of expression” and “secondary creativity” should be protected, for “all intellectual creative activity in part derivative” (Leval). In 1990, Judge Leval wrote in his article, "Toward a Fair Use Standard," 103 Harv. L. Rev. 1111 (1990):
"The use must be productive and must employ the quoted matter in a different manner or for a different purpose from the original. A quotation of copyrighted material that merely repackages or republishes the original is unlikely to pass the test… If, on the other hand, the secondary use adds value to the original -- if the quoted matter is used as raw material, transformed in the creation of new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings -- this is the very type of activity that the fair use doctrine intends to protect for the enrichment of society.”
There are four factors that are considered in court to decide whether the appropriation in question qualifies as fair use:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature of is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. 17 U.S.C. § 107
Nevertheless, these components that are designed to assist in the decision-making are still not clear-cut and objective enough. Consequently, the fair use doctrine requires case-by-case analysis.
III. Appropriation art explored
There are various types of appropriation in art and the most common and popular are collage art, appropriation of photographs, and parody. It is important to understand that when an appropriated work is brought to court, which statue of the copyright law is to be applied to either justify or condemn the work will depend on which kind of appropriation is in question.
- Parody
A parody often mocks or satirizes an existing work. Parody seems to be a safer path of appropriation, for it is protected under the copyright law. However, an appropriated work is exempt from copyright infringement charge only if the court decides that it is indeed a parody. The legal suit brought against Jeff Koons can be a telling example of this. Koons has been sued for copyright violation four times and lost three of the cases, and the most infamous of the three defeats is Rogers v. Koons (Taylor). After seeing a photographer Art Roger’s photograph of a couple sitting on a bench with puppies on their laps, Koons tore off the copyright notice from the picture and gave it to his assistants in Italy with an explicit instruction to copy it. His own notes sent to his assistants telling them to copy the photograph as exactly as possible to the smallest details were put forward to use against him. With regard to the amount and substantiality of work used, it was determined that Roger’s photograph was copied in toto and Koons well exceeded the level of copying permissible under the fair use doctrine.W hen Rogers’ photograph and Koons’ sculpture are juxtaposed, their likeness is unquestionable. Only a few details were changed in Koons’ three-dimensional reproduction of Rogers’ photograph: the flowers in the portrayed couple’s hair, bigger noses of the dogs, and the color of the dogs. The court decided that Koons’ deliberate removal of the copyright notice from the original picture and the monetary profit of $367,000 that he made from his infringing work demonstrate “bad faith.” Koons then argued that his sculpture constituted “fair use” because it was a parody with a purpose of commenting on the contemporary materialistic society. Parody is a work that closely imitates the style of another artist to poke fun at the very style copied or give a social critique by creating a new work with a unique expression. The court disagreed that Koon’s sculpture was a parody; they thought that it was merely a copy and Koons’ behavior an act of piracy (Taylor). Unfair copying impairs demand for the original work and unjustly forces the artist of that work to stop producing such works.
While Koons’ behavior was described as “willful and egregious,” Rogers was not able to receive the monetary compensation he demanded. The reasoning was that Koons could keep the profit he made if he could prove that it derived from his own fame and position in the art world.
http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/martin/art_law/image_rights.htm
- Collage
Tate Glossary defines collage as “the technique and the resulting work of art in which pieces of paper, photographs, fabric and other ephemera are arranged and stuck down to a supporting surface” (Tate). A collage work can be a painting, a drawing, or a three-dimensional construction. Numerous artists, from Picasso to Rauschenberg, did collage, but it’s only lately that this practice has become contentious.
Jeff Koons, again, provides fitting example here. In the 2006 lawsuit Blanch v. Koons, Andrea Blanch accused Koons of stealing her work without authorization in his collage Niagara. In this collage work, four pairs of women’s legs dangle over the Niagara Fall backdrop filled with ice cream and donuts. His intention was to “comment on the ways in which some of our most basic appetites-for food, play, and sex-are mediated by popular images” (FindLaw). The subject of this lawsuit was one of the legs Koons used, which was derived from Blanch’s photograph, Silk Sandals by Gucci, produced for the August 2000 issue of Allure magazine. Koons, however, succeeded to demonstrate that his collage fell under fair use (Taylor). In his work he included only part of Blanch’s photograph, changed its orientation, and used it in a completely different context to deliver a different message than Blanch had tried with her original. The court sided with Koons because his use of Blanch’s photograph was “transformative,” Blanch’s original “banal rather than creative,” the image of women's legs is of limited originality, and Blanch’s photograph could not have captured the market occupied by “Niagara.”
http://www.owe.com/legalities/images/legal30_blanch.jpg
- Other appropriation (or is it plagiarism?)
Damien Hirst is another appropriation artist who has become the richest living artist to date. But this doesn’t mean he is free from the art theft claims. Charles Thomson complained, "Hirst is a plagiarist in a way that would be totally unacceptable in science or literature" (Alberge). Thompson’s charges against Hirst doesn’t seem to be untrue when one considers Hirst’s saying, "Lucky for me, when I went to art school we were a generation where we didn't have any shame about stealing other people's ideas. You call it a tribute" (Alberge). Numerous cases of appropriation, or plagiarism in Thompson’s words, can be found in his article, “The Art Hirst Stole,” with images comparing the works of Hirst with those of other artists. The truth is that they do look strikingly similar. However, Hirst’s works are worth much more than any of the allegedly stolen works and continue to be popular in the market. John LeKay, who made a crucified sheep before Hirst, has never sold anything above £3,500, while Hirst's set of three crucified sheep sold for £5.7m. Lori Precious's butterflies, from which Hirst seems to have taken inspiration, sold for £6,000, while Hirst's version sold for £4.7m (Alberge).
Comparison between the works of Precious and Hirst
http://www.stuckism.com/Hirst/StoleArt.html
Stuckist poster against Hirst
http://nikkokarki.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/flyer-4002.jpg
IV. Impact
The effect Hirst has on the art world is immense and often times deleterious. Lori Precious stopped producing butterfly works because Hirst has taken the idea as his own, and nobody would be interested in her works when the biggest name in the art world is producing the same thing. Unfair copying impairs demand for the original work and forces the artist who produced the original out of work. Precious says she gave up her butterfly image because she does not have the funds to pursue legal action (Alberge). In this case, even the copyright law cannot seem to protect Precious’s rights. As “appropriation” of this kind by contemporary artists like Hirst continues to grow and fetch large sums of money in the market, one cannot be but concerned that the enthusiastic response of the market toward plagiarized works will only encourage more plagiarism at the expense of less known, less powerful artists.
The importance of the market and its legal implications are shown in such lawsuit as Blanch v. Koons as well. Part of the reason that the court ruled in favor of Koons was the effect of his appropriation upon the potential market for the copyrighted work. In other words, Blanch’s and Koon’s works targeted different markets and thus Koon’s use of Blanch’s image was not considered harmful to Blanch. This reasoning discloses not only that the market plays a big role in the art world but also that the copyright law can be used to foster creativity. However, the case of Rogers v. Koons demonstrates another shortcoming of the copyright law. While Koons’ behavior was described as “willful and egregious,” Rogers was not able to receive the monetary compensation he demanded. The reasoning was that the law is such that the artist could keep the profit he made if he could prove that this profit derived from his own fame and position in the art world. So the law failed to provide Rogers with any tangible compensation while it let Koons keep the income he reaped from the art he stole.
Sometimes appropriation artists try to use the copyright law against appropriation of their appropriation. In 2011, Koons went after a Canadian company Imm-Living on the grounds of violation of his intellectual property rights by selling bookends that resembled his “Balloon Dog” sculptures (Taylor), and Hirst threatened a 16-year-old boy with a copyright infringement claim for using an image of Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull in his collage art. Hirst requested that the boy’s collage be destroyed and any profit made from it be relinquished to him (Weaver). It’s interesting to see appropriation artists try to use the copyright law to their advantage after having thrived by the very act of appropriating from others.
IV. Conclusion
Because of the subjective nature of creativity, the distinction between what is acceptable and what is not is difficult to discern; consequently, many appropriation artists risk walking the line between appropriation and downright plagiarism. This is precisely why artists should be aware of the elements of a legitimate copyright ownership, so that they are careful when creating art inspired by others’ copyrighted works and are able to claim their rightful authorship and ownership when they see it violated by others. Although the copyright law does not seem to be within everyone’s reach and is sometimes misused by some for purposes that do not align with the aims of the law, it can, when rightly used, protect artists from infringement of their works as well as prevent future abuses. Another concern for the copyright law is that it may limit the creativity of contemporary artists and inhibit artistic growth. Court rulings like the ones discussed here do help the artists understand the risks pertaining to appropriation, but it’s important to remember that a court decision is not equal to artistic judgment (Party). Therefore, artists must not be discouraged by these rulings to create innovative works of art but they should use them as guidelines in their creative endeavors.
Works Cited
Alberge, Dayla. “Damien Hirst faces eight new claims of plagiarism.” The Guardian. 2 Sep. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/sep/02/damien-hirst-plagiarism-claims>.
“Blanch v. Koons.” FindLaw. Web. 15 Jan 2012. <http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1374144.html>.
“Copyright Act of 1790.” Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Act_of_1790#cite_note-0>.
The Copyright Law of 1976. 17 U.S.C. §106-7. 1976. Web. 15 Jan . 2012. <http://www.copyright.gov/history/pl94-553.pdf>.
“Glossary.” Tate. Web. <http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/default.htm>
“Image Rights.” Harvard Law School. Web. <http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/martin/art_law/image_rights.htm>.
Party, William. “Appropriation Art and Copies.” The Party Copyright Blog. 20 Oct. 2005. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. <http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2005/10/appropriation-art-and-copies.html>.
Paulson, Ronald. Hogarth: Vol.II, High Art and Low, 1732-1750.
“Rogers v. Koons, 960 F. 2d 301 - Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit 1992.” Web. <http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9102865469766650757&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr>.
Rudd, Benjamin W. “Notable Dates in American Copyright: 1783-1969.” U.S. Copyright Office. Web. <http://www.copyright.gov/history/dates.pdf>.
Taylor, Kate. “In Twist, Jeff Koons Claims Rights to ‘Balloon Dogs.’” The New York Times. 19 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/arts/design/20suit.html>.
Thompson, Charles. “The Art Damien Hirst Stole.” Stuckism. 2010. Web. 10 Jan. 2012. <http://www.stuckism.com/Hirst/StoleArt.html>.
Architecture of the Exhibition:
The Evolution of Exhibition Space in Relation to the Art Market
Introduction
Thesis: Changing demands of society and the art market have directly shaped exhibition space over the years, leading to its contemporary formal 'crisis': the 'white box' vs. 'building as object,' a rigid dichotomy that poses either the sacrifice of architecture or art at the expense of the other. This essay has found that contemporary trends in the art market have brought about the emergence of several new exhibition strategies, and seeks to evaluate these strategies as a means to move beyond the contemporary 'crisis' of exhibition space.
This essay defines exhibition space as the physical setting of a public display of art work, including museums, galleries, fairs, and emerging typologies. The essay will focus on typology as opposed to detail, for the sake of eliciting the most meaningful relationships between exhibition space and the art market. These typologies will be referred to collectively as “exhibition space” throughout the essay, specifying between them only when necessary (the term gallery is often used interchangeably for galleries and museums). This is to promote a cross-sectional analysis of typologies in order to elicit commonalities, and because the developments of these typologies have great overlap.
