Art Market Blog with Nicholas Forrest www.artmarketblog.com

Art Sydney 08 Art Fair Report - artmarketblog.com

A few weeks ago I attended the Art Sydney 08 Art Fair (http://www.artsydney08.com.au) which is Sydney’s largest annual art fair and is produced by Single Market Events who Single Market Events in association with International Concert Attractions (ICA) and the Affordable Art Fairs which take place annually in London and New York. Previous Art Sydney fairs have been rather impressive with plenty of quality work on show however this year Art Sydney 08 had to compete with the biennial Melbourne Art Fair (http://www.artfair.com.au) which is the leading art fair and public exposition in the Asia Pacific region and one of Australia’s most significant exhibitions of contemporary visual art. The art market in Australia is quite small which means that most galleries could not justify attending both fairs so with the Melbourne Art Fair being a far more prestigious event most of the major galleries chose to give Art Sydney 08 a miss. Unfortunately this left Art Sydney 08 with plenty of available exhibition spaces which were filled with tacky galleries showing works of decorative art that resembled the mass produced objects available from stores such as Target and Ikea. Luckily a few trendy galleries showing emerging contemporary artists such as Chalk Horse Gallery (http://www.chalkhorse.com.au/) and Horus and Deloris Contemporary Art Space (http://www.horusanddeloris.com.au/) were in attendance which gave some credibility to the fair.

With the Melbourne Art Fair about to become annual Art Sydney 08 will have to up the ante significantly if they are going to be able to compete which I hope they will because the fair has the potential to be a really significant event.

**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.

Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Auction - artmarketblog.com

Sale Information:
Sale 2048
post-war and contemporary art evening sale
12 November 2008
New York, Rockefeller Plaza

"Lake Resort Nurse" by Richard Prince

Lot Description:
Lot 10
Richard Prince (b. 1949)
Lake Resort Nurse
signed, titled and dated ‘Richard Prince 2003 LAKE RESORT NURSE’ (on the stretcher)
ink-jet print and acrylic on canvas
70 x 48 in. (177.8 x 121.9 cm.)
Painted in 2003.
Estimate: US$5,000,000 - $7,000,000

Although Prince’s “Nurse” series of paintings are the most iconic works by the artist they are not usually regarded as his most important work. The price of Prince’s “Nurse” works has sky rocketed over the past couple of years culminating in the sale of “Overseas Nurse” at Sotheby’s in July of this year for 4.2 million pounds (US$8.4 million) including buyers premium, a record for the artist. Works from the “Nurse” series began appearing at auction in 2005 with “Bachelor Nurse” which sold for US$484,000 including buyers premium. I fear that the extreme and rapid price increase of Prince’s work, especially his “Nurse” series, may be the result of what I like to call the “trophy syndrome” where artist’s work takes on the characteristics of a designer brand and is purchased with the intention of showing how much money they have to spend on designer items where the value is more in the brand than the object it’s self. Funnily enough in 2007 Prince worked with the designer Marc Jacobs to make handbags for Louis Vuitton which were unveiled at a fashion show where the bags were paraded by models dressed in outfits inspired by the “Nurse” paintings.

With the likelihood of more “Nurse” paintings appearing at auction at a lower price point in the near future I think that buyers will struggle to justify purchasing this work at all let alone for US$5,000,000 - $7,000,000.

Lot details here:

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5147464&sid=452dad28-fe20-4180-9c4d-61afdc897bca

Lot Description:
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)
Untitled (Boxer)
signed ‘Jean Michel Basquiat’ (on the reverse)
acrylic and oil paintstick on linen
76 x 94 in. (193 x 239 cm.)
Painted in 1982.

Having died in 1988 aged only 27, works by Jean-Michel Basquiat will always be scarce meaning the artist’s very best works such as the monumental “Untitled (Boxer)” will be even more highly coveted by investors and collectors. A highlight of Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Art auction taking place on the 12th and 13th of November, “Untitled (Boxer)” is one of the most important works by the artist ever to come to auction and was one of the featured works of the 2005 Basquiat retrospective which was organised by the Brooklyn Museum and toured around the USA. Basquiat is one of those tortured geniuses who have short but intense careers that result in a profound and intense body of work which, in the case of Basquiat, reflected the fast-paced, spontaneous, passionate yet self-destructive life that he led. Very much an art world hero, Basquiat is the sort of artist whose work appeals to a wide range of people for a variety of reasons which is evident in the the amount of attention that has been given to the sale of “Untitled (Boxer)”.

