Inequality within the Art Market

Tiers within the Artworld

Firstly, it is important to understand that there are many alternative tiers within the Artworld. These are the various different subsets and networks that consist of Artists, buyers, collectors, gallerists, curators and consultants.

From the Artist selling paintings for $1000 each and making a successful living, right through to celebrity living Artists that have achieved an infamous, cult like status (such as Damien Hirst), these are examples of the markers that can be used to draw lines and distinguish between these different tiers. Within this article we will concentrate on the very upper end of the spectrum.

The Continuing Boom of Sales

In 2012, Edvard Munch’s iconic painting ‘The Scream’ sold for around $120 million at auction. Many prophesized that this was the pinnacle of an Art Market bubble, one that was destined to crash, yet less that a week later, the Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko’s artwork ‘Orange, Red, Yellow’ sold for nearly $87 million.

The prices for Artworks at this end of the spectrum are astronomical, yet according to Sergey Skaterschikov, a man who publishes an influential art-investment report; no painting bought at $30 million or more has ever been re-sold at a profit. At this level, cultural prestige and the ability to signal wealth are just a couple of the defining factors for sales. One would hope that a deep and profound love for Art, and the historical value of a work is also a motivating desire for these buyers as well.

Art as an asset for a small subset of super wealthy individuals

Benjamin Madel is an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and studies the Art Market because ‘it’s a great way to study asset price valuations.’ In his opinion, Fine Art (at this price level) is, in a sense separated from the rest of the global economy because it is in fact part of an economy for a small subset of the super rich. These people are often referred to as Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI). From Mandel’s research he concluded that for their economy, Fine Art has retained solid stability over the years.

The rise of UHNWIs in Brazil, China and India has also provided an influx of new individuals interested in the purchasing of high end Artworks for exceptionally large prices. This movement also places even greater emphasis on the Artists from these countries, and resurgences in esoteric styles that had previously been largely ignored by this market are becoming more and more popular as collectors, consultants, gallerists, dealers and institutions look further for new talent. Or more accurately, search for talent that will become even more successful later. This happened for Korean Minimalism, as well as a newfound interest in older Scandinavian Landscape Painting for example.

To demonstrate the rise in investment from these wealthy collectors, in 2003, at Christie’s in Hong Kong, sales came to around $98 million, whilst in 2011, they has risen to $836 million.

What this means for the Artists

Gerhart Richter, the prominent German Painter was recently cited as commenting on how odd and abstract he found these high prices. As an Artist himself, he wanted to remind people that it was generally after an Artwork had been sold (for which an Artist normally receives 50% of the sale and the Gallery takes the other half) and then consequently resold, that the value tended to inflate. In his eyes some kind of crash is inevitable when people are dealing with money and value in these extremes.

Art Funds and insider trading

There are also Art Investment funds that operate much like hedge fund or asset management firm. The ‘Fine Art Fund’ work on a minimum investment of $500,000, and their managers use industry connections and Art expertise to buy Art cheaply, at the right time, before selling it on at a much higher price and returning the profit to the investors. The Art Market isn’t regulated like financial securities, so this kind of insider trading isn’t illegal.

Art and value

With the rise of the UHNWIs, there are many more willing global buyers, and this continues to push up prices. Art is completely unique in the way that it is valued because its fiscal value is directly linked to a network of wealthy collectors, dealers, institutions and gallery owners. Working out the cultural value of a completely unique Picasso, Munch or Van Gogh painting in financial terms is an incredibly complex process. And at the end of the day, if there is a willing buyer ready to part with a spare $120 million, then the sale will probably go right ahead.

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Important Ideas that changed Art Forvever – Fauvism

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Impressionism was widespread and popular. The way that the movement worked to capture the effects of light on its soft and serene landscapes and city scenes had also captivated widespread public attention. The movement was named after Monet’s highly respected and famous ‘Impression: Sunrise’ painting.

