ArtMarket® Insight, la actualidad del mercado del arte

The Views of Venice at the top of Old Masters sales [25/04/2006]

Within the Painting segment, Old Masters works have always been considered as safe-haven assets, compared with modern or contemporary works. And the figures tend to confirm this trend. While prices for modern and contemporary paintings have climbed 33.2% and 41.1% respectively since April 2001, demand for pre-19th century paintings is today at the same level as five years ago.

David Hockney [23/04/2006]

Born in 1937 in Bradford (Yorkshire), David Hockney entered the Royal College of Art in London in 1957. In the 1960s, he moved away from abstract expressionism and began experimenting with figurative art combining abstract, figurative and pop art. He began producing engravings in 1961. A few years later when he had moved to Los Angeles, he began applying new light and colours to his work. His work became naturalistic and more autobiographical. He painted interior scenes and his famous swimming pools, in particular The Bigger Splash which won him international acclaim. He also produced numerous portraits, often of close family members or friends. From the 1970s, he started dedicating more time to large-format double portraits, an aspect he would apply later in his watercolours.

Hans Bellmer (1902-1975) [18/04/2006]

Surrealist Hans Bellmer is on show at the Musée National d’Art Moderne (Paris) until May 22.In 1933, Hans Bellmer made a Doll, an artificial “being” of wood, papier mâché and a biomorphed anatomy “with multiple anatomical possibilities”. This was the start of a subversive process that challenged the myth of anatomical perfection promoted by the third Reich. He dismembered his Doll’s body and recombined it in incongruous combinations to evoke the feeling of “disturbing strangeness” he had discovered on reading Freud. Bellmer never showed his dolls as exhibits during his lifetime, using them merely as models for the formal work of his paintings, drawings, engravings or photographs.

HYPERREALISM – “Clichés” of reality… [09/04/2006]

Hyperrealism, which emerged in the USA in the 60s, inherits its attachment to a banal everyday version of reality from Pop art. The artists draw their subjects from real life; but it is a “second-hand” real life, because they do not create their works directly in front of the person or thing they are depicting, but from photographs. They demonstrate a great, often laborious, technical virtuosity, to transcribe a reality that has been examined under a microscope.

OP ART – The optical illusionists are back [02/04/2006]

Op Artists exploit the way the retina works to induce a series of apparent metamorphoses on the flat unchanging surface of their pictures. They ensnare our vision with optical illusions, playing with the phenomenon of retinal afterimages and with the changing position of the viewer in front of the painting.

A boom in the drawings market [20/03/2006]

For the past 15 years, collectors and curators of drawings have met at the Salon du Dessin during the last week of March. The salon that is to be held at the Palais de la Bourse in Paris will bring together some 30 galleries that will exhibit almost 1,000 drawings from all periods.

Auction data in 2005 showed that the drawings segment represented almost 24.4% of total Fine Art transactions and 12.7% of turnover (vs. 11.6% in 2004).

Installations [15/03/2006]

With the emergence of a mass consumer society in the 1950s in the United States, and then later in Europe, the notion of disposability became an integral part of Western lifestyles. The significant changes in habits and mentalities that accompanied the new lifestyle had an impact on our conception of art. Previously considered eternal, art began to reflect current realities and many artists emancipated themselves from the desire to produce perennial works. Art can also be ephemeral and temporary. Collectors have recognised this and have invested in works whose preservation often presents a number of challenges. They are aware that museums are also keen to enrich their collections of installations that can be, in some cases, very fragile.

Art Market Trends 2005 [08/03/2006]

Art Martket Trends 2005 – historic figures Contents Art price latest trends The popular segments of the market New York: prices surge by 34.5% London: A first exceptional season! France contributes 6.6% in 2005 Hong Kong ranks fourth in the market The most buoyant art movements of 2005 TOP 10 ARTISTS TOP 100 auction records […]

YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS – British art and a scent of scandal [08/03/2006]

Almost ten years after the Sensation exhibition, the YBAs have achieved a certain maturity that inspires a sense of confidence compared to their somewhat speculative debuts.

Symbolism – Giving shape to ideas [28/02/2006]

With so few major works coming up for sale, prints constitute the majority of sales in this segment.

