Art lawyer, Barbara Hoffman had the opportunity to attend the VIP/press opening for Prospect 4, New Orleans’ citywide international contemporary art exhibit founded by Dan Cameron, former senior curator of the New Museum, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In producing works in response to the current cultural, socioeconomic and environmental landscape, Prospect 4’s artists represent a form of symbiosis: they have grown in response to and in the context of, rather than outside of, their cultural and socioeconomic “ecologies”.
Barbara reports back from the event, explaining how cultural synthesis and syncretism inform many of the central issues explored in Prospect 4. Read the entire article here.
New digital technology and an influx of online art businesses are changing the way we research artists and art professionals, build and manage our collections and even crack the most advanced art forgers. Hear from Jessica Paindiris, CEO and a Founder of The Clarion List, as she discusses the rise of the online art market and the affect it is having on the global art market.
What issues has technology solved or created in the art world?
There is a misconception that the art world is behind the times in terms of technology. Since The Clarion List’s launch in spring 2015 I have realized that there are, in fact, hundreds of industrious companies helping to bring technology to the industry—either carving out unique and new niches or advancing established business models—in order to add transparency, accessibility, and efficiency to the market.
Art market reports are criticized to be based on anecdotal data. What is going to happen to transparency in the art market?
I am seeing the art market making strides in terms of transparency in other ways. For example, a growing number of forensic art analysis firms are solving authenticity issues using cutting edge technology, while newer blockchain database companies are creating secure online records for establishing provenance.
With technology affecting most aspects of the art market, what does this mean for art collectors and professionals?
The art world is becoming more accessible to a wider, global collecting class thanks to the growth of e-commerce platforms – listing platforms, online dealers, online auction houses. And the art market is growing more efficient for professionals thanks to innovative software companies like collection and gallery management software, condition report software, artist website software and catalog raisonné software providers who are making it easier to conduct business. The Clarion List is a resource to discover all of these types of companies.
New technologies are streamlining how the art world operates and start-ups, such as The Clarion List, are capitalizing on those opportunities. What does this mean for the future of the art world?
The art market is unique because art itself is unique. So much of the art trade involves subjective analysis and insight that requires much selling, buying and servicing to be transacted in person. But I feel strongly that even businesses operating in these high-touch corners of the art world can benefit from many of these aforementioned online tools and high-tech businesses. If their art company can be marketed better, or if they are operating in a more transparent market, or if they spend less time awayfrom focusing on their core business, the result will be a stronger market, benefiting all aspects of the industry. I think the art world will continue to become more technologically advanced over the next 10 to 20 years as awareness grows about these various new companies and more companies enter the fray, resulting in a more accessible, efficient and transparent art market.
Currently, who are the biggest digital influencers of the art market (ie Instagram)?
We list 7,000 art businesses around the globe on The Clarion List, hundreds of which operate in the digital space. Many are carving out unique niches and it’s hard for me to select just a few! That said, I think Instagram is indeed a top contender for a major influencer, as its photo-first medium lends itself so naturally to the art market. I think most art businesses can benefit from focusing their social media efforts on Instagram!
The Clarion List is the leading online resource to discover top rated art service providers worldwide. Users can review, search and filter through thousands of art service companies across dozens of art service categories, including art consultants, appraisers, framers, storage and installation companies, auction houses, private dealers, e-commerce platforms, and more.www.clarionlist.com
On Friday, September 22, the first public institution dedicated to contemporary art and the art of the diaspora in Africa, Cape Town’s Zeitz MOCAA, opened to a sold out weekend of more than 50,000 visitors, with 5,000 visitors per day since. Zeitz (not Zulu, Xhosa or even Afrikaans, but the name of its German founder) MOCAA’s aim is to represent and give voice to contemporary African artists from the continent and the diaspora to tell their own story. As Mark Coetzee, the South African director and chief curator explains: “the mission is to collect, preserve, research and exhibit cutting edge artifacts from the 21st century and subvert deeply entrenched stereotypes of African life and art.”
I was privileged to be included in the VIP preview week before the public opening. In part, because of my long-term involvement with Performa, the visual performance arts biennial. Performa 17’s focus is South Africa and our founding director, Roselee Goldberg, born in Durban, South Africa, is a Curator at Large for Performance at Zeitz MOCAA. I have a long time connection to Africa and passion for African art, which began with my participation as a student in Crossroads Africa in Niger and Tanzania, and continued, most recently with the founding of the first “Friends” organization for an African museum, the world class National Museum of Mali in Bamako, marvelously directed by Dr. Samuel Sibide, on what is now a shoe string budget.
South Africa, however, as I was growing up, was indelibly marked by our active protest and demonstrations in the US against Apartheid. My first case as a litigator when I graduated law school in 1972 was a case against the New York Times for publishing employment 2 advertisements for employment in South Africa. We prevailed under New York City Human Rights Law, in our argument that by publishing such ads, the New York Times was aiding and abetting race discrimination, on the theory that no black person could be hired in these executive positions for employment and that the term “South Africa” signified racial discrimination as the term “select clientele” signified anti-Semitism in the 1960’s in New York. Until 1994, the fact that black South Africans could not visit an art museum, paled next to the social and spatial engineering of Apartheid. Cape Town and other South African cities were conceived with a white-only center, surrounded by contained settlements for the black and colored, hemmed in by highways and buffer zones of factories and scrub. The military-style encampment townships sterilized any reference to community, a sense of cultural space, and indigenous culture and tradition.
I was therefore with enthusiasm that I welcomed the opportunity to visit and experience the current art scene in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. I was already well aware from my participation in the international art world of some of the amazing artists, represented by committed galleries like Goodman, coming out of South Africa from the 1990’s to now. I was interested to see how art and culture were establishing their place in a society, which only twenty three years ago had ended Apartheid to adopt a multicultural constitution and eliminate white privilege as the fundamental basis for ordering society and distributing its benefits.
Zeitz MOCAA is housed in a converted grain silo in an urban redevelopment area on the Victoria and Alfred waterfront area. Designed brilliantly by English architect Thomas Heatherwick, the nine floors of gallery space were ostensibly paid for by the development of a boutique hotel which occupies the top six floors, and in a real estate deal between the South African Government Employees Pension Fund, Growthpoint, the country’s largest listed property 3 development company, and Jochen Zeitz, former CEO of Puma. The current core of the collection is, somewhat problematically, on long term loan from its German patron Zeitz, who sits on the board of trustees of the non-profit public foundation museum board of seven trustees. Artists in his collection have also generously donated to the permanent collection. Consistent with its mission, the museum encompasses, in addition to the over one hundred galleries dedicated to the large cutting edge permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, Centres for Art Education, Curatorial Excellence, Performative Practice, Photography, the Moving Image, and the Costume Institute.
The collection was put together by Zeitz working with Coetzee from 2010 with an African museum in mind. The two met in connection with the Rubell Famly Collection’s Miami Basel 2008 exhibition, “Thirty Americans”: Coetzee was the Rubell curator and Puma was the sponsor of the traveling exhibition. Thirty included prominent African American artists such as Glen Ligon, David Hammons and Jean Michael Basquiat, as well as then emerging African American artists such as Hank Willis Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, and Rashid Johnson. Many of these artists are included together with such high profile artists as Isaac Julien (Britain), William Kentridge (South Africa), El Anatsui (Ghana), Wangechi Mutu (Kenya), Ghada Amer (Egypt), and Chris Ofili (Britain) are included in Coetzee’s curated exhibition from the permanent collection, All Things Being Equal. The inaugural exhibition also includes a majority of South African artists, both established and emerging, such as Zanele Muholi, Sethembile Msezane, Mohau Modisakeng, Kendell Geers and Mary Sibande, but only features three from French speaking West Africa: Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou (Benin), Julien Sinzogan (Benin), and Owanto (Gabon).
Edson Chagas (Angola), Kudzanai Chiurai (Zimbabwe), Nandipho (South Africa), and Yinka Shonibare, MBE (United Kingdom) all have solo exhibitions. Edson Chagas’ Luanda, Encyclopedic City, asite-specific installation was originally exhibited in the Palazzo Cinewhen it was awarded the Golden Lion in Venice in 2015, as was Mutu’s work in 2015. Isaac Julien’s nine screen installation, One Thousand Waves, is beautifully installed in the second floor gallery. I first saw it at the Bass Museum in Miami in 2010, and Chiurai’s multimedia installation Conflict Resolution was exhibited in the 2012 edition of Documenta.
Opening night, hosted by Gucci, was a vibrant gathering of the South African and international art world with musical performances and visual artist performances by Namela Nyamza. Hanging above was a giant rubber flying bird by South African artist Nicholas Hlobo. In evoking the Xhosa myth of the Lightning Bird, Hlobo, a gay activist, reimagines it as a personal story that both honors and challenges traditional African notions of masculinity.
Opening night, Zeitz MOCAA. Video by author, Sept. 16, 2017.
Nandipha Mntambo was born in Mbabane, Swaziland in 1982. She graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2007. Her solo retrospective “Material Value” (9/22-2018) presents works which address ongoing debates around traditional gender roles, body politics, identity and the liminal boundaries between human and animal, femininity and masculinity, attraction and repulsion, life and death. Her best known works are her figurative cowhide sculptures, which allude to the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature; Zeitz owns approximately 70 of her works.
Sembile Msezane, born in 1991, is a South African artist living and working in Cape Town. Working in performance, photography, and sculpture, Msezane maps out how the process of commemorative practice informs constructions of history, mythmaking, and ultimately addresses the absence of the black female body in the monumentalisation of public spaces.
Kuzanai Chiurai’s solo retrospective, Regarding the Ease of Others (9/22-3/31), presents a survey of his expansive oeuvre since 2006, which includes posters, sculpture, photography, painting, print and video.
For Conflict Resolution, he combined a series of narrative mediums to make art accessible to a new generation of Africans – a group he says no one tries to talk to. “We are in a position where, as a born-free generation, we won’t be forgotten.”
“You can’t escape politics,” explains Chiurai, who stood up to Robert Mugabe. “Everything’s political in the sense like how we’re socialized.” Starting as a painter, after leaving Zimbabwe to study art in Pretoria (he was the first black graduate), he became active against Zimbabwe’s President, drawing comparisons to Ai Weiwei. I was totally mesmerized by the extraordinary and powerful Iyeza, a film addressing political corruption, war, abuse of power, 6 reconstruction and solidarity. Chiurai’s work powerfully interrogates a contemporary African notion of sacrifice.
Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou was born in Porto-Novo, Benin. Agbodjélou is best known for his photographs of the people of Porto-Novo, as in his ongoing series, Citizens of Porto-Novo, which attempts to document and capture a generation in the transition between tradition and progress.
In Egungun, the artist documents costumes that represent incarnations of the Yoruba tribe’s ancestral forebears, traditionally worn at processions and funerals. Trained by his father, a skilled and internationally renowned photographer, Agbodjélou’s choice of medium in combination with this form of traditional pageantry highlights the tension he attempts to capture in his work.
South African born Belgian artist Kendall Geers has always worked closely with his roots as an African Artist in an exorcism of identity, throwing his white African roots up against the wall of sociopolitical interrogation. Being both white and African, an artist living in exile, a 7 freedom fighter who grew up in struggle again Apartheid, his work is difficult to define in singular terms, always layered with contradiction and contrast.
Kendell Geers’ installation entitled Hanging Piece is a double entendre: the word “piece” is both a colloquial term for a gun and a homonym of peace. The work is a conscious reference to a protest tactic employed by the anti-apartheid movement in which impoverished people living in the shacks by the freeways would hang heavy objects from freeway overpasses– when drivers, who were typically white and headed to their holiday vacations, would speed under the bridges they would collide with the rocks and bricks. The bricks would become weapons, but the bricks would hang still; it was the velocity of the cars that made them dangerous. Geers’ installment is interactive, meant to be walked through and felt so that the hanging bricks “implicate your position in a greater community”, not only by causing your movements to be determined by the layers of bricks occupying the space you must navigate, but also by forcing you to be conscious of those around you– if you were to navigate the installment without a certain sense of self-awareness, you could easily cause a brick to hit the person behind you or you might be slammed by a brick yourself.