Fauvism was born from this artistic context, as a reaction to what it saw around it. Bold unnatural colors and simplistic, expressive forms, figures and landscapes characterized the movement. The artworks favored painterly qualities and championed expression and aesthetic impact over representational likeness.

Color

The artists that worked in this style often squeezed paint straight from the tube onto the canvas, without mixing or altering the colors. Each painting was often made up of bright, contrasting colors that bore no resemblance to the subject.

Faces could be lime green and bright crimson, or midnight blue with orange and yellow splashes of color. For the Fauvists, they were not trying to carefully represent and depict a scene accurately according to the light and atmosphere. They wanted to release the inner creative desires. Their work fully embraced the bestial, primal side of human nature. Working in an expressive, raw fashion allowed the artists to tap into this and create artworks that were bold and moving. In the midst of the serenity of Impressionism, The Fauvists were animalistic and visually wild, and this contrast with the tastes of the time only made their work even more exhilarating.

The ‘Wild Beasts’

The name ‘Les Fauves’ translates as ‘Wild beasts’ in French, and the artists became known collectively as the Fauvists. It arose during an exhibition in 1905 at the Salon d’Automne. Loris Vauxcelles, a critic of the time, shocked at the artworks, declared the artists as ‘wild beasts’. The artists, highly pleased with the controversial and exciting new name, seemed delighted with the description and the name stuck.

Influences

Van Gogh, Gauguin, Signac, Cezanne and Seurat were a few of the major artists that influenced fauvism. The Fauvist paintings often edged towards abstraction with their flat and rough areas of bright colours. From Cezanne, they worked with the subject and broke it down into sections and slabs, rebuilding images using basic forms.

Gauguin was also a large influence. The Fauves drew from his expressive and otherworldly artworks. His character and lifestyle embodied the wilder side of the human spirit that wished to re-engage with the natural world and to live simply and freely. Gauguin left the western world and sailed off to Tahiti to live and work. Local islanders, mythical figures and the gods and demons of this distant culture seeped into his work, and he created enchanting and unforgettable artworks as a result. The Fauvists looked up to his total immersion and commitment to his artistic practice, and the way that he brought wildness and passion into his artwork.

Matisse became one of the largest figureheads that the Artworld has ever known, and he maintained a wildly expressive element to his work throughout his entire career. The Fauvists did initially receive a great deal of a negative backlash for their artworks and beliefs. Matisse himself was particularly disheartened by these bad reviews, but Gertrude Stein made purchases and offered assistance, and this encouragement was important for his artistic career.

Important Artwork: ‘Portrait of Madame Matisse’ by Henri Matisse.

This painting of his wife is a great example of all the core elements that defined Fauvism. The canvas was completed in 1906, and can be found in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, Denmark. His wife gazes slightly away from the viewer’s eyes, and her face is marked by a green stripe that runs from the top of her forehead down to her lips. The background is divided into blocks of violet, orange tinted red, and green. Matisse has used thick dark brushstrokes to mark the features and outlines.

The impressionists built up forms based on how the dawn, dusk or other lighting conditions affected the subject of their paintings. The shapes were loose, fluid, and suggestive, and you can see the difference in painting styles when you compare Matisse’s dark lines with the style and techniques of the former.

When you think about this contrast, it becomes easier to image the outrage that this caused. In hindsight, the Fauvist paintings do not come across as shocking to modern tastes, but when imagined in their correct historical context, these were controversial artworks. Their work has huge repercussions for the way that color and form were used by the painters of successive generations. The roughness, and their insistence on wildness, was also a factor that caused the artworks of the Fauvists to be highly significant within the canon of Art history.

Key Artists: Maurice de Vlaminck, Andre Derain, Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, Kees van Dongen, Jean Puy and Charles Camoin.

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The Top 5 most Expensive Paintings of all Time

5. Jackson Pollock, “No. 5, 1948″—$140 million

‘No. 5, 1948’ measures 2.44 x 1.22 m, and is an iconic example of Pollock’s work, and his importance on the history of painting itself.

