here is some  info on an art auction i will be participating in on Saturday night!

stop by and get your bidding number

Twenty Artists/Twenty Bucks

Art Auction featuring On-Site Art Creation

 Hosted by Sharon Koskoff, Amanda Leary, and Talya Lerman

 All Bids Start at $20

Where: MosArt Theatre, 700 Park Avenue, Lake Park, FL 33403

When: Saturday, December 5th, 2009

Time: 6:30-8:15pm artists create site-specific work, 8:30pm auction begins – Bids Start at $20

Cost: Free Admission, refreshments and food available, bids start at $20

Parking: On street

Twenty+ Artists will create 16” x 20” artworks in a variety of media on-site over a 90 minute time period, while the public looks on! 

Meet and mingle with emerging and established regional artists while exploring the Theatre . Your masterpiece awaits!

Partial proceeds benefit local artists directly.

This beautiful bowl with 22k gold is up for auction at my annual studio sale.  I’m opening the auction for those of you who can’t make the studio sale but would like an opportunity to bid.  All proceeds will benefit the artists whose work was lost in the summer fire downtown White Salmon.  I will personally deliver or pay shipping for the winning bidder.  Participation is easy, all you have to do is state the bid you’d like to make in the comment section below.

Details:  12.5″ diameter, the bowl stands 2.5″ tall.  An iridescent sparkle shimmers atop the unusual combination of cinnamon representing fire and pink shades representing hope and new life.  Composed of powdered glass atop a sheet glass substrate, the continuous line drawn through the powders, creating the design represents the spiral of life, our connections and relationships with one another.  Retail price is $350 for this multi-layered hand-made kilnformed glass bowl.

Notes:  Thirty six artists lost their work in the fire that completely destroyed a 100-year-old building and 2 businesses in White Salmon, Roz Gallery and Blue Ackerman Photography Studio.  Two neighboring businesses also affected with smoke damage, Artisan’s Jewelery and Gallery and Everybody’s Brewing on either side of the fire were able to quickly clean up and reopen.  Everyone in White Salmon hopes that Blue and Roz will be able to reopen.  Someone will correct me if inaccurate, both Roz and Blue were uninsured or had minimal insurance that didn’t cover the majority of fire damage.  The artists won’t fully recover the loss of their work, but some of us would like to help make up some of their loss.  Most artists are uninsured.

The bowl will be placed prominently at my sale on December 6th from noon until 5pm for studio guests to bid on.  I’ll post updates in the comment section here along with your bids.  The bidding will close and winning bidder announced, here on the blog and at the sale at 4:30 p.m., Sunday December 6th, PST.  Good luck to all, may the bidding begin!

The Spectacle of the Art Market Pt. 2 – artmarketblog.com

If you read my last post (which is the introduction to this post) then you may be asking yourself whether art market trends can really be dictated to a certain extent by such a simple and primitive human instinct.  The evidence that I have come across suggests that it can.  In fact, a recent study linked the human attraction to shiny objects with a primitively instinctual attraction to, and desire for, sources of water.  I would would like to believe that my decision to purchase a work of art is primarily based on some highly complicated thought process or a  highly developed taste for art and sense of style, and not on some primite instinct that we really don’t understand or have any control over.  But we are all only human after all.  And humans are highly complex and emotional creatures who are susceptible to those emotions that make us human.  When you think about it, it is really not that bizarre to suggest that art market trends can be dictated by an instinctually emotion judgement as opposed to a complex process of reasoning.

Charles Saatchi is the undoubtedly the quintessential purveyor of shiny objects and is known to be particularly fond of highly visual, high impact works of art such as those produced by Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst who are both products of the Saatchi empire. Therefore, if I was going to use anyone as an example of the human attraction to bright,  shiny works of art then it would have to be Saatchi.  Interesting, it is a well known fact that Charles Saatchi is NOT so keen on photography or video art.  Why is this interesting I hear you ask? Well,  of all the different mediums that come under the banner of art it would have to be photography and film that are the least likely to incorporate the bright and shiny elements that are present in the type of works that I have been referring to.  Bright colours and shiny elements are usually absent from video and photographic works of art thus making these two mediums less likely to evoke that instinctual attraction that humans have to bright and shiny objects.  Video art in particular is a medium that cannot rely on high impact, instantly attractive elements to engage viewers.  To appreciate and interact with a work of video art usually requires that the viewer to spend a considerable amount of time watching the video and thinking about what is happening.

When it comes to the impact that instinct and emotion can have on the art market it is interesting to compare the current art market buying trends with the state of the global financial sector.  As I said in my last post,  one of the interesting trends that has been particularly noticable during the recent current art market correction is that works that have less visual impact and are not as flamboyant are experiencing competitive bidding and high prices.  This trend is the opposite to the popularity of high impact, bright and shiny works of art that was evident during the playful and heady days of the art market boom when the global economic outlook was far more positive.  Just a coincidence?  I don’t think it is.  To me it would make sense that people would purchase works of art that coincide with their state of mind and the emotions produced by the circumstance that they are in at the time.