Geers provides further insight into his complex and contradictory installation, explaining that; “in itself, the clay brick is nothing more than fired earth and yet at the same time charged with connotation, allusion and symbolism. In a museum or gallery it obviously quoted Carl Andre but at the same time, it was also a powerful political symbol representing the aspirations of millions of homeless black South Africans living in shantytown shacks that would blow down with every storm. In the hands of a young militant it was a missile to be thrown in the faces of the white establishment whereas in a gallery or museum it was an icon of the Avant Garde.”
This is a spectacular debut for Zeitz MOCAA, certain to earn approval of collectors, tourists and locals lucky enough to visit. It should be a detour for any visitor to Southern or East Africa and a destination for the rest of us. Precisely because of Zeitz MOCAA’s importance and uniqueness on the continent, certain issues, otherwise dismissed, are appropriately the subject for dialogue and discussion.
Some critics have talked of conflicts of interest or lack of diversity in board representation. The fact that a director is also the chief curator is not by virtue of that position a conflict. The highly regarded Thelma Golden occupies both positions at the Studio Museum of Harlem. More problematic is the involvement of collectors and dealers on a board. Whilst US museums tend to prohibit dealers, collectors are the core of most boards, and are subject by the IRS to sign yearly conflict of interest policies. To my knowledge there are no dealers on the Zeitz MOCAA board. Notwithstanding the number of writers who have referred to the board of trustees as all white, my research indicates thatin addition to David Green and Jochen Zeitz, the current Board of Trustees is made up of the following individuals: Wangechi Mutu and Isaac Julien, Gassant Orrie, a respected corporate lawyer from Cape Town, Albie Sachs, retired judge of the Constitutional Court and one of South Africa’s heros of the African National Congress, and Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, a distinguished Cape Town collector, philanthropist and social entrepreneur. It is a small board for a public institution by US standards and really not inclusive if its intention is to represent the entire continent and the diaspora. On the other hand, major US museums have received similar criticism: for example, the 50 some odd trustees of the Whitney include only three African Americans, one of whom, Fred Wilson, is also the only artist.
A model more akin to the Smithsonian with advisory boards for each of the areas of collecting and geographic representation may be desirable in a few years. The current collection of Zeitz is inspired by the Rubell Collection’s model, and although this institution is public, some of the same concerns may be raised, even more so for a public institution, given the fact that the majority of artworks are on long term loan until Zeitz’s death or twenty years, whichever is longer.
The Rubell Collection has been criticized for its policy of exhibiting only works from its collection because it limits the potential breadth of its shows, which in turn restricts their critical depth. In addition, the Rubells’ position as taste-setters and market-shapers can lead to the neglect of significant contemporary artists. Hopefully, this is not the case with Zeitz MOCAA, as already indicated by a number of loans for the various solo exhibitions.
A second and perhaps more fundamental concern is the stated limiting criteria of “21st Century” and “cutting edge” to define the African voices which are to be given a platform. Such rigid separation of the “cutting edge contemporary” from traditional African art may be a Eurocentric construct; what is African art from the viewpoint of an African artist and a twenty first century African?
Acording to him, it was Picasso, more than any other European artist, who first understood the power of African Art after a visit to the Trocadero Museum in Paris in 1907.
Contrary to the widely held assumption, he was not looking at historical masterpieces, but at masks and power objects made by his African contemporaries a few years prior. Andre Malraux quotes Picasso: “I understood something very important: something was happening to me. The masks weren’t like other kinds of sculpture. Not at all. They were magical things.” The artists exhibited at Zeitz MOCAA have not rejected the traditional African art: as Geers puts it, “African art continues to fascinate artists who collect, curate and are inspired by the liberating forms of tradition that continues to hold spirit as the force that binds aesthetics to form.”
I experienced a vital contemporary art scene in emerging areas gentrifying parts of Cape Town, like Woodstock and Maitland. The number of contemporary galleries in Cape Town with engaging exhibitions and programs during the preopening festivities of Zeitz MOCAA was in process. Gallery Night, which preceded Zeitz’s opening, included performances and exhibitions at the A4 Arts Foundation, Blank Projects, Goodman Gallery, Gallery MOMO, SMAC Gallery, Stevenson Gallery, and Whatiftheworld Gallery, and featured special performances and exhibitions by many artists, including Turiya Magadlela, Bronwyn Katz, Herman Mbamba, Kutala Chopeto, Grada Kilomba, Sethembile Msezane, Lhola Amira, Mongezi Ncaphayi Cyrus Kabiru, Lyle Ashton Harris, Zanele Muholi, and Mohau Modisakeng. I could even walk around the emerging artistic areas in Cape Town, which is not necessarily the case with Joburg.
Working in performance, sculpture, installation, video, and large-format photography, Mohau Modisakeng explores issues surrounding the history of the black body within the socio-economic and political contexts of South Africa’s violent and oppressive past.
Modisakeng’s live performance was based on Passage (2017), a three-channel video projection and photographic series that meditates on slavery’s dismemberment of African identity and its enduring erasure of personal histories. In the gallery performance, a pool of water 11 gradually forms beneath their bodies. The rising water gradually floods the well of the boat eventually leaving the passengers submerged while the boat is slowly sinking and eventually disappearing. Passage (2017) was commissioned by the South African Department of Arts and Culture on the occasion of the 57th Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, which I discussed in my review of the Venice Biennale for One Art Nation.
From Crocodile Lover, a lecture and performa nce by Kutala Chopeto featured at the Goodman Gallery Arists' Brunch, Sept. 15, 2017. Photo by author.
Lyle Ashton Harris and Zenele Muholi at The Stevenson Gallery’s Breakfast Show, moderated by Mark Gevisser who sits between the two artists (Harris on the left, Muholi on the right) in the photograph on the left. Photos courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Lyle Ashton Harris and Zenele Muholi at The Stevenson Gallery’s Breakfast Show, moderated by Mark Gevisser who sits between the two artists (Harris on the left, Muholi on the right) in the photograph on the left. Photos courtesy of Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
“We must recognize the power of the ‘ought’. It’s the power to change the world! We can’t just see the world in terms of how itis today, or we will always feel defeated. But when we see the world in terms of how things ought to be, we can dream for the impossible – and work to see itbecome reality.”-Max Kampelman
Khayelitsha is a township in Western Cape, South Africa, located on the Cape Flats in the City of Cape Town. It is the largest and fastest growing township in South Africa, originally established as an apartheid dumping ground in the mid 80’s as a part of the Group Areas Act. In the last ten years the population has risen from 400,000 to 2.4 million, 50% of which are under 19 years of age. Unemployment rate is 73%, with 70% living in shacks. 89% of homes are considered 12 moderately to severely food insecure. The extreme poverty, coupled with poor community infrastructure, lead to immense crime rates, gangs, violence, drugs as well as other societal ills.
Juma Mkwela, a popular street artist and tour guide in Khayelitsha, is currently involved in a project in the township, which attempts tocreate positive, sustainable change by gardening and creating art in the streets of Khayelitsha.
Above: paintings on building walls in the Khayelitsha township of Western Cape, Cape Town. The artwork is part of a project to bring art and art education to the townships and headed up by Juma Mkwela, photographed above. Photo by author, Sept. 15, 2017.
Recent attempts at gentrification have resulted in the displacement of all the residents there to tented camps. Johannesburg’s racial segregation and central business district of squatter housing abandoned by legal residents at the time of Apartheid sanctions and white flight in 1994 is as disquieting as the armed security guards and ADT shoot to kill signs in the wealthy neighborhoods such as Houghton.
A Houghton home walled in by barbed wire and a security guard station. Photos by author, Sept. 10, 2017
An outside view of one of Johannesburg’s squatter apartment complexes. Photos by author, Sept. 10, 2017.
Goodman Gallery did tremendous social media outreach to ensure that their public events and installations were genuinely accessible to the public and not just art world elites. When I attended Kudzanai Chiurai’s We Live in Silence on Constitution Hill, I found myself in conversations with many audience members from Johannesburg: a doctor who served migrants and heard about the performance on social media and several young hipsters who were there for 13 the music and free drinks; in other words, many were the born free generation members that Chiurai’s art addresses, his intended audience. Chiurai himself lives in central Johanesburg. Like Zanele Muholi, whose work is her activism and activism is her work, both South African artists’ visionary photographs and videos simultaneously confront the realities they are dealing with now while creating fantastical alternative ones.
Audience members watch Kudzanai Chiurai’s video performance We Live in Silence at Constitutional Court in Johannesburg. Video by author, Sept. 9, 2017.
NB Joburg Art Fair is in its 10th year and is focused on contemporary art from the African continent and diaspora, featuring 60 exhibitions. The degree of outreach in the Joburg Art Week and engagement with townships like Soweto was meaningful. The Joburg Art Fair was small but highly engaging and seemed to truly be a platform for contemporary artists and galleries to engage in dialogue.
The Johannesburg Art Fair, 2017. Photo by author, Sept. 9, 2017.
Peju Alatise won the Johannesburg Art Fair’s FNB prize for her new installation entitled o is the new +, a work which employs the potent imagery of tires in connection to mob violence and lynching. Her symbolism, like Geers’ use of bricks, Mntambo’s use of cow hides, or even Anne Imhof’s placement of German Shepherds caged at the entrance of her German Pavilion’s Faust at the 2017 Venice Biennale, packs a powerful political punch and reminds us of the friction between the way things are and the way they ought to be.
Peju Alatise, o is the new +, 2017. Dimensions vary. Johannesburg Art Fair, Johannesburg. Photo by author, Sept. 9, 2017.
David Koloane was instrumental in establishing studio space for black artists at The Fordsburg Artists’ Studios (The Bag Factory) and he founded the Thupelo Workshops in South Africa, a concept that spread to Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The Bag Factory, founded in 1991, became the studio space, which made it possible for black and white artists to work together on a professional level, despite the Apartheid legislation of that time.
David Koloane, left, discusses his work in an interview conducted at his Bag Factory Studio. Photo by author, Sept. 9, 2017.
One the most meaningful events that I attended was the performance at William Kentridge‘s Center for the Less Good Idea, “an interdisciplinary incubator space for the arts based in Maboneng.”
The Maboneng district and Arts on Main has everything you might expect in the world of the hipster – cafes, bars in warehouses, al fresco restaurants, clothing stores – in the few concentrated streets that make up the area. The blocks around it, though, are yet to be touched. Homeless people sit in doorways, a fire burns in a metal drum, barbed wire surrounds the entrances to a derelict building, abandoned cars sit in the gutter, bodies lie under trees in a barren park. The emergence of transportation in the form of Uber is helping to make life in the evening a possibility in these areas, which are far from safe, at least from the perspective of an outsider.
The Centre for the Less Good Idea hopes to create an environment in which artists are driving the ideas and setting the terms—rather than the more audience-led model that a primary emphasis on social engagement supports. Still, the experimental ethos has led to projects with a very clear and powerful engagement with South Africa’s present and social past.
Requiem Request involved a collaboration with a choir that practices Isicathamiya singing, a traditional Zulu form of music that was adapted in male mining hostels during the height of apartheid oppression. The word isicathamiya translates into sing soft, step light, says Lace. During the period it was developed, black people were not allowed to gather in groups of more than 15. To maintain their musical practice unnoticed, the men would translate the music into a low throat whisper. At the Centre, a choir of 11 men worked with contemporary dancers to create an ensemble piece.
On evening of my return to New York from South Africa, I attended an event entitled Global HOPE, sponsored by Irina Bokova and UNESCO, which honored heroes in the fight against extremism. It reemphasized to me the importance of art and culture in regard to the history of South Africa and in terms of building confidence for a post-apartheid generation. It reminded me that the fight for peace and stability is intimately tied to our support for art and culture. In South Africa as with the majority of the African continent, where the majority of the population lives in poverty, art must not be the commodity of the elite.
There is a fear that the collector will cannibalize these artists and their works. If cannibalism represents, as has been suggested by Roger Davis, “the appetites of the West as projected on to the other” and “one of the true horrors of the cannibal is the disproportion of the West’s appetite”, then the increasing access of the West to consume African art may poses inherent risks. In his writing on cultural commodification, Paul Wright discusses the ways in which capitalism chews up and spits out culture, writing that: “more than 100 years ago, Karl Marx wrote about capitalism’s ability to turn everything into a commodity…one aspect of cultural commodification is its ability to co-opt, neutralize, and render powerless any challenges to the economic and political status quo. In this way, cultural hegemony is enforced.” The fear in this case is that the Western Market will use Zeitz MOCAA as a vehicle to commodify contemporary African art, neutralizing its healing and transformative power and reducing its value to a dollar amount. The struggle is for this generation of born free artists to link to their tradition and recognize the power of African art to confront and subvert the harmful power dynamics of a post-colonial legacy.
