Your Cultural Concierge! VoCA offers critical commentary on the Canadian art scene, with a focus on Toronto. Featuring exhibition previews, critics picks, interviews and in-depth articles on art in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Halifax.
July 17th, 2008 — Art market, Artists, Books, Collecting, Sculpture/Installation
VoCA’s fasination with British artist Damien Hirst continues with a review of Toronto author Don Thompson’s book, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art.
Check it out HERE.
Look for our review in an upcoming issue of Quill and Quire – we’ll post it on VoCA, too.
July 3rd, 2008 — Art market
“There are enough “recession-proof”, super-rich buyers…but the picture is less rosy at the lower end of the market…”
Read the full article from Reuters HERE
From Will Goetzmann’s website. He says: “Art is not a good diversification tool. It has been correlated to the stock market for long periods of time, and financial market moves tend to be followed by art market moves.”
Click HERE for the Art Market Insider, a good blog that offers an intriguing perspective on market activity.
June 25th, 2008 — Art market, News: International, Painting
…plus c’est la meme chose.
From Reuters: A Monet water-lily painting sold for 41 million pounds ($80.5 million) Tuesday, doubling the previous auction record for the artist and ensuring London’s key art market season got off to a flying start.
Claude Monet, Le Bassin aux Nympheas, 1899. Image: intermonet.com
“Le Bassin aux Nympheas” had been expected to fetch 18-24 million pounds, but after an intense bidding battle it smashed the previous Monet auction record of $41.5 million set in May…
June 19th, 2008 — Art market, Articles, Collecting, News: Canada, Painting, Toronto, Vancouver
From James Adams in yesterday’s Globe and Mail:
“When its September, 2007, online sale resulted in gross revenues of about $600,000 on 156 lots, (Heffel Fine Art Auction House) started to think seriously about going with a separate live auction (for post-war and contemporary art) and “concentrate more on this growing component of the market,” noted Nina Kim, Heffel’s director of postwar and contemporary art…”
For the rest of the article, please click HERE.
Tom Thomson, View from a Height, Algonquin Park, Fall, 1916.
Auction Estimate: $800,000-1,200,000
Price Realized: $1,207,500
While the Canadian auction ’scene’ may seem laughable next to the inflated numbers bandied about in the U.S and the U.K these days, we are finally seeing increased interest in Canadian art since 1945, which is great because it has, for so long been terribly undervalued.
June 12th, 2008 — Art market
Image: pro.corbis.com
Here’s a good article from the Washington Post on how to introduce your kids to art:
Click HERE
June 9th, 2008 — Art fairs, Art market
Art Basel 2008:
Art Basel, 2008. Image: gadmin.ch
Read the article from the International Herald Tribune HERE
June 6th, 2008 — Art market, Artists, Miscellaneous thoughts on art
Jerry Saltz, for one, bemoans the lack of good art being created and shown today, as do many other critics, VoCA included.
The recent exhibition Unmonumental at the New Museum in New York (see VoCA post HERE) is a perfect example. As someone commented, it was art that’s being made for a market where people will buy anything.
An installation shot of Unmonumental. Image: artcadeforum.wordpress.com
February 1st, 2008 — Art market, Articles
VoCA loves the story of Damien Hirst and his skull, For the Love of God.
Damien Hirst and his work, For the Love of God. Image: theaestheticpoetic.comBy managing his own career, Hirst is a pioneer in the way the art world is changing. He works with his dealer to control who buys his work, buying it back himself when necessary and retaining a stake in it on occasion. Continue reading →
January 30th, 2008 — Art market, Artists
VoCA predicts some trends. Look out for the following ten themes to break through in art in 2008:
1. INTERFACE DESIGN: David Rokeby, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Max Dean and others use computers and robotics in their art
Body Movies, Relational Architecture No.6, by Rafael Lozano Hemmer
2. EXPERIENCE: Fear, exhiliration, taste. Gregor Schneider…the blurring of art with entertainment. Carsten Holler’s slides at Tate Modern Continue reading →
December 10th, 2007 — Art market, Articles
Gustav Klimt, Giuditta I. Image: dipintiautenticita.com
The booming art market means that crime really can pay, especially if you know how to knock up a phoney Picasso or dodgy Dali….Read more in this article from the Independent:
Click HERE
A recent copy of Giuditta I. Image: dipintiautenticita.com
For more information on determining authenticity of contemporary artworks, please click HERE
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...Read full bio