This essay is structured by three main sections: The Historical Development of Exhibition Spaces, Contemporary Exhibition Spaces, and The Future of Exhibition Spaces.
Historical Development of Exhibition Spaces
The Emergence of Public Exhibition Spaces and the Institutionalization of the Museum
Exhibition space has developed along with historical changes in society, as well as the demands of the art market. Previous to the development of public art galleries, there were two ways to see art in eighteenth century Europe. One could visit the private gallery of a wealthy collector (with good connections and a bit of luck), or could attend one of the annual exhibitions held by local art societies (Klonk, 21). Public exhibition spaces developed out of the desire to make art collections more accessible. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, these private collections were organized and showcased publicly in palaces (Hughes, 10).
At this point, there were still no purpose-built exhibition spaces. The Sir John Soane Museum in London and the Uffizi gallery in Florence were proto-galleries that developed out of the private collections of wealthy patrons (Hughes, 11). The first purpose-built art gallery in the UK was Dulwich Picture Gallery in London (Hughes, 11). As it was one of the first buildings ever dedicated solely to the exhibition of art, this was an important precedent in the development of the art gallery and museum. Because these exhibitions were intended primarily for educational and self-improvement purposes, they were arranged based on unifying themes (Hughes, 11) . The individual characteristics of artists or schools were glossed over in favor of a particular narrative (Klonk, 24). The result was a an integrated and subjective exhibition strategy. Gallery interiors reflected this, by integrating the architecture with the exhibition. Walls were often a soft neutral color; greyish-green was very popular (Klonk, 28).
[A] Dulwich Picture Gallery, Exterior [B] Interior
The Shift from Subjective to Objective Viewership and its Impact on Exhibitions
Improvements in transportation spurred the growth of many other exhibition spaces. The Great Exhibition of 1951 held at the Crystal Palace in London showcased technological improvements of the time. As the ideological relationship between man and the world began to change, gallery spaces began to reflect this. The focus began to shift away from the subjective viewing experience to the objective. The opening of the National Gallery in London in 1824 challenged the strategy of displaying works in thematic arrangements. Its works were arranged individually with large spaces in between, establishing an objective relationship between the viewer and the work (Klonk, 28). The focus shifted away from intimacy toward a more grandiose display of art.
[A] National Gallery in London, Exterior [B] National Gallery in London, Interior
The Bazaar and its Link between Commerce and Exhibition
Around this time, another major trend in exhibition spaces was developing. Bazaars introduced new types of exhibitions- the diorama and the cosmorama., mobile three dimensional models depicting a scene; in the latter case, a scene of images from around the world. Walter Benjamin notes that the bazaar makes a link between commerce and exhibition, making it as a transitional moment between the department store and the museum (Klonk, 28). Though most department stores began to sell art by 1850, the museum would not make this connection until much later. This link between commerce and exhibition would also begin to change the role of the viewer to that of a consumer.
Compare the images below. The one to the left is of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857. The other is an image of the Bazaar in Isfahan, from the Harvard Guide to Shopping.
[A] The Art Treasures Exhibition [B] Bazaar, Isfahan
Institutionalization of the White Box
The design for the new Museum of Modern Art building in 1929 established a radical break from the exhibition spaces of the past which continues to dominate today. In the past, the MoMA had received much criticism for its sequential presentation of modern art (Cuno, 38). For the new building, they took a different approach. They broke away from the traditional narrative structure that most museums employed. Influenced by Bauhaus design principles, director Alfred Barr reconceptualized the gallery interior as a pristine white space, with artworks displayed at generous intervals, emphasizing each work as an independent object (Hughes, 16). The architecture receded to the background for the sake of the artwork; It became undefined for the sake of flexibility. All shows were treated in the same manner, no matter what the style.
And so the MoMA is credited with the creation of the “white box.” This strategy of exhibition was meant to provoke viewers to look at art in a different way. Perhaps this is why the white box has continued to dominate exhibition space ever since.
The White Box/Black Box
The MoMA is also credited with changing the role of the spectator to consumer. It defined the new role of the art gallery not as a place of education, but of entertainment (Klonk, 17). Art historian Charlotte Klonk notes that the emergence of new media, such as installation , video, and internet, has lead to the emergence of the 'black box,' a sort of entertainment space to house these new works. At the same time, Klonk argues that the white box has still not really been challenged, noting that white box spaces can easily “transform themselves, through electrical means, into black boxes.” Klonk cites this transformation as "perhaps the most radical transformation of the museum interior in the last hundred years" (Klonk, 211).
Contemporary Exhibition Spaces
The Crisis of Contemporary Exhibition Space- The 'White Box/Black Box' vs the 'Building as Object'
Most scholars agree that there is a crisis of contemporary exhibition space, seen as the dichotomy between the 'white box/black box' and 'building as object.' These two opposing architectures ultimately stem from two opposing theories of the viewer-object relationship. One theory proposes an objective relationship between the viewer and the object; the other, a subjective one. The white box adheres to the former theory, with its neutralized interiors, meant to create an objective vacuum in which to view art. The building as object adheres to the latter theory, aiming to create a subjective relationship between the art, the environment, and the viewer. The crisis is that the design for exhibition spaces is now apparently limited to a choice between two undesirable models- an overly passive or aggressive architecture.
There have been a multitude of elaborations on the white box, but these are essentially variations upon the same principle. The Centre Pompidou, for example, perhaps represents the white box at its most extreme. While regarded as a radical departure from past precedents at the time of its opening, the museum is still essentially a white box. Buildings systems such as structure, ventilation, electricity, and circulation were pushed outside the building envelope, leaving vast, unobstructed interiors with infinite reconfigurability of partitions. The architecture lends little, if anything to the viewing experience.
[A] Centre Pompidou, Exterior [B] Interior
There have also been a multitude of variations on the building as object typology. The Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, is a well known example. Its unique design attempts to create a subjective viewing experience, by asserting the relationship between the art and the architecture. However, the building, while particularly exciting on the exterior, may be a bit distracting inside.
[C] Guggenheim, Bilbao, Exterior [D] Interior
For a long time, the question has been how to move beyond this 'crisis.' The next section will focus on some emerging exhibition typologies and the strategies they imply.
Emergent Typologies
In order to move the conversation beyond the current crisis of the 'white box/black box vs building as object,' this essay will consider what the author believes to be emergent typologies. These typologies are primarily distinguished from the 'white box/ black box vs. building as object' based on strategy not form. To clarify, either one of these emergent typologies may still be defined as a white cube because their interiors are austere and white. However, these typologies deserve isolated consideration as they pose unique exhibition strategies, and because they elicit new or under-explored concepts in exhibition space that may be key to its future development. In doing so, they challenge the current dichotomy of the white box/black box vs. building as object.
1. Hypermarket
This essay identifies what will be termed as the 'hypermarket'-The hypermarket is an art fair, distinguished as its own typology because its density and scope of program generates a degree of social and economic benefits that are not possible through other means. The hypermarket is just as much about art as it is social event, economic generator, and political strategy. Commenting on Art Basel Miami, one of Miami's elite states, “ABMB is now as much about "design, fashion, and nightlife" as it is about art.” [4]. The hypermarket is therefore distinguished from the art fair as it hosts an array of other social functions.
There has been a major increase in the growth of hypermarkets in recent years. Some of these include, Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, Frieze Art Fair in London, and the Venice Biennale.
Hypermarkets make use of certain strategies regarding shopping, density, temporality, and virtual media in a way that other exhibition spaces do not. These strategies will be discussed in further detail later on.
[A] Art Basel Miami, Interior [B] Art Basel Miami Central Lounge [C] Art Basel events extending into the city
Hypermarket Links:
Art Basel: http://www.artbasel.com/go/id/ss/lang/eng/
Art Basel Miami: http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/
Frieze Art Fair: http://www.friezeartfair.com/
Venice Biennale: http://www.labiennale.org/en/Home.html
2. Pop-Up
Pop-up galleries are another emergent typology capable of challenging institutionalized exhibition spaces. Pop-up art exhibitions are a graowing that have emerged in recent years as a means to connect artists with vacant spaces in order to create exhibitions.
Many pop-up organizations, including: Pop-Up Art Loop in Chicage, Chashama in New York, Openhouse in Manhattan. Chashama and Pop-Up Art Loop link artists with vacant spaces throughout the city to create exhibitions. Openhouse is a storefont gallery space that can be rented out and transformed into any number of inpormptou exhibitions; everything from art show to indoor park.
Like the hypermarket, the pop-up makes use of certain exhibition strategies in a way that other types of exhibition space do not. These strategies are examined in further detail in the next section.
[A] A pop-up gallery by Chashama [B] Image of an Installation at Openhouse pop-up gallery
Pop-Up Organization Links:
Chashama: http://www.chashama.org/
Openhouse: http://www.openhousegallery.org/
Emergent Exhibition Strategies
With the emergence of these new typologies, a few strategies have emerged regarding contemporary exhibition space. This section examines these strategies that have only begun to explore their potential impact on exhibition space and the art market.
1. Shopping
According to art historian Charlotte Klonk, since the opening of the MoMA, gallery experience has been dictated by commerce. Museums and high-end shops evoke the same experience (Klonk, 17). And with the increasing social and economic demands created by the contemporary art market, shopping has never before had such a direct influence on exhibition space as it does today. Renowned contemporary architect Rem Koolhaas speculates on shopping and its influence on every aspect of public space;
“Shopping is arguably the last remaining form of public activity. Through a battery of increasingly predatory forms, shopping has infiltrated, colonized, and even replaced, almost every aspect of urban life. Town centers, suburbs, streets, and now airports, train stations, museums, hospitals, schools, the internet, and the military are shaped by the mechanisms and spaces of shopping.” (Chung, 11).
One does not have to look for very long to recognize shopping's influence on contemporary exhibition space. Walking into almost any upscale gallery, one could easily imagine the works of art replaced by handbags or shoes. Conversely, it is not hard to imagine most high-end commercial spaces as galleries. Compare the two images below. The image to the left is Koolhaas' design for the Prada Flagship Store in SoHo (note this space was previously the SoHo branch of the Guggenheim) [5]. The image to the right is from the MoMA.
[A] Prada Flagship Store [B] MoMA
Hypermarkets, in particular, employ unique shopping strategies. In fact, many of these hypermarkets are run by trade show organizations. Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach are owned by Messe Schweiz, a Swiss based trade fair organization [3]. But it is not only the formal language of exhibition spaces that is influenced by shopping. There are some key organizational strategies that contemporary exhibition spaces, particularly the hypermarket, have begun to imitate. For example, compare the plan of Scope Art New York 2011 with that of a typical shopping mall below. Both use the strategies of compartmentalization for individual programs. These programs are arranged around larger open social spaces. 'Anchor programs' are located at the ends of the space to draw visitors from one side to the other.
[C] Typical Shopping Center- Floorplan [D] Scope Art NY- Floorplan
The ubiquitous influence of shopping in the art market has created a constant demand for 'newness,' helping to explain the explosion of temporary exhibition spaces in recent years. Fashion store pop-ups, impromptu shops set up at abandoned sites, have been a rising trend [6]. The constant demand for newness that drives both the retail market and the art market has lead to a similar phenomena in the art world- the art exhibition pop-up. Often, these exhibitions are set up in former commercial storefronts, further reinforcing the direct relationship between high-end retail and gallery space. In shopping terms, they represent the irresistible hunt for the bargain to both artists and consumers.
