the most expensive art work ever sold
TRANSCRIPT
Damien Hirst, For the Love of God, sold for $100 million USD
The most expensive art work ever sold
Contemporary art plays an increasingly prominent role in our culture
Art’s economic power is reflected in: - Spectacular prices at international
auctions - Increasing number of museums - Biennials and fairs becoming as necessary
to the tiniest country as a local airport
The process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions
A mirror of a society
What is left as heritage for future generations
What is Art?
Chapter I
Defining “Contemporary Art”
Loosely used to denote the art of the present day and relatively recent past. Usually avant-garde in nature
Defined by blurred lines between traditional genres and the appearance of new multimedia techniques
Perhaps “contemporary” just means "art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetimes". In other words, contemporary to us
VS
Pablo Picasso,1937 Andy Warhol, 1962
Chapter II
Modern Art: Art from the Impressionists (1880) up until the 1960's or 70's
Contemporary Art: Art from the 1960's or 70's up until now
Contemporary Art Market - 1950’s and 60’s: Leo Castelli and his wife
Illeana Sonnabend established crucial access for American artists to European museums and collectors - 1965: First major auction of contemporary American work at Parke-Bernet in New York
Serves as a replacement for something else - for the label “modern”. Modern art always has been a mark of distinction and difference, as its definition was protected by gatekeepers in the West.
“Contemporary” has ceased to be a matter of simple chronology (recent or living art)… it becomes a type of branding.
“Contemporary” replaces the concept and the term “modern” (a label from the past), and creates a new space where global art can happen.
Chapter III
Most important phenomenon in recent art: Globalization
Biennials and landmark exhibitions initiated the global turn in the art scene when, in 1989, free trade removed Cold War restrictions
In many countries, contemporary art has become an economic project including huge cultural districts with museums and art fairs
Collectors’ and corporate museums are a result of the new clientele within the art market, which, today, extends to 58 countries
In the last 40 years, the market for contemporary art has undergone a fundamental overhaul: from a closed circle of aficionados to an industrialized market
New market caters to growing number of so-called High Net Worth Individuals who pursue an increasingly globalized life style
1960s: Major auction houses expand, triggers restructuring of art market
Since then: costly art fairs – the industry trade shows of the art world - become the premier shopping malls for contemporary art and are surpassing auctions as major events for buyers
These developments have major consequences on how art is created, marketed, perceived and consumed
A work of art becomes a branded commodity; the work’s value defined increasingly in monetary terms
Buying and selling art becomes a social competition between wealthy collectors
Part of the art world has turned into a trading floor for speculation.
Global art does not mean an inherent aesthetic quality which may be identified as global.
One should not confuse the means and ends…
Ultimate goal of economy: generating monetary profit
Ultimate goal of art: deepening the experience of our existence
Power List Top 10
1. Hans Ulrich Obrist- Art critic, curator2. Glenn D. Lowry- Director of MOMA3. Sir Nicholas Serota- Director of Modern Tate4. Daniel Birnbaum- Art critic, curator5. Larry Gagosian- Gallerist6. François Pinault- Collector7. Eli Broad- Collector8. Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda- Artists9. Iwona Blazwick- Director of White Chapel Gallery10. Bruce Nauman- Artist
Hans Ulrich Obrist
-Swiss curator
-Studied economics and politics, then turned to contemporary art
- Organized extraordinary exhibitions internationally, often in spaces not previously used as exhibition venues
- Curated exhibitions at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, at the Kunsthalle Wien, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, the Serpentine Gallery in London, the PS1, etc.
Stats
Top 100 by professions
Top 100 by nationality
Chapter IV
Artists
Museums
Collectors
Galleries
Art critics
Curators
Increasingly begin their careers with Professional Training
Average income of artists consists of 3 different sources of earnings: from their art, from arts-related jobs (e.g., teaching), and from nonarts employment
Only 1/3 of artists can make their living from their artwork
Two distinct markets for visual art works :
- elite artists represented by prestige dealers and galleries, whose work is reviewed by recognized critics
- general market for other artists.
For many contemporary artists, the main desire is greater control of the destiny of their works
Greater Opportunities for Early Commercial Success Alter Typical Career Paths
- Persuaded by the successful use of marketing tools, many contemporary artists, especially the bestsellers, began actively promoting their work
Less commercially successful and less well-known artists (many lacking dealers) have also sought new ways of getting their work before the public - either through alternative spaces or internet
We are in a world of “new artistic territories”
Museum of Louvre, 8 million visitors per year
Museum of Louvre Abu DhabiWill open in 2011
Visual arts works can be displayed, sold, and purchased in either the commercial (for profit) or nonprofit sectors.