There have been studies that show that different types of perfume are purchased according to the state of the economy.  A recent article featured in the Financial Times ‘How to Spend it’ magazine mentioned  that “floral fragrances – the safest, least challenging perfume category – have historically flourished in a recession”.  In his book ‘Why Yesterday Tells of Tomorrow: How the long waves of the economy help us determine tomorrows trends’ of 2001, Helmut Gaus used womens fashion trends as an example of anxiety and functional anxiety-driven behaviour.  According to the statistics compiled by Gaus, during periods of high anxiety women wear fewer patterns, darker colours, clothes with lower necklines and skirts that are longer.  During periods of less anxiety women wear more patterns, brighter colours, clothes with higher necklines and skirts that are shorter.  From these two sets of data it seems that during periods of high anxiety the less complicated, less flamboyant and less colourful become more popular and the reverse during periods of less anxiety when times are good.  I see no reason why the art market shouldn’t experience a similar trend.

to be continued……….

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

In addition to the Christmas Fair and Concerts, Normansfield Theatre is also the venue for an art exhibition and auction in aid of the Teddington School redevelopment project which is due to finish in September 2010. The school is hoping to raise £250,000 through various means towards the final elements of the project which are detailed on the schools Justgiving page – every penny donated counts so even if you can’t make it to the auction you can help by donating online.

Well established and celebrated artists have donated works for the auction so it presents a unique chance to get hold of a prestigious and rare piece at a local event.

On Friday December 4th (6:30-10:00pm) and Saturday December 5th (10:00am-4:00pm) tickets are available for £5 and £3 respectively. Art lovers will be given a chance to take a closer look at the works in the exhibition before the auction.

Artists work will include paintings, charactertures, pen/ink, sketchings and photos from Elizabeth Blackadder, Peter Blake, Bernard Dunstan, Antony Gormley and Albert Irwin plus local artists, celebrities works including Ian Hislop, Ricky Gervais, Andrew Marr as well as work from Teddington School students.

The auction itself will be conducted by Christie’s international auctioneer Hugh Edmeades.

For tickets and enquiries email pta@teddington.richmond.sch.uk or call 020 8943 0033.

See poster and School site for more details and more complete list of works to be included in the auction.

There are works by Jeff Weaver and Bittman that are going for fractions of their worth.

My advice?  Get down there and bid!  You might just steal something.  The Live Auction sounds like a blast as well-

Greek Art Reaches Giddy Heights at Bonhams – artmarketblog.com

Lot No: 23 Spyros Papaloukas (Greek, 1892-1957) Mt. Athos, skete of the Three Hierarchs and the Holy Trinity signed in Greek (lower right) oil on cardboard 54 x 50 cm. Sold for £168,000 inclusive of Buyer's Premium

Bonhams UK have been promoting themselves as the gods of Greek art for quite a while now and have claimed market dominance in the UK when it comes to selling Greek art on more than one occasion.  I am not entirely sure what brought about Bonhams’ fascination with Greek art, but whoever is responsible for the assault on this region should be congratulated for what has proven to be, and continues to be, a shrewd move for Bonhams.  Bonham’s most recent sale of Greek art held on the 10^th of November was a good indication that the market for Greek art is extremely buoyant and also that Bonhams continue to maintain a dominant position in what is a competitive niche.  A total of £3.5 million worth of art was sold and a number of significant prices were achieved including:

- Spyros Papaloukas (Greek, 1892-1957) ‘Mt. Athos, skete of the Three Hierarchs and the Holy Trinity’ which sold for £168,000 (auction record for artist) inclusive of Buyer’s Premium

- Constantinos Maleas (Greek, 1879-1928) ‘Acropolis / Acropole vue entre des pins et aloès’ which sold for £311,200 (2^nd highest price achieved at auction for artist) inclusive of Buyer’s Premium

-Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (Greek, 1906-1994) ‘Calligraphy of a town’ which sold for £264,000 (3^rd highest price achieved at auction for artist) inclusive of Buyer’s Premium

As a side note I am hesitant to refer to 2^nd and 3^rd highest auction prices for an artist as ‘world records’ as Bonhams have done and consider the practice of doing so to be dishonest.  Is the 20^th highest auction price for an artist a world record too?  Bonhams went as far as to list the fifth highest auction price for an artist as a ‘world record’ which I think is rather cheeky. Anyway, back to the action.

Bohnams have a good record with the Greek art auctions that are held in the UK. In November of 2008, Bonhams’ sale of Greek art held at their Bond St. Saleroom brought in a total of 3.8 million pounds and resulted in fourteen artists’ auction records being broken.  According to Bonhams, a large majority of the buyers were Greek.  Moving on to May 2008 and once again Bonhams made headlines with their Greek art sale when they managed to shift 3.6 million pounds worth of art with and sell a record 90% lots offered.  Bonhams also reported 17 new world record prices which, as per above, should be taken with a grain of salt.