2. Congestion
A trend toward congestion has emerged along with the influence shopping. In his essay, Life in the Metropolis or The Culture of Congestion, Koolhaas observes contemporary society's move toward a 'culture of congestion,' demonstrating how the strategies of super-dense commercial architecture can produce 'accelerated effects' (Hayes, 321). Taking Manhattan as his prototype, Koolhaas theorizes that “the vast urban gird and elevator couple horizontally and vertically to produce previously unimaginable experimental effects out of an economically engineered servomechanism” (Hays, 321). In 1982, Koolhaas and his firm, OMA, used this generative model of the skyscraper and turned in horizontally, from section to plan, to create their canonical entry for the Parc de La Villette competition. In the image below, one can see the translation of the skyscraper into a stratified plan, creating maximum interface between park programs to enable these 'accelerated effects.' This essay proposes that one can see the a similar trend in hyper-markets.
Compare the plan of La Villette to the plan of Art Basel Miami Beach below. While in La Villette, programs are organized into strips, in Art Basel, programs are arranged into cells. But both achieve a high-density, 'congestion' of program within. In the case of La Villette, these intended 'accelerated effects' are cultural; in Art Basel Miami, they are social, cultural, and economic. But the effects of Art Basel Miami are not limited to the building's periphery. By creating a super-concentrated event, the market effects extend well beyond the event itself. Long lasting ties are made between buyers and sellers, and between artists and their audiences.. The local economy also gets a large boost. As Art Basel Miami Beach is one of the most important stimulators for the contemporary art market, one could expect this trend toward congestion will continue to develop.
[A] Parc de La Villette Plan [B] Art Basel Miami Beach Plan
3. Dispersion/Reallocation
As a counter to the hypermarket's model of congestion, the pop-up proposes an equally valid model of dispersion. This model has its own unique consequences in regards to the art market. Some act as satellites for larger museums to bring exhibitions into the city. Others exist through organizations, such as Chashama, to link artists with experimental venues. Because they are smaller and not an official part of the arts district, these venues can act as “test labs for experimentation” that might be too risky with larger institutionalized venues or well established galleries (Reinhardt, 31). Openhouse describes itself as “...not just a space. It's a pop-up concept lab,” emphasizing the experimental nature of these spaces [7]. These dispersed spaces therefore can serve as a platform for emerging artists, who may not otherwise have a chance with centralized institutions.
[A] Map Showing Dispersed Locations of Pop-Up Art Loop's Galleries
To an extent, dispersion is already present in the New York Arts District in Chelsea. It is dispersed in the sense that it is an agglomeration of independent venues as opposed to a large centralized institution such as a museum. This strategy helps explain the district's robustness. These galleries are easily accessible to the public who can come in right off the street, without the admissions fees most museums charge The gallerists do not put on pressure to buy, as about ninety five percent of customers have no intention of purchasing works [2]. In fact, these galleries “make art by the very best of Contemporary artists available in the most easily accessible form” [2]. Is the pop-up perhaps the next step of the evolution of decentralized exhibition space?
The concept of dispersion/reallocation can perhaps influence large institutions as well. In light of the dominance of art fairs, museums have revealed a weakness in their centralized structures. They are not able to adapt as easily to the constant demands for new shows and the fluctuations of the market. The beginnings of this trend toward decentralization can be seen with the increasing number of satellite galleries in recent years. Yet museums still serve important archival and educational purposes. For over a century, designers have placed emphasis on event space and circulation at the expense of archives and study space (Reinhardt, 31). In her book, New Exhibition Design 02, Dusseldorf University of Applied Sciences professor Uwe Reinhardt urges designers to refocus on neglected archival and study spaces. Perhaps one could go a step further and reconceptualize museums as archival, research, and educational centers, leaving major exhibitions to fairs, satellite galleries, and other temporary venues.
4. Virtuality
Demands of the art market have in many ways exceeded the capabilities of physical exhibition space. Most major museums rely on digital archives that are just as important as the physical objects themselves. These archives have the potential to far outlive the originals, and are highly accessible to the general public. Additionally, major exhibition spaces now depend on social media to maintain their market presence. Most have at least a home webpage that displays basic information including a brief description of the institution, hours, location, and upcoming events. Many go beyond this and have social media presence. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, for example, has its own Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as its own YouTube channel. The virtual realm has found its own niche in the art market.
But the possibilities of virtual media have only begun to be explored and are being pushed to the extreme with new exhibition spaces. Pop-ups are completely dependent on new media in order to function, as in they cannot rely on an established physical location. They rely on social media to promote shows, recruit new artists, and to locate new spaces. Most of these pop-up organization have exhibition applications, images of the space, and sometimes even detailed floorplans,on their websites.
Hypermarkets also rely on social media to stay connected to their audience and to keep their market share. The sheer density of shows and events requires an organized database of all information. The use of virtual media has already begun to push exhibition space to its extreme, and promises more for the future.
5. Temporality
Temporary exhibitions are nothing new, however, their dominance in the market is, and these types of exhibitions are extremely important in context of the contemporary art market. The concept of the modern art fair began with the inception of the Documenta art exhibition in Kassel, Germany in 1955. By creating a temporary venue that brought together new works from all over the world, this festival dealt with the issue of how to keep up with new artistic developments that plagued many museums. (Klonk, 120). According to art historian Charlotte Klonk, Documenta spurred the beginning of the age of the curator, in which the continual demand for new shows have pushed static exhibition spaces to their limit. This new curatorial age places slightly less emphasis on physical place, and more on event. This helps explain the vast proliferation of art fairs over recent years, including Art Basel Miami Beach, the Armory Show in NYC, Friese Art in London, ARCO in Madrid, and FIAC in Paris [2].
Temporary venues offer some important social and economic benefits. In hypermarkets, for example, the intense time structure promotes the highest amount of socialization, networking, and sales in the least amount of time- one collector referred to it as“speed dating” (Thornton, 223). Temporary venues create huge economic boosts that smaller galleries cannot generate on their own. For example, Lisson gallery does an average of seven international fairs a year, which generates about 50% of their profits (Thornton, 90).
Pop-up galleries also benefit from their temporary nature. They offer an alternative to the current dichotomy of exhibition spaces, as their technique is strategic, not formal. Pop-up have created a new market niche based on their temporal nature, making use of temporarily unused space.
This trend toward temporary exhibition spaces has parallels in recent developments in the field of architecture, and may be able to help push beyond the current dichotomy of 'white box/black box vs. building as object.' As mentioned previously, these temporary venues stress event over form. The same basic tenant is promoted by the theories of Landscape Urbanism. Landscape Urbanism is a contemporary architectural and urban design theory that uses landscape as a generative design model. The theory understands landscape in the functional sense of process, and calls for the staging of public space for the production of “urban effects” (Waldheim, 37). It is believed that these effects, such as public events, are more fundamental to the vitality of the city than physical forms, such as buildings and public spaces, and that these physical forms should be designed to enable or promote theses urban effects.
The Future of Exhibition Spaces
The question still remains: how can exhibition space develop beyond the 'white box/black box vs. building as object' dichotomy?
It is possible that this dichotomy will continue to dominate the conceptualization of exhibition space? Architecture may continue to push these two opposing models to their extremes: the white box may continue to develop to the point where it is little more than infrastructure, and the building as object may go to such extremes as to become a caricature of itself. Or, it may be possible that some typologies, such as museums, remain unchallenged, while other emergent typologies continue to develop.
But it is the hope of the author that these emergent exhibition strategies can influence the development of all types of exhibition space. These concepts may help move the conversation forward as they shift the emphasis from form to strategy, placing emphasis on process and effect.
Moving the Conversation Forward
Taking the identified emergent strategies into account- shopping, congestion, dispersion/reallocation, virtuality, and temporality, offered here is an 'alternative approach' for the conception of future exhibition spaces. It is hoped that by re-conceptualizing the design problem as a strategic (as opposed to formal) approach, we can move exhibition space beyond its current state of crisis. Further exploration of these strategies may eventually lead to new formal or architectural techniques. Already, some have begun to emerge. The dominance of shopping has begun to blur the bounds between exhibition space and commercial spaces. Formal and organizational strategies have already presented themselves in exhibition space through compartmentalization and anchoring The strategies of congestion and dispersion/reallocation have implied strategies that should be explored at the architectural and urban levels. Virtuality is especially relevant because in some ways, demands of the art market have exceeded the capacities of physical exhibition space, though it will be more productive to continue to explore the ways in which virtual media can develop in conjunction with physical exhibition space. Temporality is an especially important strategy, as we are now in the age of the curator, with market demands constantly pushing for new shows. It is also highly relevant in light of parallel developments in the broader field of architecture, which places emphasis on strategy over form.
Each of these strategies has significant, under-explored implications for the art market, and may be key to creating exhibition space in the future.
Bibliography:
Books
Chung, Chuihua J, Jeffrey Inaba, Rem Koolhaas, Sze T. Leong, and Tae-wook Cha. Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping. Köln: Taschen, 2001.
Cuno, James B. Museums Matter: In Praise f the Excyclopedic Museum. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Hays, K. Michael. Architecture theory since 1968. Cambridge, Mass : The MIT Press, 1998.
Hughes, Philip. Exhibition Design. London: Laurence King Publiishing, Ltd., 2010.
Klonk, Charlotte. Spaces of experience : art gallery interiors from 1800 to 2000. New Haven : Yale University Press, 2009.
Reinhardt, Uwe J. Neue Ausstellungsgestaltung. Ludwigsburg : AV Edition, c2008-c2010.
Thornton, Sarah. Seven days in the art world. London : Granta, 2009.
Waldheim, Charles. The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 2004.
Articles
[1] “Metropolis M » Magazine » 2008-No3 » The Art Fair Age.” Web. 21 Jan. 2012.
[2] Halle, David, & Tiso, Elisabeth. (2007). Contemporary Art: A 'Global' and Local Perspective via New York's Chelsea District. UC Los Angeles: California Center for Population Research.
[3] Messe Schweitz: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/37196/the-power-of-fairs/
[4] Art Basel Entertainment: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/12/art-basel-diddy-will-smith.html
[5] Prada Store: http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/prada/
[6] NY Times Art Basel Miami: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/fashion/13Close.html
[7] Openhouse Pop-Ups: http://www.openhousegallery.org/work-with-us
Links
Documenta: http://d13.documenta.de/
Venice Biennale: http://www.labiennale.org/en/Home.html
Art Basel Miami: http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/
Armory Show: http://www.thearmoryshow.com/
Frieze Art Fair: http://www.friezeartfair.com/
Scope Art: www.scope-art.com
Images
The Emergence of Public Exhibition Spaces and the Institutionalization of the Museum:
[A ] Dulwich Picture Gallery Exterior: http://www.esto.com
[B] Dulwich Picture Gallery Interior: http://dulwichonview.org.uk/2009/01/13/animals-in-art-at-dulwich-picture-gallery/
The Shift from Subjective to Objective Viewership and its Impact on Exhibitions
[A] National Gallery Exterior: http://yalebooks.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/books-from-the-worlds-most-prestigious-museums-and-art-galleries-part-one-the-national-gallery-london/
[B] National Gallery Interior: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/giuseppe-gabrielli-the-national-gallery-1886-interior-of-room-32
The Bazaar and its Link between Commerce and Exhibition
[A] Art Treasures Exhibition: http://porterandjenkinson.tumblr.com/
[B Isfahan Bazaar: Chung, Chuihua J, Jeffrey Inaba, Rem Koolhaas, Sze T. Leong, and Tae-wook Cha. Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping. Köln: Taschen, 2001.