To fully realize its potential, Zeitz MOCAA ought be an agent to transform the European concept of Africa, and its subjective Eurocentric view of primitive people, to support an objective global concept and not one fueled by a Eurocentric model. Geers states that: “African Art is a Philosophy that thrives in the smallest village, in the most remote part of Africa, where living traditions of art remain deeply rooted in the community and art, the environment and the embodiment of sacred beliefs. Art is not disconnected from its context and remains a vital force of spirit. African Art is Philosophy cannot separate the mask from the masked, cannot take the dancer out from the dance which cannot be stopped until the rite has been written. The masquerade cannot be read outside of the community upon whose faith it emanates from.”
“Once an object or work of art, any work of art, is isolated from its context, the viewer will add their own layers of reading and fill in the gaps of understanding with their own fears and desires. It was for this reason that the power objects known as ‘Nkisi,’ or ‘Spirit,’ was referred to by Europeans by the term ‘fetish.'” The tremendous support, sense of community, and shared vision I experienced from South African galleries to transform Africa’s nascent arts culture into a cohesive whole that
17 exceeds the sum of its individual fairs, galleries and institutions by reaching out to publics from across the globe to build a cultural identity for contemporary African artists and audiences is heartwarming.
If Zeitz MOCAA is to fulfill its promise to be a leading voice for contemporary African art, it bodes well to hear the “less good idea” and listen to the voices of the ancestors.
…Now while the Africa of despotism is dying – it is the agony of a pitiable princess,
Just like Europe to whom she is connected through the
naval.
Now turn your immobile eyes towards your children who
have been called
And whosacrifice their lives like the poor man his last garment
So that hereafter we may cry ‘here’ at the rebirth of the world being the leaven that the white
flour needs.
For who else would teach rhythm to the world that has
died of machines and cannons?
For who else should ejaculate the cry of joy, that arouses the dead and the wise in a new dawn?
Say, who else could return the memory of life to men with a torn hope?
They call us cotton heads, and coffee men, and oily men.
They call us men of death.
But we are the men of the dance whose feet only gain
power when they beat the hard soil.
-from Prayer to Masks by Léopold Sédar Senghor
**Zanele Muholi, William Kentridge, Mohau Modisakeng, Wangechi Mutu, Nicolas Hlobo, and Kendell Geers, among many others will be in New York for Performa 17, from November 1-19. http://17.performa-arts.org/calendar
Barbara T. Hoffman is a preeminent international art lawyer with an undergraduate degree in art history. She has been a passionate follower of the contemporary art scene for years and a regular attendee at the Venice Biennale since the early 1980’s. She has written frequently on law, art and politics for a variety of publications and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics as well as the attorney for AICA USA. She serves on the Board of Performa, the visual Performance Biennale, found the Washington State Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and is on MoMA’s Contemporary Arts Council and Friends of Education. She serves on the board of several artist endowed foundations and advises museums and artist foundations on issues of governance, including board development and conflict of interest. www.hoffmanlawfirm.org
Galleries and art fairs are showing a growing array of digital work. This new creative technology can include installation, video, interactive, virtual reality, and forms that are yet to be invented. When speaking to a gallery owner at a recent art fair, it was explained that many children have become so accustomed to touching the interactive art that when they come upon a regular painting they don’t understand why they’re not allowed to touch it.
Yet not all aspects of the art world have experienced such rapid evolution. Nowhere is this clearer than with the lack of gender and racial diversity in the art world.
This is something that countless women, minorities, and allies have been fighting for equality for years.
Historically, and even today, women and other minorities have been under represented in art. Susan Mumford is a gender equality advocate, and author. She operates a gallery in Soho, London and founded the Association of Women Art Dealers (AWAD). She cites statistics from the National Museum of Women in the Arts including:
Work by women artists makes up only three to five percent of major permanent collections in the US;
51% of visual artist today are women and yet on average they earn 81 cents for every dollar that a male does; and
ArtReview’s 2016 Power 100 List featured only 32 women.
Mumford also points out that there are fewer women in directorship positions, especially the ones that command the largest budgets.
Artist Colleen Marie Foley, just like many artists today and before her, is taking this uneven playing filed in stride; forging ahead with new forms of creative technology. Foley’s work focuses on the psychological/physical relationship between sublime landscape, digital technology, and the body and the porousness of the membrane that separates them. She encourages artists in the digital realm to play and experiment regardless of whether they have expertise with the technology.
Women still face barriers in this new field of art. Yet Foley and others see women taking up the challenge, pushing and prodding to explore the limits and capabilities of this new frontier. Let’s be clear – there are still obstacles for women. And this struggle is also shared with minorities and other marginalized groups. But one can begin to draw parallels between the disruptive aspect of creative technology and the disruption of traditional gender biases. As women engage with technology, they are able to create new forms of work, enabling greater exposure or their work. Hopefully this new digital realm can help evolve the art world to a place of greater equality for everyone.
This webinar is a must watch! The panelists elaborate a great deal on bias and fairness, as well as technological changes being experienced in the art world. Watch Now!
Collecting art is exciting, intellectually stimulating and emotionally rewarding. And if you know what you’re doing, it could also be worth your while financially.
So how do you get to know the art world and make sure you buy quality art at a reasonable price? Well, unless you are willing to spend years acquiring the expertise required to confidently navigate the art world, it’s smart to engage an art advisor. That sounds straightforward. However, the art advisory profession is unregulated. That means that anyone can call themselves an art advisor.
In this article, we discuss how art advisors provide value to collectors like you and how you can vet your art advisor. We also introduce the new Art Advisory 101 Program, set to launch November 1, 2017, developed by Tang Art Advisory and One Art Nation. This online course was specifically created to guide aspiring art advisors on how to set up their businesses and how to manage the relationships with their collector clients in a market that continues to be highly opaque. Tang Art Advisory and One Art Nation are dedicated to disseminate best practice in the art advisory field, which does not just help art advisors but ultimately collectors, too.
This may come as a surprise but the opacity of the art market is not just confusing for art collectors, it’s also confusing for emerging art advisors. Annelien Bruins, CEO and Senior Art Advisor of Tang Art Advisory, shares her expertise on how to become an art advisor and the role they play.
What does an art advisor do?
An art advisor advises emerging and experienced art collectors on all matters related to the acquisition, sale and management of their art collections. In a market as opaque as the art market, art advisors provide value by acting as their clients’ advocate. By providing market research and art expertise, art advisors save their clients money and time, and reduce their transactional risk.
How do you begin a career in this field?
There is no clear career path for art advisors, or in fact any profession in the art world. Many successful dealers, gallery owners and art advisors started at the bottom and worked their way up over many years, gaining invaluable experience in the process. Others had successful careers outside of the art world and decided to make a living out of their passion for art. We are hoping that our Art Advisory 101 program will make it easier for the next generation of art advisors to get their feet on the ground.
I am looking to become an art advisor, what education is required?
Technically speaking, no education is required. Anyone can call themselves an art advisor and start a business. There really is no substitute for developing an eye for art and viewing art as often as you can. That said, of course it will be helpful to you to have had some form of education on art, whether you studied a particular period in art history or participated in an art business program.
How can I set myself apart as a professional, best-in-class art advisor?
It starts, of course, with your knowledge of and eye for art. You simply have to be good at what you do. But in an unregulated market like the art market, it’s possible to distinguish yourself by how you conduct your business. You set yourself apart by following best practice guidelines: transparency on remuneration, avoidance of conflict of interest and complete independence from auction houses and galleries.
How can you distinguish between a novice and an experienced art advisor?
There is of course no substitute for experience. The longer you do something, the better you become at doing it. That said, we feel that we can make it easier for emerging art advisors like yourself to enter the market and set up your business. Rather than you having to learn the ropes for yourself over the course of years, we save you that time by providing art advisory essentials in the Art Advisory 101 program.
Learn the ins & outs of the art market by joining Annelien Bruins as she covers market essentials as well as art business topics and advisory know-how in the Art Advisory 101 Online Program. Find out how.
Pop Art is an impactful art movement in Britain and the US that emerged in the mid-50s and flourished in the 60s. The term “Pop Art” was coined in 1955 by Lawrence Alloway, a British curator and critic. Pop Art was the art of popular or “material” culture and was a revolt against the status quo and the traditional views of what art should be. It was a new form of “popular” art that was low cost and mass produced.
London, New York City and California artists elevated popular culture to the level of fine art through their dominant avant-garde styles of painting and sculpture that drew on inspiration from Dada-Surrealism and artists such as Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali. Pop artists were looking to rebel against Abstract Expressionism and its pretentious and emotional perception and what they created was art that was young, fun and brash.
Some of the most well-known pop artists began their careers in commercial art. Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist and Claes Oldenberg to name a few. Andy Warhol was responsible for bringing Pop Art into the public eye with his Campbell’s soup cans and Coke bottles. Works that now sell for millions. Before reaching stardom, Andy was a very successful magazine illustrator and graphic designer and used commercial methods he learned, such as silkscreening, to create his most popular works.
Andy Warhol had a real interest for celebrities and used Marilyn Monroe and many others as models. He was fascinated with Hollywood stars and their almost mythical status and set out to portray these glamourous icons as consumer items that could be mass produced at low cost. Like other pop artists of his time, Andy would duplicate and reproduce his work making it seem like it had been produced by a machine.
In some ways, Pop Art mocked the established art world by appropriating commonplace objects of everyday life and images drawn from mass media, comic books, pop music, Hollywood movies, fan magazines, fictional characters and popular imagery at large. Young artists were looking to make their mark by connecting pop culture imagery and fine art traditions. Roy Lichtenstein did so through his work inspired by popular advertising and comic strips using bright dominant colours such as red, yellow and blue.
Pop art also coincided with the pop music phenomenon and artist Peter Blake, referred to by some as the Godfather of British Pop Art, was best known for co-creating the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts album cover. Alongside British artists Richard Hamilton and David Hockney, Peter sourced imagery from pop culture to create colourful and powerful works of art that have had a lasting impression.
Today, Pop Art is stronger than ever and Romero Britto, Steve Kaufman and James Rizzi are very successful artists using elements of the pop style to create modern works. Pop Art was more than a statement and after 45+ years, it continues to fascinate our culture to this day.
One Art Nation is committed to demystifying the process of buying art from start to finish. Access free videos to learn from prominent art experts as they address topics from building, maintaining and protecting an art collection, to tax and financial aspects of owning art. Watch Now
6 Degrees has announced that Ai Weiwei will be coming to Toronto to receive the 2017 Adrienne Clarkson Prize for Global Citizenship. The great Chinese artist and activist will accept the award on Wednesday, September 27, at Koerner Hall, TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning in Toronto. Among the most renowned and revered of living artists, Ai Weiwei’s remarkable career has been characterized by boldness, vision, daring, and a deep empathy for ordinary lives. His recent documentary, Human Flow, filmed in 23 countries, depicts the personal and political impact of the global refugee crisis.
As Canadians who saw his legendary exhibit “According to What?” at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2013 (during which he was forbidden to travel outside of China) will attest, he is a master at the use of multiple media to show audiences how to examine social and political values critically. Ai Weiwei is equally remarkable at issuing accessible, often large-scale aesthetic statements that resonate across cultures, languages, and continents.
As an activist, Ai Weiwei is no less visionary and engaged, both as a citizen of China and of the world. 6 Degrees is especially pleased to honour Ai Weiwei during a period in his career when he is focusing on refugees and migration.
The Adrienne Clarkson Prize for Global Citizenship, established in 2016, is the marquee event at 6 Degrees. The prize is awarded annually to a leader whose life has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to the ideals of belonging and inclusion. Through words, actions, and results, this individual has encouraged thought and dialogue, approaches and strategies that strive to remove barriers, change attitudes, and reinforce the principles of tolerance and respect. Last year’s inaugural laureate was His Highness the Aga Khan.
“This is an important news story as it is only recently that he has been able to travel, establish his studio in Berlin, and bring his message of art expressing human freedom to all of us unencumbered,” says The Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson. “I feel deeply as a Chinese person that, like the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s Bird on a Wire, ‘we have tried in our way to be free’ – I, as a part of an inadvertent diaspora, and he as a focal point for China’s modern history. He is profound, playful, and a truly world figure.”
