It’s All Over (for the Art Market Bubble)
Posted by: admin in The Art Happy Hour, Return of the Critics, Art Newspaper, Decline of art criticism, International art failure, Commerce and the failure of art, Art market decline, Decline of human culture, Artistic failure in AmericaThe Art Newspaper this past week has proclaimed that “speculation in young artists” is ending in the wake of economic worldwide meltdown.
The effect? I suspect that it will hurt the smaller galleries that sell emerging or non-blue-chip art the most. I suspect, but don’t follow it closely enough to say for sure, that it will also happen sooner or later with Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern art markets as well… It’s been kind of like buying internet stocks—and we know how that ended. With the high prices for younger art “established” by a speculative market where can they go, relative to demand, but down? But galleries never lower their primary prices, so these works will sit in gallery storage racks—with zero revenue-flow for non-brand name dealers. I call this the death spiral for art: sinking prices and sinking demand.
Is there a silver lining in the midst of this gloomy forecast?
Perhaps a return to the importance of museums, critics and alternative spaces for validation and the introduction of new art.
Hm. A return to the importance of critics? That doesn’t sound so bad… (Except where are these critics going to publish their writing?)
Meanwhile…
On a completely different note, please come to the Art Happy Hour this Sunday, October 19, at 9 pm at the Red Stag Supper Club. (Art Happy Hour is the only true antidote to America’s ongoing Artistic Failure!)
Entries (RSS)
October 20th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Now everyone is talking about the American economy and eclections, nice to read something different. Eugene
October 21st, 2008 at 5:25 pm
i like the idea of alt spaces being brought back up also. i think its more enjoyable to hang (and have to hang around afterwards) in some odd warehouse somewhere than some gallery setting… well, we knew these times were coming, and hopefully we can have enough collective sense to keep the good parts from a good and bad economy. i’ve been hearing (via mpr) reports of the art market taking a huge hit after it was considered recession proof… not that i ever believed it was recession proof. unless you’re talking of the highest end of art, like a van gogh or something, i think art buying dies almost at the beginning of bad times… anyways, carry on…
October 27th, 2008 at 3:47 am
IsThe Art Market Following the Footsteps of The Dot Com Market ?…
No way to avoid the international economic meltdown, and clearly the art market is going to be hurt as well. According to TAN Dealers will be hurt most.
The theory: speculation in art (and young art) is over. When several guaranteed Rudolf Stingel w…
October 27th, 2008 at 3:51 am
I like the comparison with the dotcom story.
this whole meltdown especially in the art world can be viewed as a bush fire leaving a whole lot of room for completely new growth.