[C] Roman Market: Chung, Chuihua J, Jeffrey Inaba, Rem Koolhaas, Sze T. Leong, and Tae-wook Cha. Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping. Köln: Taschen, 2001.
The Crisis of Contemporary Exhibition Space- The 'White Box/Black Box' vs the 'Building as Object'
[A] Centre Pompidou Exterior: http://www.stageoftheart.net/en/art/Centre-pompidou-Beaubourg-Paris-200
[B] Centre Pompidou Interior: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomaswright/5299921758/
[C] Bilbao exterior: http://www.e-architect.co.uk/bilbao/guggenheim_museum_bilbao.htm
[D] Bilbao interior” http://coolwallpapersblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/guggenheim-bilbao-interior-wallpapers.html
Emergent Typologies
hypermarket
[A] http://www.aboutmiami.co/2011/11/01/art-basel-miami-beach/
[B] http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150375171074643&set=pu.52860439642&type=1&theater
[C] http://davidgryn.wordpress.com/
pop-up
[D] http://www.chashama.org/locations/current
Emergent Exhibition Strategies
shopping
[A] prada store: http://www.suckerpunchdaily.com/tag/rem-koolhaas/
[B] Moma Steps: http://www.moillusions.com/2006/11/disappearing-stairs.html
[C] Typical Shopping Center Floorplan: http://www.tysonsgalleria.com/
[D] Scppe Art NY Floorplan: www.scope-art.com
congestion
[A] Parc de La Villette: http://arpc167.epfl.ch/alice/WP_2011_S4/studiokaracsony/?p=4009
[B] Art Basel Miami Beach Floorplan: http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/
dispersion/reallocation
The Ephemeral Street Art in Today's Art Market
History of Graffiti:
Graffiti by definition is writings, drawings illegally rendered on a wall or other public space, however in the past few years it has become an art form in and of itself. Graffiti has been around since the beginning of humanity, and has developed from cave paintings and depictions of gladiators, to tags and now high art. In the Roman times, graffiti was prominent in every public space, depicting popular gladiators, prostitutes, or slashing politicians. The political turmoil of the 1960’s renewed this same public interest in graffiti, in the form of graffiti protest. Inspired by the Black Arts Movement, Graffiti began to be used as a form of protest, slandering politics, or imploring the public to band together to abolish segregation and racism. At the same time, many of the younger generation began to develop graffiti in the form of tags. Tags, which are still present today, are letterings, or symbols used to depict a person or group. These became popular in the 60’s and 70’s, as it was often used as a competition to see who could “tag” the most public places without being caught. By tagging transit systems such as busses, and subways, graffiti increased in popularity, and moved throughout many of the large cities in the US. The busses and subways also became important in creating the idea of graffiti as an ephemeral work of art, due to the fact that the transit workers, and police often washed the art off due to its illegality.
Graffiti Tag 
In the 1980’s graffiti made an important transition from vandalism, to what is now deemed street art. Many artists had moved beyond their “tags” and began to create more visually appealing work that caught the eye of cutting edge art galleries. The two foremost galleries were Fashion Moda, in the Bronx, and Now Gallery in Manhattan. These two galleries were the first to display graffiti as an art form, and promote artists to the public. The Now Gallery first presented one of the founders of contemporary street art, Jean-Michel Basquiat. With the promotion of this new form of art, street art began to become increasingly popular, leading more galleries to begin distributing street artists’ work, which in turn lead to more artists creating work, altogether accumulating to the contemporary status where street artists such as Basquiat and Banksy have pieces selling in art auctions all over the world for thousands of dollars.
Jean-Michel Basquiat:
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an extremely influential artist in the 1980s, who began as a graffiti artist and through his work in the streets, became recognized and moved forward to become a Neo-expressionist artist. Basquiat began his career when he ran away from home and began to sell his homemade postcards depicting his own designs in order to feed himself. After this, he began spray-painting graffiti on buildings in Manhattan under then name SAMO. Basquiat was influenced by African Diaspora, and used this coupled with his perception of his surroundings while living in the streets, created his unique artistic style, which often included crossed out words, symbols and numbers, which then became signifiers in other street art. Through his work, Basquiat often made political statements, along with discussing his personal experiences. Basquiat became a very accomplished painter, however he never lost the themes he presents in his street art. In one of his pieces entitled Heritage, Basquiat shows his own immediate heritage, as well as that of the United States and the Ancient World. Throughout the painting he also demonstrates his unique style through words in different languages, and misspelled English words, which are not indicative of how educated he actually was. This is demonstrative of the ideology of street art, which is to bring art back to the masses, and away from the academic elite. By misspelling these words, Basquiat is connecting to his audience, the uneducated public.
Basquiat continued to pull influence from the streets long after he had become successful. He continued to depict images reminiscent of the scenes and objects he would have seen on a daily basis when he was homeless. In many of his paintings he depicted car crashes, which reminded him of when he was hit by a car when he was younger, but also demonstrated the uncertainties he faced while living in the street. In many of his paintings he also demonstrated his political beliefs in the equality of African Americans, which was a very popular topic during his time, and often wrote cryptic messages, such as the one depicted here, which discussed jail sentences placed on men of color: “Jimmy Best, Sucker punch, childhood files”. Jimmy Best represents the colored male, sucker punch is the incarceration, and childhood files represents juvenile sentencing. Art Critic Rene Ricard explains: “this is the black man’s first taste of white justice”.
Basquiat became quite popular, and was one of the first street artists to become successful, and many of his pieces are still sold for large amounts of money at renowned auctions such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and many are exhibited in Museums around the world.
Banksy:
The elusive British street artist Banksy employs a technique of stenciling and spray painting on very public areas, depicting political and social satires. Through remaining occult, as well as depicting scenes and images that are controversial comments on society he has become the most recognized and well-known street artists. Even non-art enthusiasts know of Banksy and his creative artistry. Over the years, he has grown in popularity through mysteriously creating his art in famous public places, as well as creating art exhibitions that he himself does not attend, and through this he has gained an unparalleled celebrity. His celebrity is clouded around an anonymous figure that creates his art in secrecy. Not only does he set up his exhibitions and artwork at night when no one can see him, but he also refuses to allow anyone to know his real identity and uses a voice scrambler and facemask in all interviews. The only way that one can know he has done a piece is through his very unique stenciling, which is spray painted in mostly black and white, and sometimes with a splash of color. He is also known by his ironic captions describing satirical pictures. The following photos are typical of his style of artwork.
The location of his artwork is also indicative of his style. Banksy enjoys shocking his viewers by placing art in the most public and most unpredictable locations. Some of his most notable art locations include the following: the Israeli West Bank, The London and Bristol Zoos, illegally in many museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, the Metropolitan, and the Museum of Natural History, as well as on a Disneyland Park ride.
Although Banksy himself refuses to sell any of his street art, many auctioneers have attempted to either steal the art from public areas, or sell it on location, letting the purchaser deal with removing it. Banksy also creates other works in easier to move mediums that auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s have sold. The most recent piece is priced to sell at 100,000 pounds.
Market’s Perception of Street Art:
Since the 1980’s the Art Market has been very open to buying and selling street art, as well as art created by street artists that were not, at any point, in public places. The question of illegality has been pushed aside, because art critics and dealers all realize the value of street art, not only for its aesthetics, but also for its context in the social sphere. Street art often depicts, in a unique or humorous way, the views of the people, and through that the art often depicts a political or social agenda or thought based on the period it was made in. Thus, it is interesting for art dealers to acquire. Dealers, however, are not interested in the beginnings of street art, that is the graffiti tags that began the movement, but rather the pieces created by artists such as the aforementioned Basquiat and Banksy, which depict deeper meanings and also have an aesthetic quality that all can appreciate, not just the people on the “inside” of the graffiti tags.
Due to its rising popularity among celebrities, as well as art critics and dealers, street art has become a very expensive form of contemporary art. The smallest of Banksy’s pieces would bring in at least $50,000, with many going for much more. One of his record sales, a piece entitled Space Girl & Bird sold for a record $576,000.
The Los Angeles MoCA Exhibition: Art in the Streets: 
In August 2011, the Los Angeles MoCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) held an exhibit entitled Art in the Streets, which displayed some of the most influential street art since the 1980s. “One of the goals of this show is to place the best of these artists coming out of street culture into the context of contemporary art history,” director of the exhibit Jeffery Deitch explains, “I don’t think that there’s some separate category — real contemporary art versus street art. ... [I want] to look at this art in a similar way as a museum looks at new abstract painting. You look for the people that are original, the innovators who have exemplary technique”. Some of the talented artists from around the globe exhibited in this show were: Fab 5 Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Futura, Margaret Kilgallen, Swoon, Shepard Fairey, Os Gemeos, JR, Craig R. Stecyk III, Chaz Bojórquez, Mister Cartoon, RETNA, SABER, REVOK, Banksy and RISK. One of the largest complaints by the audience is that it does not include all graffiti and street artists, and therefore it is not a complete history of street art. To this, the director replies: “The common misconception here is that this show is a complete history or an L.A. graf show,” Gastman says. “It’s neither of those things. It’s 30 to 40 artists who raised the profile of an entire movement with high artistic merit. ... The participating artists were very supportive once they understood this intent. ... There is a reason and thought behind every one of the pieces included.”
In order to garner excitement for the event, Deitch commissioned a graffiti artist to make a mural on the entire front side of the MoCA exhibit. Unfortunately, graffiti artists are prone to making commentary on all of their artwork, and the piece that muralist Blu created which showed coffins covered with dollar bills, caused too much unrest in the area, and thus had to be changed to a less provocative mural.
This, in turn, caused strife between the artists and their fans, because the exhibit was supposed to show street art as it is, and applaud the brave and controversial messages behind the art, but at the very beginning planning stages, the museum was already reneging on this idea, and censoring one artist’s work. Dietch explains the difficulty behind hosting graffiti and street artists in a museum setting: “Museums are used to dealing with artists who behave in a museum,” Deitch says. “But here, we’re dealing with artists many of whom misbehave in a museum”. Many artists also agreed with this statement, and therefore disagreed with the prospect of putting street art in the museum setting, one such artist Revok, states: I want to do art that you can’t avoid — not that you have to seek out,” he said. “I’m about painting walls and being out in the city, interacting with people on a daily basis.”
Revok demonstrates a popular belief of street artists, and thus museum exhibitions such as Art in the Streets are received with mixed feelings. Although it is unprecedented to bring that many street artists into one setting, and the director Jeffery Dietch worked hard to maintain a sense of being in the streets, the context is completely different, and thus the overall message, and reaction to the artwork are much different. It is commendable that Dietch is trying to preserve a part of this ever-changing art form, however at the same time that goes against what graffiti and street art stand for. Street art was meant to be fleeting, here one minute and gone the next, and it was meant to remain in the public’s hands. By taking it away from the public sphere, and the all-inclusive audience, the art show moves street art to a place it was never supposed to be in: the museum.
