Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 41 2024

Marcus Woeller spoke to Frieze director Eva Langret about the competition between London (Frieze) and Paris (Art Basel) for the WeLT: “'Paris and London have a connection, and there's enough space for both cities to shine,' says the Frenchwoman Langret. 'Paris has recently received a lot of attention, which creates an interesting situation. We have many collectors who want to visit both London and Paris in succession.’ This dynamic is to be encouraged. However, the United Kingdom is still the largest art market in Europe, larger than the entire continental market, according to the Frieze director, and after the market leader USA, it is roughly on a par with China. Art fairs also thrive on the spirit of the cities in which they take place, says Eva Langret: ‘London has always been characterised by the spirit of discovery of youth. It has a pioneering spirit for new voices. The city is diverse in every respect.’ And Paris? ‘Paris is simply Paris.'’’ And Frieze is a fair and not an auction house, where the big sales are made in London.

In a conversation with Farah Nayeri for the New York Times, the artists curating the invitation section Artist to Artist at Frieze next week demonstrate a somewhat more differentiated view: “While [Yinka] Shonibare said he didn't think 'the centre of the art world in Europe will leave London entirely', he added: ‘We just need to do more to give artists more opportunities and spaces.’ Paris is doing just that, said Sedira, a French Algerian artist working mainly in film and photography, who moved to London in the 1980s and never left. She now spends part of her time in Paris. In London, she said, her 215-square-foot artist atelier cost her $660 a month. For twice that amount in Paris, she said that she had an atelier-cum-apartment 10 times as big: an artist space subsidised by Paris City Hall that she had obtained on application (as for social housing). ‘It's booming in Paris right now,’ Sedira said. ‘There are plenty of new art spaces and private foundations opening, and lots more going on.’"

Vienna has more art fairs than collectors, Olga Kronsteiner mocks in Der Standard: “Over the past few years, years, Vienna has also developed into a playground for organisers: seven of them, including two from abroad, will hold a total of 13 art fairs here from February to November next year. All in all, this seems a little ambitious, especially in view of the worldwide decline in art sales. Particularly as the economic risks are unevenly distributed: as is well known, participants have to pay the stand costs regardless of any sales successes.”

The Gallery Climate Coalition, in collaboration with art fairs both large and small, has developed a set of guidelines (PDF) for reducing the ecological footprint, as reported by Louisa Buck in The Art Newspaper: “Frieze, Art Basel and Tefaf are among more than 40 art fairs worldwide which have joined forces in a unified pledge to cut their emissions by at least 50% by 2030. They have also committed to working towards near zero waste. And it's not just about the big events: smaller fairs such as Copenhagen's Chart and the new Stage fair in Bregenz are also among the signatories. This groundbreaking alliance was launched during Climate Week in New York last month and was the result of more than a year of behind-the-scenes discussions and negotiations, brokered by the international environmental charity Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC).”

I researched the cheapest stand prices for art fairs from Arco to Frieze to Stage Bregenz for Weltkunst Insider (still free to register).

An exclusive secret recipe for reducing the costs of art fairs, which can sometimes threaten the existence of galleries, is revealed by Magnus Resch in the WeLT (PDF): “The big art fairs prefer to continue to rely on an outdated revenue model that reliably generates profits and does not offend the elites: Renting exhibition space and renting it out to galleries at a premium. But you don't have to look far for a more innovative revenue model. [...] According to its own estimates, Art Basel in Miami contributes around $500 million to the local economy. So why not tap into this source of money directly? By offering comprehensive packages that include, for example, hotel rooms and dinners, but also access to events, art fairs could significantly reduce the fees for galleries. One could even go so far as to allow galleries and artists to participate and exhibit at the fairs for free, or even to be compensated. [...] These changes could somewhat alleviate the immediate financial pressure on the galleries. However, they will not solve the core problem of the art market: People are buying less and less art.’ It's a nice idea, and Art Basel is already offering exactly these packages in Basel – success unknown. But it is doing so on top of its existing programme, not instead of it. After all, the core problem of group fairs like Art Basel and Frieze is probably more a focus on profit maximisation than a lack of ideas.

Christiane Fricke was in the room at Van Ham in Cologne to follow the auction of the Kasper König collection for the Handelsblatt: “Johann König, the youngest of the four children, makes frequent use of it, only occasionally curbed by his wife. His brother Leo, a gallery owner in New York, is seated in front of him this evening. However, according to Eisenbeis, he bids on behalf of clients. He has an American couple sitting next to him. The hall is full. There are onlookers, knowledgeable observers such as art consultant Jörg Michael Bertz and collector Reiner Speck, but also many collectors of all ages with bidder numbers. It's rare to see so much activity in an auction room.” dpa reports: “A total of 250 works changed hands, raising around six million euros, according to the Van Ham auction house. This corresponds to a sales quota of 234 per cent by value. The collection went under the hammer from Tuesday evening onwards.”

