Art History: BVA 312 - 03/10/2019 (Book: Big Bucks)

Big Bucks (Adam, 2014)

Introduction:

Pg 9: How does a Warhol increase its value for $2 million in 1999 to $24 Million in 2007, in just eight years? 

**2013 stood out in art market history as its highest grossing ever, for sales of fine art auction. 

Pg 10: Between 2004 and 2012 this market grew by 564 per cent in value – far eclipsing the previous traditional heavy weight category of Impressionist and modern art. (The favouring style of art has shifted, aiming towards contemporary art) 

**It is due to the changing profile of collectors: Overlap between the worlds of art, fashion, luxury and celebrity. 

**Reflects changes in the wider world, nature and polarisation of weath, and the impact of globalisation. 

-       Reaches a far younger demographic than the ‘old’ market ever could. 

The role of a curator become eminent in an art show(art gallery, museum, auction) 

[Galleries and Museum will include contemporary art. The importance of this genre of art grew.] Even the most traditional ones now show contemporary art or commission artist’ interventions so as to be inclusive and remain relevant to their time. 

Artwork = sign of trophy. Works that will give them incontestable bragging rights. 

Pg16: Gagosian was the first art dealer ever to create a worldwide network of art galleries. 

[Players in mastering and manipulating the art market.] Following chapters shall look at all these different players: how contemporary art has become the overwhelming force in the market; how dealers and auctioneers went global; and why art prices have rocketed so high that one player quite seriously believes that he will see a $1 billion artwork in his lifetime.

Pg 24: Auction House

-       Cherished clients wanted to be special. [A room that is provided especially for the privilege customers.] 

-       Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog. Was estimated $35 million - $55 million. New York mega-dealer David Zwirner bid up to $49 million but another bidder offered $52 million, making a final price with fees of $58,405,000. (New record for any living artist in auction) 

-       More money was splurged on art. 

Two main auction houses: Sotheby’ and Christie’s. 

-       They alone generated over half of total art sales at suction – about $800 million in 2013. 

-       Been a key elements in the transformation of the art market in the 21^st century. 

Christie’s: seeking ways to move beyond the traditional ‘auction house’ profile and into a more consumer-oriented one. 

Pg 30: New Money, New Buyers. 

[The market is so much different than in the twentieth century, due to the disappearance of communism in Russia and shift in China towards commercial liberalisation] 

Today, say auctioneers, the number of buyers at a high level – over $5 million – has exploded to about 1,000 or more. 

[This topic catches my eye. I should focus my topic on Globalisation. How globalisation increases the value of art in an auction house.] 

Globalization means, he says, that buyers can come from all over: “Every season w see a different part of the world stepping up – Hong Kong, Indonesia, Brazil, Singapore, Colombia, Malaysia, now ever Azerbaijan”

[Benefit of Globalization] Globalization is certainly the key reason the auction houses have grown to the mega-business they are today.

Pg 31: Christie’s opened in New York in 1977 and held its first sale in Hong in 1986. 2004 onwards, was the exploding Chinese market, which in 2011 briefly became - the highest market for art in the world. Along with India, catching up China’s blooming economy. 

Pg 32: Auction houses realised the shift of style genre. In the 1970s Old Masters ruled the roost. Until 1987, Vincent Van Gogh’s 1889 Sunflower made $22 Million at Christie’s, bought by a Japanese. It marked the beginning of a three-year boom driven by Japanese buying. 

Today, contemporary art has become the biggest-grossing part of Sotheby’s and Christie’s business. 

Pg 33: Jasper John’s Double White Map, one of his targets works from the 1960s, bought for $10,000 made $240,000; Rauschenberg’s Thaw, purchased in 1958 fpr $900, sold for $85,000. 

Contemporary art market and also tuning the market into an investment or commodity market. 

While contemporary art plunged in the wake of global financial crisis of 2008-9, it recovered astonishingly quickly. 

Pg 34: The final frontier – wet paint art 

Christie’s in Indonesia and freshly arrived in the art business from the finance industry, told me in Singapore: We are going to be selling young artists’ works. Need to broaden the vase of our buyers, bring in younger people. 

Pg 35: Guarantees a buying method for artworks. It’s when the auction house promises a certain price to the vendor, whatever the outcome of the actual auction. Guarantees are not the only way the auction houses have expanded their business model in the twenty-first century. These loans can be advances to clinch a deal. 

[I wouldn’t want my essay to discuss all about auction houses] 

Chapter 8: The dark side of the moon. 

In China, auctioneering is a very new phenomenon, having mainly started in this century, the environment is still totally unregulated. 

** Mainland auction has no resources regarding to international art works. 

Christie’s and Sotheby’s on mainland, with their tighter mode of operation, may also hasve a positive effect. 

[Consignment: a batch of goods destined for or delivered to someone.

Consignor: The seller (Shipper)Consignee: The buyer (Recipient)]

The aution houses also say that revealing the price would be unfair to consignor – bidders would allow the work to pass under the reserve, then try to buy it for a lower price after the sale. 

References:

Adam, G. M. (2014). Big bucks : The explosion of the art market in the 21st century. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com