Pieces from the Art Show: 
The Public Sphere of Street Art and its Ephemeral Nature:
The most interesting, and almost ironic things about the increasing popularity of street art in the art world, is the fact that it was never meant to be sold in auction houses, nor was the intended audiences ever supposed to be the type that visit these galleries and auction houses. Street art originally intended to be for the masses. It was made so that it could take art out of the hands of these aristocratic dealers, critics and gallery owners, and put back into the average persons hands. Not only that, but the art was made to be set in a specific context, and does not make sense outside of the context. One of Banksy’s most controversial, and interesting pieces is a stencil and painting he did on the side of the wall separating the West Bank. This picture, shown below, depicts children playing next to the cracked hole, which shows a sort of paradise, thus demonstrating his anti-war stance. By removing this art from its context, meaning the location, and time it exists within, the piece does not make as strong of an argument, or create as much discussion as it does within the context. Without the war, or the barrier, which in itself symbolizes the split between the Palestinians and the Israelis, the art is just a pretty piece of stencil and painting, that is interesting, but when it is within its context on the wall, the piece becomes provocative and controversial. Thus it is interesting that art dealers and critics desire to make a profit by taking these pieces out of their context, and selling them at exorbitant prices when that is starkly contrasting with the original definition of street art.
I agree with the idea of selling pieces by street artists that were not created in public spheres, but to remove a piece from its context simply makes the piece worthless, and goes against everything street art stands for.
Street art at its very essence is an ephemeral form of art. It changes constantly, and could be there one minute and gone the next. The illegality of street art causes it to become a forbidden art, thus making it more appealing. Not only that but the idea that street art can be so fleeting, due to the fact that one day an artist could make a beautiful painting, and the next day the authorities could remove it, makes it all the more beautiful when its there, and all the more missed when it’s gone. The nature of street art as something intangible, something that cannot be bought, because it is not all that certain it will remain forever, creates an allure to the artwork that cannot be fabricated, and thus there is an immediacy and a realness that comes with the art.
Many times there are also competing street artists that may draw over each other’s art, as a way to assert dominance. By doing this, they also, intentionally or not, bring the audience in to their art on a more personal level. The viewers can see the progress made on one piece of art, thus they feel as though they took part in the creating of it. One such battle was between street art legends Banksy and graffiti artists Robbo. One can see the progression of the art with each artist adding on top of the others’ work. Not only do each separate artist add to the piece, but by wiping out the art, and painting over it, the authorities actually add to the art itself. Street art is not always about the finished product, but rather is about the path to get there, and often artists are not upset by other artists adding to it, or being blocked by authorities, rather they are excited that their art has provided so much discussion and action. This discussion between different artists, the authorities, and the audience creates a context that is so valuable it cannot be duplicated or valued as high in any other location. 
Links explaining the war between Robbo and Banksy:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nolionsinengland/4199803487/
http://graffoto1.blogspot.com/2009/12/banksy-vs-robbo-wrh-wd-checkmate.html
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/people/my-graffiti-war-with-banksy-by-king-robbo/
A video about the war:
http://www.babelgum.com/4023670/banksy-robbo-its-war.html
Sources:
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/basquiat/street-to-studio/english/explore_visual.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_Gallery
http://cutnspray.com/theforum/discussion/5514/rise-of-street-art-at-auction
http://avant-streetart.com/avant_street_art_1980s_New_York.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Michel_Basquiat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy#Notable_art_pieces
http://artist.christies.com/Banksy-b-1975-54406.aspx
http://lagente.org/2011/02/20/writings-on-the-wall-piecing-together-graffiti-art-and-culture/
http://www.artinfo.com.au/articles/read/reversal-of-graffiti-subversive
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nolionsinengland/4199803487/
http://graffoto1.blogspot.com/2009/12/banksy-vs-robbo-wrh-wd-checkmate.html
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/people/my-graffiti-war-with-banksy-by-king-robbo/
http://www.babelgum.com/4023670/banksy-robbo-its-war.html
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/14/070514fa_fact_collins?currentPage=all
http://www.artinfo.com.au/articles/read/reversal-of-graffiti-subversive
http://lagente.org/2011/02/20/writings-on-the-wall-piecing-together-graffiti-art-and-culture/
http://www.graffiti.org/faq/stowers.html
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2011/11/street-art-finds-home-tel-aviv/415/
http://flavorwire.com/18899/exclusive-redefining-urban-art-at-the-auction-house
http://unurth.com/1312858/MOCA-Art-In-The-Streets-Los-Angeles
http://www.laweekly.com/2011-04-07/art-books/street-art-at-moca/
http://www.nicolettemason.com/2011/07/art-in-streets.html
http://www.moca.org/audio/blog/?cat=84
http://www.moca.org/audio/blog/?p=1522
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/36614/street-artists-strike-back-at-deitchs-mural-whitewashing/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GEbYFrWUgTQ
Banksy Film." Exit Through The Gift Shop. Web. 11 Jan. 2012. <http://www.banksyfilm.com/synopsis.html?reload>.
Banksy. Web. 11 Jan. 2012. <http://www.banksy.co.uk/QA/qaa.html>.
"Dept. of Popular Culture: Banksy Was Here." The New Yorker. Web. 11 Jan. 2012. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/05/14/070514fa_fact_collins?currentPage=all>.
Droney, Damien. "The Business of "Getting Up": Street Art and Marketing in Los Angeles." Visual Anthropology 23.2 (2010): 98-114. Print.
Riggle, Nicholas A. "Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces." Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism 68.3 (2010): 243-57. Print.
Visconti, Luca M., John F. Sherry Jr., Stefania Borghini, and Laurel Anderson. "Street Art, Sweet Art? Reclaiming the Public in Public Place." Journal of Consumer Research 37.3 (2010): 511-29. Print.
Ward, Ossian. "Banksy Interview - Art - Time Out London." Time Out Worldwide - Your Guide to the Best Things to Do in the World's Greatest Cities including London and New York. Web. 11 Jan. 2012. <http://www.timeout.com/london/art/article/863/banksy-interview>.
"The World According to Banksy - Photo Essays - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. Web. 11 Jan. 2012. <http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1678584,00.html>.
AFIRCAN ART AND THE ART MARKET ON A GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL SCENE
Contemporary African art is an expression commonly used to defined the sum of styles and national productions of the African continent, the production of African artists, the production of Africa analyzed as a hole, the artistic, cultural and institutional dynamics of the African continent, the contemporary art so-called African or a contemporary artistic production linked to Africa-“wikipedia”The countries of Africa are well known for indigenous and culturally representative sculptures, textiles, and paintings. In the past, artists, art historians, and collectors have focused primarily on “traditional” African art, consisting of ceremonial masks, wood and ivory statues, and mud-cloth textiles. Today, Contemporary African Art has transformed beyond traditional subject matter and media into an art movement being exhibited, collected and discussed internationally. The styles of Contemporary African Art differ greatly from region to region and are highly affected by Africa’s history: colonialism; religion; politics; racism; slavery; war; contact with the West; and the urban experience.
The vastness of classifying Contemporary African Art
For a long time African art, were of more interest to, If I should say anthropologists than to art historians. As artist started to portray art as being tied to specific histories and colonial and postcolonial conditions Avant grade art movements began to take an interest in sculpture from West and Central Africa, which came to the notice of art historians through its influence on their work. What was its appeal? Artists described their perceptions of remarkable formal qualities quite different from those in their own cultural tradition. They read into them the kinds of symbolic meanings they were seeking to express in their own work, promoting the view that Africans could create art, but of a very particular kind. To those struggling against the constraints of the naturalistic artistic tradition of Europe, such African art offered a refreshing and potent vision of the creativity of ‘natural man’, which scholars had already compared to the work of children or psychotics. This was particularly appealing to those seeking creative inspiration from impulses, which their own culture defined as psychologically deep, intuitive and primitive. For Africa, the issues in this one-sided Western debate with other cultures have moved from the export of Africans as slaves to the conquest of their lands, more recently to the formation of nation states, and now to the promotion of capitalist economies through aid and development programmes.
Africans also work as artists within this Western art market. Since the colonial period an increasing number of Africans, often educated in the art colleges of Europe and America, have been drawing upon their experience of Western as well as African culture to develop new, often very individual styles and forms of objects as works of art. Like many of the educated urban middle-class of Africa, they seem to find the relation between the two traditions both enriching and full of troublesome contradictions, which may be expressed in their work. They bring African forms and imagery to an artistic purpose originating in the west; in the search for a new African art which can hold its own in terms of Western artistic values without losing its African identity. But the identity of the educated and cosmopolitan African elite is rather different to that of rural villagers or town craftsmen working within local artistic traditions.The modern and contemporary section of Reflections provides insight into a di- verse range of artistic impressions from various African artists living in and out of Africa. Using various media such as sculpture, photography, painting, and mixed media, some artists in this section create work using traditional motifs to preserve their respective cultural traditions. Other artists create work to express issues that deals with identity, environmental issues, or personal ideas. Artists such as Bruce Onobrakpeya or Sokari Douglas Camp use images from their surroundings or cultural background and incorporate them into their artwork.
Other African artists work with various media to express their artistic vision in their own words and images. African art is beginning to appear on the international art market scene. Over the years there has been a number of exhibitions that has involved African Art and artist. Some of them have actually focused on Africa and themed the show in relation to the continent. These shows consist of groups of contemporary artists forming collaborations and together creating contemporary art that is rooted in tradition. A number of shows that has taken place on the international scene includes the Venice Biennale in 2007 which showcased works of the Ghanaian Artist El Anatsui, who created a sensation when, he transformed the facade of the Palazzo Fortuny by draping it in another of his shimmering wall sculptures. The international scene has also experienced the African now auction at Bonham’s in London in 2011, and the African Auction at Philips De Pury in New in 2010.
The Global Africa Project
The global Africa project is a newly opened exhibition exploring contemporary African art, design and craft currently on show at the museum of arts and design in New York. The show features work by over 60 artists in Africa as well as Europe, Asia and North America. The works involved all mediums covering everything from , fashion, architecture, painting, to basketry, photography, textiles. Etc. Rather than separate the works into traditional art historical groupings, the global Africa project makes no distinction, placing profession artist next to self-taught craftsmen, exploring the impact and influence of Africa on contemporary design. “The exhibition challenges conventional notions of a singular African aesthetic or identity, and reflects the integration of African art and design without making the usual distinction between professional and artisan.” Works by African artist span various dimensions, due to that; the Global Africa Project was organized around several thematic ideas. They ranged from the phenomenon of intersecting cultures and cultural fusion, to the impact of the art-market on the economic and social conditions of local communities. It also reflected on the branding and co-opting of cultural references, how art and design is promoted in the international market as well as the use of local material. The project surveyed a rich pool of new and talented emerging artist from Africa and its influence on artist around the world. I think that the show not only brought an in-depth analysis to what entails African art, but also it brought together artists who have never been exposed to the American Audience. It also created the opportunity for the artist themselves to interact with each and form new and enriching friendships from all over the continent.