The Greek art market is quite unique because of the history of Greek art which basically revolved around the creation of religious icons until the start of the 19^th century due to the fact that Greece was essentially shielded from the Renaissance by the ruling Ottoman empire .  “Modern” art is therefore a relatively new concept to the Greeks and represented a relatively untapped market that the three major auction houses were quick to take advantage of.  There are several reasons that the opportunity to dominate the market for Greek art became available to an organisation outside of Greece.   The main reason is that  much like the Indian art market, the Greek art market is relatively un-regulated and there is also a severe lack of infrastructure relating to authenticity, valuation and art market expertise that would be required to support the development of a free market in Greece.  An opportunity was therfore available to an international organisation that could supply what the Greek art market lacked and to satisfy the needs of those rich Greeks who have a passion for art.

Although the market for Greek art has proven to be very strong even during the recent financial crisis, investors and collectors should be extremely wary of the hype surrounding Greek art and should be extremely cautious with their purchases.  My reason for suggesting caution is that the Greek art world lacks the cultural sector infrastructure that is so important to the long term stability of an art market and the buoyancy of the prices being paid for the work of that market’s artists.  The contemporary Indian art market has suffered during the financial crisis due to the same lack of infrastructure that the Greek art market suffers from.  Greek art, especially the work of contemporary artists, has plenty of potential for investors but is also fraught with potential traps and problems that could have a major effect on the price of the work of many artists.

Although Bonham’s quip that “Interest in Greek art is more than just a myth at Bonhams 15th Greek Sale” does ring true, the market for Greek art is in it’s infancy and is at a relatively high risk of becoming a very fragile bubble that could easily be burst.  Investors and collectors should be particularly concerned about authenticity and future value until a more advanced cultural and market infrastructure is in place.

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications

"Lunch Trays for Home Days" November 20, 2009

“Lunch Trays for Home Days” Art auction and food tasting to help end hunger in Southern Nevada

Event founders: Rachel Wenman, owner, Taka Designs; RaShelle Roberts of InVision/Group Therapy LV; Justin McCroy of Group Therapy LV; David Leibner of Full Belly Group

Event: ‘Lunch Trays for Home Days’ is an art auction and fundraising event featuring local artists and live entertainment. Local artists have designed individual and unique lunch trays that will be on display and available for purchase. All proceeds from the event will benefit Three Square’s Backpack Program which provides food to enrolled students from the Clark County School District, who are effected by hunger.

When: Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
7 – 10 p.m.

Where: The Arts Factory
107 E. Charleston Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89104-1060

Who: Open to the public
DJ 88, NOIZE, and over 40 local Las Vegas artists

The Annual Sawyer Free Library Art Auction

Here are some Photos from this years Sawyer Free Library Art Auction Exhibit.

There are 71 paintings up for Auction this year.

The bidding starts low and if your lucky you can get a great deal on a work of Art by some of the best artists on Cape Ann.

Just in time for the Holidays!

The Silent Auction will be taking place all through the month of November.

The Bid book is located along with the paintings in the front lobby.

You are warmly invited to attend the Annual Art Auction, featuring live music and refreshments at the 6pm preview party, followed by the live auction. Proceeds support the Sawyer Free Library’s museum passes, programs, scholarships, art books and materials.

Paintings make great gifts to others, or to yourself! Please join us!
Wednesday, December 2
Preview Party 6pm, Live Auction 7pm, Main Floor

Paulie Frontiero’s pic-

One evening last March a friend called to tell me about a “mob scene” that had occurred at the opening of a tiny, one room photography gallery nearby our arts complex, Galerie St. George in Staten Island, New York.

The Creative Photography Guild (“CPG”) had opened its doors to a massive group of attendees during its late spring grand opening.  The gallery, highlighting for the most part local photographers’ works, organized the event as a group show, and about twenty of their members were featured.

The reason the mob scene had erupted, with about 500 attendees crowding into the small space and cars overflowing on the street, was the viral nature of how the members had promoted their event. The fact that the space was tiny added to the “frenzy” that had ensued, a pickpocket could have had a field day and retired.

After my friend hung up, I thought to myself, “How did 20 relatively unknown photographers get 500 people to attend their opening?”

As a gallerist and artists’ manager, the question was very germane to my business, and I wanted to figure it out.

It didn’t take long; I reasoned that each photographer in the show had invited his or her family members, work associates, and fans and patrons that might want to buy their work.  In turn, those invitees told their friends and family about the opening, and another group of attendees was added to the fray.  It didn’t stop there, either.  Those “second-tier” friends and family in turn told their friends and family, and so on.  I’m sure you get the picture!

Pretty soon, this tiny gallery in a room measuring maybe 20 feet  by 15 feet, was housing the overflow of a massive example of viral marketing in the real world. As nature can choose to ravage a mountainside with an avalanche of snow, the photographers’ event blasted off leveraging the theory of social networking, and I’m sure that it was not planned or intentional, just like an avalanche.

I was very impressed by the gallery’s achievement in drawing a crowd, and an idea began to gel for a virtual world version that would capture the power of CPG’s event, and bring it onto an international stage in real-time.

So, in late May, 2009, I formulated the concept for “140 Hours of Fame®”, an online art auction that would embody the power of Twitter®’s social media networking technology to “viralize” our event, and leverage the personal networks of friends, family and art patrons associated with each artist.  I was also introducing a revolutionary concept in the package, allowing bidders to enter their private bidding information from their Twitter account, what I named their “tweetbid®”.  The two forces combining, I envisioned, would be like bringing on the afterburners in an F-16 jet fighter aircraft, and breaking the sound barrier.

