Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 2 2024 - The first one this year

Frieze London opens the second and final part of the season review. An entertaining polemical critique of Frieze London and the current art production on show at it was written by Jonathan Jones for the Guardian: "All of which makes such paintings lovely to hang on your wall, no? Only if you have a very high boredom threshold. They are at best slightly distracting for a moment. There is no sign here of artistic revolution or challenge. The great upheavals of modern art don't just seem to have come to an end at Frieze. It's as if they never happened. Whatever you think of Picasso's personal life, he did shake the foundations of western culture. Whereas art now, on this evidence, exists to mildly entertain in a tasteful, reaffirming, bland way. Frieze has become a corporate snooze. Have the galleries been actively encouraged by its big-business owners to Disneyfy themselves? Or is that just the way art is now? The neo-Victorian craze is very apposite. The crowds admiring these timid artistic efforts may not wear top hats and crinolines, yet we could just well be at the Royal Academy in 1850."

Colin Gleadell reports on the generally mediocre auctions at Phillip's , Christies and Sotheby's in London at Artnet.

I read the third Art + Tech report on collecting digital art for the Handelsblatt.

In Paris, the art market casino game of waiting lists and allocation of scarce goods is still working or is working again, claims James Tarny at Bloomberg: "Several galleries had sold enough work that they were already sending out sales reports by mid afternoon, and over subsequent days collectors-giants in their own fields of finance or real estate or private equity-told me plaintively (and sadly, off the record) about not being 'given access' to $500,000 artworks. Others spoke triumphantly about 'scoring' small paintings for $300,000 apiece."

The fair 1-54 for African art with editions in London, New York and Marrakech wants to go to Asia. In The Art Newspaper, Chinma Johnson-Nwosu explains the plans: "1-54 organisers say they have seen 'a recent increase in interest from galleries based in Asia wanting to participate in the fair, as well as a growing number of collectors from that region attending the fair'. If all goes well, 1-54 hopes to launch a fully fledged fair in Hong Kong-most likely at Christie's new headquarters in the city's central business district-in 2025, the fair's founder Touria El Glaoui told South China Morning Post. Launched in 2013, 1-54 remains the only international art fair dedicated to work by African and diasporic artists." The latter statement is not entirely correct, however: In Paris, Also Known As Africa (AKAA) has already existed in parallel to Fiac/Paris + since 2016.

The Munich Highlights art fair is well on its way towards the present, observes Susanne Schreiber in the Handelsblatt: "But collectors' tastes are turning towards the 20th and 21st centuries in an irreversible current. The organisers of the fair, which has been held at the Residenz since 2013, also saw this. They invited a growing proportion of exhibitors of modern or contemporary art to complement and round off the unique overview of epochs from the Gothic to the present day. However, not all dealers of contemporary art were able to keep up with the level of the market leaders of old art. This often criticised imbalance is better balanced this time. A great gain in expertise is the participation of Emanuel von Baeyer from London and the Lehmann brothers from Dresden."

Artnews has compiled its annual list of the Top 200 Collectors including articles on the buying behaviour of Mexican collectors by Shanti Escalante-De Mattei, on Belgian private collections by Sarah Belmont on what makes an art collector today by Maximilíano Durón.

Whether the art market is in a correction phase or a downturn is discussed by Daniel Cassady for Artnews: "So, is the market 'corrected' from the Covid boom? It's hard to say. This year, the Federal Reserve has embarked on its most aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes since the 1980s, in an effort to curb inflation. While some have claimed such hikes have little effect on the ultra-rich, the rates have had a devastating effect on venture capital and the tech industry , among other sectors. It would be silly to suggest that collectors alone are immune. The obvious other data point being the exploding covid art market in 2021, when interest rates hit their all-time low. One doesn't get wealthy enough to spend millions on a painting by ignoring macroeconomics. The reality is this: the market fluctuates, often dramatically. In 2017, the UBS Art Basel Report found that the auction market in 2016 had tanked 26 percent from 2015. The following year, it jumped 27 percent. The year 2019 saw a 17 percent drop from the previous year and 2020 was a 30 percent decline from 2019. And, of course, all that was sorted by a 47 percent jump in 2021."

On 19 October, Artforum had published an Open Letter on the Middle East conflict, exclusively lamenting Palestinian suffering, which was initially signed by over 4,000 people from the art world. In addition, the text was illustrated online with the artwork of an artist who had mocked the victims immediately after the Hamas massacres in Israel. The follow-up discussions, which were mainly fought out on social media, led to many signatures being withdrawn and the text undergoing several changes. Artforum then felt compelled to publicly apologise, and owner Penske Media fired editor-in-chief David Velasco, as Zachary Small reports in the New York Times. Reactions to this move were not long in coming. Some Artforum staff members have subsequently resigned themselves, such as editor Kate Sutton, who lives in Croatia, as she shares on Facebook. Other ex-employees are mentioned by Harrison Jacobs and Alex Greenberger at Artnews. Some prominent artists have called for a boycott of the magazine, writes Zachary Small in the New York Times. Alex N. Press accuses the publisher at Jacobin of "siding with the rich". Even right-wing networks at work see Daniel Boguslaw and Natasha Lennard at work at The Intercept and attribute the sacking to pressure from collector Martin Eisenberg.