To see to it that African art in the international scene is on the rise, we not only need the artist, weather acclaimed or new talents, but also curators and critics who are deeply immersed in the understanding of language of African art. There are a few prominent African curators on the international scene but none surpasses the ability and creativity of the Nigerian born curator Okwui Enwezor. Born 1963 in Kabala, Nigeria, Enwezor has become one of the most influential curators and theorists in contemporary art. In 1998, he became known to a broader public when he was appointed as the first representative of a non-Western country to be artistic director of the Documenta 11. In 2002, he set a new attendance record for a medially and regionally diverse exhibition in Kassel. Five international "platforms" preceded the actual exhibition, creating an impressive format and expanding it to a global scale both theoretically and conceptually.He contributed significantly to the international art market’s rejection of solely focusing on art within a Euro-American context, and globalized the art world both commercially and intellectually. Conceptually Enwezor repeatedly insisted on making a distinction between economic globalization, which essentially reinforces the supremacy of the old elites, and a true internationalization not only of the art market, which focuses on participation in political, social and cultural spheres.
Through my research I became interested in ways in which African art and artist are being presented to the public and what medium is used to channel it if there is any at all. I found the Nka journal for contemporary African art. It was founded by Okwui Enweazor to bridge the gap of the non-existence of the history of contemporary African art by moulding its discourse through critical journals. I found the introduction to the page of the journal accurately iterated. They put it this way; “In a newly developing field like contemporary African art, a critical journal should play a significant role in creating the very discourse of the discipline itself. Nka represents a step forward in that direction. It is an important initiative in the field of contemporary African and African diaspora art, which has ben neglected within the art historical debate. There is certainly a growing interest in the area of contemporary African diaspora art and the modernist and post modernist experiences within this field. Yet most mainstream art periodicals have marginalized African and diaspora arts in general, let alone the contemporary forms. The few journals, which exist in the field of African art, either focus primarily on the ethnographic and so-called traditional or authentic art forms, or give a cursory and mostly superficial look at the contemporary forms. Hence, Nka serves as an urgently needed platform, filling a serious gap in the field. It would be right to say that it has in a short period placed contemporary African art in a global perspective and brought significant aspects of contemporary African culture to the awareness of the world”. With the structure of the art world, we not only need skill and talent to become acclaimed and known, but also having the right networking and people to help you put you out there. This is what the Nka Journal is doing and has been a great source of inspiration the younger contemporary artists.
An example of Nka Journal Magazine
To fully ensure this, the need for a dedicated gallery and museum is needed to achieve this. One of such galleries is the Ed Cross fine Art Limited. It is a gallery that specializes in Contemporary African Art. They do not only serve as a gallery but also a speaking voice that introduces and connects art lovers, private collectors, investors, corporations or museums to the work of many of the most distinguished emerging and established artists from the African continent in a responsible and ethical manner. The Museum of contemporary African Diasporan Arts, MoCADA, is an excellent example of sharing contemporary African art to the world. It is the first museum of its kind to be opened in New York. MoCADA’s mission is to rediscover valuable African cultural traditions that were lost through colonization and the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and to foster a dynamic space for the creation of the continuous evolution of culture.
Probably the most important of all of these institutions and organizations is the Dak’Art Biennale. The successful and most achieving thing for me about Dak’Art is that the government and the ministry of culture is actively involved. To me the Dak’Art is the gateway to contemporary African art in the international scene. An art biennale is one of the most prestigious exhibitions there is and to have one in the continent on Africa focusing on African contemporary art is the way to go. This is because a biennale drives people from all over the world, and to have them come over to see a biennale involving mainly African contemporary artist is the best way to introduce and push forward contemporary African art to the global scene. Since its inception, although the first few one were not directly focused on African artist and the contemporary, it has Supported and encouraged creativity, promotion, diffusion, artistic training and art education in Africa; promoting the African artists internationally; encouraging the integration of the contemporary African Art into the international Art market, and contributing to the development of art criticism in Africa and publications on art and contemporary African artists. The progress of this has also led other organization to be actively involved like the pan African society. In the beginning it had it flaws, it involved mostly artists from Francophone African countries, and there was no critical evaluation. Now it has engulfed all the sub-regions of the continent and blossomed immensely.
Artists who have established themselves Internationally.
El Anatsui has become one the most acclaimed sculptors on the international scene. He has been on the international scene for decades, including an appearance in the 1990 Venice Biennale. However it is his monumental bottle-cap curtains in his solo exhibition "Gawu" and the group show "Africa Remix," both of which toured Europe and the US from 2004 to '2007, and then again in the 2007 Venice Biennale that has made him the pre-eminent artist working in Africa today- At least as far as the West is concerned. El Anatsui was born in 1944, the youngest of 32 siblings, in the Ewe town of Anyako, Ghana. People there were occupied with fishing, salt harvesting, and, during the off-season, weaving. It is noted that Anatsui once said, "I'm a product of two different traditions, the Western one, which I acquired in art school, and the African one, which I started acquiring on my own”. This is because; the Ghanaian colleges where El Anatsui studied art still followed a British-style curriculum, focusing on Western art techniques and history. "There was no exposure to one's own traditions so he began to do his own research, studying the old African ways at cultural centers and directly from artisans.
El Anatsui at the venice biennale
Bernie searle is a south African artist who explores her own and a broader South African identity by branding her body. sSearle originally was trained as a sculptor, now she utilizes large-scale digital photographic prints and combines them with found materials to make compelling installations. She works with different mediums, such as photography, video, installation and performing art. Searle's works focus primarily on narratives of gender, race and memory as they have been configured in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Like a number of contemporary artists working in lens-based media and digital technology, her works are often autobiographical and challenge the viewer to confront his or her own role as voyeur of the demarcated body. The interesting thing about searles work is that even though they confront issues of apartheid, something that is very personal to south Africans, they found admirations in the west greatly. When she came to Cornell in 2010 to give a talk on her artistic carrier, I asked her that “My concern was that I believed people who experienced the harsh treatment of apartheid do not want to remember them or have them re-iterated in anyway as it was only going to incur more pain and hurt, so how do they people feel about her re-enactment of the whole thing.” She said that people were scared to talk about and that she was putting her life at risk doing what she is doing because it was necessary to have these issues brought out for a peaceful reconciliation program. I believe that the west is embracing it peacefully because it is an issue related to humanity and maybe they find it as a way of mending the hurt they incurred during the process.
Berni Searle performing at Still' - Berni Searle at Axis Gallery, New York
Yinka Shonibare to me is one interesting artist, as with his double identity as a British-Nigerian, his works tends to focus on those two cultures. He works across diverse artistic media to explore ideas about African contemporary identity and the legacy of European colonialism in the present. His works strives to open up debate about the social, cultural and political issues that shape our histories and construct identity. They rend challenge assumptions about representation. In a video interview with him, when asked why his sculptures are headless, he said it is to conceal the issue of race and identity, and to express the idea of oneness, in so doing people realize their mistakes so as not to repeat it again. He is know for his headless sculptures cloth in African batiks. I think that it is a way blurring the boundaries between stereotypically Western ideas about ‘high’ art and traditional categorizations of ‘African art.
Yinka Shonibare's Scramble for Africa
When I was first introduced to works of William kentridge, I did not for once perceive him to be an African artist because of the medium of his work. He is mostly known for his video and animation works, something very new to Africans and he is able to do a very good job merging the two. He is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. His works although have very much western form of production, they depict everyday life under apartheid. In exploring this field, he broadens his themes leaving the audience to examine other political conflicts. He takes on a different approach when addressing political issues such that he ends up having his works create contradictory aggressiveness which entangles perpetrators, witness and victims involved. As he has progressed, he has developed a new conceptual theme where even though he is still using the animation medium, he has introduced his body, where he uses his body “himself” as the main character. Kentridge goes beyond the usual manipulations of animation to bring forth a world conceived as a theatre of memory.
Kentridge drawing in his studio, Johannesburg -a link to his animation "Automatic Writing" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmvK7A84dlk
Ibrahim el Salahi is a Sudanese whose works fueling modernism has fused the diverse traditions of Sudan to make an art that is universal in its importance. Interesting enough amongst the entire internationally acclaimed artist, it is only Salahi who has served time in prison by his countries government and has had to go into exile. His most famous work, which is temporarily housed in the Johnson museum in Cornell, is called the inevitable. It is said that it is his reaction to his time spent in prison. These nine panels of artwork are Africa’s, “Guernica”, a testimony of war and revolution, which raises the global consciousness about the imminent threat of dictatorship and civil unrest. It makes frequent trips abroad but the one place it never goes is the Sudan. Ibrahim has always maintained that the Sudanese people should own the 9-panelled Masterpiece, yet he refuses to allow the painting to travel to the Sudan until the country enjoys, public liberties and democratic institution. “The Inevitable”, challenges the notion of warfare and depicts the chaotic, exposing the brutal acts of destruction and genocide. It is popularly believed that never before has an African artist made such a social statement, which has echoed the sentiments of an entire Nation and is as relevant today as it was in when it was made in 1985
. 
"Inevitable"-housed in Herbert F Johnson Museum, Cornell University
OBSERVATION
By looking at these artists, one theme that runs through each others concept are all social commentaries relating to mis-happening governing their countries, as well as interference to past situations. In addition they have found a way to implement a western concept or standard, either through the medium they used or the language in works are expressed. Personally I think that these strengths are what drives their work into the international scene. The traditions and culture of Africa are enriched with so much that even the people of the continent have a hard time to graps it all, thus having a western feature in it makes it not only easier but pleasing as well to interact with it.
Conclusion.
Africa is home to a thriving and energetic contemporary art culture. Without a profound knowledge of the history and traditions of the art of Africa, its sociological makeup, its political and cultural contexts, its design principles and its common characteristics, we would fail to see where contemporary African art has arrived at, what it pays allegiance to and what it chooses to leave behind in its attempt to be part of a world universalization. I believe that the present moment is ushering in a new golden age for African art. We can view contemporary African artists from the perspectives of their origins but also they have interwoven their arts in such a way that it reflects intimate and meaningful standards creating beauty of their experiences as well as characterizing function hence, making it understandable globally. In the end the future of contemporary African art on the international scene, though has take quite some time has come far in achieving its aim. To share Africa.
Below is a list of African art exhibitions that has taken place on the international scene
Exhibitions
There have been a number of exhibitions in recent times that have been paramount to establishing contemporary African art on the Western art front.
1984, MOMA Exhibition, New York - 'Primitivism in 20th C Art' Widely criticized for promoting African art as primitive and non secular while its Western counterparts were seen as 'modern', it nonetheless brought attention to the beauty of form thus exhibited.
1989, Centre Pompidou, Paris - 'Magicians de la Terre', this exhibition teamed primitive or folk artist like Kane Kwei with the so-called avant-garde. This exhibition revealed more about the curator than the reality of the artistic scene on the African continent as preference was given to artists who exhibited traces of tradition like feathers, pigments etc. However it did bring some unexposed African artists into the limelight and showed them alongside others from all over the world placing them in a very contemporary context, which was a first.
1995, Whitechapel, London 'Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa', attempted to provide an historical context for African modernism. Showed the work of 60 artists and the collaboration of 5 African curators.
2001, New York City - 'The Short Century: Independence and Liberation movements in Africa, 1945-1994', highly ambitious it installed 400 works on 3 floors of all media forms from all over Africa.