In early June I began to distribute some invitations to local artists in New York that I knew and respected, to see what they thought of the idea.  Their first reaction was, “Oh, it’s just going to be an art auction, there are plenty of those all the time”.  So, at first brush-stroke, my message was not getting across.  As an inventor and former high-tech CEO, I knew the perils all too well of presenting ideas to investors and to customers, and the great challenges of both.

I was fortunate to have made contact, through Twitter of course, with a gifted artist and businesswoman in Houston, Texas, Linda Summers Posey, who understood the concept right away and encouraged me to develop it further.  Further along in development, I also had the support of Dottie List, a Lake City, Florida artist, whose expertise in promoting events and reaching out to the media is world class.

The next months into a hot summer in New York City were spent refining all aspects of “140 Hours”, and making sure that our system could accommodate huge web traffic, that we could protect the private information of bidders in the event, and that we would garner the support of international artists.

I was very fortunate, again, to have worked out the kinks and by late June, our platform was indeed ready and many artists began to send in their work from all over the world.  Before long, the 140Hours.com website was stocked full of high-quality artworks of every variety and medium, from high-school aged artists up to some in their mid-80s.  It had become like a big family, and thinking back to the Creative Photography Guild Show, the acid test for publicity and marketing was about to be tested.

Fast forward to October, 2009, when our marketing blitz all over the web took off into high gear.  All of the member artists in “140 Hours” reached out to their social networking contacts and followers, to their local media, and of course to their friends and family and patrons and collectors.  Twitter was used as both a broadcasting system as well as a way to reach art collectors, museums, galleries and the media, and it had become the foundation for a superstructure that we were building into the sky.

The hoped-for response was not only forthcoming; it was like an avalanche of attention on the World Wide Web. Our 100+ artists used Twitter like demolition crews use dynamite, our message that this was the world’s first Twitter art auction exploded and traffic to 140hours.com began to increase exponentially, so much so that the second day of our event, 7 November 2009, saw us knocked off the web because we had strained the resources to the breaking point of our hosting service in Australia.

Beyond the technical structure having been proven to work, after “140 Hours of Fame” went live on November 5^th, it proved that a viral campaign, however modest, can be epochal when the fundamental purpose of the project passes benefits to many.  In our case, we were showcasing both professional artists, who wished to meet a new audience outside of traditional galleries, as well as emerging artists, whose work may not as yet have been exhibited.

In both cases, collectors have the opportunity to acquire both professional artists’ works they may have never seen because the artist is not local to their gallery scene, as well as discovering unknown emerging artists whose works are not yet in any public venue for viewing and purchase.

As of this report, we are mid-way through our auction which is ending on November 11^th, 2009 at 2:21 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  The “experiment” to aggregate the power of Twitter to both enable “voting” through a bidding process by anyone, anywhere, anytime, and to globally distribute information in real-time about our artists is a robust success.  It also speaks to what I call the “iPhone culture”,  that for better or worse has become ubiquitous in our mobile society.

In my book, it’s all good, and I believe “140 Hours” will effectively offer a new platform for art auctions, one that addresses a new mobile and wireless society, and where the playing field is leveled for all artists to fairly and effectively be found and nurtured with a new audience.

And to think it all began with a photo exhibit that went over-capacity because folks just couldn’t keep it quiet.

Yesterday FIFTY24SF piled into various vehicles and headed south for the winter. Err… the week. Our first stop is the Laguna Art Museum to support our dear friend Jeremy Fish and then we’re off to help set up for the Juxtapoz 15th Anniversary and Benefit Party!!

We popped in late night at Sa Studios to drop off some final works for the benefit auction and to check out the lay of the land for the event.  Things are looking seriously good.  And by “good” we mean pool in the middle of the event site,  copious amounts of mind blowing art, and badass DJ’s  good.

The Juxtapoz Benefit Party will be hosted next Sat. November 14th and is open to the public.

So, If you’re in the La area next weekend, first on your list should be the Jux event.  If you know the magazine, you know they’ve got great taste. Pair that with the go big or go home attitude of Sa Studios and you’ve got a recipe for greatness…

In reference to the auction held at Christie’s New York on Tuesday evening, one dealer was quoted by the New York Times as stating, “It was a night where the buyers did the editing.”

From The New York Times:

It was a thin sale of Impressionist and modern art, with just 40 works on offer and prices that fell below estimates. The evening totaled $65.6 million but had been estimated to bring at least $68.6 million.

Throughout the night at the salesroom at Rockefeller Center, what bidding there was took place mostly on the telephone … only 29 percent of the buyers were Americans, while 42 percent of the buyers were Europeans, a category that includes Russians.

There were some high points to what was clearly a disappointing evening. The star was an 1896 Degas pastel of a young dancer rubbing her foot, the image on the cover of the sale catalog. It brought $9.5 million ($10.7 million including fees to Christie’s), well above its $9 million high estimate. The winning bid was taken by Ken Yeh, deputy chairman of Christie’s in Asia.