The desirability of “Untitled (Boxer)” is significantly increased by the following factors:

1. Artist died young leaving small body of work
2. Artist has a dramatic and controversial life story
3. Interesting provenance including ownership by a museum and a celebrity
4. One of the most important works of Basquiat’s oeuvre
5. Art historical significance

“Profit I” (1982), a work closely related to “Untitled (Boxer)”, was sold at Christie’s in 2002 for US$5 million (hammer price) which if multiplied by the average increase in price of Basquiat’s work according to artprice.com would come to almost US$25 million. “Profit I” is, however, a significantly larger work (220×400 cm compared to 193 x 239 cm) and is considered to be Basquiat’s greatest masterpiece. The current auction record for a Basquiat is $14.6 million for “Untitled,” which sold at Sotheby’s last year. Estimated to fetch between US$12million and $16million, “Untitled (Boxer)” undoubtedly has the potential to be a record-breaker with value still beyond the upper estimate. The provenance, significance of the work as a part of the artist’s oeuvre and the importance of this work in an art historical context is more than enough to justify the purchase of this work at the upper end of the estimate (US$16,000,000) even in the current economic climate.

Lot details here:

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?from=searchresults&pos=9&intObjectID=5147473&sid=452dad28-fe20-4180-9c4d-61afdc897bca

**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.

Winners of Abraaj Capital Art Prize Announced - artmarketblog.com

Dubai, London – The selection committee of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize today announced the three recipient curator/artist teams of its first competition: Cristiana Perrella & Kutluğ Ataman; Carol Solomon & Zoulikha Boubadellah; and Leyla Fakhr & Nazgol Ansarinia. Their projects, which are being created this very moment, will be unveiled during Art Dubai of March 2009. As Art Dubai is the Middle East’s largest modern and contemporary annual art fair, the unveiling during this event will offer the winning artists an unparalleled opportunity to widen their global reputation and network. The works will become part of the Abraaj Capital corporate collection.

The Abraaj Capital Art Prize, one of the most generous art prizes in the world, provides an exciting opportunity for creative collaboration between international curators and artists from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region. Almost 100 curator/artists applications were received, evaluated and discussed by the Abraaj Capital Art Prize selection committee. The committee looked for innovative ideas and use of medium; a reflection of regional and local cultural principles, experimental art production  techniques; and a balanced application which showed the curators’ strength and ability to push the artists’ boundaries. The prize was established in April of 2008 and is designed to create a viable platform for individual artists who are revered in their local communities but lack international critical and commercial exposure. ACAP provides them with the opportunity to hone their talents working alongside international curators and to reach a global audience through the display of their work at Art Dubai. The Abraaj Capital Art Prize is the world’s largest art competition endowment, worth a total of US$1 million.

Winners:

Cristiana Perrella (b. 1965, Rome) is curator of the Contemporary Arts Programme at the British School in Rome where she has developed a series of events focused on the dialogue between the British and Italian art scenes. She curated several one-man shows and published a number of monographs. She is working with Kutluğ Ataman (b. 1961, Istanbul), who studied at UCLA in Los Angeles and has pursued successful careers in both feature film-making and contemporary art. His works primarily document the lives of the marginalized individual, examining the way in which people create and recreate their identities. In 2003 the London Observer named him ‘artist of the year’ and in 2004 he was short-listed for the prestigious Turner prize. Ataman’s movies include The Serpent’s Tale (Karanlik Sular) (1994); Lola+Bilidikid (1999); and 2 Girls (2005). Cristiana Perrella saw Ataman’s first work Semiha Unplugged in 1997 and has followed his career ever since. In 2006 his work was included in a Perrella-curated show and in 2007 she invited him for a residency program at the British School in Rome.

Carol Solomon (b. 1953, Pennsylvania) is currently Visiting Associate Professor of Art History at Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania. She was Curator of European Art at
the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College in Massachusetts, worked at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and has taught at several prestigious universities in the US and Canada.
Video and installation artist Zoulikha Bouabdellah (b. 1977, Moscow) who was raised in Algeria and who studied in Paris will work alongside Carol Solomon. Since finishing her studies in 2002, Zoulikha has been widely exhibited and  major shows include L’art au fémin (2008) in Algiers and Airs de Paris (2007) in Paris. In 2007 her work was featured in the African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. Carol Solomon first encountered Zoulikha Boubadellah in 2007 in Paris during the Airs de Paris show. In 2008 she included two of Boubadellah’s works in the The Third Space: Cultural Identity Today at the Mead Art Museum in Amherst College and invited her to be a visiting artist in residence during the same time.

Leyla Fakhr (b. 1979, Isfahan) studied in London and Tehran and is assistant curator at Tate Britain and independent curator in Tehran. In 2006 she curated Untitled (do not give your opinion), an exhibition of works by Nazgol Ansarinia (b. 1979, Tehran) with whom she will collaborate for the Abraaj Capital Art Prize. Nazgol studied graphic design in London,
followed by an MFA in San Francisco. After having worked in the US and Europe, she returned to Tehran where her work focuses on everyday objects and their relationship to a larger social context. Dissecting the daily and piecing it back together to make other structures and patterns apparent often forms the core of her work. Leyla Fakhr and Nazgol Ansarinia met while working at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Since then a strong artist-curator relationship as well as a profound friendship has underpinned their collaborations. In 2007 Fakhr curated Ansarinia’s first solo show at the Ave Gallery in Tehran.

