GLOBALISATION CHRISTIE’S ART AUCTIONS
Globalisation in the art market may be slowing down according to an article published recently in The Economist. In spite of the growing numbers of artists and buyers from locales ranging from Africa to Asia, May sales in New York were dominated by American artists.
The article states:
“At the Christie’s sale, the first of the two main evening auctions, three-quarters of the buyers were American”.
With the prices of work by top Asian artists still lagging behind big-name American contemporaries, it may not come as a surprise that Asian artists are sometimes underrepresented in main and evening sales abroad. That is not to say that Asian artists do not fair well in Asian markets. In Artprice’s Top 100 Hammer Price List, only seven Asian artists crack the top 50. Not surprisingly, all were Chinese artists with sales in Beijing or Hong Kong. Numbers such as these suggest that there is still some preference for homegrown artists.
The Beijing sale of Chen Yifei's 'Thinking of History at My Space', 1979 landed him at #69 on Artprice's Hammer Price List
Even so, the unusual dominance of American artists at Christie’s New York sales this past spring did not go unnoticed.
“This is the most significant post-war and contemporary art collection ever sold at auction,” Christie’s Amy Cappellazzo said afterwards. “It was a quintessential American sale.”
We at Art Radar Asia wonder if this is really so surprising? There are few Post War Asian artists represented in these sales because Asian artists have only received attention in the last twenty years. For contemporary artists it is a different matter. While there is no doubt that some Asian artists, and those from other emerging countries, are now well known, their prices still lag behind those of top contemporary American artists. And, of course, main sales, and evening sales in particular, feature only the very best, usually most expensive, works.
Read the full article here.
EH/KN
Related Topics: business of art, collectors, market watch – auctions, market watch – globalisation
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- Dinesh Vazirani CEO Saffronart speaks about 2010 market outlook for Indian art – Arttactic podcast – March 2010
- Surprising sell-through rates for Chinese art recorded in London’s February auctions – March 2010
- Performance of Asia tops West for first timers at auction in 2008/09 – November 2009
- Contemporary art market in Asia now bigger than US for first time says Artprice – November 2009
- Christies in Dubai sets record for most pricey Arab artwork – November 2009
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