ArtMarket® Insight, tutte le news del mercato dell'arte

L'ultimo rapporto Artprice

Indice ArtMarket® Insight

Return to strength for impressionism at the London auctions [20/06/2007]

Supported by an increasingly dynamic London market the ‘Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sales’ organised by Sotheby’s and Christie’s at their New Bond Street and King Street offices are now as spectacular as in New York. In just 100 lots sold during the two evenings, the auctioneers raised no less than £201 million ($400 million), of which £121 million in the 18 June sale alone organised by Christie’s, a record total for a Fine Art sale in Europe.

Robert Mapplethorpe – Beauty and the devil are one and the same [18/06/2007]

The work of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) has something of a scandalous reputation, the photographer shocking puritanic Americans by putting sexuality at the heart of his artistic universe. He became a photographer in the 1970s, an era of sexual liberation soon to be brought to a halt by the rise of the AIDS epidemic. Mapplethorpe never ceased extolling the human body in meticulous compositions often evoking the cool and strict aesthetic of neoclassical painting.

Anselm Kiefer [10/06/2007]

Born in Germany six months before the end of the Second World War Anselm KIEFER began by studying law and romance languages in 1965 at Freiburg in Breisgau, before switching to follow the art courses taught by Peter DREHER and Horst ANTES. He held his first exhibition at the age of 24. In 1970, he went to study under Joseph BEUYS.

Chinese Contemporary Art Market – Cultural revelation [31/05/2007]

Speculation is showing no signs of slowing and auction sales are ever stronger, and prices ever higher. The price appreciation has been staggering for the generation of young Chinese artists and the number of investors continues to grow. It often takes only a few years for a Chinese artist to see a tenfold price increase, as with ZHANG Xiaogang or CAI Guoqiang to cite just a couple of examples. Symbolic of the price increases: the ten most successful auctions of contemporary Chinese art have been recorded over the past twelve months. In the end, in 2006, 31.3% of the Chinese contemporary artworks sold at auction achieved more than $100,000. Given such price levels, the proceeds on Chinese contemporary art sales increased by a factor of ten in 2006.

Graffiti art- From the street to the museum [23/05/2007]

Historically, graffiti was an underground movement, born to the Hip-Hop rhythm in the American ‘hoods of the 1970s. It is people’s art, rough and ephemeral. Rough because it was created illegally in public spaces. Ephemeral because its lifespan, subject to external constraints, is necessarily limited. The prohibitions which hit this urban art right from its beginnings in Europe could not stop its expansion during the 1980s. At the end of the decade it had become a veritable fashion phenomenon, in the press and on museum walls. Aside from urban buildings, street furniture and public transport, the graffiti artists created works on canvas, paper or street hoardings which are now prized by a growing number of collectors.

Christie’s confirms its leading position in contemporary art [21/05/2007]

The thrill of the New York contemporary art auctions is no longer the thousand dollar sale but those achieving millions of dollars. At the height of the May sales, a work by Mark ROTHKO went for 65 million dollars, becoming the most expensive post-war work in the market. These days the Sotheby’s and Christie’s contemporary art auctions are raising proceeds in excess of those on “Impressionist & Modern Art”. In 138 lots, the 15 and 16 May sales generated, all costs included, 639,528,400 million dollars, compared with 515,012,000 million dollars on 123 lots the previous week in the “Impressionist & Modern Art” sales.

Alberto Giacometti – At the peak of his price [20/05/2007]

Born in October 1901 in Stampa, Switzerland, Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) moved to Paris in 1922, where he came into contact with the cubists and discovered the formal perfection of traditional African art. From 1930, he was rubbing shoulders with the surrealist movement, met Masson and Breton, read Freud and Bataille, and created symbolic surrealist sculptures exuding violent eroticism. But the death of his father in 1933 was to mark a turning point and the beginnings of a new artistic direction. Giacometti grew to enjoy solitude and returned to portraits, for which he was rewarded with expulsion from the surrealist movement. He embarked on a ten-year search, destroying most of the works he had created and many of his scale drawings, though some were preserved in a matchbox. After the war, Giacometti developed a unique language that found expression in thread-like, pitted silhouettes; these brought him, during his lifetime, an international recognition that has never waned.

Sotheby’s dominates the ‘impressionist and modern’ art sales in New York [15/05/2007]

Sotheby’s managed, as had been hoped, to outpace its competitor Christie’s in the impressionist and modern art sales held on 8 and 9 May 2007, obtaining results which gave it pole position in this round. However, the lead can’t yet be described as significant: $278,548,000 compared with $236,464,000 for sales under the hammer at Rockefeller Plaza.