(…) But not all such appealing images sold. One surprising failure was Pissarro’s “Pont du chemin de fer, Pontoise,” an 1873 landscape. Christie’s had estimated that it would bring at least $3.5 million. But there was only one bidder, who was not prepared to spend more than $3.2 million, so the painting went unsold. “I was surprised,” said Lionel Pissarro, a Paris dealer who is a great-grandson of the artist. “It is a beautiful painting and it wasn’t overpriced.”

Click here to continue reading

Toronto Sun coverage of KAPISANAN Typhoon relief efforts

Just over a month has passed since KAPISANAN first started our relief efforts for victims of typhoon Ondoy aka Ketsana. We closed off our initial fundraising with the successful Charity is Our Second Language, formerly know as, Poetry Is Our Second Language on October 3^rd, shipping 21 Balikbayan boxes to the Philippines and raising $3,093 for Global Medic’s ground efforts to bring clean drinking water to the affected areas.

boxes getting packed in KAPISANAN's gallery

traditional Filipino parols

KAPISANAN continues to receive inquiries about what to do next, so here it is, Round 2. Home for Christmas is KAPISANAN’s second round of fundraising, supporting the rebuilding of homes, lives and families in the motherland.

Starting November 1, 2009, KAPISANAN will be accepting monetary donations via PayPal or through mailed-in cheques and in-person donations at 167 Augusta Ave. until December 25, 2009.

All proceeds benefit the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre, whose efforts on the ground help displaced children and their families who were all affected by Ketsana and Parma.

In true KAPISANAN style, we will be having an all day Parol Making Workshop at KAPISANAN, Saturday, December 19^th. For just $10, you’ll get materials for a parol, a lesson on how to make it, and the warm fuzzy feeling you get after you’ve done something good.

The festivities will continue into the night, with a live auction for specially made parols. Local Filipino-Canadian artists will be donating their talent and the winning bidders get to take home original works of parol art.

All proceeds from the auction and the workshop will benefit the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre (CRC), to help the children and their families be Home for Christmas.

Tax receipts will be issued for monetary donations of $50 or more, through the kindness of our community partner, Schools without Borders. Cheques must be made out to Schools Without Borders (or direct to SWB’s PayPal account – info@swb.ca), with a memo “Home for Christmas-KAPISANAN”.

Cash or cheque donations under $50 may be made out to Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture (or direct to KAPISANAN’s PayPal account-info@kapisanancentre.com).

There’s work to be done and we at KAPISANAN, know that you, our community, will be with us in this.

We’re back for Round 2 and we’re going for the knock out!

For all inquiries, email giveback@kapisanancentre.com or call 416.979.0600.

I want to tell you about the launch of the world’s first twitter art auction coming up soon. 140 Hours of Fame:  http://www.140hours.com/ The master mind of this event is Gary Brant and he has included my piece “California Dreaming” in the auction. Check it out by clicking on the photography section.

I am jazzed because I received several of my photos today from the imaging company I’ve contracted to print my work. Outstanding. It is so good to see my work in a large format…. makes me all the more dedicated to my California series.

Len

Piece in the 140 Hours of Fame auction

SOTHEBY’S AUCTIONS HONG KONG CONTEMPORARY ASIAN ART

Although called a Contemporary Asian Art auction, this sale was dominated by Chinese artists which was a canny move by Sotheby’s given that mainland liquidity is driving prices of property in Hong Kong to record high prices of US$1,000 per square foot and sending Chinese stock markets soaring. According to Bloomberg, Chinese money supply has grown by 55% since the beginning of 2007 compared with 20% in the UK and US.

Some of this liquidity has found its way into the art market at this auction. Mainland buyers were active and revealed some surprising preferences.

Hong Kong artists back in a second showcase

Sotheby’s followed up its inaugural and successful showcase of 8 Hong Kong artists in the ‘Spring auction earlier this year with an expanded selection of works by 10 artists. Affordable prices meant that all but two of the works found buyers with successful bids mostly coming in around estimates.  

Simon Go, Hong Kong Old Shops, Inkjet on Bamboo Paper

Works by two artists, sculptor Danny Lee and photographer Simon Go who were both new to the auction this year, did better than estimates. Danny Lee produces stainless steel sculptures which are reminiscent  – though in a more organic liquid form -  of the stainless steel scholar rocks made by the world-renowned sculptor Zhan Wang  whose works have been collected by institutions such as the British Museum . Danny Lee’s Mountain and Stream IV sold for HK$170,000 against a top estimate of HK$160,000 (before premium). (US$1 = HK$7.7)

Danny Lee, Mountain and Stream IV, Steel wood

Simon Go’s set of 2 photographic works called Hong Kong Old Shops: Wing Wo Grocery and Keng Ming Mirror Shop achieved a price of HK$80,000 against an estimate of HK$30-50,000 (before premium). This lot points to several collector trends. According to Larry Warsh, a New York-based dealer, there is a growing interest in Chinese photography and Wing Wo Grocery ( an image of a family clan in an old-style grocery shop from the colonial era recently shut down in preparation for urban renewal) embodies trends identified at an ArtInsight seminar last month called ’Trends and Opportunities in Photography” . The panelists identified documentary photography and ’slice of lif’e’ photography as hot areas for collectors now.