2001, Barcelona - 'The Artist and the City' After the millennium, there is a gradual inclusion of African artists in global forums like the Venice Biennale.
2005, British Museum - 'Wealth of Africa: 400 yrs of Money and Trade'
2004, 'Africa Remix' - conceptualized by Simon Njami, Cameroon. 2005, exhibition showed in Southbank, London with 25 countries represented by 60 artists, some resident in Africa and others part of the diaspora. 2006, Johannesburg Art Gallery, showed 200 pieces by 87 artists.
2008, October gallery, London - 'Angaza Africa', showcased their choice of 12 of Africa's most innovative and dynamic artists.
2008, Studio Museum, Harlem - 'Flow' - focused on a new generation of young artists who mostly live abroad and visit Africa regularly.
2009, Tate Modern, Liverpool - 'Afro Modern, behind the masks'
2010, Museum Africa, Johannesburg - 'Space; Currencies in Contemporary African Art'
This is your homework assignments pages. Use it to post your final presentation outline and your final presentation (by adding an additional child page).
THE "HOTSHOT" DEALER
Dealers are the prime brokers of the art market. They are market makers, pairing their firm of artists with the collectors who will be best served by the work. They gather a distinctive supply of works from artists themselves, or acquire works they believe are undervalued in the secondary market. They shape the legacy of the artists and the objects they sell. Most identify artist’s names, ideas and symbols, or some combination of these elements with their gallery’s character to differentiate themselves from competitors [1]. The art and its presentation form the consumer-relation portion of the brand and the gallery’s visible persona. A “hotshot” dealer encompasses the culture within the gallery as well as the client’s perceptions of the company. Dealers who create a distinctive brand have a competitive advantage. By virtue of their reputation, they are better poised to attract supply and their assert authority over their collectors. These “hotshot” dealers are a select few industry leaders who are well branded and leverage their position to control the art market for certain artists work.
Can “Hotshot” Dealers Influence Market Patterns and Taste?
It remains unclear how forceful dealers, even the “hotshot”, can be in the art world. Important galleries over the course of the past century, the Duveen Brothers, as well as the contemporary Gagosian and PaceWildenstein, have shaped the aesthetic favoritism of their clients by virtue of what they have offered for sale and how they have promoted it. The Duveen Brothers and others like them, show how a gallery can establish a cultural legacy. Gagosian and PaceWildenstein clarify how this power is evolving in the contemporary market. However, the long-term impact of their efforts has not yet settled.
Marc Glimcher, owner of the hotshot PaceWildenstein gallery, promotes the notion that art it is no ordinary commodity [2].Each piece has a relative value based on some distinguishable properties including, size, the artist, the condition and the relative importance of the piece [3]. Glimcher claims that there is also a premium that some collector may pay because of how profoundly they feel about a piece [4]. Art has no utilitarian feature. Its value only materializes when it is mated with an appropriate collector [5]. For this reason, dealers create value where it didn’t previously exist. Dealers differ from auction houses in that they often bring new, contemporary artists to the market, and brand them alongside venerable masters to promote a distinctive ‘gallery’ vision. Ann Freedman, the head of Knoedler Gallery wrote, “the crossroads where we, as dealers, stand provides an extraordinary perspective. We look in one direction towards the miracle of the creative process, and in the other, to the excitement of helping to build significant collections.”[6]
The Importance of Branding
While “traditional dealers” follow preordained market trends and sell genre artists, well branded and the most exceptional variety, “hotshot” dealers, exude a distinctive identity. Branding results in “brand equity”, the premium a collector is wiling to pay for a work over an analogous, unbranded alternative [7].
A brand can be established based on the management style as well as the public persona of a gallery’s owner. Hotshot gallerist Larry Gagosian is similar to Joseph Duveen on this count [8]. These men established the decisive management culture that drives the business. Their outrageous effect on the collectors and viewing public is miraculous. These gallerists decide what artworks will be in “style” as well as how that artwork is sold.
The Duveen Brothers were originally successful antique dealers in London. In the early 1880s, Joseph Duveen worked under his father, Joseph Joel at the Oxford Street shop [9]. Young Joseph’s aggressive and impatient personality led him to “always yearn… for greater things.”[10] From a young age, he was determined to branch out from the antiques business and make his way in the market for precious paintings and rare tapestries [11]. A century later, Larry Gagosian appeared – an ambitious young dealer, who specialized in selling posters and prints in Los Angles’ Westwood village [12]. Gagosian bludgeoned his way into the contemporary market by giving David Salle a show and hustling famed collectors Burton and Emily Tremaine to buy a painting by Brice Marden from him, instead of Marden’s dealer [13]. Both Duveen and Gagosian forged their gallery’s now iconic brands.
The Duveen’s brand was visible in the design of their salesroom at 720 Fifth Avenue. The building was constructed at the turn of the century as a replica of the Ministry of the Marine on the Place de la Concorde. The notable French architect René Sergent executed a scaled-down version of the iconic Parisian building [14]. The design differentiated the firm while alluding to their prosperity. The head of the Duveen’s Paris branch, Edward Fowles recognized the building’s role as a token of the Duveen brand, claiming “The building was a tremendous advertisement … [we were] the source of beautiful objects, and proud creators of a building whose very ambience would serve to please and elevate both the casual observer and the dedicated collector.” [15]
Contemporary dealers have different ways of signposting their brands. A brand is usually not discernable in the physical space as most adopt the “white-cube”. However, their geographical locations can be imperative. PaceWildenstein maintains three locations in Manhattan, two in Lower Manhattan and Chelsea and one tapping the Upper East Side market. Gagosian is more geographically dispersed with three galleries in Manhattan- one on Madison Avenue, two in Chelsea, as well as two in California, two in London, one in Athens, Paris, Rome, Geneva and Hong Kong. The geographical dispersion and large ground-floor spaces (in Pace’s case) allude to the gallery’s prominence. These galleries undertake a range of marketing efforts and sometimes loan works to museums [16]. Both dealers attend the major international art fairs, including Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach and have promoted their brand at these venues.
With the presence of global “hotshot” galleries, certain art genres are no longer popular only locally. By opening new salesrooms and traveling to Art Fairs and Biennials, dealers broaden collectors exposure to a breadth of contemporary works. Collectors are no longer limited by regional taste. Previously overlooked areas like Indian and Chinese art are popular on the global scene. PaceWildenstein, for example, represents Zhang Huan, a conceptual artist and Zhang Xiaogang, a figurative painter whose style is labeled “Cynical Realism.” [17] Moreover, British artists like Damien Hirst are popular in North America while Gagosian sells Jeff Koons’ sculptures in Athens. Art styles are no longer “great” unless they make it on the world-stage. The work that is not on the world stage is being crowded-out as the volume of art at international events skyrockets. Thus “hotshots” must consider the international market in their branding. The dealers must make it on the world stage before they can command hotshot prices.
The Gallery and The Artist
The focus on artists, often undertaken out of genuine concern, also remains an important business tactic. Galleries in the primary market must have an excellent reputation among artists to form relationships and assemble competitive stock. Galleries like PaceWildenstein and Knoedler bolster their reputation among artists and keep signed-artists engaged by fostering an innovative gallery repetoire. The artist Michael David elucidates the spiritual pleasure his relationship with Knoedler Gallery offered him. David explained he, “[as a young artist would] try to sneak a peak up that spiral staircase [at Knoedler, then] … go back to … [my] studio … and look through art books and magazines and cut out reproductions…similar to the show I’d just seen, and glue them in my journal….Walking up that staircase as a 29-year old painter, (I had just joined the gallery) I remember seeing de Kooning’s Park Rosenberg on one wall upstairs…To stand in from of the paintings I had cut out and put in my diary ten years earlier, with my own work on the next wall was more than I had dreamed of.”[18] Galleries like Knoedler and PaceWildenstein often have a healthy working relationship with artists.
The Hotshot’s Art in The Market
Contemporary dealers differentiate their works and place it a favorable context relative to other works on the market. According to Glimcher, “If we do our job correctly all of …[the artists] will be around in 10 years.”[19] They aspire to garner rare works like the Duveens, but few scour the market in the same involved manner. Galleries also strive to separate their goods from those of other dealers and brand them distinctively so they can charge a premium.
For example: PaceWildenstein showed David Hockney’s work in its New York galleries from October 29 until December 24, 2009. PaceWildenstein promoted the Yorkshire Woods show as being seminal; it remained the first exhibition of new work by the prolific artist in New York in 12 years. PaceWildenstein prefaced the catalogue for the sale with an essay by Lawrence Weschler, Director of the New York Institute of the Humanities at New York University [20]. The scholarship undertaken on the artist and the series, carefully promoted the works as monumental and of significant investment value.
PaceWildenstein also sought to differentiate the Yorkshire Woods series from Hockney’s earlier work in order to promote the exclusive nature of the gallery’s show. In a press release, PaceWildenstein promoted Weschler’s conclusion that the Yorkshire series represented, “the fiercest, most joyous… and most prolific bout of painting of ...[Hockney’s] career.” [21] The series is discussed in the context of his career in order to give collectors a sense of the relative importance of the “dazzlingly colorful renderings” of Yorkshire [22].
PaceWildenstein, through Weschler, conveys the artist’s creative purpose for the series, “[the] Yorkshire countryside was … teaching him time … it was as if, after over twenty years of myriad wanderings, he’d found a figurative (non-abstract) way clean past the monocular optical vise.”[23] The gallery provided some sophisticated insights into the artist’s creative process in an effort to help prospective buyers understand the work. PaceWildenstein also downplayed their interest in promoting the artist by employing a scholar to legitimate the collection’s merits on their behalf.
Winter Timer (2009) by David Hockney part of the Yorkshire Woods series at PaceWildenstein Woldgate Woods (2006) also part of theYorkshire Woods series at PaceWildenstein
Promoting Art Collecting
"Hotshots" guide collectors, particularly new collectors and demand loyalty in return. According to Larry Gagosian, “there are things about it [the market] that are hard to read …[but] if you’re dealing with a reputable gallery, I think you have to buy.”[24] Not only does Gagosian clarify that there of tiers of galleries, with the “hotshot” implicitly being most relevant, he suggests that good dealers, like himself, provide clients with laudable choices of artworks.
Gallerists also promote the act of “collecting” as being peculiarly prosigious. Glimcher rationalized the value of art in an interview, exclaiming, “when we trade with each other, we’re assuming that we, as a group, can determine the value of something that has no value ... [that is] the highest expression of human economics, in a sense … art is the most expensive thing in the world.”[25] Can he make wealthy collectors believe that they are part of something inexplicably important? The Los Angeles collector Eli Broad sees “a true collector [as one who] fall[s] in love with your art… its like [their]… children.” [26]
By aggrandizing art’s inutility and expense, Glimcher plays upon a natural human predilection for conspicuous consumption. Thorstein Veblen, in his seminal book Conspicuous Consumption, observed that any society that compares individuals to one another makes visible success and the esteem derived from it a priority [27]. According to the economist Robert Frank, individuals strive for success relative to members of their social circle [28]. Humans display their wealth with consumption patterns. This compels individuals to buy better versions of existing goods, things that previously did not exist or branded versions of goods that they have always bought [29]. Whether it is a neighbor buying a new car or paying $12 million for a stuffed shark, people spend their money in order to signpost their relative good fortune.