6 Degrees, presented by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship , connects thinkers and doers to drive the global conversation on inclusion and citizenship. From September 25-27, the second annual 6 Degrees Citizen Space will engage thousands of participants at 12 events over three days in a unique program that encompasses large-scale lectures, dynamic conversations in the round (the signature 6 Degrees “360 sessions”), intimate exchanges, public celebrations, original research, youth-driven projects, artistic engagements, and an opportunity to experience the power of an ICC community citizenship ceremony. 6 Degrees Citizen Space’s Presenting Partners for 2017 are RBC, the City of Toronto, Air Canada and Ontario150.
The Institute for Canadian Citizenship inspires Canadians to be inclusive, embrace fresh thinking, practice active citizenship, and own our collective culture and spaces through innovative programs and special projects including: a unique approach to community citizenship ceremonies, the Cultural Access Pass, Ideas & Insights and 6 Degrees.
Tickets for the event, which will include a conversation between the artist and Mme. Clarkson, are available online. Get Tickets!
The aesthetic value of art is almost impossible to quantify and the emotions that it elicits can be priceless. But what about the actual cost. This is where art finance is helpful. It’s the component of the art market that enables us to know the monetary store of value in a piece of work. This dollar value is important because it gives personal collectors, institutions, and businesses the ability to use art as an asset class and thus a store of wealth.
For years, collectors were mostly buyers of art, rarely selling their works. These collectors built their inventory of work over time and generations. They would often hold onto a growing collection of work, only dispersing it after death.
These collections of work have traditionally been bequeathed to family, and/or institutions such as museums. Drew Watson, Vice President of Art Services Specialist at U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management explains that many of today’s younger collectors (broadly speaking generation X and millennials) take a much different approach when engaging in philanthropic activities.
In addition to appreciating the aesthetic value of the work, these younger collectors are more inclined to consider their portfolio of art as a store of value. Watson notes that much of this cohort have grown up and found success in the post-financial crisis era. Because of this, there has been a focus on investing in tangible assets rather than more complex financial instruments. Real estate is an obvious tangible asset, but there has been a growing demand for investment in works of art.
Younger collectors are also more likely to use their collection as collateral that can be borrowed against.
They are far more commercially driven than traditional collectors and see their collections as less static. This means that rather than holding onto the work for a lifetime they’re more comfortable buying and selling individual pieces depending on tastes and market factors.
Watson observes that the biggest difference between collectors over fifty and those under fifty is their approach to philanthropy. He states that when donating art, the older generation thinks more about traditional institutions such as museums and galleries. The younger collectors are more focused on overall causes that they want to make a difference in – seeking out institutions that align with those goals.
Watson highlights many other interesting aspects of art finance and philanthropy. He provides valuable advice on steps to be taken when donating art. In addition, he offers important financial pointers that everyone should consider when building a collection.
Learn more about the philosophical shift in the new generation of art collectors; macro-trends shaping arts institutional landscape; and how collectors are using their art strategically to create impact. Watch Now!
With a scheduled business trip to Amersfoort, Netherlands (yes, I am still practicing art and cultural heritage law), I took the opportunity to travel six days earlier to continue what the art world has called “The Grand Tour”: from Venice, to Kassel (“Documenta”) and Münster (“Skulptur Projekte”). Whilst the “Grand Tour” included Basel, my self-guided exploration and added visits to Piet Mondrian at the Gemeente Museum Den Haag in the Netherlands, to Mondrian’s childhood home in Amersfoort, and to Utrecht to visit the Rietveldt Schröder House.
In 1917, Piet Mondrian and Theo Van Doesberg founded De Stijle, the revolutionary Dutch art and design movement. The country celebrates the 2017 centenary. With the biggest and best collection of Mondrians, and one of the major De Stijl collections, Gemeente Museum in the Hague is at the heart of the yearlong celebrations and program of events celebrating 100 years of De Stijl, under the title Mondrian to Dutch Design: 100 Years of De Stijle. The Gemeente Museum has mounted the most ambitious display of Piet Mondrian’s work ever mounted: De Ontdekking Van Mondrian.
In 1918, Mondrian and Van Doesberg along with four other artists published a formal manifesto: figurative art was a thing of the past and only abstraction had a future. As the Gemeente Museum describes it;
De Stijl was like a band of dreamers looking to the future: the ultimate ideal of De Stijl was a world in which everything would be art. Just as factories produce goods, so art should produce life.
As critic Claire Doherty wrote, ‘The decennial alignment of these significant European art events in the summer of 2017, provides a moment to take bearings-to experience the new encounters and familiar places through older eyes against the back grab of the inevitable seismic geopolitical shifts that a decade brings whilst Kassel and Venice perform as the artistic platforms for global concerns every five in two years respectively, Münster occurs every ten.”
I visited Münster in 1987 and 1997. Whilst most installations are temporary, it was like a reunion to revisit some of my favorite works, purchased by the city for permanent installation.
Notwithstanding, some negative early reviews from friends, art critics and other art world fellow travelers to Documenta 14, “Learning from Athens“, my experience visiting Documenta in Kassel from Friday afternoon through Sunday and Münster Monday and Tuesday was both a moving and learning experience. Both venues provide access from 10-8 pm. The sun sets well after 9 pm, and as a woman on a mission to experience as much with quality time and without the constraints of an organized group with the deadly lunch breaks, I saw as much– maybe more than necessary– to feel I could write and share my experiences.
It is impossible to adequately write in the limited space available a detailed critique of each of the exhibitions visited on this Grand Tour of northern Europe, however, instead I have selected from each venue certain works which I felt best represented the curatorial objectives and give a sense to the diversity of approaches. My selections are influenced by my interest in art and its interaction with the body politic and art which questions existing legal, political and social relationships.
By way of context, Christine Macel, artistic director of the Venice Biennale, described Vive Arte Viva as a peremptory exclamation:
Contemporary art cannot be understood as mere representation or imitation. [It is] an instrument of inquiry, both of the creative process and of the different questions pertaining to Humankind and the world…
Art in itself helps us to navigate in these times; its very existence is a resistance in itself. As Gilles Deleuze used to say, art is not about communication, but it is an act of resistance…Contemporary art cannot be understood as mere representation or imitation: it is a reality tout court, an instrument of inquiry, both of the creative process and of the different questions pertaining to Humankind and the world. Therefore, the artists should not produce fetishes, but works that are capable of engaging the users in an aesthetic experience that also includes life.”
Contrary to Macel’s Viva Arte Viva which puts artists on a pedestal and glorifies art for art’s sake, the individual pavilions at Venice did not consider art and the political as mutually exclusive. I have already discussed my love affair with Germany’s Anne Imhof’s Faust, which won the Golden Lion for Best Country Pavilion. As Juliane Rebentisch writes in the Faust catalogue, “The implication of the audience in Imhof’s work is a consequence not least importantly of its open form. An atmosphere prevails in it in which everything is meaningful – or nothing is – because whatever is gathering is kept in suspension. Yet this impression is elicited not solely by the specific world the work represents. It is an effect also of the manner in which that world presents itself. The open structure of her productions is designed to allow the zone of indeterminacy that traditionally cordons the work of art to become temporarily entrenched in the surrounding non-artistic reality. Rather than posing self-contained worlds before an audience, she creates situations in which spectators become attendees who, if simply by virtue of their positions and movements in the space, exercise a latent influence over what happens.”
While the artistic directors of Documenta 14, Adam Szymczyk, and the Skulptur Projekte, Kasper König, respectively, each have their own theme and agenda, there are certain similarities: art and artists exist in a political, economic and social context, and all that comprises Kassel and Münster are incorporated in the exhibitions. The works of art are each meant to be inseparable from the place and its disparate publics and times (with its specific temporalities and socioeconomic realities) that give rise to their existence. Particularly with respect to Learning from Athens, artists appear to be selected because of their particular political message and relevance to the overall theme and mission of Documenta. To that extent, Documenta succeeds in addressing and educating us on the principle social and economic and political crisis in Europe. The theme is immigration and displacement and the global economic and political power structures which create it. As in Faust, this is meant as art as lived in a capitalist economy.
If all three exhibitions focus on art and its audience in the present, for the most part, much of the art in Documenta is flat, non-engaging and does not transcend the message it seeks to communicate, sometime with great obviousness. The works below in the Documenta section are some of the several exceptions.
This is contrary to Münster, in which artists developed site-specific works– sculptures, video installations and performances. These projects inscribe themselves in the city’s structural, historical and social context while at the same time pointing beyond its boundaries. The artistic explorations are as much concerned with issues of the global precedent and reflections on the concept of sculpture as with questions about the relationship between public and private space in times of increasing digitalization. Koenig states the role he plays in the fifth edition of the sculpture project as follows:
as artistic director, my job is to make sure that it doesn’t become a festival but remains an exhibition that is perceived physically and emotionally.
Münster is based on the integration of art in the daily life of the inhabitants of Münster. As Koenig stated; “The only thing we wanted the 2017 edition to demonstrate to the broad public and Münster is the political and social relevance of aesthetically honed artistic stances… The works offer widely differing points of departure and enter into lively correspondence with one another: again and again we discover new common threads and cross connections and of quote the sculpture project is a testing ground for discussion on matters of relevance to art and society but also for critical debate on individual artistic stances. To explore the public space always means to negate it.”
These site specific installations by often well established artists have succeeded in engaging the audience in diverse ways. Perhaps for that reason, Münster succeeds as an art exhibition for the contemporary art world based on the superb quality of the artistic choices. The works selected below are representative of many, which create profound and transcendental experiences regarding the issues that Documenta seeks to address but causes us to experience them on a level of spirituality and emotion not present in the many but not all works in Documenta. These works provide platforms through which artists interpret and reinterpret the present and imagine the future.
Kassel, Germany
Arrive Frankfurt Airport. Easy train connection from the airport to Kassel. Documenta 14 runs from June 10-September 17 – Athens and Kassel. I did not visit Athens but question whether it really accomplished a greater view of Africa and the Middle East. Athens is still related to Rome to Europe as we look at the flow of ideas from West to East. Locating a second venue in Tehran or Shanghai might have proved a greater sense of a two way street in the transfer of knowledge. I head to Neue Neue Galerie: one of approximately 25 exhibition venues throughout the city. I have been told by the press office it is one of the more interesting and that there is a live performance scheduled.
The Neue Neue Galerie
Neue Hauptpost, renamed the Neue Neue Galerie by Documenta 14, was inaugurated in 1975 as Kassel’s main post office and mail distribution center as a testament to the final stages of a bygone economy. Today, its architectural body is home to a combination of public services, echoing and reconfiguring the old post office as a nexus of distribution, the art on view explores the labor of dissemination—by mail, on horseback, through bodies or rituals. The concept of redistribution broadens to encompass larger questions about the production of history, of how certain political conditions form a canon that in turn produces certain types of artistic labor and “generate critical ideas about intersections in history, articulating the site as a continuously evolving and dissolving heterotopia.”
Nordstadt is where Kassel becomes home to the Turkish, Ethiopian, Bulgarian and other migrant communities based there since the 1960s and 70s as well as those whom more recently arrived from Syria and the Middle East. As such, the site is a perfect continuation for the themes in the Neue Neue gallery. What I thought was the scheduled performance, in fact was the life of a segregated city.
The actual performance which I missed was to occur in the area adjacent to the above, known as the Glass Pavilions. Located on one of the main traffic corridors on Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse, the street also designates a border. Mitte is the comparatively homogeneous commercial and cultural hub are of Kassel. Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse separates the immigrant populations from this center, which as the catalog notes; “constitute[es] the memory of an economy powered by local shop owners, the six pavilions – plus one remind us of what Kassel once was and wanted to be, while exuding an air of waiting for an elusive future. Seven artists have created projects housed in the spaces which engage with the architectures transparency in this transitional zone.”
Torwache is the remnant of a palatial building plan cut short by the Napoleonic Wars and invasion of the early nineteenth century.
Ibrahim Mahatma uses tattered jute sacks obtained from traders in exchange from new ones. The sacks made in Asia distributed around the world and used in Ghana to package cocoa coffee rice beans and charcoal for export to the Americas in Europe materialized a history of global trade. For Mahatma it is possible to disrupt and subvert the politics of spaces by granting them new forms, imposing new meanings upon them or divesting them of their intended significance his practice of swapping buildings and fabric should be read within this framework born in 1987 and tamale Ghana, Mohammed regularly envelopes buildings – theaters museums residential buildings ministries in Accra and Kumasi.