Museums dominate the organizational profile of visual art
Art museums have 5 traditional missions: -Collecting-Preserving-Studying-Exhibiting-Interpreting ….art objects
Museums are the principal preservers of the nation’s and the world’s visual arts héritage
Museums play a major role in establishing the legitimacy and artistic value of artists and their work through the process of exhibiting and collecting artwork
From 1982-2002, total number of art museum attendees has risen by almost half
Museums’ operating expenditures constitute almost half of their total annual expenditures
Given the importance of overhead, development, and administration, programming typically faces tough competition for funding, creating tensions in museums’ multifaceted mission
Tension between art objects (the research and preservation functions) and people (the education and public involvement functions)
Museums’ wealth consists overwhelmingly of their physical capital
The 8 largest of these museums in the USA control almost 50% of the revenues of American non-profit visual organizations
New York’s advantage reflects its role as the center of the national/international arts market
1/2 of American museums were created in the past 30 years
Have adopted a variety of strategies to increase attendance
Face increasing financial pressures Turn to new types of directors and staff Same important changes in the board
of trustees Have increasing links with other
institutions and the corporate sector
Museums…
Increasing concentration of revenues and assets in the superstar museums
Most common yardsticks to measure museum performance: attendance, membership, and number and marketability of major shows
How to define and measure success?
The real measure ought to be the quality of the museum experience
« A collection is the work of a person. It is its limit and its greatness.It has to awaken the curiosity, the emotion of others. It is an artisitc adventure with a moral dimension, a disinterested commitment »
Monique Barbier- Mueller- Swiss collector
The number of people who collect fine art is miniscule compared with the number of people who visit museums
Though income and education are closely related, of these two variables, education is the most important
Collectors
higher incomes of the world’s wealthy
more collectors who are drawn to collecting not just as connoisseurs but also as investors
more geographically dispersed in past 25 years
Driving the increase in collectors:
Wealth
International backgrounds.
For mega collectors: appetite for signs of distinction
From a survey: 21% of the population who own original art are older, highly educated, have higher incomes than the rest of population
Key Characteristics of Collectors
not necessarily the very richest or most acquisitive
Instead, those who yield great influence - a combination of connoisseurship and
generosity Important collectors: - Set standards for others by their example
- Encourage interest in the art they collect - Share their colection with the public - Impact on the market
Important Collectors in the History of Art
JEAN PAUL BARBIER-MUELLER (Tribal Art) Nationality: Swiss Age: 77 Source of wealth: Property They opened the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneve.
ERNST BEYELER (20th-century painting and sculpture) Nationality: Swiss
Age: 86 Source of wealth: Art dealer The Beyeler Foundation has nearly 400,000 visitors a
year.
ELI BROAD (Post-war and contemporary) Nationality: American Age: 75 Source of wealth: Property and insurance.
The Broad Art Foundation (California) has donated $50m to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for a new extension
AGNES GUND (Post-war, mainly American)
Nationality: AmericanAge: 69
Source of wealth: Banking inheritance. Based in New York, she served as president of the Museum
of Modern Art from 1991 to 2002 and led the fundraising drive for its $858m extension, which opened in 2004
NASSER DAVID KHALILI (Islamic and Japanese Meiji)
Nationality: British Age: 62 Source of wealth: Property. Altogether, the Khalili collection comprises 25,000
pieces. He will set up a museum in London
RONALD LAUDER (Early-20th-century Austrian and German Art )
Nationality: American Age: 64 Source of wealth: Cosmetics inheritance and media. In 2006 he made headlines when he purchased
Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for $135m, a record price for a work of art
PRINCE HANS-ADAM II (16th-to 19th-century painting, sculpture and furniture)
Nationality: Liechtenstein Age: 63. In 2004 he opened the Liechtenstein Museum in
his baroque summer palace in Vienna, with renovations costing 25m euro
EUGENIO LOPEZ ALONSO (Latin American and international contemporary) Nationality: Mexican Age: 40 Source of wealth: Food processing. In 2001 he opened the Fundacion/Coleccion Jumex on the outskirts of Mexico City.
GEORGE ORTIZ (Antiquities) Nationality: Swiss Age: unknown Source of wealth: Inheritance
FRANCOIS PINAULT (Contemporary Art) Nationality: French Age: 71 He displays his collection, now comprising
2,500 works in Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice, which reopened in 2006. He owns also the auction house Christie’s.