British pop art [13/05/2007]

In the early sixties pop art invented a new repertoire of images drawn from popular culture. Artists uninhibitedly, and often ironically, lifted images from the worlds of advertising, cinema, comics and the media, effectively juggling with the iconography of the consumer culture of the time. The definition Richard Hamilton gave for his artistic production sets the tone. He wanted his art to be “popular, ephemeral, disposable, cheap, mass produced, spiritual, sexy, clever, fascinating and make lots of money.”

Contemporary Russia – An emerging market [06/05/2007]

After Sotheby’s sale of contemporary Russian art in February and the second edition of the Moscow biennial art fair in March, contemporary Russian art is enjoying considerable effervescence.In historical terms, Russian artists’ freedom to express themselves is a relatively recent phenomenon. For example, in 1974 an exhibition of non-conformists in Moscow was demolished by a State bulldozer. Over recent years the cultural face of the Russian capital has changed radically with the opening of contemporary art centres. Although much of the contemporary work is focused on social and political critiques of the old communist regime, a broad diversification of artistic languages is beginning to emerge. Contemporary Russian art is attracting more and more amateur art collectors; however, for the time being, the majority of professional collectors are still of Russian origin.

Great expectations for New York’s May auctions [02/05/2007]

On 8 November last year, Christie’s New York managed to far outstrip its principal competitor Sotheby’s with a record sale that generated USD 491 million from 78 lots!This year Sotheby’s is planning a spectacular response with its New York sales of ‘Impressionist and Modern Art’ and ‘Contemporary Art’ that it estimates will generate between 416 and 561 millions dollars.

Contemporary Indian art [23/04/2007]

Contemporary Indian art is one of the most dynamic segments of the art market with a progression over the last ten years of 480%!Contemporary Indian art has now acquired a considerable standing in the market and is today one of its most speculative segments. According to Artprice’s March 2007 ranking of the most dynamic art movements, it is now in fourth position, just behind English Pop Art.

The leaders of the contemporary art market at Belgian auctions [16/04/2007]

In April, Brussels is host to one of the major international contemporary art fairs: Artbrussels. For this, its 25th edition, the fair is bringing together 123 galleries, presenting close to 2000 works and receiving more than 30,000 visitors. This year, the fair is very clearly focused on the notion of “contemporary” with certain galleries being grouped together in a special zone called “First Call”. These galleries have been selected by committee of art collectors with the intention of giving them particular exposure as being highly promising; another 38 galleries are grouped into an area called Young Talent in order to stress the young and innovative character of Artbrussels.

New Realism [09/04/2007]

New Realism is in favour this year: following the tribute to Yves Klein at the Georges Pompidou centre which closed last February, the whole movement is the subject of an exhibition in the Paris Grand Palais, running until 2 July, 2007. Prices for the New Realists have risen by more than 120% since 2000. However, these artists’s works are still valued some 30% below the price levels achieved in 1989-1990.

The contemporary art market in France [26/03/2007]

For its ninth fair, Artparis is taking place, as last year, beneath the glass roof of the Grand-Palais. Now an established part of the spring event calendar, Artparis is again welcoming the prestigious names which started exhibiting at the fair in 2006, associated with the numerous galeries specialised in contemporary art.

Diego Rivera – “I never believed in God, but I believe in Picasso” [22/03/2007]

Diego RIVERA was a friend of many of the great modern artists, not only Pablo PICASSO but also Amedeo MODIGLIANI, who painted his portrait, Piet MONDRIAAN and André BRETON. In 1913, Rivera experimented with analytical cubism before developing a mature style with simplified forms and bright colours, christened “naif”. His career took off in his home country of Mexico with the painting of mural frescos whose overt political commitment had a massive impact in the spirit of the times.

Art Market Trends 2006 [20/03/2007]

Artprice publishes its exclusive art market report that more than 6,300 international media and institutions rely on each year. Based on the 5 million auction recorded by 2,900 auction houses, “Art Market Trends 2006” is a 36-pages report of macroeconomics and microeconomics analyses updated to match the auction events and the artworks prices evolutions. This report published by ArtMarketInsight, Artprice’s press agency, in collaboration with Artprice’s econometrics department also includes genuine rankings such as the TOP 500 artists by turnover, the 100 highest auctions of the year and the 10 most buoyant art movements of the art market.

Artprice has never before recorded such high figures. The growth of the public auction art market is unprecedented. Artprice has compiled a hotly disputed TOP 10 based on price inflation and sales volumes. At the heart of this dossier, Artprice offers an exclusive ranking of artistic movements based on recorded price progressions.