**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.

Art Auction Estimates Mean Little - artmarketblog.com

While looking through the real-estate section of a newspaper the other day I realised how much more useful those listings were that included information (date and price) regarding the last time the property was traded as well as the estimated price. There is no doubt that it is in the best interest of the auction house to provide an estimate because with an estimate the auction house is, in essence, able to dictate to the buyer what they think they should be getting for the painting regardless of whether that estimate reflects the current market value. Basically what I am getting at is that auction houses do not have to justify the estimate that they place on a work and as such are able to manipulate the perceived value of a work by providing highly inflated estimates.

If the auction houses were to include date that each work was last sold and the price that it sold for it would mean that they would have to actually justify the estimates that they put on works and would therefore not be able to get away with unrealistically high estimates. Auction houses can also use low estimates to make the sale price look far higher than it really was by setting the estimate below what they know the work should sell for. As an example of the way that the previously traded price can have a major impact on the way the value of an artwork is perceived and how the estimate is not as useful as people may think let’s pretend that Cezanne’s La Cote du Galet à Pontoise is about to be sold at auction. Let’s say that the estimate for La Cote du Galet à Pontoise was set at US$4million - US$7million and sold for US$8 million dollars which would seem like a successful sale. For starters the estimate should be more like US$7million - US$10million and if one was to look at the sale history of this work one would find that La Cote du Galet à Pontoise came up for auction at Sotheby’s in 1996 and sold for US$11 million then came up again for auction at for auction in 2000 at Phillips de Pury & Co where it sold for US$8.5 million. Doesn’t look like such a great buy now does it. The moral of the story is don’t rely on auction estimates to determine the value of a work of art and always look at the date and price of the last sale.

**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.

Herb Williams’ Obama Portrait Video - artmarketblog.com

“Obama Portrait In Thousands of Crayons”

This is a short story on Nashville artist Herb Williams, who spent over four months making a large 3-d portrait of Barack Obama out of thousands of crayons. You can view more of the crayon sculptures at www.herbwilliamsart.com.

See video here:

http://www.wsmv.com/video/17916594/index.html

Please also follow this link and digg the video to spread the word!!

http://digg.com/arts_culture/Obama_Portrait_In_Thousands_of_Crayons?OTC-em-st1

Well done Herb !!!

**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.

Free Shepard Fairey Obama Victory Stickers - artmarketblog.com

Free sticker celebrating Obama victory by Shepard Fairey available here:
http://pol.moveon.org/shepstickers/?id=-3768774-adT5Utx

From moveon.org website:
These commemorative stickers mark Barack Obama’s historic victory and were designed by groundbreaking artist Shepard Fairey—the same artist who designed the world-famous, iconic “Hope” poster for Obama.

You can get one sticker for free. For a $3+ donation, we’ll send you 5 stickers. For a $20+ donation, we’ll send 50 stickers. Stickers are 4.5″ x 6″ (about the size of a postcard) and may take 5-7 weeks to arrive.

Also available starting Saturday November 8, at 12:30 p.m. ET will be a full size print of the image in a limited edition of 5000. These 5,000 limited edition prints are 24″ x 36″ and are offset printed on French Paper Company’s Cream Speckletone stock under the artist’s supervision. Each print is numbered by hand, 1 through 5000. The first 1000 in the series are signed by Shepard Fairey.

The prints signed by the artist will be available to those who donate $500 or more, while supplies last. The unsigned prints will be available to those who donate $80 or more, plus an additional $10 donation to cover shipping, while supplies last.

Print will be available here:
https://pol.moveon.org/shepstickers/leposters.html

**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.

Future50 UK Contemporary Artists at Axis - artmarketblog.com

A fantastic opportunity to purchase work by some of Britain’s hottest emerging artists called Future50 has recently been launched by Axis, the online contemporary art portal. According to the website, Axis (http://www.axisweb.org) is the best online resource for information about contemporary art. The website features profiles of professional artists and curators, interviews, discussions, art news, debates and showcases the artists to watch.

Future50 features fifty of the most interesting and significant UK artists of 2008, handpicked by curator and gallerist Ceri Hand and Axis curator Liz Aston from the Axis website. The project provides a snapshot of diverse, exciting contemporary practice alongside the opportunity to buy great works of art. All work is available for sale and can be purchased online. All the works on display have affordable price tags, starting from £120.

The full catalogue can be viewed here:
http://www.axisweb.org/Future50SearchResults.aspx

Please note that online purchasing will be suspended during 20-24 November when purchasing will only be possible at PSL [Project Space Leeds] during Future50 opening hours.

The first annual Future50 exhibition will take place at PSL (Project Space Leeds), between 21 and 23 November 2008. Contemporary art specialists will be on hand to offer expert advice and information about the artists. If you want to see the exhibition, PSL is located in Leeds city centre, just 5 minutes walk from Leeds Train Station. Please use the car park at Leeds Train Station as Whitehall Waterfront car park closes at 4pm. PSL is accessible to wheelchair users. Please contact us at future50@axisweb.org or 0845 362 8230 if you have any other access requirements.

PSL [Project Space Leeds]
Whitehall Waterfront
2 Riverside Way
Leeds LS1 4EH

Future50 will be open 12-6pm

**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.