The World Art Market – 2010 And Beyond
Art in 2010. Will it be very exciting for you the collector and wonderfully challenging for you the artist?
For you the buyer…
Art in 2010 will obtain greater value, and quality works will be passionately sort after – judging by what I heard from Sotherby’s modern and contemporary art auction in November 2009… which was one of their most successful sales – so far.
Art in 2010 will also take on a greater importance financially and within the investment market – from what I read in Business Week in April 2008.
Both Sotherby’s and Christie’s are regarding modern art sales as a revitalising agent “Contemporary art is now the driving force of an auction house,” (François Curiel, the Paris chairman of Christie’s Europe). This rise in popularity of the two very different genres, contemporary and postwar art, is partly due to the lack of older works available for sale. So new fresh works are being sort after – and found. As a result Europe, North America, and Asia contemporary art auction sales have experienced rises in value despite the world economic situation.
There is even better news… particularly in France.
Up until June 2009 France was lagging well behind in the international art scene controlling just 6.4% of the global art market (compared to 43% in the US, and 30% in the UK). So, in order to improve France’s art market the French Culture Minister Christine Albanel has implemented zero-interest loans of EUR5,000 to EUR10,000, as from June 2009, and more tax breaks for companies that purchase contemporary art, and fewer restrictions on auctioning. This opportunity has enabled artists, especially those living in France, to look more towards having their works put up for auction. And I think this will mean a greater number of auction houses having more contemporary art sales (if they have not already run any).
And for you the artist…
The demand for quality in art (although I believe that is a very subjective statement) means that the challenge will be greater for the individual artist to produce a work that portrays exactly what they are seeking to achieve… and the demand will also be greater for the artist to explain their work. The potential collector will be looking to acquire a basic understanding of what image is there before them… even if it is to specifically shock, evoke some other emotion, or even allow the viewer to enter into some kind of meditative state. The buyer will be looking for some kind of empathy with the piece.