Top 10 artists [13/03/2007]

Each artist makes their own, large or small, contribution to the total market. And ranking them by auction turnover gives a good indication of market conditions, preferences and trends. Every year Artprice ranks artists by this criterion.

The contemporary drawing market [08/03/2007]

Paris traditionally welcomes the Drawings Fair in March. This year, for the 19th event, 31 galleries presented more than 1000 papers from the Renaissance up to the 1970s in the Palais de la Bourse; there was a notable absence of more recent work because, for the first time, the Contemporary Drawings Fair took place March 22-26: forty or so French and foreign galleries took over a six-storey building on Avenue d’Iena for a show entirely dedicated to contemporary drawings.

New York hits the heights in 2006 [05/03/2007]

This year, the USA has again confirmed its position as the leading art market, with nearly a 46% market share in 2006 (vs. 43% in 2005). The Big Apple was booming with sales of near USD 3 billion and prices 32% higher than its last peak in 1990.

Discover the world of artprice with Thierry Ehrmann and the company’s HQ, the Abode of Chaos [27/02/2007]

Now available – the video of the TV show, Envoyé spécial, on Artprice, the Abode of Chaos, the headquarters of artprice.com, and Thierry EHRMANN, the founder of Artprice. Through a series of interviews of him and his co-workers, discover the Server Group and Artprice, and of the philosophy of the Group that has been on Internet for 20 years.

VernissageTV – Artprice.com / Interview with Thierry Ehrmann [25/02/2007]

Part 1/4 – Artprice.com considers itself as the world leader in art market information with a database of 21 million auction prices and indices, detailed auction results and 370000 artists. In cooperation with Artfacts.Net VernissageTV went to the headquarters of Artprice.com in Saint Romain au Mont d’Or, a medieval village near Lyons, France, to meet the founder of Artprice.com, Thierry Ehrmann.

Auguste Renoir in London [20/02/2007]

The National Gallery in London is hosting an exhibition of Pierre-Auguste RENOIR’s landscapes from 21 February to 20 May 2007. Whereas Renoir is essentially known to the public as a painter of intimist scenes and portraits, the 70 landscapes exhibited remind us just how much outdoor themes were also suited to Renoir’s soft touch and nuanced colours.

Photojournalism – Collective memory and photography [14/02/2007]

The photojournalism market is booming. Turnover at auction has risen by more than 250% in 10 years, and the trend is strong in the USA, France and the UK.For many years photojournalism was considered a secondary form of art, much like scientific or ethnographic photography. Since the 1950s however it has become well established, partly thanks to World Press Photo, with its annual contest celebrating the year’s best journalistic photographs, and a number of exhibitions underlining the news photo’s dual role as documentary testimony and aesthetic artefact.

Dali sculptures [06/02/2007]

Surrealism emerged at the same time as Freudian psycho-analysis in the 1920s prompting some artists to turn their attention to the world of the unconscious. In the words of André Breton, the surrealists’ mentor, their manifest intention was to “express the mechanics of thought”. In 1924, the founding year of the movement, Breton focused on 3-dimensional objects and proposed to make “objects that can only be seen in dreams”. Six years later, Dali applied his owned paranoia-critique method to the construction of objects creating new delirious images that were totally surrealist!

French art market returns to form in 2006 [04/02/2007]

Having missed out on the art market’s growth in 2002-2004, France is finally booming again. Turnover rose by 42% in 2006 to EUR 330 million, while volume sales advanced by 14%. Prices were up by 9% over twelve months though this is still 40% below their 1990 level.

Emerging art markets [28/01/2007]

The art market is a good indicator of the general economic prosperity of a country. Driven by strong growth, both China and India are rapidly becoming major players on the international art market.

The boom in art prices during 2006 [21/01/2007]

Art prices continued their ascension in 2006 with sharp accelerations observed on most major markets. At a worldwide level, Artprice’s global price index was up a further +25.4% over the year, to just 5% below its peak level in 1990. In the United States, however, prices are now 32% higher than the speculative bubble peak in 1990.

Italian drawing from the seventeenth century [11/01/2007]

The seventeenth century is being brought back to life, through a series of seven regional exhibitions that offer an overview of Italian drawing at the time. The shows are organised by the Louvre Museum and run from October 14, 2006, to February 23, 2007.

The Supports/Surfaces group [08/01/2007]

Summer 1969. In a challenge to the conventions of framing and picture-making as well as the dead weight of galleries and museums a group of artists from the south of France start to paint by laying down coloured pigment in a “surface” on a specific “support”, a canvas that may be framed or unframed. For several years, the group’s founders Dezeuze, Pagès, Saytour, Valensi and Viallat sought to explore one of the least exploited yet most essential aspects of painting: the materials that constitute the work.

Area partner