The biggest story of the Hong Kong part of the sale was Tsang Tsou Choi’s calligraphy which saw excited bidding between several bidders in the room and on the phone resulting in a price (before premium) of HK$400,000 which was 8 times the lower estimate of HK$50,000. Work by this artist now deceased was also a surprising success in the Spring 2009 auction perhaps because of local media and public interest in the eccentric behaviour he displayed in his long art career.

Tsang Tsou Choi, Calligraphy, Acrylic on Canvas

In our Sotheby’s Spring 2009 auction post we wrote:

Tsang, Tsou Chin aka The Kowloon Emperor is a Hong Kong legend, famous for his calligraphy graffiti which he painted on public furniture. Undeterred by numerous warnings he roamed the streets for 50 years laying down his family genealogy and his personal history as an emperor in exile in blatant defiance of the Queen and English colonial rule. Deemed a lunatic by some, he was nevertheless recognised when in 2003 he became the very first Hong Kong artist to exhibit at the Venice Biennale.

Cynical Realist artists are back

In the next section of the sale a series of Chinese sixties-born artists, many from the Cynical Realist and Political Pop movements (Yue Minjun,  Feng Zhenghjie,  Zeng Fanzhi, Fang Lijun, Zhang Xiaogang) came under the hammer with hefty estimates of several hundred thousand and up to around $5 million per lot.

Yue Minjun, Hats Series - The Lovers, Oil on Canvas

On a visit to London last month Art Radar heard several Western commentators describing Chinese art as ‘old’, ‘tired’ and ‘done’. This auction showed clearly that there are keen buyers for Chinese artists of this era who are willing to pay robust prices. Room bidders were mainly middle-aged Chinese men, who are perhaps collectors or more likely dealers for a growing middle class market in the mainland. Most lots in this section sold at estimate and some well above. Yue Minjun’s ‘Hats Series – The Lovers’ attracted several room bidders and a phone bidder eventually selling for HK$5.3m against a top estimate of HK$3.5m.

Institution-endorsed Chinese artists of the  fifties and sixties meet price resistance

Wang Keping, Untitled, Wood

It is no secret that Western critics regard some of the Cynical Realist artists as lightweight and lacking in intellectual rigour.  Instead major institutions such as the Royal Academy and British Museum in London have favoured and endorsed other mid-century born artists such as gunpowder artist Cai Guo-Qiang and Xu Bing, famous for his invented calligraphy . These artists sold well at lower price levels but lots with high estimates met resistance and failed. Cai Guo-Qiang’s Money Net No 2, part of Royal Academy of Art Project (estimate HK$4.7m – 5.5m) and Xu Bing’s Silkwom Series – The Foolish Old Man Who Tried to Remove the Mountain (estimate HK$5m – 5.5m) were bought in.

Frowns for part-increment bids

What we did see at this auction was a much stronger resistance by the two auctioneers in this marathon four-and-a-half  hour sale to partial bids. In recent auctions we have seen bidders make counter-offer bids at increments lower than standard. In the recent past these were accepted with alacrity by genial auctioneers. At this auction bidders were left waiting, frowned at and as often as not turned down.

Zhang Huan upset

Zhang Huan, My New York, Chromogenic Print

Zhang Huan

, formerly a performance artist and more recently a sculptor and installation artist known for his works in ash and animal skins had 5 lots in the sale. Despite  backing by big-boy galleries in London and New York (Zhang Huan currently has an installation at White Cube in Picadilly London) four of his works including two sculptures and two chromogenic prints were bought in. The only work which was successful was a chromogenic print (numbered 3/8) recording his early endurance performance art which sees him running barefoot along the streets covered in raw meat. This work exemplifies another trend identified at the Artinsight photography seminar: growing interest in photographic documentation of performance art.

Sculpture mixed

Sculpture had a mixed performance. Apart from Zhang Huan’s two failed lots and one by Hong Kong artist Kum Chi Keung, there was a surprise pass on Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s pink polyester mannequin Self-Obliteration (estimate $550-650,000). Most of the rest of the ten or so sculptures including Wang Keping’s wooden female forms, Zhang Wan’s scholar rocks, kitsch sculptures by the Luo Brothers and Huang Yan and a run of five works featuring sculpted heads  and figures (by various artists) sold at or above estimate.

Li Hui, Amber Dragon, Neon and steel

Two lots by neon and steel sculptor Li Hui (1977) were highly sought after and attracted across-the-room bidding. Both pieces were purchased by an Asian family who were active bidders in the preceding sale of South East Asian art. The family also acquired an acrylic on canvas by Japanese artist Hiroyuki Matsuura and another by Ryuki Yamamoto. Traditionally collectors’ interests cluster geographically and more often than not collectors prefer to buy their national artists though there have been signs of changes. Despite the recession there is still momentum  behind this trend of pan-Asia buying.

