While Dasha Zhukova was all apologies yesterday concerning what some observers have dubbed the “Racist Chair” fiasco—in which Russian socialite and arts patron Zhukova was pictured on Russian fashion website Buro 24/7 sitting atop a Bjarne Melgaard sculpture of a black woman trussed up to form the shape of a chair—Melgaard and his dealer, Gavin Brown, are taking a different tack. In […]
Two years ago, when the late Ileana Sonnabend’s family donated Robert Rauschenberg’s famous artwork Canyon (1959) to the Museum of Modern Art, a condition of the gift was that the museum put on a show about the legendary art dealer, who died in 2007. Curator Ann Temkin has now fulfilled that promise, …
Handicapping 2014, maybe I see up to a 10% gain for the S&P 500 Index, refusing to anticipate the death toll of rapidly escalating interest rates or inflation. The market can sell at a high teens price-earnings ratio, even with earnings rising mid-single digits. Speculation is in the air so good stock pickers can do […]
The international art market is having its time in the sun: auction records keep tumbling, living artists have become superstars, and their punchy paintings and shiny sculptures have become the billionaire’s playthings of choice. Amid all this noise, however, it is time to question the much-touted belief that art is also an investment-grade asset.
The Royal Academy in London is mounting a major a retrospective exhibition of the artist Anselm Kiefer who has made it his life’s work to confront the dark pre and post-war past of his native Germany, wrestling with its moral inheritances. Massive paintings, artist’s books, drawings, photographs, watercolours, sculptures and installations, will be presented by […]
“The National Gallery’s great advantage is that we are obliged to give prominence to works of art that are important in the collection but don’t mean much to people today,” he says cheerfully. Conceptual works by trendy names – notably installations by Conrad Shawcross and Mark Wallinger alongside Titian in 2012 – have entered the […]
Will 2013 go down in art market history as the peak of a boom, or the beginning of a new world order for art sales?
At 76, David Hockney is in one of his primes, and apparently he knows it. Not for nothing is his exuberant, immersive survey at the de Young Museum here cheekily titled “David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition.” By then [early 1980’s] Mr. Hockney was one of the most popular of all living artists. Thousands of people […]
Soft power, wall power, purchasing power, power alliances, perennial power, emerging power, power plays: there are as many different ways to wield influence in the art world as there are personalities who do so. Herewith, Art+Auction’s annual list of the top players – from the Renaissance to the Contemporary cutting edge – in auctions, galleries, […]
From the streets of Manhattan Alan Cumming whips through the history of Pop Art in America and Britain, from Andy Warhol’s soup cans to Peter Blake’s blue jeans.
The super-rich have grown in number since 2008, adding the feel-good factor to this year’s fair. Millions of dollars have been spent on art, parties and hotel rooms this week as the circus surrounding Art Basel Miami Beach rolled into town. Given such conspicuous consumption, it is, perhaps, hard to remember that the art market […]
Our selection of pieces with back stories that add interest as well as value. Even though we are at an art fair, there is more to the works on show here than their price tags. There are many personal stories behind the paintings, sculptures and photographs on sale. Art historians are often interested in these […]
MIAMI BEACH — Eleven minutes into the 11 a.m. preview of Art Basel Miami Beach on Wednesday, Steve Wilson, a Kentucky collector, made his first purchase: an installation made from dozens of bricks by the Italian artist Elisabetta Benassi.
Art created to be unveiled at the fair proves popular in Miami— but not everyone is impressed. Be careful not to stand too close to the works on show at Art Basel Miami Beach—the paint may not yet be dry. Dozens of artists including Marilyn Minter, Luis Gispert, Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch have created […]
Miami is still partying, but galleries have institutional collectors in mind. t is currently in vogue to dismiss Miami as a hedonistic party town where art plays second fiddle to the fizz and glamour of this week’s soirées. The sheer number of events organised by brands promoting booze, bags and luxury goods has recently sparked […]
Learning to Love the Eight-Figure Art Market. Big bucks can excite hot tempers. by Walter Robinson
“A bunch of rubbish” was the verdict, offered only half in jest by the predictably dyspeptic English journalist. He was surrounded by huge paintings covered with shards of broken crockery and slathered with crudely painted images. Yes, rubbish, but is that not the quest of the avant-garde, to magically spin art from dross like some […]
A View Inside the Art World: Author Henry Alford attended the record-breaking auctions of modern art at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, but to watch, not buy. Henry’s hilarious commentary in the NYT on his experiences at the Christie’s including at the preview auction brunch: “Are you having fun?” he asked me. “I am,” I said. “But […]
Art fairs have their dos and don’ts. If you Google “negotiating at art fairs,” few results come up; it may be a taboo subject—and a common pratfall for beginner collectors—but haggling happens, and it’s a veritable part of the art-buying game, for better or worse.
“I bought it through Amazon because it was quick and easy,” she said. Amazon is betting that millions of buyers like Ms. DeFord will happily buy paintings and prints in the same way that they now buy shoes or books or kitchen appliances online. We shall see …