The Chronicle of Artistic Failure in America

A number of stories were published this past week detailing troublesome signs at the higher end of the international art market. Sure, most working artists around the country/world will shrug and say, “So what? The market’s been bad for art for the past twenty years,” and others will say, “Well, what goes up must eventually come down; remember the 1980s? Where are Robert Longo and David Salle now anyway?” However, the decline of the high-end market will likely have a strong effect on the continued failure of art in America.

Here’s a story sampling:

Saturday, Oct. 13, World Art News (IrishArt.com): In Sotheby’s first big international auction since the U.S. subprime-mortgage losses spilled into the credit markets,U.K. artist Damien Hirst’s 1992 spot painting, “Adenosine,” estimated to go for as much as 2.5 million pounds, failed to sell.

Sunday, Oct. 14, Bloomberg.com:   Several paintings by German artists including two by Martin Kippenberger, whose works are being divested by collectors including Charles Saatchi, failed to sell in a Christie’s sale in London.

Monday, Oct. 15, BBC News: At a Christie’s auction in London, several major works failed to sell–including pieces by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Several works by Damien Hirst, meanwhile, sold below their pre-sale estimates. Experts are predicting that this month’s London auctions show signs that the hot art market may finally be cooling.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Art market decline, Commerce and the failure of art, The struggles of artists, Artistic failure in America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.