The Art Market; How It Is Shaped and Challenged
“El mercat de l’art: com es forma i com es desafia”
Keynote
Tuesday 21, January |10.00-11.00
Allan Schwartzman, Founder and Principal of Art Agency, Partners and Chairman of the Fine Art Division of Sotheby’s, New York
In conversation with Melanie Gerlis, Art Market Columnist, Financial Times, London
The art market that began to take shape in the early 1980s has now grown beyond what would have been conceivable then, in terms of the number of international galleries; the number of artists around the world who have been able to support themselves over long periods of time through the sale of their work; the number of people collecting art (which seems to continually grow); the price levels (which would have been beyond imagination 40 years ago); and in terms of the truly global composition of artists, museums and collectors.
The market has increasingly come to define value through socially-driven events revolving around communal experiences of looking at and appreciating art (rather than through solitary or individual encounters with art). Therefore, activity at auctions and art fairs has become more important than ever. Market confidence is overwhelmingly expressed and reinforced publicly now, and activity is centred around artists whose work attracts the greatest attention at auction.
Allan Schwartzman will talk about his experience in cultivating collectors in the moment in which the market is almost myopically focused on several famous names and rapidly losing confidence in other artists who were previously able to find sustained support.
