HOW IS ART’S VALUE DETERMINED?

During Frieze Art Fair in London recently, exhibitions were pre-sold, dealers were busy selling out their booths, and auctions were held every night. With the mix between primary and secondary market contemporary works being sold in different venues on the same days, you had to ask yourself how art’s value is determined, and sustained.

Tobias Meyer at Sotheby’s

While demand has always been the determining factor for art’s value, it seems that in the past there was more investment in time and interest in contemporary art. I mean you can’t sum up Joseph Beuys in twenty words or less.

When a gallery represents an artist, it works to cement the artist’s reputation. Press releases generate interest, openings and personal invitations attract high-profile collectors and influential curators to the gallery, who in turn buy the work and place it in important museum, corporate and personal collections. All these things help to build an artists profile, providing the crutch that supports increasing prices.

Inside Bruno Bischofberger’s gallery, Zurich

At the same time, the work needs to be written about, preferably by well-known critics. One issue, however is that art magazines are practically void of strong, yet balanced criticism, supported as they are by advertising from the very galleries whose artists they are writing about. It’s a dubious relationship.

The commercial gallery system has created a fail-safe method through which the perceived importance of almost any young artist can be inflated.

Furthermore, galleries routinely hold back work, producing long wait lists for work by relatively un-established artists. They want to make sure that the work goes to the ‘right’ collectors.

Like a child leaving home, when work enters the secondary market (at auction), it must survive on its own in the risky environment of market forces (and the art market is notoriously fickle.) Dealers worry about their artists, and have been known to buy back work at auction to protect prices.

An opening at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York

The problem is that today, value is determined more by sales than critical consideration. The critic is no longer seen as necessary, but in fact in a world where the collector no longer always does the necessary research, critics are needed more than ever.

It could be argued that artists no longer produce work where extensive research is required. The trend for “Conceptualism Lite” is an example. Geoffrey Farmer, Simon Starling and countless others are second generation conceptualists whose work, while strong, funny and thought-provoking, lacks the universal quality that affects every viewer, but can best be grasped by a critic or a collector who has spent the requisite time researching.

David Hockney, Mr and Mrs Ossie Clark and Percy (1970-71). Image: vam.ac.uk

Ultimately, contemporary art is a serious pursuit whose value should not be determined by those whose livelihood depends on high sales. Collectors should do their homework. Never expect a commercial gallery to do it for you. It may seem like your interests align, but in truth they don’t. To be a great collector is a responsibility, to the artist and to Art. Great collectors don’t purchase work because a dealer has given them a 20-second analysis that they can lord over their dinner guests.

Great art demands a lot of the viewer, and is always based in universal themes that can be understood, subconsciously by every viewer. We believe that Matthew Barney is one such artist. So are Thomas Schütte, and Mark Manders and Rodney Graham. Look them up.

MATTHEW BARNEY

THOMAS SCHUTTE

MARK MANDERS

RODNEY GRAHAM