Ibrahim Mahama, Check Point Sekondi Loco 1901-2030. 2016-2017, 2016-17, various materials, Torwache, Kassel, Documenta 14. Photo by Author.
This Is Not A Perfomance. This is the correct entrance from the KulturBahnhof to the Fridericianum in Mitte. Documenta 14, Kassel. Photo by Author.
This, Too, Is Not A Performance. It is an Immigrants’ Rights Protest which took place in Kassel. Photo by Author.
Münster, Germany
These are a selection of some of the marvelous artists to see if you go to Münster. Discussions of the individual artworks can be found at the Skulptur Projekte’s official website, https://www.skulptur-projekte.de.
This is a very nice place to end your bicycle ride or walking tour of Münster where you can view attendees experience the work of Ayse Erkman from one of the modern new restaurants along the canal. Also of Interest: Benjamin De Burca and Barbara Wagner, Bye Bye Deutschland! Eine Ledensmelodi 2017 and Gregor Schneider, N. Schmidt, Pferdegasse 19.
The Hague & Utrecht, Netherlands
Piet Mondrian, from The Discovery of Mondrian, Gemeente Museum Den Haag, the Hague, Netherlands
Piet Mondrian, from The Discovery of Mondrian, Gemeente Museum Den Haag, the Hague, Netherlands
The entire holding of works by Piet Mondrian are on show at the Gemeente Museum in The Hague in a groundbreaking exhibition The Discovery of Mondrian – Amsterdam │ Paris│London │ New York, from June 3rd to September 24th, 2017.
The Gemeente Museum’s collection, the largest in the world, has never before been seen together in its entirety. The exhibition, which coincides with the centenary of the beginning of De Stijl, includes every single work by Mondrian owned by the museum – some 300 paintings and drawings – making it the most ambitious survey of Mondrian ever mounted. Together these works create a journey through modern art, and tell the story of Mondrian’s life in the international cities of Amsterdam, Paris, London and New York.
The exhibition, co-curated by Benno Tempel, Director of the Gemeente Museum Den Haag, with curator Jet van Overeem, presents a radical new reading of the artist. On the one hand, the exhibition presents a new and much more open perspective on the artist away from the lens of mid-20th century modernism and closer to the work of American abstract expressionists, such as Mark Rothko, and on the other hand, and emphasis on the early investigations of Mondrian and the influence of Dutch landscape painting on his later emphasis on rhythm, the horizontal, and the vertical.
Rietveldt Schröder House, Utrecht, Netherlands
Rietveldt Schröder House, Utrecht, Netherlands
In conclusion, the circuit is well worth an Atlantic hop for art lovers combining a unique opportunity to experience different curatorial and artistic visions of the current world political, economic and social conflicts and realities, with an opportunity to encounter a historic movement with similar concerns of the role of art in a new future, by immersion in De Stijl through its best known artist, Piet Mondrian, and the home of the maker of the most famous Dutch chair, Gerrit Rietveldt.
Unfortunately, Munster happens only every ten years. It’s on until October 1, 2017. Spend a weekend riding in the bike capital of Germany for a super public art experience, visiting the thirty-five works of art.
Leading online and experiential art network, One Art Nation, unites art collectors and experts around the world
The online art market is experiencing rapid growth like never before. Today, collectors can buy art from almost anywhere in the world without ever having to leave home. But purchasing is only one part of the puzzle. More than ever, online resources are helping eliminate barriers by providing invaluable knowledge and tools to collectors across the globe.
While the online art industry has helped connect more people to art, the market isn’t always straightforward – especially for new collectors. The art world is often perceived as exclusive and inaccessible to new buyers. It can be intimidating approaching the market whether you are looking to purchase your first piece or are building on your collection.
Thankfully, online arts education is set to play an increasingly important role in building confidence in the overall art market. In fact, the Art & Finance 2016 Report released by Deloitte & ArtTactic states that 78% of art professionals and collectors believe that online arts education has great potential and is essential to evolve the industry.
Since launching in 2013 at Art Miami, One Art Nation has become one of the world’s most influential sources of online art education for art collectors, enthusiasts and professionals.
After extensively examining the market and listening to the needs of the industry as a whole, it became clear to art entrepreneurs and One Art Nation co-founders Amanda Dunn and Julia Wehkamp that an accessible platform where people could access relevant arts education was missing as a resource. They created One Art Nation as an online and experiential art network with the goal of assisting in the development of emerging art markets – and a new generation of collectors – while stimulating important discourse in the established art world.
Art collectors spend years building up a collection of work. Many rotate their art between walls and storage. Depending on the value and/or cultural significance of the work, some collectors may also loan out work to institutions such as galleries and museums. That being said, collections often evolve with times, taste, and financial considerations. There are many reasons why a collector might want to eventually part with accrued artwork. And when collectors do decide to sell, the available options and considerations can be overwhelming.
Aimee Pflieger has 20 years of experience working at arts related organizations including research roles at Indiana University Art Museum and sales promotions for modern and contemporary art galleries. She suggests that collectors have a variety of reasons for selling their pieces and many ways to accomplish this.
As a collector, you should have a clear idea of your motivations for perusing a sale. This is important because there are several venues for selling work and each may have a better chance of achieving your expectations.
While galleries and art dealers are the most common sales channels, Pflieger highlights auctions as the most transparent venue that can offer the greatest financial outcome for selling work.
Bettina Huang, having previously worked in the Contemporary Art department at Christie’s and recently joined Artsy in 2017, advocates that there are many different auction houses across the world with each having their own specialty. Huang points out that the success of a sale is highly dependent on the choice of auction house and its desired reach for the type of art you are selling. For example, highly specialized work often does better at smaller venues, particular those with a narrower target of potential buyers. Keep in mind that auction houses come in many shapes and sizes. Once uncommon, online auctions are becoming an increasinglyrespected and effective forum when selling work.
Keep in mind that when selling work, a good strategy that many collectors employ istomaintain an element of exclusivity. This can be achieved by being selective on would-be auction houses or sales venues.
If buyers have previously seen the work for sale, they may infer that the work has had a difficult time being sold. This is compounded by the fact that today’s buyers can easily search results from past auctions (including prices as well as unsold works!) that didn’t find a buyer.
Above all, if you’re a collector who is selling, take the time to get an appraisal from a professional. The Appraisers Association of America website can help you find a local licenced appraiser who can help you take stock of your collection and guide you to a sales venue that is right for you.
To learn more about your options to maximize your financial result, watch How to Approach Selling Your Collection. Watch Now!
The art market is split up into the primary and secondary market. If an artwork comes straight out of an artist’s studio, by way of a gallery or a contemporary art fair, it’s most likely being offered for sale for the first time. This is the primary art market when the price for the piece is also established for the first time.
Galleries and collectors invest in and drive the growth of an artist in the primary market. In most cases, the artist is alive and their work is referred to as contemporary art. Galleries sell directly for the artist and collectors will often meet the artist in person through studio visits or exhibition previews prior to purchasing.
When market demand eventually grows for an artist’s work, the value of the art will increase resulting in higher prices in the primary market.
The greater the demand, the higher the price. The secondary market usually comes when an artist is highly established and sought after.
Once a piece has been acquired on the primary market and is being resold, it’s now part of the secondary market or second-hand market. Often prices in the secondary market will be more stable then those of emerging or mid-career artists but the objective of those involved in the sale is to try and achieve the highest price possible. A collector will purchase at a higher price with hopes that they will also be able to sell the work on if needed, possibly for more money.
Auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s seldom deal in the primary market as they are around to fuel the secondary market.
As are fixed-price, buy-sell online websites such as Ebay. While traditional and online auctions sell everything from Photography to Impressionist and Modern Art, Post-war and Contemporary Art Auctions are outperforming the others.
That said, low sale results on the secondary art market can be detrimental to an artist’s career and the value of future works. With innovative online tools now available, price data is easily accessible offering greater transparency in the market. Through sites such as artnet, users can access information from 1,500+ auctions with lots from 300,000+ artists to help determine the value of an artist’s work.
When an artist is at a high point in their career as reflected in these online price reports, there is no better time to sell.
Additional to auction houses, dealers can be found operating in both the primary and secondary markets. Dealers have relationships with collectors so it only makes sense that collectors would come to them to sell works whether it be to free up wall space, bring in a fresh look or maximize their profit.
This Ebook addresses the relationship between art advisors and art collectors – from both perspectives. It describes the idiosyncrasies of the art market and why they are problematic for new art collectors. The Ebook further discusses the ways in which art advisors provide value to their clients. Over the last century the perception of art has changed from a purchase of passion to a financial asset. This development has had consequences for the way in which art transactions are conducted. Annelien Bruins advises aspiring art advisors on how to successfully manage the relationship with their clients, discusses the art advisory career trajectory and lastly, the future of the profes-sion.
After nearly 15 years in their current location, Stephen Bulger Gallery have finally found a new gallery space in their neighbourhood that is large enough to accommodate their ambitions to be one of the world’s leading commercial galleries for great photographs of all types.
On September 9, 2017, they open the doors of 1356 Dundas Street West to welcome visitors in a purposefully designed space of over 11,000 square feet.
Designed by architect Michael Boxer, the new space will dramatically increase exhibition space, include several private viewing areas, and better enable them to house the more than 40,000 photographs that currently comprise the gallery’s growing inventory.
They will operate out of their current location until June 17th, then will move into the new location, taking the summer months to unpack and prepare for their first exhibition, which will highlight Larry Towell’s photographs of an even larger construction project: the renovation of Union Station.
Since opening in 1995, Stephen Bulger Gallery has become synonymous with photography in Canada. Its extensive exhibition program of more than 180 solo and group exhibitions has introduced Torontonians to important local and international photography, has exhibited Canadian photography in special exhibitions at prestigious institutions around the world, and has exhibited in more than 60 art fairs.
Stephen Bulger (Born 1964, Toronto) has played vital roles in the founding of the CONTACT Photography Festival and the Ryerson Image Centre, and is a past President of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, which is comprised of over 125 specialists in photography from around the world. The gallery has sold work to important private and public collections in every continent, and is Canada’s go to destination for photographic art and artefacts.
When I tell my art world friends I have just returned from the press openings of the Venice Biennale, the question almost inevitably asked is, what is it like? Is it worth a visit.
My initial response is, of course, influenced by the big thematic exhibition in the Giardini, more specifically the Central Pavilion, and the Arsenale. This is the International Art Exhibition, whose curator is selected by La Biennale de Venezia. Christine Macel, Pompidou Museum, was selected as the curator of the 2017 Biennale.
Since 1895 when the first Art Biennale was held, the promoters – La Biennale di Venezia – have stood at the forefront of research and promotion of new contemporary art trends, organizing exhibitions and research in allied sectors including Music (1930), Cinema (1932), Theatre (1934), Architecture (1980) and Dance (1999).
Paolo Barrata, President of la Biennale di Venezia, describing the three previous Biennales, stated: “Curiger, Gioni, Enwezor, a trilogy in a sense – three chapters in a research process engaged by la Biennale di Venezia to explore the benchmarks that can help us formulate aesthetic judgments on contemporary art, a “critical” question following the demise of the avant-gardes and “non-art”.” Paolo Baratta introduces this year’s edition with these words, recalling that “Bice Curiger brought us the theme of perception, of ILLUMInation or light as an autonomous and revitalizing element, and Massimiliano Gioni was interested in observing the phenomenon of artistic creation from within, and turned his attention to the inner impulses that drive mankind and the artist to create images and bring representations to life.”
The 56th International Art Exhibit, organized by its first African curator, Nigerian Okwui Enwezor, was politics pure and simple, inspired by “the relationship between art and the development of the human, social, and political world, as external forces and phenomena loom large over it”, it aimed to “investigate how the tensions of the outside world act on the sensitivities and the vital and expressive energies of artists, on their desires and their inner song.” Enwezor’s All the World’s Futures was described by one critic as “an assault course of videos about global starvation, industrial pollution and the atrocious conditions of garment workers in developing countries.” Inspired by Marxism, All the World’s Futures was explicitly critical of capitalism and consumerism and the state of anxiety generated by its social, political, economic, and environmental consequences.