Chinese photography fluid bidding

A handful of photographs were scattered through the sale but the bulk was found in an eleven lot run in the middle.  This run featured sixties-born Chinese photographers such as Hai Bo, Hong Hao, Wang Qingsong, Huang Yan, Cang Xin and Sheng Qi who were active in the nineties and many of whom came to international prominence in 2004 with Christopher Phillips’ seminal exhibition Between Past and Future at the International Center of Photography in New York. Since then major US institutions have been collecting the work of this group as we reported in April 2009:

Hai Bo, Red Guard, Chromogenic Print and Gelatin Silver Print

The J. Paul Getty Museum is the latest institution to add works by Chinese contemporary artists to its holdings. Others include New York’s Museum of Modern Art, which recently acquired 28 works for its photography collection, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Brooklyn Museum, as well as global institutions such as the Tate and the Pompidou Center.

 

“The acquisition of these works (Wang Qingsong, Hai Bo) affirms an important new direction for the Getty,” says noted photography dealer and collector Daniel Wolf, who helped establish the museum’s collection in the 1980s. “It reflects an interest in expanding the collection in this category.”

Prices were affordable and bidding was fluid. While editions were limited to the 8-20 range and many of the lots were made up of multiple images, sales were made at estimates which were surprisingly affordable. Most lots sold for between HK$40-75,000. Wang Qingsong’s triptych photograph Past Present, Future which sold at estimate for HK$260,000 was the exception.  One buyer snapped up several lots.

One upset was lot 765 by Cao Fei which was passed in. Her works are inspired by the internet, video games, role-playing and the virtual world and she has received wide coverage in London and beyond after a recent show at Battersea Power Station organised in conjunction with the Serpentine Gallery.

Japanese and Korean art

 The sale was dominated by Chinese artists but there was a run of cartoon-style art, many by young Japanese artists, a third of the way through the sale which sold at prices HK$50-150,000. Heavyweight Japanese artists were priced much higher but did not always sell or meet the estimate.  Yoshimoto Nara’s It’s Everything sold at HK$3.3m compared with an estimate of HK$3.8-HK$5m. Work by Yoshitaka Amano (described by Time Out as ”the Japanese anime legend behind the Final Fantasy video game” and who attracted spirited phone bidding in the spring sale 2009) was passed in. Takashi Murakami was the exception achieving HK$520,000 for an untitled 1/50 edition screenprint carrying an estimate of just HK$50-70,000. Korean works also achieved mixed results. 

Long long auction

The final run of 11 lots saw 6 passes despite affordable prices. This result is probably not worth analysing in depth as it likely had more to do with the numbing length of the 4-5 hour 2 auctioneer sale which saw a packed room of 200 or so dwindle away to 30 or 40 tired stalwarts at what felt like the dog-end of the sale. Perhaps Sotheby’s who charged for coffee and catalogues again this year is still in cost-slashing mode. Let’s hope that by next year there will be enough new money supply for a return to more coffee breaks and free coffee.

Related posts:

• Outlook for Chinese art market – Larry Warsh podcast – May 09
• Hong Kong artists showcased for first time at Sotheby’s – Apr 09
• Getty acquires Chinese contemporary photographs by Hai Bo, Wang Qingsong – Apr 09
• Japanese art scene – changes and trends – Apr 09
• What inspires Zhang Huan and why he is taking a break from performance art – video – Feb 09
• Emerging Chinese artist Cao Fei’s first solo exhibition in Germany – Jan 09
• Emerging Chinese conceptual artist Li Hui defies recession Christies 2008 – Dec 08

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Brookside Art Annual will be celebrating its 25th year.  The show is made up of primarily artist booths (not outside vendors and activities). The show ranks in the top 25 shows according to Art Source and ranks in the top 20 by the Harris Report.  Over 70,000 people will visit the first show of the season in a town that loves art….Kansas City, Missouri.

More info @ www.brooksidekc.org/art-fair.html

Just barely recovering from the stock market fiasco, investors are beginning to rethink the logic of diversification of their portfolio. Many investment advisors are turning to Indian art as an emerging alternative investment option.

Although the concept of investing in art is relatively new in India, art has always been a viable investment option in the west. Art investment in India is gaining momentum with the works of M.F Husain, Tyeb Mehta and F.N Souza being lapped up by international collectors. FN Souza’s work ‘the Birth’ sold for $2.3 million, setting records in valuing Indian art. MF Husain and SH Raza are currently valued anywhere from $200,000 to $1 million. Industry experts expect prices to shoot up to between $5 million to $10 million in the next few years. The growth in Indian contemporary art also reflects the same trend. The prices of works of several famous artists like CF John, TM Azis, Yusuf Arakkal, Atul Dodiya have increased considerably since Indian art reached the international stage. 

The potential for further rapid growth of the Indian art market makes it a viable investment alternative. For example, the ET art index (Art index by the Economic times) has grown phenomenally from just 116.53 points in 2000 to 3106.47 in September 2008. According to Arttatic, an independent research firm, the Indian art market in 2008 was valued at approximately $70 million from the $40 -$50 million level in 2007.

Let’s take a look at the top 3 reasons for the growth in the Indian art market which would serve as the foundation for art becoming an alternative investment option.