VIKTOR PINCHUK (Contemporary Art) Nationality: Ukrainian Age: 47 Source of wealth: Steel. In September 2006 the Victor Pinchuk Foundation opened
the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kiev, which is one of the largest public galleries for contemporary art in eastern Europe
LEKHA & ANUPAM PODDAR (Indian Art) Nationality: Indian Age: unknown; 34 Source of wealth: Paper industry and hotels. The Poddars are opening India's first non-commercial
contemporary art gallery in New Delhi
DON & MERA RUBELL (Contemporary Art) Nationality: American Age: 66; unknown Source of wealth: Inheritance and hotels. In 1996 their Contemporary Arts Foundation opened
a public space in north Miami, to show a changing selection of works in 27 roomsCHARLES SAATCHI (Contemporary Art)
Nationality: British Age: 65 Source of wealth: Advertising. Probably Europe's most powerful collector of
contemporary art. Opened a museum in London
EUGENE THAW (Drawings) Nationality: American Age: 81 Source of wealth: Art dealer. Thaw himself collected drawings and oil sketches, many of which have
been offered to the Morgan Library in New York
DAVID THOMSON (19th century English to contemporary art)
Nationality: Canadian Age: 51 Source of wealth: Media. David Thomson was a very major donor to the Art Gallery of Ontario,
to which he gave 2,000 works in 2002 (including Rubens's Massacre of the Innocents, for which he paid 50m [pounds sterling]), together with a $70m donation
GUY ULLENS (Chinese contemporary art) Nationality: Belgian Age: 73 Source of wealth: Food processing. In 2007 Ullens opened a permanent space in a restored
military factory in Beijing, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art
JAYNE WRIGHTSMAN (18th-century French art) Nationality: American
Age: unknown. Source of wealth: Oil Based in New York, the couple made a series of donations to
the Metropolitan Museum in 1969-77, and this led to the creation of seven galleries of French art in period rooms
REINHOLD WURTH (20th-century art ) Nationality: German Age: 73 Source of wealth: Hardware business Wurth runs an art museum at Kunzelsau
A case study
Video of Margulies Collection
Top 20 collectors come from 13 different countries
9 out of the 20 biggest collections are contemporary art collections
Most have set up and funded their own public galleries
Acquiring objects that have some relation to each other
Putting those objects into the kind of order that reflects the collector’s response to them.
Each true collection achieves a personality beyond and apart from the sum of the objects. This personality is definable and has a value in itself. It is lost if the collection is dispersed or mutilated.
Instinct
Taste
Scholarship - Studying books, visiting other collections, consulting experts, learning about condition and conservation, and, generally, developing experience and expertise
Real art collectors often feel the ability to apply their talents to any field of art.
Crucial Traits for Intelligent Collecting
To experience the object more intimately and more completely than even the most thoroughly attentive viewing at an exhibition.
A mania to add, to refine, to put in order a collection of works of art.
The overwhelming majority of those who call themselves collectors collect contemporary art
Why Do Collectors Collect?
Be guided by curiosity Learn how to look at an artwork Train your eyes: Art is about looking,
looking and looking Research the history of art Visit and look at masterpieces of our
civilization Take the time to recognize their position Understand the work from intellectual,
cultural and emotional points of view
Accept that you need 10 years to be more independant in your decisions
Follow your instinct Mistakes are inevitable but you grow through
them Go through a year of catalogues of auction
houses Be part of a social network of artists, curators,
gallerists and other collectors but distinguish between the purely “social” aspect and the opportunity to discuss art
Choose your dealers very carefully
Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson, 1984
Aspects to Consider
Description of the work? What medium is used? What Warhol says about it? What are the main themes of Warhol? Why is Warhol considered so important? What about pop art? What is Warhol’s market?
A Chinese contemporary art collection created in 2005
A « University museum » approach aimed toward the production of knowledge
Represents 90 of the leading Chinese avant-garde artists reflecting different regional art scenes
An entity limited to 150 pieces opened to constant redefinition and regeneration
To build a collection in which established artists and emerging artists from all regions are represented To collect, educate, and entertain To create a strong relationship with major players of the Chinese art scene To increase and deepen participation for a certain type of Chinese contemporary art
To establish a strong and personal collection
To attract an audience, particularly the 18-34 generation by mixing entertainment and education
To reach curators, universities, art critics, museums and opinion leaders in China and internationally
To develop an educational program
Strong personal commitment and presence in China
Acquisition of content Funding of innovative websites Dsl website and its different display
tools Public relations & Communications and
E-marketing
Gu Dexin, 2005.03.05, installation, pole 26 meters, canvas 350 x 250 cm, base 150 cm, 2005
YANG Jiechang, I still remember, Ink on paper, 6 panels, each 300 x 173 cm, 1998-2006
Lin Yilin, Standard Series of Ideal Residences, installation: brick, iron, wood, 1991
Zhang Huan, Peace1, installation, 2001, H335 cm x L365 xPr 243 cm
Jia Aili, Untitled, 2007-2008, oil on canves, 296 x 400 cm
Statistics - In 2008, 300 million Chinese online
users - 68% are younger then 29 years old - 80 million blogs in China, 10 million in
Japan - 8 million visitors in the Louvre, 11 million
on its website
Dsl collection website Popular online social networks like
Facebook, Xiaonei Ebook Blog , Twitter Virtual tools
- Virtual museum- Zoomorama gallery- Dsl Cyber MOCA on Second Life
E-Marketing and Communication Exhibition of the works in museums
Virtual museum
DSL Cyber Moca
Zoomorama gallery
E-book
Text book, volume I Libreria Borges
Visual productions
Dsl Voice Reader
Twitter Facebook
Communication
Newsletter Magazines
Events
ShContemporary Art Fair 2008
Talks
Conclusion