Speaking of the 57th International Art Exhibition, Barrata states: “This is an Exhibition inspired by humanism. This type of humanism is neither focused on an artistic ideal to follow nor is it characterized by the celebration of mankind as beings who can dominate their surroundings. If anything, this humanism, through art, celebrates mankind’s ability to avoid being dominated by the powers of governing world affairs. These powers, if left to their own devices, can greatly affect the human dimension, in a detrimental sense.”
Christine Macel states: “…the title Viva Arte Viva immediately sets the tone of this Biennale: an exhibition which, even if it addresses complex political and social issues, has its own particular energy and dynamism. I chose it to inspire a lively interest in the public: Viva is a celebratory exclamation but also an expression of exuberance, and so it encourages a feeling of engagement with the exhibition…Today in a world full of conflicts and shocks, artist bear witness to the most precious part of what makes us human. Art is the ultimate ground for reflection, individual expression freedom and for fundamental questions…It stands as an unequivocal alternative to individualism and indifference…Viva Arte Viva is…a passionate outcry for art and the state of the artist…a Bienniale designed with artists by artists and for artists.”
The Art Exhibitions of Viva Arte Viva unfold over the course of nine chapters or families of artists, beginning with two introductory realms in the Central Pavilion, followed by another seven across the Arsenale.
Macel states that this series of pavilions invites visitors “into an experiential journey from interiority to infinity.” Viva starts from the figure of the artist to more spiritual questions. It is like a novel in progress: “In other rooms of this journey, I wanted to explore some subjects in much more depth, who through their work could offer a new point of view.”
A sharp contrast to All the World’s Futures, Macel’s Viva Arte Viva has been correctly criticized for its lack of addressing the contemporary political, social and economic issues of today with a direct, compelling and passionate collective reimagining of a future. Viva Arte Viva falls far short of its ambitions, and is infinitely less interesting and relevant than the three immediately prior International Exhibitions.
I could not agree more with Holland Cotter’s general comment in his May 29 New York Times Review of the Venice Biennale, that Viva lacked relevance to the issues of today, and that the “current market-addled mainstream art world really is, politically out of it”: “particularly Macel’s exhibition is perversely out of sync with the times.” It is not only that it lacks any real coherence, but too often the approach of inclusion and participation is simple. Macel claims that, “Viva offers a route that moulds the artist’ works and a context that favors access and understanding, generating connections, resonances and thoughts.” The artist centered view in a more global context seems short on empathy for the problems the general public is likely to consider relevant to their day to day existence.
I was not engaged in this journey. Perhaps the failure of Macel’s journey is that it is a “novel”. This is not the time for fiction, but for engagement with and resistance to the stark realities of the existing political, economic and social structures of “now”. Macel’s curatorial exercise lacks any obvious underlying political or aesthetic philosophical undergirding, which is why it lacks currency. Macel opines that “Art in itself helps us to navigate in these times; its very existence is a resistance in itself.” Fortunately, many of us, including the curators of other pavilions, disagree.
From among the 120 invited artists from 51 countries, there are many gems. Macel has obviously worked tirelessly to bring artists from around the world working in all media and from all generations. It is indeed a global selection in a variety of styles, media, and materials. A quick walk-through of the Central Pavilion and Arsenale is worth the effort.
Starting with the Pavilion of Artists and Books, the Exhibition purports to reveal its premise: a dialectic that it claims, involves the whole of contemporary society, beyond the artist himself, and addresses the organization of society and its values. Macel succeeds less in this aspect than in her intent to focus on the artist, the questions they ask, the practices they develop and the ways of life they chose. She states that the ideal introduction to the journey is the Pavilion of Artists and Books. Here it is for the spectator to ask what it means to be an artist today. McArthur Binion, an American artist based in Chicago, is interviewed in the Pavilion of Artists and Books discussing his paintings on view and his process of creation.
The National Pavilions
The Biennale is more than the International Art Exhibition. The Venice Biennale also includes 86 National Participations in the historic Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale and in the historic city center of Venice. Three countries are participating for the first time: Antigua and Barbuda, Kiribati, and Nigeria. While I did not have occasion to visit the first two, I was privileged to attend the performance and press openings of Nigeria.
As in the past, the very notion of a national pavilion has always provoked a response in one or more national pavilions. In this Biennale, themes of the impact of globalization, personal identity, national identity, and politics are also evident. In many respects, the National Pavilions selected below, address more explicitly the political, economic, cultural and social issues and more directly address the role of the engaged artist and contemporary art in changing the world. If the International Art Exhibit of Macel fails in its intention to engage and be relevant, the pavilions below are well worth the journey.
Faust
The German Pavilion, Curated by Susanne Pfeffer, Artist Anne Imhof
German artist Anne Imhof’s Faust is a strong counterpoint to the Macel exhibition in almost every respect. My experience of this pavilion on three different occasions made it my pick to win the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, and it did. It will be featured in an article by me in Sculpture Magazine, June 2017. Susanne Pfeffer, the curator, explains, “Suddenly, we find ourselves in the midst of various constructions of power and powerlessness, consciousness and violence, resistance and freedom. Outside, and territory are ones own, dogs guard the house…On the balustrades and fences, underground and on the roof, the performers conquer and occupy the room, the house, the pavilion, the institution, the state.”
Exterior, May 9, 2017, German Pavilion, (photo by the author)
Counterbalance: The Stone & The Mountain
The Korean Pavilion, Artist Lee Wan, interview with Lee Daehyung, Curator.
Cinema Olanda
The Dutch Pavilion, Artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh, interview with Lucy Cotter, Curator.
Featuring three filmic works, Cinema Olanda operates in the cracks between the projected image of the Netherlands as a transparent avant-garde country and its reality today as a complex and rapidly transforming social, cultural and political space. The works shed light on underexposed aspects of the Netherlands’ recent history.
My Horizon
The Australian Pavilion, Curated by Natalie King, Artist Tracey Moffatt.
“There are times in life when we can all see what is ‘coming over the horizon’ and this is when we make a move. Or we do nothing and just wait for whatever is to arrive…The Asylum-seeking storyline is not a new story…people throughout history and across cultures have always escaped and crossed borders to seek new lives.”
Tracey Moffatt, Vigil, (2017) (photo by the author)
Vigil Vigil was inspired by a news story about a boat carrying asylum-seekers which crashed on the Christmas Island shoreline back in 2010, killing about fifty people. Moffatt states: “It is a tragedy that has haunted me since, as do many news stories. We can never fathom the desperation of the people who got onto that awful boat and crossed the horizon and tried to make it to some sort of freedom in Australia. The smashing of that rotten wooden boat is symbolic of how borders around the world are disintegrating. The old world is out, the new world is coming in and borders cannot stay closed. Human beings, in their desperation, will always find a way ‘in’; they always have. In Vigil, I juxtapose images of white movie stars gazing out of windows at dark-skinned people arriving on boats.”
Tracey Moffatt, Vigil, (2017) (video by the author)
In Ghost Ship, Moffatt creates an alternative narrative of aboriginal history to challenge the colonial narrative.
Tremble Tremble
The Pavilion of Ireland, Curated by Tessa Giblin, Artist Jesse Jones
“I am excited to rise to this challenge and create an exhibition that will stimulate debate on issues of urgent political and social relevance in Ireland and across the world,” Jones is known for her practice that focuses on the embedded political and social history within everyday life. She is interested in the moments when this hidden history comes to the surface, such as the demonstration or strike. Tremble, Tremble was inspired by the death of a young Indian doctor living in Ireland who died when she was not able to get a life saving abortion. Her death sparked a women’s protest movement to amend the Irish Constitution to give a woman control of her body. Its title is inspired by the 1970s Italian wages for housework movement, during which women chanted “Tremate, tremate, le streghe sono tornate! (Tremble, tremble, the witches have returned!)”.
Archaic
The Iraq Pavilion, curated by Tamara Chalabi and Paolo Colombo, Commissioned by The Ruya Foundation
“The exhibition, ‘Archaic’, shows the work of eight Modern and contemporary Iraqi artists in dialogue with 40 ancient Iraqi artefacts drawn from the Iraq Museum and spanning six millennia, from the Neolithic Age to the Parthian Period. Most of these objects have never previously left Iraq, excluding a few that were recently recovered after the 2003 lootings of the Museum.
Ali Arkady is a photographer and filmmaker and became a photojournalist in 2010. Ali’s work fills the void left behind by decades of dictatorship and censorship that stopped Iraqi culture from developing a modern voice. In the catalog essay, Ed Kashi states, “Iraq’s history is ancient, in some cases representing the beginnings of Western civilization to agriculture, culture, science, poetry and art – the dictatorship set. Violence and meddling of outsiders in modern times have shunted this history aside “as a Syrian composer recently said, “in the Arab world the concept of citizenship does not exist. We are not citizens but consumers that are conceived by dictatorship”. After a crisis to control of vast areas of northern Iraq in 2014, Arkady began recording regularly from the frontline. He was embedded with the Iraqi security forces in the recent operations to expel Isis from Mosul. In 2015 and 2016 he led a UNHCR community project, teaching photography to Yazidi women in Iraq refugee camps.
The exhibition is also accompanied by a new commission by internationally acclaimed Belgian-born artist Francis Alӱs on the subject of war and the artist. “In February 2016 Alӱs undertook a trip to Iraq facilitated by the Ruya Foundation in which he visited refugee camps in the north of the country. He followed this with an extroardinary visit in November 2016 to the Mosul front line in the company of a Kurdish batallion, during the Liberation of Mosul offensive.”
Alӱs states: “There is something particular about these times we live in, it comes with a new expectation of the artist’s role. When the structure of a society collapses, when politicians and the media have lost credit, the terror invades daily life, society turns towards culture in pursuit of answers. Maybe not answers but a different – more sincere? – way of looking at things. And that is quite a responsibility! I don’t think artists are insincere, but they too have an agenda, they have their own subjective view of facts…The artist as “witness”? One thing is to mirror the society we live in, another is to portray it. When does witnessing become denouncing, when does denouncing become accusing?”
Francis Alӱs, Archaic, (2017) (photo by the author)
How About Now?
The Nigerian Pavilion, Curated by Adenrele Sonariwo and Emmanual Iduma, Artists Victor Ehikhamenor, Peju Alatise, and Qudus Onikeku
The three installations of How About Now? “all deal, in some form, with the notion of time and the impulse to shape cultural and national identity outside of the colonialist narrative that the country has long been forced into.” Two renowned visual artists – Victor Ehikhamenor and Peju Alatise – and celebrated performance artist, Qudus Onikeku, have been selected to showcase their unique works centered on the theme ‘How About NOW?’
The curator has stated that “Transporting us across centuries, each artist addresses a different facet of Nigerian history, seeking to situate themselves in the present, in a ‘now’ that captures and corrects history, and which looks to use artistic expression to guide the future — a future of volition, where identity is shaped rather than forced.” Their work seeks to use the narrative of the present to interrogate the minefield of societal consciousness in addressing aspects of identity and belonging as it relates to and confronts the Nigerian past.
According to Ade Adekola, one of the members of the Nigerian Pavilion: “The concept of time, and our drive to hold it to NOW, in this brave new present, cannot be viewed without the notion of the rate at which change occurs. The very notion which adds dimension to NOW is captured in a wonderful word which signals unfolding – Prescience. The Nigerian pavilion stands as a mark of ‘Prescience’, calling all to attention, and to witness the Nowness of Nigerian experience, in all its poignant unfolding forms, as best encountered through artists at work in the country today.”
Peju Alatise’s “Flying Girls” is a moving sculptural and sound work that presents the crisis of young Nigerian girls being rented out by their families to wealthier families for years at a time for domestic help. “The sing-song voice of children chanting plays in the background…The work is one of several that [Alatise] is creating based on scenes from her novel Flying Girls, which follows Sim, a young girl who is rented out to a family for five years to clean, cook, and care for their children, who are not much younger than she is. Each night, Sim flies to a fantastical alternate universe, where she can chase shadows, rest on the moon, and fly to the sky with her friend– where she can be a child.” Alatise presents the viewer with the prescience of these young women being “transported to a world of possibility, where history can be reclaimed, where young girls get second chances.”
Peju Alatise, “Flying Girls” (2016) dimensions variable (photo by the author)
Adenrele Sonariwo in front of Victor Ehikhamenor’s “A Biography of the Forgotten” (2017), (photo by the author)
Performers outside of the Nigerian Pavilion (2017) (photo by the author)
Emissaries
The New Zealand Pavilion, artist Lisa Reihana
In Pursuit of Venus [infected], 2015–17, is the cinematic centrepiece of exhibition Lisa Reihana: Emissaries.
Lisa Reihana in the New Zealand Pavilion also calls into question colonial narratives and histories. “The vast panoramic video is a filmic reimagining of the Neoclassical French scenic wallpaper Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique, 1804—1805, also known as ‘Captain Cook’s voyages’.
In Neoclassical France, entrepreneur Joseph Dufour used the latest printing innovations to commercially produce the sophisticated twenty-panel scenic wallpaper. Mirroring a widespread fascination with the Pacific voyages undertaken by Captain Cook, de Bougainville and de la Perouse, its exotic themes referenced popular illustrations of that time.
Two centuries later, Reihana employs twenty-first century audio-visual technologies to animate the wallpaper with real and invented narratives in a cultural endeavor of reclamation and reimagining. The artist re-casts this original European fabrication of the Pacific to suggest a more complex story.
The expansive video panorama is populated by characters drawn from across Aotearoa New Zealand, the Pacific and Europe to create a compelling and mesmerizing experience. Reihana intensifies the death of Cook in Hawai’i as the dramatic moment of rupture. This and other narratives play out within a looping visual and sonic world where time is cyclical. This temporal and spatial dimensionality can be linked to Tā-Vā, the Pacific theory of time and space.”
Lisa Reihana, In Pursuit of Venus [infected], (2015–17), Ultra HD video, colour, sound, 64 min. (photo by the author)
Lisa Reihana, In Pursuit of Venus [infected], (2015–17), Ultra HD video, colour, sound, 64 min. (photo by the author)
Lost in Tngri
The Mongolian Pavilion
“”Lost in Tngri” (“Lost in Heaven”) is an exhibition by five Mongolian artists: Ch.Chimeddorj, O.Enkhtaivan, J.Bolortuvshin, G.Munkhboldor, Ts.Davaajargal. It is about the frailty of human nature and its effect upon society and the environment.” Curator Yo.Dalkh-Ochir, speaking about the work, states: “Across Asia the crane is a symbol of happiness and eternal youth. The birds arrive in Mongolia for the summer and suddenly disappear, returning to Africa for the winter. They are resourceful in what they eat, changing their diet according to what’s available. Chimeddorj’s I’m Bird introduces more complex associations, by combining their form and silhouete with that of a gun. The idea came to mind when the artist saw “a teeming crowd of young Mongolians in front of the Korean Embassy in Ulaanbaatar; they were standing in line to get visas to work in Korea.” This work with its ranks of birds, a sub group of reptiles and the last living examples of dinosaurs, mixes unsettling associations of history, strife, exodus and foreboding. Chimeddorj is questioning where modern goals lead us and to what extend the restless quest for new worlds destroys the old ones.”
Chimeddorj Shagdarjav I’m Bird, (2016), dimensions variable (photo by the author)
Collateral Events and Museum Exhibitions
Venice has a number of temporary exhibitions well worth a visit even if you are not otherwise Biennale tempted, not to mention the vast treasures of Venice itself.
Intuition at the Palazzo Fortuny
To coincide with the 2017 Venice Art Biennale, Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti, Director of the Palazzo Fortuny, will present their sixth and last exhibition: Intuition. Organised by the Axel & May Vervoordt Foundation and the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, the exhibition explores how intuition has, in some form, shaped art across geographies, cultures and generations. It brings together historic, modern and contemporary works related to the concept of intuition, dreams, telepathy, paranormal fantasy, meditation, creative power, hypnosis and inspiration.
Vervoordt describes Intuition as the ability to acquire knowledge without proof, evidence, or conscious reasoning: a feeling that guides a person to act in a certain way without fully understanding why. This acclaimed series at the Palazzo Fortuny co-curated by Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti began with Artempo (2007), In-finitum (2009), TRA (2011), Tàpies. Lo Sguardo dell’artista (2013) and Proportio (2015).
Artempo, “Where Time Becomes Art” was the first large exhibition Axel Vervoordt curated which gained worldwide acclaim. Artempo examined the relationship between art, time and the power of display, representing a breadth of cultures and periods and featuring over 300 objects ranging from rare archaeological materials to contemporary installations. The work of over 80 artists included Francis Bacon, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, James Turrell, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. It began a new way of curating and looking at works of art and objects as works of art. It was a milestone in curating with its blend of centuries, artistic insights and ideas, conversations amongst artists and objects and works of art. The curator’s vision paired with extraordinary connoisseurship, provided powerful objects and works of art which communicated to the viewer without text or wall label.
Each of the curated thematic exhibitions which followed met this high standard. There is a lesson ere as to why Macel’s curatorial effort may fail, where Vervoordt’s has gathered praise. Intuition begins here with the creator. As a concept it is artist centered and about art. That is the beginning of the curatorial journey. It is not the end.
A wonderful exhibit at the Gallerie dell’ Academia, Philip Guston and the Poets, not only explores Philip Guston’s paintings to draw parallels between the essential humanist themes of his work with the language and ideas of the poets that he loved – Eliot, Yates, Wallace Stevens, but it also reveals the surprisingly profound importance of Italian painting on an artist usually regarded as quintessentially American.
It is especially appropriate that Guston’s Venetian debut is taking place in the Accademia which was apparently one of his favorite places.
Mark Tobey Threading Light; Mystical Symbolism at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
One of the foremost American artists to emerge from the 1940s, a decade that saw the rise of abstract expressionism, Mark Tobey (1890–1976) is recognized as a vanguard figure whose “white-writing” anticipated the formal innovations of New York School artists such as Jackson Pollock. This unique form of abstraction was the synthesis of the artist’s experiences living in Seattle and New York, his extensive trips to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kyoto, and Europe, and his conversion to the Bahá’í faith.
As curator Debra Bricker Balken explains, “Within this mix of sources, Tobey was able to skirt a specific debt to cubism—unlike his modernist peers—by fusing elements of like formal languages into compositions that are both astonishingly radical and beautiful.” As the New York School emerged in the aftermath of World War II, Tobey was only marginally integrated into the movement because he was averse to the cultural nationalism and “American-ness” of the rhetoric imposed on its paintings. Unlike the brasher, more aggressive pictorial statements of Jackson Pollock and others, Tobey’s quiet, inward-directed work could not easily be folded into the new critical discourse intent on the formulation of a national identity for American art. On this aspect, note that Alberto Giacometti refused to represent Switzerland, in a pavilion built by his brother in 1952 because he believed in globalism. This year, the Swiss pavilion pays homage to him with a work based on a group of plaster figures entitled the “Femmes de Venise” which he finally consented to display in the French pavillon in 1956.”
Vik Muniz: Afterglow, Pictures of Ruins at the Palazzo Cini
“The artist’s sources of inspiration for this work, especially conceived for Palazzo Cini, are the exhibition Rediscovered Masterpieces from the Vittorio Cini Collection (2016) and some of the masterpieces in the collection by great artists such as Francesco Guardi, Dosso Dossi and Canaletto.”
Damien Hirst: Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable at the Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana
Contrary to many critics and art world friends, I was not at all sorry to have seen Hirst’s spectacle and extravaganza, although Palazzo Grassi sufficed. Is it perhaps because I am a member of the prestigious Explorers Club and involved in actual underwater explorations that I found some meaning, not only in the feigned air of discovery, but in the possibility that Hirst’s trajectory from submerging a shark in formaldehyde to discovery of a world of commodities in a wreck underwater, held more meaning than apparent at the surface level. If we dive deeper, is this Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle (1967), with (or without) its indictment of capitalist consumer culture. Debord was a founding member of the Situationist International (1957-1972, a group of avant-garde artists and political theorists united by their opposition to advanced capitalism. The spectacle is the inverted image of society in which relations between commodities have supplanted relations between people, in which “passive identification with the spectacle supplants genuine activity”. “The spectacle is not a collection of images,” Debord writes, “rather, it is a social relationship between people that is mediated by images.”
Damien Hirst, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable (2017)
Get your plane ticket and visit Venice before November 26th!
As is so often the case in Venice, the Giardini’s Central Pavilion where the “historic” national pavilions from 1907 are located generated a space for artistic commentary. For example, the United States Pavilion, a Palladian-style structure built in 1930 in a style resembling Thomas Jefferson’s home, presents Mark Bradford’s exhibition critiquing this Jeffersonian structure and the lack of Jeffersonian values in the United States today.
Using the modernist architect Gerrit Rietveld’s Dutch Pavilion as its conceptual departure point, the artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh and curator Lucy Cotter’s Cinema Olanda operate in the cracks between the projected image of the Netherlands as a transparent avant garde country and alternatively, its reality today based on a nondisclosed previously unacknowledged post war narrative.
See our exclusive interview with Lucy here:
The Pavilion of Korea illustrates powerfully the impact of globalization on Asian cultures.
In Counterbalance: The Stone and The Mountain, Lee Wan’s performative works adopt a sociological lens to examine the relation between individuals and the socioeconomic systems structuring their lives. For this installation, the artist’s travels across Asia lead him to inquire about both the benefits and the harms of globalization and its influence on the socioeconomic structure of the people whom he interviews on his travels.
See how curator Lee Daehyung explains Lee Wan’s project here:
Christine Macel is the curator of this year’s Biennale. Her show, titled Viva Arte Viva, is one of nine pavilions she’s designed. These nine pavilions, which are intended to “flow together like chapters in a book”, are described as “telling a story that is often discursive and at times paradoxical with detours that mirror the world’s complexities, a multiplicity of approaches and a wide variety of practices. The exhibition is intended as an experience, an extrovert movement from the self to the other, towards a common space beyond defined dimensions.”
Among Macel’s nine pavilions is the Central Pavilion’s “Pavilion of Artists and Books” where modernist painter McArthur Binion’s exhibition is held, entitled DNA Series.
In April 2012, during the opening of the exhibition Back to the Basics, at the OHD Museum in Magelang, Central Java, the most senior collector and supporter of Indonesian modern and contemporary art, Dr Oei Hong Djien (OHD) exhibited paintings by late Indonesian master’s that were yet to be seen in public. OHD’s museum houses several thousand fine-art pieces, spanning a century of work, by emerging Indonesian artists to established masters.
Included in Back to the Basics were works by Affandi, Widyat, Soedibio, Sudjojono and Hendra Gunawan. However, for certain art observers and family members of some of the fore mentioned artists, shock and disappointment was the order of the night. OHD exhibited works of questionable authenticity.
His museum has previously been a target of numerous allegations of forgery regarding pieces by late maestros — including Raden Saleh, Affandi, Hendra Gunawan and S. Sudjojono — in its collection.
The weeks that followed were rife with uproar in the Indonesian art world, eventually leading to the Fine Art Round Table Discussion in Jakarta 24 May, a meeting of senior art figures, including OHD, engaging on matters that previously arose at the OHD Museum. On request OHD has since been unable to disclose provenance, detailed sequences of notes, or source of origin of purchase of any of the suspected works. OHD did, however, welcome independent investigative analysis of the paintings.
The issue of forgeries is not a new subject in the art world. Yet with the Indonesian art world lacking standard criteria, academic documentation, and copyright laws relating to fine art, gaps appear that allow fertile grounds for the business of forgeries.
Numerous forgeries have changed hands within the Indonesia and since 1980, and the business of making forgeries has been large. It is believed that during 1980’s boom at least 10% of Indonesian modern maestro’s paintings entering auction houses for sale were fakes.
In response to this issue has been the release of the book in May 2014 at the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Jejak Lukisan Palsu Indonesia, (Tracing Fake Paintings in Indonesia), by the PPSI, the Perkumpulan Pencinta Senirupa Indonesia (the Indonesian Art Lover’s Association).
The extensively researched 382-page book, targeting collectors, contains articles by senior curators, collectors, academics and police representatives, as well as investigations into the practice of forgery, articles by experts and recommendations in identifying fake paintings. The book reveals that the business of forgeries is very well organized and outlines the 3 main practices involved in copying paintings. The PPSI hope the book will serve as input for the government to improve Indonesian copyright laws, and that an institution may evolve that serves as a body of information and a forum for discussion that will protect the consumer.
On 23 January 2016, following on from similar events in Jakarta and Yogyakarta last year (that attracted large audiences), the PPSI conducted the discussion and exhibition Lukisan Asli & Palsu – Problematika Seni Rupa Kita (Original & Fake Paintings – The Problem with Our Fine Art) at Rumah Topeng and Wayang Setiadarma in Mas, Ubud, Bali.