Larry Gagosian encourages collectors to buy, as opposed to enjoying art without owning it. Gagosian admits that clients may ask him, “How do I know I’ll like this in five years?” He replies truthfully, “you don’t know. It’s a process.”[30] Gagosian told an interviewer that, “the most important thing …[a collector] should do is to buy.” [31] However, he, like Glimcher, undercuts his commercial designs by speaking about the importance of the collecting process, raising it above the process of merely shopping. He advises collectors they, “have to get in there and start living with art and seeing how it changes …[their] thinking and perceptions.”[32] Mr. Gagosian encourages clients to satisfy to their whims, even it this means confusing a desire for conspicuous consumption and passion for possession with appreciation. Non-commercial acumen in the face of great profit is an important facet of Gagosian and Pace’s respective brands.
Controlling Supply & Demand
Some “hotshot dealers” are able to control the supply as well as the demand sides of their business. Once galleries have made a sale, they often demand a client’s allegiance. Sometimes a firm’s rules are issued in writing, other times they are implied or are exacted by nuanced manipulation. The Duveen Brothers assured their clients loyalty. Joseph Duveen’s assistant Bertrand Boggis fulfilled his clients tertiary needs, in order to make the firm a defining facet of their lives. Boggis even worked as a bootlegger for the firm’s clients during Prohibition [33].
The Duveen Brothers were one of the only galleries that sold museum-quality Old Masters in the United States and controlled the market for certain clients. They were also able to affect conditions of exchange and prices. Though radical price increases caused the loss of customers, the Duveen’s market power was high. Duveen left the collectors who wanted the finest paintings no desirable option but to buy from him. They could purchase works from the dealers who picked up his crumbs, or they could seek out paintings themselves.
Contemporary “hotshot dealers” often fence off living artists and control supply in certain segments of the market in the way the Duveen Brothers did; however, they are not quite as powerful. There are many leading galleries – Gagosian, PaceWildenstein, Gladstone, David Zwirner. Even if any one of them branded their gallery effectively, they face competition from other gallerists who can offer different, but still excellent works, not to mention the lure of the auction houses. For clients seeking conspicuous consumption, certain outposts are interchangeable. Claiming a work was bought “at Sotheby’s” is not much different than pointing-out a “Gagosian” or “Gladstone” hanging on their wall. All suggest the work is of some note and quite expensive. Though individual “hotshot” galleries have power if clients truly covet works that they sell exclusively.
Parties, Parties, Parties
The “hotshot” dealers also make the gallery integral to client’s social lives. Joseph Duveen provided his clients with introductions to British nobility on their trips to Europe. Gagosian and PaceWildenstein likewise host dazzling events and appear at art fairs around the globe. Gagosian has observed, implicitly among his own clients that, “[it has become] a great hobby for a lot of people to collect art” and by extension participate in the social-scene surrounding the practice [34]. To be listed amidst Gagosian’s “A-list roster of clients” is something collectors strive for [35].
Gagosian Gallery hosts a party in 2010 for The Art Fund, a British based charity.
Trends and Predictions
Larry Gagosian started showing Andy Warhol’s work in the 1980s and hung Warhol’s last exhibition in New York before his death. Gagosian still brandishes Warhol while selling his prints, books and even Warhol Skateboards in the Gagosian Retail Store below the gallery on Madison Avenue. Mr. Gagosian continues to contribute to the artist’s mythical status, and by extension his own, by issuing statements in important international publications, like The Economist magazine, to whom he said, “there is something incredibly cool about Andy.”[36] He might have just as well said, “there is something incredibly cool about Gagosian, because we sell Andy.”
Inside the Gagosian Retail Store located at 988 Madison Ave, New York I took this photo of two Andy Warhol skateboards at the Gagosian Retail Store in New York, June 2010.
What impels Larry Gagosian to claim, “[Warhol] feels like a living artist. He is incredibly present in our culture”?[37] Why is Warhol so iconic? Is his lingering presence the result of dealers like Gagosian himself, who have promoted Warhol to collectors, sold his work to museums and therein set the process of licensing trinkets and memorabilia, as well as reproductions and posters of his original silk-screen masterpieces in motion? Gerard Faggionato, a London dealer claims, “In future Warhol will be much more important than Picasso, … he is more relevant to the younger generation.”[38]
Dealers play an important role in the art market introducing trends and aesthetic predilections. Art dealers with impressive brands and group of represented artists, sometimes become so predominant that they can steer market trends. Ann Freedman wrote, “Knoedler is proud [of the path they broker that] … a painting takes from artist to gallery to collector, and ultimately, to museum” where it becomes aggrandized as a masterpiece and representative of culture [39].
The Duveen Brothers virtually controlled the artistic predilection of its collectors. The firm’s marketing was unrivaled by messages projected by other institutions or dealers. The Duveens also partnered with Bernard Berenson, a famed America scholar of Italian paintings, who assured the prestige of the firm’s stock and assured collectors that they were buying the best [40]. The Duveen’s encouraged collectors that the works that they sold were the finest in the world. They went so far as to claim in a catalogue that, “with the possible exception of Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa,” no picture in the world … received more … attention that Gainsborough’s Blue Boy”, which they had sold to H.E. Huntington [41]. Under Joseph Duveen’s tactful promotion, emerging collectors like Benjamin Altman bought four Rembrandts, a Vermeer and several sculptures for $500,000.
Duveen was not the only dealer to usher his taste into the cultural vanguard. Paul Durand-Ruel is similarly known for staging the group-exhibits that popularized (or at least promoted) the heretical “Impressionists” in nineteenth century Paris. Another example of a dealer steering market trends is Mr. Bischofberger, a dealer from Zurich, who placed Andy Warhol’s work in important European collections. He introduced the work to Philippe Niarchos, a shipping-heir, socialite and major collector [42]. Niarchos subsequently bolstered Warhol’s legacy by acquiring more of his art in the secondary market, paying $3.6 million for Red at Christie’s in 1994 and spending a record $71.7 million on Green Car Crash in 2007 [43]. Nonetheless, in connecting the artist and Niarchos, the dealer was integral in stimulating Warhol’s fame.
Warhol's Red Marilyn Monroe purchased by Niarchos in 1994. Green Car Crash purchased by Niarchos in 2007.
Similarly Larry Gagosian has attempted to initiate artists into the cultural vanguard while they are still living. In Gagosian's retail store one can find a set Hirst ‘Superstition Plates’ from an edition of 250 priced at $15,000 [44]. However, the long-term impact of such branded work is not yet unearthed.
The Duveen Brothers shaped their client’s collections. While the dealers like Gagosian may introduce clients to art, important buyers themselves often have strong convictions. The Duveens did not always deal with shrewd and informed buyers like Gagosian’s prestigious collectors Dakis Joannou and Eli Broad. By supplying collectors like Altman, J.P. Morgan as well as Huntington and Henry Clay Frick, who went on to donate their collections to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and found the Huntington and Frick Collections, respectively, Duveen helped define notions of beauty in America. Their influence has been lasting.
The Duveens were an important cultural power, likely more important than any gallery today. The Duveen-effect is a part of American history. It transferred European art and history to America. However, their importance has been distilled by other voices, particularly those of “hotshot” dealers who have brought new dialogues and art to the Duveen’s former sphere at the high end of the market. Dialogues between contemporary and older art will always exist. Gagosian and PaceWildenstein’s artists will enter institutions alongside Castelli’s Johns’ and Warhol. The Duveen’s influence was not traumatic or insurmountable and Gagosians will not be either.
Conclusion
Dealers are business people. They are the fundamental market makers, as they match their stable of artists with the collectors. In so doing, they promote certain ideas about the art and even form a gallery brand in order to sell the art. Galleries undertake a variety of selling-tactics to usher their art into important private collections; they seek notoriety and business for themselves. Art that has been well promoted by dealers, as well as scholars and other groups in the art world becomes important. With time, it often falls into the clutches of museums and public institutions where it shapes popular understandings of life and culture. The dealers are crucial to the cycle for discovering and promoting artists and in so doing they influence popular culture. They are checked to a certain extent by collectors and scholars who eventually validate or cast-off the works they advocate for.
[1] American Marketing Association’s definition of a brand from Giep, Franzen. _The Science and Art of Branding. London: M.E. Sharpe, 2009. Print. 3.
[2] Lindemann, Adam. Collecting contemporary. London: Taschen, 2006. Print. 79.
[3] Velthuis, Olav. Talking Prices: Symbolic Meanings of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2007. Print.
[4] Lindemann, 79.
[5] Lindemann, 79.
[6] Knoedler at 150. New York: Knoedler & Company, 1997. Print. 1.
[7] Don, Thompson. The $12 Million Stuffed Shark. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. Print. 12.
[8] Thompson, 24.
[9] Fowles, Edward. Memories of the Duveen Brothers. London: Times Books, 1976. Print. 7.
[10] Fowles, 8.
[11] Fowles, 8.
[12] Thompson, 34.
[13] Thompson, 35.
[14] Fowles, 75.
[15] Fowles, 75
[16] Thompson, 36.
[17] Vogel, Carol. "Amid Asian Art Boom, Manhattan Gallery to Open Branch in Beijing." The New York Times. 29 Apr. 2008. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/arts/design/29pace.html?_r=1>.
[18] Knoedler at 150. New York: Knoedler & Company, 1997. Print.1.
[19] Linderman,79.
[20] PaceWildenstein. Web. <http://www.pacewildenstein.com/Exhibitions/ViewExhibition.aspx?title=DavidHockney%3APaintings2006-2009&type=Exhbition&guid=1933bddf-d186-48c2-88e9-94c7e26dd44f/>.
[21] PaceWildenstein.
[22] PaceWildenstein.
[23] PaceWildenstein.
[24] Lindermann, 68.
[25] Lindermann, 78.
[26] Lindermann, 163.
[27] Veblen, Thorstein. Conspicuous Consumption. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. Print. 15.
[28] Frank, Robert. Luxury Fever. New York: The Free Press, 1999. Print. 15.
[29] Frank, 15.
[30] Lindermann, 68.
[31] Lindermann, 68
[32] Lindermann, 78.
[33] Simpson, Colin. Artful Partners: Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen. New York: HarperCollins, 1988. Print. 165.
[34] Lindermann, 67.
[35] Thompson, 35.
[36] “The Pop Master's Highs and Lows.” The Economist. 26 Nov. 2009. <http://www.economist.com/node/14941229>.
[37] "The Pop master's highs and lows."
[38] "The Pop master's highs and lows."
[39] Knoedler, 1.
[40] Simpson, Colin. Artful Partners: Secret Association of Bernard Berenson and Joseph Duveen. New York: HarperCollins, 1988. Print.
[41] The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough exhibited at the galleries of Messrs. Duveen Brothers, New York. New York: Duveen Brothers, 1922. Print.
[42] "The Pop master's highs and lows."
[43] "The Pop master's highs and lows."
[44] "Gagosian Goes Retail." ARTINFO. Web. <http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/32676/gagosian-goes-retail/>.
This is your homework assignments pages. Use it to post your final presentation outline and your final presentation (by adding an additional child page).
This is your homework assignments pages. Use it to post your final presentation outline and your final presentation (by adding an additional child page).