• The increase in demand for Asian (Indian) art by international collectors
  • Auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s realizing the potential of Asian art, opened up the international art market to Asian art. The results from the recent auctions at Sotheby’s, Christies and Saffronart have been encouraging, with a total of almost $7.7 million worth of art being sold in the summer sales 2009.
  • A new generation of art collectors from emerging economies, with their rising income levels, has created a market for Asian art internationally. The nouveau collectors relate more to art from their own cultural background which is especially true in the case of NRIs (Non-Resident Indians)
  • The Indian art market also benefited from the recent boom which increased the disposable income in the economy and bought with it slow but steadily growing group of art aficionados. Interestingly art auctions in India have been rising steadily starting with only 3 auctions in 2003, to 14 auctions in 2005 and approx 40 auctions in 2008.  
• The rise of an organized art market for Indian art
  • With the advent of international Auction houses, there has been a standardized approach to valuation of art, promotion and sale of Indian art. These guidelines will enable the efficient and consistent functioning of the art market in India.
  • There has been a growth in the secondary market for art with a number of art galleries, art advisors, auction houses (India’s own Saffron Art) and corporate collections established within the past decade. The secondary market provides a platform for trading in art.
• Increase in liquidity of Art as a medium of investment
  • Liquidity is a prime factor in decision making for any form of investment. Over the years, liquidity in the Indian art market has increased considerably with a number of financial institutions introducing Art investment services in the form of art advisory or art funds. Religare, Yes Bank and Bajaj Capital are some of the traditional investment houses that have begun offering art as an alternative.
  • There also a number of art funds set up as an investment vehicle like Osian’s Art Fund, Crayon Capital, Yatra Art Fund etc. The Osian’s Art Fund, worth over Rs 100 crore, oversubscribed within a few days of opening allotment.
  • Art Summits like India Art Summit 2009 in New Delhi and the Art Expo 2009 in Mumbai, play the role of developing the art market by creating a venue for promoting Indian art.
  • Indices like the ET art index and the involvement of SEBI (Securities Exchange Bureau of India) has given art additional credibility and liquidity it needs.

The Indian art market is currently in a very nascent phase, where the stage has been set for enormous growth. The increase in activity from the various players could take this market much higher than predicted. All said, one should however be careful to take professional advice before plunging into the art market.

Dress up in your finest vamp fashions and get ready to “do bad things” at the Parliament House’s Vampire’s Ball, featuring The Blood Red Review hosted by Gidget Galore, plus Tarot Readings, Black Magic, vampire bites, door prizes, costume contest and a charity art auction.

I have donated a painting for the Art Now for Autisum Reverse Auction. Bidding begins today, October 5th, 2009, and closes October 10th, 2009.

Here’s the painting I donated:
http://artnowforautism.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=471
(Zen Rocks)

Here’s all of the artwork up for auction:
(you can choose work with the artist’s name, in the box on the left)
http://www.artnowforautism.com/shop/

Please visit and cast some bids in support of Autism awareness and research!!

The Spectacle of the Art Market Pt. 1 – artmarketblog.com

One of the interesting trends that has been particularly noticable during the recent current art market correction is that works that have less visual impact and are not as flamboyant are experiencing competitive bidding and high prices. Works of art that would perhaps have been overshadowed by their more visually stunning siblings are now coming to the forefront as collectors and connoisseurs approach what is on offer from a more scholarly, connoisseurial and art historical perspective. I also believe that the more sombre mood caused by the financial crisis has made people less likely to purchase overtly cheerful works of art and more likely to obtain objects that reflect the more philosophical and reflective mood that many people are currently experiencing.

When the global economy has gone to the dogs, and a large number of people are in a financially difficult position, the purchase of those shiny works of art that are typically seen as status symbols and flamboyantly excessive trophies of one’s wealth just doesn’t seem right. One may expect the opposite situation to arise where people purchase bright and cheerful works of art to make themselves happier, but this just doesn’t seem to be what happens. It seems that it is extremely difficult to justify the purchase of one of many of these “bright and shiny” trophies when one’s financial situation comes into question, which suggests that the purchase of such a work would be a bad investment (as we know so many of them are).

The contemporary art market tends to rely on immediate visual impact and instant gratification to entice people to get out their wallets. With so many artists vying for the attention and patronage of a relatively small number of collectors and investors it is not surprising that the visual impact and attractiveness of an artist’s work becomes such an important factor. The Frieze art fair is a good example of the way an artist’s work looks can have a major effect on its ability to get noticed. Not unlike a supermarket, the Frieze art fair is filled with aisle after aisle of products vying for the attention of the waves of shoppers that pass by. The dizzying array of goods on offer means that it is very easy for a particular atist’s work to get lost in the crowd. And many do. In such an environment it is undoubtedly beneficial for an artist to present their most high impact and visually stunning work as anyone who has visited a fair such as Frieze would know.

To suggest that the path that the art market can be affected to such a degree by the instinctual human attraction to bright shiny objects may sound bizarre at first but if you take some time to ponder the concept I think you will find it is not as silly as it may seem.

To be continued……….

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications