the most expensive art work ever sold

Damien Hirst, For the Love of God, sold for $100 million USD

The most expensive art work ever sold

Contemporary art plays an increasingly prominent role in our culture

Art’s economic power is reflected in: - Spectacular prices at international

auctions - Increasing number of museums - Biennials and fairs becoming as necessary

to the tiniest country as a local airport

The process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions

A mirror of a society

What is left as heritage for future generations

What is Art?

Chapter I

Defining “Contemporary Art”

Loosely used to denote the art of the present day and relatively recent past. Usually avant-garde in nature

Defined by blurred lines between traditional genres and the appearance of new multimedia techniques

Perhaps “contemporary” just means "art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetimes". In other words, contemporary to us

VS

Pablo Picasso,1937 Andy Warhol, 1962

Chapter II

Modern Art: Art from the Impressionists (1880) up until the 1960's or 70's

Contemporary Art: Art from the 1960's or 70's up until now

Contemporary Art Market - 1950’s and 60’s: Leo Castelli and his wife

Illeana Sonnabend established crucial access for American artists to European museums and collectors - 1965: First major auction of contemporary American work at Parke-Bernet in New York

Serves as a replacement for something else - for the label “modern”. Modern art always has been a mark of distinction and difference, as its definition was protected by gatekeepers in the West.

“Contemporary” has ceased to be a matter of simple chronology (recent or living art)… it becomes a type of branding.

“Contemporary” replaces the concept and the term “modern” (a label from the past), and creates a new space where global art can happen.

Chapter III

Most important phenomenon in recent art: Globalization

Biennials and landmark exhibitions initiated the global turn in the art scene when, in 1989, free trade removed Cold War restrictions

In many countries, contemporary art has become an economic project including huge cultural districts with museums and art fairs

Collectors’ and corporate museums are a result of the new clientele within the art market, which, today, extends to 58 countries

In the last 40 years, the market for contemporary art has undergone a fundamental overhaul: from a closed circle of aficionados to an industrialized market

New market caters to growing number of so-called High Net Worth Individuals who pursue an increasingly globalized life style

1960s: Major auction houses expand, triggers restructuring of art market

Since then: costly art fairs – the industry trade shows of the art world - become the premier shopping malls for contemporary art and are surpassing auctions as major events for buyers

These developments have major consequences on how art is created, marketed, perceived and consumed

A work of art becomes a branded commodity; the work’s value defined increasingly in monetary terms

Buying and selling art becomes a social competition between wealthy collectors

Part of the art world has turned into a trading floor for speculation.

Global art does not mean an inherent aesthetic quality which may be identified as global.

One should not confuse the means and ends…

Ultimate goal of economy: generating monetary profit

Ultimate goal of art: deepening the experience of our existence

Power List Top 10

1. Hans Ulrich Obrist- Art critic, curator2. Glenn D. Lowry- Director of MOMA3. Sir Nicholas Serota- Director of Modern Tate4. Daniel Birnbaum- Art critic, curator5. Larry Gagosian- Gallerist6. François Pinault- Collector7. Eli Broad- Collector8. Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda- Artists9. Iwona Blazwick- Director of White Chapel Gallery10. Bruce Nauman- Artist

Hans Ulrich Obrist

-Swiss curator

-Studied economics and politics, then turned to contemporary art

- Organized extraordinary exhibitions internationally, often in spaces not previously used as exhibition venues

- Curated exhibitions at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, at the Kunsthalle Wien, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, the Serpentine Gallery in London, the PS1, etc.

Stats

Top 100 by professions

Top 100 by nationality

Chapter IV

Artists

Museums

Collectors

Galleries

Art critics

Curators

Increasingly begin their careers with Professional Training

Average income of artists consists of 3 different sources of earnings: from their art, from arts-related jobs (e.g., teaching), and from nonarts employment

Only 1/3 of artists can make their living from their artwork

Two distinct markets for visual art works :

- elite artists represented by prestige dealers and galleries, whose work is reviewed by recognized critics

- general market for other artists.

For many contemporary artists, the main desire is greater control of the destiny of their works

Greater Opportunities for Early Commercial Success Alter Typical Career Paths

- Persuaded by the successful use of marketing tools, many contemporary artists, especially the bestsellers, began actively promoting their work

Less commercially successful and less well-known artists (many lacking dealers) have also sought new ways of getting their work before the public - either through alternative spaces or internet

We are in a world of “new artistic territories”

Museum of Louvre, 8 million visitors per year

Museum of Louvre Abu DhabiWill open in 2011

Visual arts works can be displayed, sold, and purchased in either the commercial (for profit) or nonprofit sectors.

Museums dominate the organizational profile of visual art 

Art museums have 5 traditional missions: -Collecting-Preserving-Studying-Exhibiting-Interpreting ….art objects

Museums are the principal preservers of the nation’s and the world’s visual arts héritage

Museums play a major role in establishing the legitimacy and artistic value of artists and their work through the process of exhibiting and collecting artwork

From 1982-2002, total number of art museum attendees has risen by almost half

Museums’ operating expenditures constitute almost half of their total annual expenditures

Given the importance of overhead, development, and administration, programming typically faces tough competition for funding, creating tensions in museums’ multifaceted mission

Tension between art objects (the research and preservation functions) and people (the education and public involvement functions)

Museums’ wealth consists overwhelmingly of their physical capital

The 8 largest of these museums in the USA control almost 50% of the revenues of American non-profit visual organizations

New York’s advantage reflects its role as the center of the national/international arts market

1/2 of American museums were created in the past 30 years

Have adopted a variety of strategies to increase attendance

Face increasing financial pressures Turn to new types of directors and staff Same important changes in the board

of trustees Have increasing links with other

institutions and the corporate sector

Museums…

Increasing concentration of revenues and assets in the superstar museums

Most common yardsticks to measure museum performance: attendance, membership, and number and marketability of major shows

How to define and measure success?

The real measure ought to be the quality of the museum experience

« A collection is the work of a person. It is its limit and its greatness.It has to awaken the curiosity, the emotion of others. It is an artisitc adventure with a moral dimension, a disinterested commitment »

Monique Barbier- Mueller- Swiss collector

The number of people who collect fine art is miniscule compared with the number of people who visit museums

Though income and education are closely related, of these two variables, education is the most important

Collectors

higher incomes of the world’s wealthy

more collectors who are drawn to collecting not just as connoisseurs but also as investors

more geographically dispersed in past 25 years

Driving the increase in collectors:

Wealth

International backgrounds.

For mega collectors: appetite for signs of distinction

From a survey: 21% of the population who own original art are older, highly educated, have higher incomes than the rest of population

Key Characteristics of Collectors

not necessarily the very richest or most acquisitive

Instead, those who yield great influence - a combination of connoisseurship and

generosity Important collectors: - Set standards for others by their example

- Encourage interest in the art they collect - Share their colection with the public - Impact on the market

Important Collectors in the History of Art

JEAN PAUL BARBIER-MUELLER (Tribal Art) Nationality: Swiss Age: 77 Source of wealth: Property They opened the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneve.

ERNST BEYELER (20th-century painting and sculpture) Nationality: Swiss

Age: 86 Source of wealth: Art dealer The Beyeler Foundation has nearly 400,000 visitors a

year.

ELI BROAD (Post-war and contemporary) Nationality: American Age: 75 Source of wealth: Property and insurance.

The Broad Art Foundation (California) has donated $50m to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for a new extension

AGNES GUND (Post-war, mainly American)

Nationality: AmericanAge: 69

Source of wealth: Banking inheritance. Based in New York, she served as president of the Museum

of Modern Art from 1991 to 2002 and led the fundraising drive for its $858m extension, which opened in 2004

NASSER DAVID KHALILI (Islamic and Japanese Meiji)

Nationality: British Age: 62 Source of wealth: Property. Altogether, the Khalili collection comprises 25,000

pieces. He will set up a museum in London

RONALD LAUDER (Early-20th-century Austrian and German Art )

Nationality: American Age: 64 Source of wealth: Cosmetics inheritance and media. In 2006 he made headlines when he purchased

Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for $135m, a record price for a work of art

PRINCE HANS-ADAM II (16th-to 19th-century painting, sculpture and furniture)

Nationality: Liechtenstein Age: 63. In 2004 he opened the Liechtenstein Museum in

his baroque summer palace in Vienna, with renovations costing 25m euro

EUGENIO LOPEZ ALONSO (Latin American and international contemporary) Nationality: Mexican Age: 40 Source of wealth: Food processing. In 2001 he opened the Fundacion/Coleccion Jumex on the outskirts of Mexico City.

GEORGE ORTIZ (Antiquities) Nationality: Swiss Age: unknown Source of wealth: Inheritance

FRANCOIS PINAULT (Contemporary Art) Nationality: French Age: 71 He displays his collection, now comprising

2,500 works in Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice, which reopened in 2006. He owns also the auction house Christie’s.

VIKTOR PINCHUK (Contemporary Art) Nationality: Ukrainian Age: 47 Source of wealth: Steel. In September 2006 the Victor Pinchuk Foundation opened

the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kiev, which is one of the largest public galleries for contemporary art in eastern Europe

LEKHA & ANUPAM PODDAR (Indian Art) Nationality: Indian Age: unknown; 34 Source of wealth: Paper industry and hotels. The Poddars are opening India's first non-commercial

contemporary art gallery in New Delhi

DON & MERA RUBELL (Contemporary Art) Nationality: American Age: 66; unknown Source of wealth: Inheritance and hotels. In 1996 their Contemporary Arts Foundation opened

a public space in north Miami, to show a changing selection of works in 27 roomsCHARLES SAATCHI (Contemporary Art)

Nationality: British Age: 65 Source of wealth: Advertising. Probably Europe's most powerful collector of

contemporary art. Opened a museum in London

EUGENE THAW (Drawings) Nationality: American Age: 81 Source of wealth: Art dealer. Thaw himself collected drawings and oil sketches, many of which have

been offered to the Morgan Library in New York

DAVID THOMSON (19th century English to contemporary art)

Nationality: Canadian Age: 51 Source of wealth: Media. David Thomson was a very major donor to the Art Gallery of Ontario,

to which he gave 2,000 works in 2002 (including Rubens's Massacre of the Innocents, for which he paid 50m [pounds sterling]), together with a $70m donation

GUY ULLENS (Chinese contemporary art) Nationality: Belgian Age: 73 Source of wealth: Food processing. In 2007 Ullens opened a permanent space in a restored

military factory in Beijing, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art

JAYNE WRIGHTSMAN (18th-century French art) Nationality: American

Age: unknown. Source of wealth: Oil Based in New York, the couple made a series of donations to

the Metropolitan Museum in 1969-77, and this led to the creation of seven galleries of French art in period rooms

REINHOLD WURTH (20th-century art ) Nationality: German Age: 73 Source of wealth: Hardware business Wurth runs an art museum at Kunzelsau

A case study

Video of Margulies Collection

Top 20 collectors come from 13 different countries

9 out of the 20 biggest collections are contemporary art collections

Most have set up and funded their own public galleries

Acquiring objects that have some relation to each other

Putting those objects into the kind of order that reflects the collector’s response to them.

Each true collection achieves a personality beyond and apart from the sum of the objects. This personality is definable and has a value in itself. It is lost if the collection is dispersed or mutilated.

Instinct

Taste

Scholarship - Studying books, visiting other collections, consulting experts, learning about condition and conservation, and, generally, developing experience and expertise

Real art collectors often feel the ability to apply their talents to any field of art.

Crucial Traits for Intelligent Collecting

To experience the object more intimately and more completely than even the most thoroughly attentive viewing at an exhibition.

A mania to add, to refine, to put in order a collection of works of art.

The overwhelming majority of those who call themselves collectors collect contemporary art

Why Do Collectors Collect?

Be guided by curiosity Learn how to look at an artwork Train your eyes: Art is about looking,

looking and looking Research the history of art Visit and look at masterpieces of our

civilization Take the time to recognize their position Understand the work from intellectual,

cultural and emotional points of view

Accept that you need 10 years to be more independant in your decisions

Follow your instinct Mistakes are inevitable but you grow through

them Go through a year of catalogues of auction

houses Be part of a social network of artists, curators,

gallerists and other collectors but distinguish between the purely “social” aspect and the opportunity to discuss art

Choose your dealers very carefully

Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson, 1984

Aspects to Consider

Description of the work? What medium is used? What Warhol says about it? What are the main themes of Warhol? Why is Warhol considered so important? What about pop art? What is Warhol’s market?

A Chinese contemporary art collection created in 2005

A « University museum » approach aimed toward the production of knowledge

Represents 90 of the leading Chinese avant-garde artists reflecting different regional art scenes

An entity limited to 150 pieces opened to constant redefinition and regeneration

To build a collection in which established artists and emerging artists from all regions are represented To collect, educate, and entertain To create a strong relationship with major players of the Chinese art scene To increase and deepen participation for a certain type of Chinese contemporary art

To establish a strong and personal collection

To attract an audience, particularly the 18-34 generation by mixing entertainment and education

To reach curators, universities, art critics, museums and opinion leaders in China and internationally

To develop an educational program

Strong personal commitment and presence in China

Acquisition of content Funding of innovative websites Dsl website and its different display

tools Public relations & Communications and

E-marketing

Gu Dexin, 2005.03.05, installation, pole 26 meters, canvas 350 x 250 cm, base 150 cm, 2005

YANG Jiechang, I still remember, Ink on paper, 6 panels, each 300 x 173 cm, 1998-2006

Lin Yilin, Standard Series of Ideal Residences, installation: brick, iron, wood, 1991

Zhang Huan, Peace1, installation, 2001, H335 cm x L365 xPr 243 cm

Jia Aili, Untitled, 2007-2008, oil on canves, 296 x 400 cm

Statistics - In 2008, 300 million Chinese online

users - 68% are younger then 29 years old - 80 million blogs in China, 10 million in

Japan - 8 million visitors in the Louvre, 11 million

on its website

Dsl collection website Popular online social networks like

Facebook, Xiaonei Ebook Blog , Twitter Virtual tools

- Virtual museum- Zoomorama gallery- Dsl Cyber MOCA on Second Life

E-Marketing and Communication Exhibition of the works in museums

Virtual museum

DSL Cyber Moca

Zoomorama gallery

E-book

Text book, volume I Libreria Borges

Visual productions

Dsl Voice Reader

Twitter Facebook

Communication

Newsletter Magazines

Events

ShContemporary Art Fair 2008

Talks

Conclusion