The leading lights of symbolism are Edward Coley BURNE-JONES (English), Pierre PUVIS DE CHAVANNES, Gustave MOREAU, Félicien ROPS and Odilon REDON (all French), Arnold BÖCKLIN (Swiss), James ENSOR (Belgian) and Edvard MUNCH (Norwegian).

The prophets of modern art [19/02/2006]

The group of artists known as the Nabis (“prophets”) came together in 1888. The big names include Pierre Bonnard, Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, along with other lesser known artists such as Félix Vallotton, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Jan Verkade, Georges Lacombe, Paul Élie Ranson and Ker Xavier Roussel. To date, however, there has been no auction devoted entirely to “Nabi” art despite the fact that the Nabi group is recognized both in Europe and in the USA. French auction houses account for more than one-third of transactions and dominate the market for Nabi works in volume terms. Nevertheless, Anglo-Saxon countries account for the lion’s share of auction revenue.

TOP 10 ARTISTS [05/02/2006]

The Top 10 artists grossed USD 576 million in 2005, compared to USD 393 million in 2003, a figure that represents 13.6% of the total art auction market. Unusually, a contemporary artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and an old master, Canaletto, were among the top sellers. The top three names however are unchanged…

Artprice attacks the valuation market with its launch of Artpricing [01/02/2006]

At a global level, the art market has never been as buoyant as it is today. The figures are unprecedented; in 2005 the total volume of Fine Art auction sales was more than USD 4.1 billion (source ©2005 Art Market Trends by Artprice).

Driven by this dynamic trend, Artprice’s virtual marketplace is now offering a daily average of 25,000 works of art, making it a keystone of today’s global art market, and connections to Artprice.com have been growing at an average monthly rate of 23% since June 2005. In this context of art market buoyancy in parallel with the boom of the Internet, there is a rapidly growing demand for a reliable valuation service. In fact, Artprice already receives hundreds of spontaneous requests for accurate valuations every day.Therefore, in addition to its databases, its 21 million auction results, its indexes covering 342,000 artists (in November alone Artprice recorded 1,890,000 consultations of auction results and 120,000 index consultations) Artprice has launched a new, simple and customised valuation service in February 2006 called Artpricing ®

2006 – Cézanne centenary [25/01/2006]

In 2006 two exhibitions will mark the centenary of the death of Paul Cézanne, one at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and the other in Aix-en-Provence. These events might revitalise the market for Cezanne’s works, that has lost steam over the last five years.

PHOTOJOURNALISM – Collective memory and photography [16/01/2006]

Edward STEICHEN, Cecil BEATON, Henri CARTIER-BRESSON, Robert CAPA, Raymond DEPARDON, Robert DOISNEAU, Walker EVANS, Dorothea LANGE, Marc RIBOUD are some of the biggest names in photojournalism, which for many years was considered a secondary form of art, much like scientific or ethnographic photography. Photojournalists bear witness to their time, using the camera to capture the real. Their photos have an important impact culturally as they become part of our collective memory, mainly through dissemination by the media.

A peak in the art market in 2005? [08/01/2006]

The international art market has never performed so well. The figures are record-breaking!

In 2005 the turnover for Fine Art sales exceeded USD 4 billion, vs. USD 3.6 billion the previous year, despite a practically stable volume of 320,000 lots.This incredible progression came on the back of a price increase of 10.4%* last year, following on from the 19% rise already recorded in 2004. This price inflation translated into a multiplication of sales exceeding USD 1 million

Artprice ranks “best performer” in 2005 on all French financial markets [04/01/2006]

According to the Euronext Paris rankings for 2005*, Artprice.com posted the best annual performance after its share price rose by more than 808% (taking into account its performance on all the French markets: A, B and C compartments of Eurolist by Euronext, SRD, Alternext, Marché Libre and Valeurs étrangères).

MINIMALISM [02/01/2006]

Strong demand on the US market has pushed prices for the centre-pieces of 1960s Minimal Art to record highs.

A difficult recovery for the French art market [25/12/2005]

Since 2001 the situation for the French Fine Art auction market has been critical. Prices remain stable but transaction volumes have contracted, and French auction houses have seen their market share diminish as a result of the success of their Anglo-Saxon counterparts.

The most buoyant art movements of 2005 [12/12/2005]

Artprice has established a ranking of art movements based on price progressions in 2005.