The season's opening of auctions in New York with smaller events could be a bad omen for the upcoming evening events, fears Angelica Villa at Artnews: “Last week, Phillips held two back-to-to back sales of contemporary art at its New York headquarters, generating $7 million in total sales with fees. These auctions may not be as closely watched as the November evening sales by Phillips and its competitors, but they provide a window onto trends that may be seen next month on the block. Phillips specialists initially expected the more than 200 lots auction last week to bring in up to $9 million. But almost 50 lots went unsold, and total hammer prices ended up adding up to just over $5 million. This may not bode well for the November sales.”

London auction houses will have to wrap up warmly for the autumn season, writes Anne Reimers in the FAZ on 5 October: “It is striking that this time around, unlike the usual Frieze season, Christie's and Sotheby's in the British capital are not focusing on young contemporary art. High-priced young art is seen as a risky investment, and high interest rates are deterring buyers who want to make a quick profit. Established artists with a long career or a complete body of work are in demand in uncertain times.” I summarise the current state of the Sotheby's drama for the Handelsblatt.

Hamburg now also has something like a Gallery Weekend, reports Frank Kurzhals in the Handelsblatt: “Hamburg, the city with a disproportionate number of millionaires, has not yet produced a major art fair. To ensure that art dealers and gallery owners do not disappear from public perception and are only visited by the same Hanseatic customers, a new marketing initiative was launched last year. [...] Rothenbaum is diversity, is the message of the campaign. The goal of putting Hamburg back on the map of art cities where relevant dealers and gallery owners work has thus taken a small step forward.”

The current list of the Top 200 Collectors compiled by Artnews is online. Only four of them are based in Germany: Jutta and Siegfried Weishaupt, Julia Stoschek, Sabine and Hasso Plattner, and Udo Brandhorst. The list compiled by Maximilíano Durón of what some of the collectors listed have purchased in the last year is also interesting.

You always have to look again at the publication date when the current issue of the Art Compass is announced by dpa: “The painter Gerhard Richter (92) is still ranked as the world's most important artist in the Art Compass ranking. For 21 years now, the Cologne-based painter has held the top position in the ranking, which has been in existence for 54 years. The next ranks are also unchanged: US artist Bruce Nauman remains in second place, followed by the two Germans Georg Baselitz and Rosemarie Trockel.” It gets funny towards the end, when the now ennobled Sir Isaac Julien is at the top of the list of “stars of tomorrow” and last year's first Yayoi Kusama (born in 1929) is in third place.

The ‘creator’ of one of the most famous AI-generated images complains that his image, created with other people's creativity, does not enjoy copyright, writes Francesa Aton at Artnews: “In the lawsuit, [Jason M.] Allen claims that he should receive copyright for his piece Théâtre d'Opéra Spatial as an expression of his creativity. He applied for a copyright registration for the work, depicting a futuristic royal court, which won the state's art fair competition in 2022. Allen has said in a statement that the copyright office's decision ‘put me in a terrible position, with no recourse against others who are blatantly and repeatedly stealing my work.’” You have to be that brazen to start with.

What art dealers need to bear in mind when importing art is explained by Berlin lawyer Zacharias Mawick in Weltkunst Insider (still with free registration): “Today, it is no longer enough to know only your own cultural property laws if your personal business or collecting area extends beyond the borders of your own country. If works of art or antiques of a certain value and age are to be imported or exported, legal export from the country of origin – or in the worst case, from all potential countries of origin – is increasingly becoming an issue. [...] What measures should be taken to ensure that cultural artefacts remain tradable in the future? How can problems with the relevant authorities be avoided in advance? We will see that a central tool is the thorough storage and maintenance of import and export documents, as well as all proofs of provenance, as these are playing an increasingly important role in all cultural property-related procedures.”

After decades of campaigning by right-wing extremists, German nationalists and market radicals to undermine public broadcasting, the time has finally come for the licence-fee broadcasters to slim down. Unfortunately, the powerful media figures have chosen, among others, one of the few broadcasters that legitimises the existence of the model: the cultural channel 3sat. Its German share of the budget is just 2 cents of the current monthly broadcasting fee of 18 euros 36 and does not even add up to the salaries of the 61 members of the management of the various ARD institutions. And no – broadcasting professional sporting events from dictatorships, Andreas Gabalier and Bares für Rares will not win back AfD voters. The relevant petition to save 3sat can be signed here.

Brita Sachs congratulates Munich gallerist Fred Jahn on his 80th birthday in the FAZ: “One of Fred Jahn's recipes for success is that he is actually always there. Visitors and clients rarely fail to meet him in his gallery; people appreciate the conversations with the art expert – he knows this, offers an espresso or a glass of wine in the evening.”