Affordable Art News
Writing, playing music or painting are ways in which artists express themselves - the first objective is not to sell. At least, that’s my experience and we say that artists lose their soul when making money out of their talent becomes their prime motive and sole driving factor. We can actually follow this tragic loss when following the artistic evolution of quite some famous artists who ended up duplicating themselves forever to please … as that’s what was selling and what their greedy marketers ordered.
The good news is that due to the Internet democratisizing the playground which, as a consequence, allows everybody to grab top rankings on Google, a shift will be taking place here as well – meaning in favor of the independent artist and his or her chances to get directly exposed to bigger audiences - lovers of Fine Art and Art Collectors – without having to sign exclusive third-party contracts and ending up with prices hardly anyone can afford, especially not now. In that sense, we should possibly welcome these developments as a form of getting back to ‘normal’. In my view, we’ve come to the end of the growth economy; it will never be ‘resurrected’ again. We haven’t got much of a choice: either we find alternatives – or we kill the planet.
Meanwhile we have to live with the fact that - unless you are an Artist yourself -, Art is not ‘necessary’… it’s not as essential or important as food, petrol and pampers.
Tough times – no Art?
Always time for a “Spontaneous Sketch”. . .
"Flat Markets" - Spontaneous Sketches by Bianca Gubalke (17)
Expensive Art
A friend of mine in Germany just closed his Art Gallery. His passion was to discover and promote young and promising talents – but while the art afficinados still like to come to the Vernissage and enjoy the glam that goes with it, they don’t buy.
And it’s not only at this comparatively humble level financially speaking; the economic downturn has also hit the high-end art market. Just to quote a major player: Sotheby’s posted a 71% drop in auction sales in the past quarter. According to certain Art experts “… demand is rare, or in the best case, sparse for expensive art.”
A private Art Dealer and appraiser quoted in the Mail&Guardian formulated it as follows: “I don’t think it’s that people are saying, ‘I can’t spend a million dollars so I’ll go out and spend $500 000. Some of them are not buying at all but when they are buying, they are buying carefully.”
So while artists are increasingly integrating the Internet to promote themselves – more or less successfully -, others still hang in there and try it the old way … sort of Survival Art.
New York’s Affordable Art Fair
Legendary Kasper Koenig said it aptly years ago:
“Americans are always very object- and goal-oriented, even when they’re dealing with complex subjects, such as the apparent paradox between artistic, poetic, and utopian goals and their concrete realization.”
Right now they are going through New York’s “Affordable Art Fair” in Manhattan with 64 galleries participating; less than last year. The fair opened on Thursday and will end today, Sunday.
Of course, the “Affordable Art” Fair aims at attracting new Art Buyers with prices for Artwork ranging from $75 to $10 000… but most of it priced around $5 000 or less.
Given the current economic downturn everybody is nervous as… seeing how demand in the high-end market crumbles…, the question is: how will this affect the Art sales ?
Survival Art per Internet
This remains to be seen, however… Artists will continue creating… and while some may continue clinging to sellers, it may be time to start buidling their own presence and authority online.
YORGOO Media powered by Semiomantics is definitely the best place to start.
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