Propelled by a major exhibition since 5 October at the Pompidou Centre, Dada takes the lead with a 137% rise in its price index since the beginning of the year. However, the Dadism movement lasted only eight years from 1916 to 1924 and supply remains very limited. Not a single work by Duchamp, Sophie TAEUBER-ARP or Hans ARP produced during this short period appeared at auction in 2005.

Record for Russian Art Sales [05/12/2005]

On 30 November and 1 December 2004, Sotheby’s and Christie’s each generated revenues of GBP 9.3 million at their prestigious Russian Art Sales. This year, the auction houses reached a new record with turnover of GBP 22 million for Christie’s on 30 November and GBP 22.2 million for Sotheby’s the following day. Even with high bought-in rates (32% and 28% respectively), the two houses well exceeded their most optimistic forecasts. Prior to its Russian Sale, Sotheby’s only hoped to achieve GBP 12-16 million in turnover.

Old Master paintings: 17th century Northern Schools [04/12/2005]

In the segment of Old Master works, the Dutch and Flemish Masters command some of the highest auction prices. Peter Paul Rubens’ Le Massacre des Innocents currently holds the auction record for this segment after fetching GBP 45 million on 10 July 2002 at Sotheby’s in London.

In the United States, the Artprice Global Index is now higher than the peak of 1990 [28/11/2005]

Artwork prices in New York are now higher than they were in 1990. Inflation in the New York art market has accelerated considerably over the last few months. After rising by 18.5% in 2004, prices have exploded by 41% since the beginning of the year. They are now 33% higher than the summer 1990 levels when the speculative bubble that had boosted the market finally peaked. A few months later, the bubble burst and prices fell by 38% between July 1990 and October 1993!

Old Master paintings [21/11/2005]

December is usually a plentiful month for Old Master paintings. 3000 Old Masters were offered for sale in the three weeks before Christmas of last year. Prices on this segment have risen 26% over the last twelve months, but only 36% over the last ten years. This compares with an 85% increase of the Artprice Global Index (all periods combined) since November 1995 (on the basis of auction sales in euros), implying that Old Masters has been one of the least speculative segments in the art market. On the positive side, the segment has proved ideal for risk averse collectors. With a reduced volume of sales (5.7% of Fine Art auctions), prices are reasonably well protected.

Contemporary art: lots of new records in New York [09/11/2005]

In New York, after the success of the impressionist and modern art sales, the auction world has again been rocked by record sales, this time of contemporary art at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. In total, the two evening sales generated USD 272 million, including USD 21,250,000 for Cubi XXVIII, a monumental sculpture by David SMITH. Created in 1965 and measuring almost 2.8 metres in height, the work had been estimated by Sotheby’s at between USD 8 and 12 million.

Impressionist and Modern Art sales generate USD 291 million [03/11/2005]

The Impressionist and Modern Art sales held on 1 and 2 November by Christie’s and Sotheby’s respectively were a huge success. The two auction houses generated a total of USD 291 million from the sale of 110 of the 123 lots on offer.

French neo-classical artists [02/11/2005]

Various exhibitions are currently paying homage to Girodet and his master, Jacques-Louis David, the leading light in the French neo-classical art movement. These exhibitions are expected to drive up prices for neo-classical artworks, which are already rising due to the huge shortage of supply.

The market in Arman sculptures [23/10/2005]

Arman died Saturday at his home in New York after a battle with cancer.Fernandez ARMAN, born in Nice in 1928, is the French contemporary sculptor whose works most frequently come up at auction. In 2004, when more than 400 works were put up for sale and EUR 2,8 million generated in turnover (and EUR 2 million for sculpture), he came 20th in Artprice’s ranking of sculptors.

Sales of photography: Seven sales generate USD 28.9 million [12/10/2005]

Never have photography sales been so lucrative. New records were set at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips. The top lot from the various sales was Edward S. Curtis’s portfolios (1868-1952): “The North American Indian” which fetched double its pre-sale high estimate at the incredible amount of USD 1.2 million.

France’s Dominique de Villepin rescues the French contemporary art market [10/10/2005]

The gap has grown between the prices paid for works by young French artists and those by their British and American counterparts. The French government has finally decided to react to this situation. On October 10, during his visit to the FIAC (Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain), French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced that France would implement new tax measures to encourage young artists to come and work in France.