It is often the details that make the somewhat dull Art Basel UBS Art Market Report (PDF-Download) worth reading. And sometimes a little frightening. 43 per cent of all collectors would have bought art on credit in the past, almost a third in 2022 or 2023. At the same time, buyers in the high-price segment have become more cautious, explains Angelica Villa in her summary of the report on Artnews: "Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel, said the conservative turn on the part of collectors can be related to 'volatile' economic and geopolitical conditions impacting the world right now, including the conflict taking place in Israel and Gaza. Paul Donovan, UBS Global Wealth Management Chief Economist, said in the report that collectors are now more selective with their art acquisitions than they were in years past."

Luigi Fassi, the director of Artissima, explains Elke Buhr the special status of the Turin fair in the first week of November for Monopol: "Fassi also attributes the special quality of the fair to the fact that it is publicly owned. 'Artissima belongs to a co-operation of three museums, which is why Artissima thinks like a public institution. We also curate exhibitions outside of the fair, we commission works and organise projects in the city. We do things that a museum would otherwise do. We have built this up over many years. We are a commercial platform, we need the collectors, the galleries have to sell. But we also think that we all create cultural value here. And all the institutions in the city are involved. It's an ecosystem that we cultivate and that is growing."

Are these regrettable isolated cases, or is the otherwise politically aware art scene susceptible to blindness in the non-Western eye? Ingo Arend has questions to Ute Meta Bauer, director of the Diriyah Biennial in Saudi Arabia, among others in the taz: "But when Bauer admits to reporters: 'You can't promote other religions or show sexual content', it becomes obvious what narrow limits are placed on her attempt to 'develop critical discourse'. And the changed socio-cultural context does not change the fact that the Biennale is under the direct control of the compromised crown prince and is paid for by him. Measured against the blood toll that bin Salman's reforms have cost the country, despite all the new freedoms, the monarch would be the Saudi Sackler. Can the freedom of art be preserved in such a context? Or does this aesthetic collaboration support the art-washing of dictatorships?"

For many visitors, Paris Photo is a temporary museum, explains Freddy Langer in the FAZ: "No art gallery could present such a wealth of material, and it is obvious that most of the 40,000 or so visitors see the fair as a temporary museum. 'At most one per cent of them,' says one gallery owner, 'are potential customers. He adds that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find collectors. This makes the curators of the photography departments of all the world's major museums, from the Albertina to the Centre Pompidou to the Museum of Modern Art, who buy here on a grand scale, all the more important for the fair. Private customers today are more art collectors than pure photography collectors. Their interest is focussed on pictures close to classical art."

Judd Tully, Tim Schneider and Carlie Porterfield capture the mixed signals emanating from the New York evening auctions for The Artnewspaper. The New York evening auctions are also a show, writes Barbara Kutscher in the Handelsblatt: "However, a whole series of lots only had one interested party. Nevertheless, Sotheby's was pleased with a hammer price of 100 per cent. The house had been able to acquire the estate thanks to a guaranteed sum and then offloaded the risk for 24 lots onto third parties through 'irrevocable bids'. The works had therefore already been sold in advance. For some observers, the actual auction is just theatre or a private sale that takes place in public. For David Galperin, Sotheby's Head of Contemporary Art in the Americas, however, risk management is also an effective strategy that not only protects against the reserve list, but can also motivate collectors and successfully set prices."

At the beginning of his review of Art Cologne for the FAZ, Georg Imdahl is not sparing with his criticism: "When a fair like Art Cologne endeavours to raise its profile, but over the years tends to stagnate instead of making decisive progress, the industry likes to say that it simply "realistically reflects the German market". For its current 56th edition, this means that it is once again looking behind internationally strong participants and has shrunk to 170 exhibitors. In terms of numbers, this is particularly noticeable in the field of classical modernism, which is continuously losing importance in Cologne - while in contemporary art, many international and Berlin galleries are giving the traditional fair the cold shoulder."

The final sales at Sotheby's in New York marked the end of a mediocre auction season, Carlie Porterfield writes in The Art Newspaper: "Although the two sales each performed well enough to tiptoe into their respective presale target zones, they generated only modest excitement along the way-a fitting conclusion to an autumn auction season that proved the market remains relatively soft and selective."

Scott Reyburn summarises in the New York Times: "A dip, or a trough, or just a blip? Traders and collectors were left asking this question after two weeks of sales in New York stress-tested the top end of the auction market for modern and contemporary art. [...] 'We were expecting a very difficult couple of weeks,' said Philip Hoffman, chief executive of the Fine Art Group, an international art advisory company. 'Apart from a very few lots, there weren't many second bidders,' Hoffman said, commenting on a first week dominated by the Fisher Landau sale. 'There were no sparks. But Sotheby's and Christie's are still managing to sell paintings for very high prices.'"