Sotheby’s sold the Painting for $140 million at auction in 2006.

Jackson Pollock was one of the figureheads within the American Abstract Expressionist Movement. His distinctive style involved dripping, flipping and throwing enamel and other types of everyday paint onto his canvases. Individual expression and subjective freedom were central to the Artists of this movement, who also placed great value on the action of painting itself. The painting is so valuable because it exemplifies a turning point in the history of painting when the action of the Artist was then understood as a significant part of the finished product. This led into other areas such as performance Art, and opened up the possibilities for what painting could achieve. 

4. Pablo Picasso, “Les Femmes d’Alger”—$179.3 million

This Artwork was painted in 1955, as part of a larger series of 15 artworks, all compositions of voluptuous nude women. Eugene Delacroix’s 1834 painting ‘The women of Algiers in their Apartment’ was a huge inspiration for the series.

Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, former prime minister of Qatar, bought this masterpiece by the Spanish Artist. The canvas is housed in his private collection in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Picasso, along with Braque, established Cubism as one of the most pertinent influences on painting. He consistently challenged both himself and his audience by continually reinventing his style and pushing visual culture to new heights. This Artwork is so famous because it encapsulates the prerogatives and aesthetic sensibilities of Cubism with the sensual and wild abandon that the Spanish Artist was known for. Picasso himself really paved the way for the concept of an Artist as a celebrity figure, and his influence can be felt in everything from Cars to Jean Paul Gautier aftershave bottles today.

3. Mark Rothko, “No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red)”—$186 million

Rothko painted this work in 1951, and this is a more colourful variation of his distinguished and recognisable style.

Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev bought the Painting in a private sale for 140 million Euros ($186 million at 2014 exchange rates). At the time he acquired the artwork, it was the second most expensive artwork ever sold.

Rothko was born in Russian-ruled Latvia in 1903, before he emigrated to the USA. He was one of the figureheads for Abstract Expressionism, and he championed the importance of finding deeply emotional states in his paintings. The majority of his compositions were created with much darker colour palettes, and are renowned for the contemplative atmospheres and moods that they create.

2. Paul Cézanne, “The Card Players”—$250 million–$300 million

This Painting dates back to the early 1890s, and is characteristic of the short series of works that Cezanne completed of this theme.

The royal family of Qatar bought the Artwork for an estimated price that exceeded $250 million in 2011. It is kept in Qatar.

Cezanne often painted simple scenes, and championed the commonplace and the everyday. The painting of provincial life in southern France shows peasant’s playing cards and smoking pipes. It is highly prized because Cezanne is such an important cultural figure, and without his contributions to the canon of Art history, painting would not be what it is today. He paved the way for the development of cubism, and his ‘flattening’ of the picture plane, and the way that he broke objects and scenes down into simple forms is often cited as an early influence for modernist abstraction.

1. Paul Gauguin, “Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?)”—$300 million

French Post-Impressionist Artist Paul Gauguin created this outstanding painting in 1892, and he is renowned for the wildness and simple beauty that he managed to achieve in his work.

This is the most expensive painting ever sold, and was bought by an undisclosed buyer. Many believe that the Artwork was bought by a group of state museums in Qatar, who are working on acquiring a first-rate collection that is financially backed by the Emirate’s royal family. The painting previously hung in Beyeler Foundation Museum in Riehen, Switzerland.

Gauguin journeyed to Tahiti in order to re-align his work and to completely emerge himself in another culture, and shake off the shackles that he felt were constricting him in Industrialised Western society. It is in his paintings where this really comes alive, his images are representations of a western mind that has flung itself with vigor into far off lands and cultures and is desperately trying to make sense of these exotic new experiences. His Artworks are dark and magical in a deeply intense and equal measure. The combination of such a technically skilled Western Artist painting so fervently the tribal life and customs of Tahiti makes for works that are truly unique, vibrant and powerful.

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