Charlotte Cotton explains for Artnews that and how the fashion and art industries are becoming increasingly intertwined: "Exchanges between art and fashion have long been seen as transactional in nature, a trade-off between the former's cultural preeminence and the latter's broad visibility. But the platforms and audiences for both are evolving into an expansive, accessible, algorithmically shaped viewing sphere that is pulling both art and fashion out of once-rarefied worlds. There has been a flattening effect, where the many talents involved in both arenas now form a shimmering pool of multi-hyphenate creatives."

With the FAB Paris, Paris finally has a brilliant art and antiques fair in the Grand Palais (Éphémère) again, which Bettina Wohlfarth visited for the FAZ: "After several years of gruelling competition, the two Parisian art and antiques fairs merged last year under the name Fine Arts Paris & La Biennale. The quarrelling association of French art dealers withdrew from the organisation, which was taken over by the operator Agence d'Évènements Culturels. The company, which also organises the Salon du Dessin, is owned by nine art dealers and the luxury group LVMH. [...] This second edition confirms the success of the merger. Under the new, now definitive name 'FAB Paris' - the acronym refers to the merger, but also to a euphoric fabulous - a self-confident fair is already emerging. In the busy trade fair calendar, the right strategy and an advantageous time slot are essential for survival. The London Masterpiece had to throw in the towel last summer due to a lack of participants." I visited the trade fair for the Handelsblatt.

The readjustment of the European auction market can also be seen in the new head of the Contemporary division at the Dorotheum in Vienna, who Nina Schedlmayer introduces in the Handelsblatt: "He only left his former employer partly for personal reasons. He also talks about how Brexit and its new customs regulations changed the London marketplace. It wasn't just tax barriers that played a role, but also those in people's minds. 'If someone from Germany wants to sell a work, they ask themselves why they should export it to London,' he explains. 'After all, it's a bit more complex and expensive. The German market has developed very strongly, 'including the auction houses. Grisebach used to be the top dog, but now others have gained in importance - Ketterer, for example, has risen to the top. While these houses used to compete even more strongly with Sotheby's, Brexit has now given them a boost, according to his observations."

There are twice as many private flights to and from Miami as in other weeks this year for Art Basel Miami Beach, according to our Viennese colleague Michael Huber found out from the local airport. Susanna Petrin paints a picture of the mood of ABMB and its environment in the NZZ: "So is the global situation not, as many feared, depressing consumer sentiment after all? Peter Blum, who once began his art career as Ernst Beyeler's assistant in Basel, says that it is somewhat noticeable. His gallery has been there without interruption since the first Miami edition in 2002. Most gallery owners probably wouldn't openly admit it, but they have to work harder than ever before and there are fewer quick purchases, which probably has to do with a general sense of insecurity." Nicole Scheyerer also took a look at the art in Miami Beach for the FAZ
(paywall or free for a data donation at Microsoft): "Even if time-critical questions about ecology, racism or colonialism run through the fair, colourful flatware dominates. Painting is the trump card, immaterial media such as video or the NFTs that were highly acclaimed just two years ago are missing. The fact that Black Art or art by women is presented less aggressively can be read as an overdue normalisation. Or is the trend towards diversity already on the decline? Anyone expecting politically offensive statements in times of crisis will hardly find what they are looking for in the tame fair programme. The two-day preview was very crowded and the dollars were loose." Karen K. Ho has compiled an illustrated list from the sales reports of the major galleries for Artnews has compiled an illustrated list.

Younger collectors are also differently positioned in terms of charity than the ageing boomer generation, Anny Shaw found out for The Art Newspaper: "The major auction houses, as well as galleries and the charity industry, have adapted to this and developed suitable models: "New financing models that support social causes as well as the art ecosystem could provide a much-needed framework for long-term sustainability. Coupled with the great wealth transfer-with an estimated $100 trillion being transferred from the baby boomer generation to their more left-leaning heirs, who are generally considered to favour redistributive justice over wealth creation-the trickle-down effect to the art market could be considerable."

Susanne Schreiber followed the most high-calibre German auction of the year at Ketterer for Handelsblatt: "There was more uncertainty in the air than twelve months earlier. On Friday evening at Ketterer Kunst in Munich, art lovers and collectors from many different countries competed for the best auction offer of this season among German auctioneers with more deliberation and longer than usual. There were an unusually high number of six-figure hammer prices, both above and below the reserve price. However, not all 78 lots received bids and at least 16 met with no interest. Nevertheless, the rarest and best works with wall power, aura and rarity value realised top prices. The thoughtful auctioneer Robert Ketterer was able to sell Wassily Kandinsky's colourful view of Murnau well above the estimate. A bidder was prepared to pay 3.9 million euros with buyer's premium for the small painting from 1909, which is of art-historical significance. The expected price was 1.5 to 2.5 million euros."