The first discussion, moderated by Dr. Wayan Kun Adnyana, featured Inda C. Noerhadi discussing counterfeit paintings and copyrights, and then Syakeib Sungkar (one of the authors of “Jejak Lukisan Palsu Indonesia” along with Agus Dermawan T, Prof Dr. Agus Sardjono, Aminudin, T.H. Siregar, Amir Sidharta, Asiong, Bambang Bujono, Mikke Susanto, Rusharyanto S.H., Wicaksono Ad) discussing the “ins and outs” of fake paintings in Indonesia.
The final session, moderated by Arif B. Prasetyo, included Bambang Bujono discussing the issue of reading the paintings in the Sudjojono collection at the Museum OHD, and Amir Sidharta discussing the works of Soedibio in the Museum OHD. The event was attended by senior members of the Bali art community, along with academics, collectors, artists, students, the media and interested members of the public and was an open forum allowing the audience to present statements and questions to the panel.
Within the exhibition is a selection of paintings in question by the Soedibio, Hendra Gunawan and Sudjojono that are digital reproductions of the original paintings, and of the paintings that OHD has collected that he claims to be authentic and appear in his book Lima Maestros.
Before I saw the book I knew there were a few things that were not proper taking place, however after studying Jejak Lukisan Palsu Indonesia, that shows good forensic demonstrations and analysis of the elements of the paintings under scrutiny there was very little doubt that the paintings are fakes,” art critic, historian, and columnist Jean Couteau said. “We have to know whether OHD was a victim, or implicated in the events, and to what extent? However, because OHD has not attempted to explain his situation in any way, we can be left with little doubt. In my opinion there needs to be more exposure of the names of the artists who are making the forgeries.”
I asked Couteau how the Indonesian art world can benefit from OHD coming forward and making some sort of admission and movement to bring a closure to this issue?
The art market in Indonesia is at an all time low now after the boom of 2008 and the issue of counterfeit paintings has created lack of confidence, and fear in the market and there are few new collectors wishing to enter the market.”
“Despite the event and the book project requiring enormous amounts of time and money the PPSI are dedicated to their cause, and the next project will be the publishing of a shorter, more refined version of the book, Jejak Lukisan Palsu Indonesia,” said Budi Setiadharma, President of the PPSI. “This will be made available for retail sale at a cheaper price allowing it to be accessible to a greater market of Indonesian people, especially students.”
Watch One Art Nation experts discuss how they applied provenance, connoisseurship and forensics to ferret out works by the most prolific forger of the last century as chronicled in the new documentary – Real Fake: The Art, Life & Crimes of Elmyr de Hory. Watch Now!
During the Hellenistic Period, 4th – 1st century BC, the Greeks first developed the taste for art collecting, valuing it for aesthetic purposes rather than religious or civic significance.
The impulse to invest in art however is a new phenomenon. The 17th century diarist John Evelyn noted that ‘even Dutch farmers pay high prices for paintings, which they resell at “very great gains”’.
The digital era is increasingly driven by finance and commodification while art is progressively recognized as a commodity, and being marketed as a lifestyle choice. The commercialization and popularity of the global art market has increased due to its links to the fashion and design industries. Art fairs, now one of the preeminent social and lifestyle events for the wealthy (including collectors, celebrities, tastemakers and influencers) greatly impacts upon art commerce, along with the activities of auction houses.
While people are becoming more sophisticated in their financial and estate planning, there is a global trend in fine art being considered as an alternative investment class for the well-diversified portfolio. There are, however distinctions that set art as an asset class apart from the rest.
Globalization means an enormous and constantly expanding art market, with multiple levels and categories, increasingly open to new investors with small or large budgets. Access to information and buying is easy via auction houses, estate sales, fairs, galleries, dealers, art advisors, and data portals, with increased exposure to digital platforms extending the knowledge, reach and sales of art.
In 1987, Vincent van Gogh’s ‘Irises’ sold for US $ 53.9 million at Sotheby’s New York. It was purchased 40 years earlier for US $ 84,000, which is less than 0.5 million dollars expressed in today’s money terms. This purchase has thus generated an annual real rate of return of about 12 % to the owner.
Weronika Adamowska at the University of Rotterdam, in her 2008 Masters thesis “Art as an Investment” comments upon the above mentioned sale, “The question is whether this case is representative of the whole art market, or just a notable exception. If the answer were given based solely on the news in the media, one could conclude that art outperforms other forms of investment.”
The hype about other exceptional sales at auction, she continues, “Nourishes the widespread belief that money invested in art might yield extraordinary returns. However, as this view is based solely on the superior performance of one particular market segment, it may not necessarily apply to other parts.”
Art is philosophy, psychology, symbolism, politics, beauty, connoisseurship, language, status, a social structure, an addiction, a lifestyle, and so much more than an asset class,” said Evan Beard, the National Art Services Executive with U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management
Beard states in a July 2016 interview one significant factor, “I’ve yet to see a work of art that sold for tens of millions of dollars not accepted by a large swath of the academic and art critical community as historically important or influential.”
The time-tested value appreciation happens for works of art of historical significance and more importantly, the rare intrinsic quality of their aesthetics. Art value appreciation generally occurs over a long-term period (20-30 years), while certain skill sets are crucial in recognizing the next master, or to evaluate and purchase an authentic work at a realistic price. A strategy may then be required to fully capitalize on the investment.
Art valuation is sensitive to economic cycles, but proven works of timeless masters are less prone to this. Art investing usually goes against economic downturns, therefore, it is used as a safe haven (a safer place to put free cash), when the stock market or the economy are bleak, or going through a market bubble.
Art is illiquid. Buying art incurs expenses; advisors and appraisers may be required, insurance, transport, storage, installation, and framing, even restoration.
The undeniable fact, or savings in art that is offered is something that others investments cannot, the opportunity to sit back and enjoy your purchase. The true art lovers objective in collecting art is also to preserve the art and support the artistic talents of a nation, or culture throughout the ages.
Veteran British art dealer Robert Landau once said: “The impulse to collect art arises from a complex amalgam of aesthetic pleasure and connoisseurship, along with status-building and investment. As the market has boomed, the latter factors have become prominent. The decline in connoisseurship means few buyers understand the process.”
The digital era has witnessed a shift in the paradigm away from the elite who once controlled the art market. With global real time information now available and the latest data from every market category open to the masses, and real time bidding available on auctions, the power of control has been reversed. The customer is now in the drivers seat. Connoisseurship is essential however, along with buying the best work and buying early.
Hear more from our experts as they discussion art as investment. Watch Now!
The trend toward globalization is creating an art market that includes a wider array of artist as well as collectors. When it comes to artists, Latin American art provides us a great example of this shift.
Kaeli Deane, Head of Sale for Phillips Latin American Art department, says that Latin Americans typically purchased work created by artists native to their home countries. For example, Mexicans would traditionally buy work from Mexican artists, Brazilians from Brazilian artists, etc. But in the past few years, there have been an increasing number of European and North American art collectors and museums who are taking a closer look at Latin American art. Deane cites several major museum exhibitions and the fact that the MET now has a dedicated curator for Latin American art.
Inclusivity in the art purchasing community is also experiencing its own evolution. Online bidding allows a greater number of collectors to participate in sales spanning the entire globe.
This fundamentally changes the nature of art auctions. John McCord, Specialist and Head of the 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale at Phillips explains that online registration has greatly expanded. He cites an auction in London where a painting sold for over 9 times its initial asking price – mostly as a result of online bidding.
Today, online bidders are able to live stream physical auctions – creating a more dynamic experience never experienced through historical online auctions.
There are an increasing number of online tools enabling collectors to access results and pricing statistics observed in past auctions. This heightened access to data and information is helping more collectors participate in the global market.
But for all of this talk about art auctions and online access, let’s not forget about the art dealer. While auctions play an important role in the overall market, many collectors still prefer to work with an art dealer. As McCord reminds us, we cannot easily replace the long-term relationship and trust that a good dealer can bring to the table. And with the globalization of the art market, it’s indeed a big table.
To learn more about the burgeoning markets for these exciting collecting genres, watch a roundtable discussion with Phillips’ Specialists on Art Market Comparison and Analysis. Watch Now!
With the dual phenomena of increase in art world wealth and the ease of exploiting content online, self proclaimed specialists and bloggers in “art law” and digital copyright law are multiplying.
Recently named one of 51 High Wattage Women in the Art World, Barbara T. Hoffman’s writings and cases have generated legislation, influenced the development of the law and created important precedents for the creators of content, especially visual artists.
Your practice revolves around a wide variety of sectors in the arts and cultural community – what disputes regarding IP are most common in this sector?
Creatives are both users and owners of intellectual property, primarily copyright, in the art and entertainment world. The owner of a copyright has the right to control the use and reproduction of works they created. Most disputes involve the use without permission of my client’s artwork. A good part of my practice involves preventing disputes through careful drafting of collaboration agreements and license agreements. Representing many creatives, entrepreneurs and explorers, I have gained expertise in monetizing content by careful development and protection of intellectual property assets which provide a stream of revenue to finance projects.
In art negotiation environments, what particular skills and expertise make you particularly qualified to lead operations?
My many years of experience and knowledge of the law, enormous network and deep understanding of the way in which the art world operates are invaluable. In addition, I am passionate about what I do and can be extremely persuasive in the negotiations. Finally, I bring the creative mind and spirit of an artist to the solution of complex legal problems for my clients. We are a lean operation and success is in being efficient to reach economic solutions not supporting a mid to large firm structure.
Can you please explain the implications of the Visual Artists’ Rights Act (VARA) in the US, and have you encountered any notable challenges in your work, on the back of this legislation?
My website contains an article on the Visual Artist’s Rights Act and its limited success in protecting artists’ rights in the U.S. It is unfortunate that in public and private commissions, the tendency of the commissioning body is often to request a waiver of the right of integrity and the rights of authorship. Courts have been reluctant to give wide expansion to VARA. Notwithstanding, I have won on one of the few VARA cases; Flack v Friends of Queen Catherine, 139 F. Supp. 2d 526; 2001. (April 18, 2001).
You successfully represented Daniel Morel in a lawsuit against Agence France Presse (including Getty Images, the Washington Post, CNN, ABC and CBS) in 2011 regarding the copyright infringement of the photojournalist’s works from the internet– what were the complexities of the case and the challenges of litigating against such a large corporation?
This was the first case to involve the importance of TOS of Twitter and Twitpic, in an infringement lawsuit. The major media companies settled with us following denial of their motion to dismiss. The issues in this case were complex and it seemed that a strategy was employed to exhaust Mr. Morel’s financial resources. This is often the case in copyright litigation where the creator does not have the deep pocket. As a lawyer I have never been deterred by deep pockets on the other side. Our firm has successfully adopted the David and Goliath model which aims at early victory via summary judgment or settlement to avoid having to engage in protracted litigation and the costs associated discovery, which is mostly all costs in the U.S.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
For more information, please check out the Hoffman Law Firm’s website, especially our blog and recent news at: http://www.hoffmanlawfirm.org/.
Art is one of those investments that pays off in the future and you can enjoy it in the here & now. While you should choose pieces that speak to you, it’s also wise to consider their potential to appreciate in value. But where to start?
Julia Wehkamp and Amanda Dunn are co-founders of One Art Nation, a platform that empowers both emerging and established art collectors to make confident and informed purchasing decisions. By providing accessible and relevant education about the art market, they’re nixing the jargon and cutting out the intimidation factor – so you can get closer to the art collection that works for you.
We asked them how to proceed.
Is an art collection a wise investment for a twenty- or thirty-something woman?
Sure! You’ll always have walls to fill and most women in their twenties and thirties are starting to think about planting some roots by either renting a place on their own or buying their first home. Instead of heading to IKEA, why not think outside the box?
Limited edition prints are a great way to start your collection without breaking the bank. You can also pick up original works for a bargain at satellite fairs in Toronto. Or, if you are up for the challenge, it’s always fun rummaging through the stalls at antique markets looking for gems.
I want to start an art collection, but I’m on a limited budget and have limited space. Where should I begin?
There are ample avenues to start your collection, but art fairs are always a good entrance. You can find art fairs pretty much in every corner of the globe and we have a few great options right here in Toronto. The smaller fairs such as the Artist’s Project that just happened and the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition are great for finding less expensive works by offbeat and emerging artists.
Whether your interests lie in paintings, sculpture, photography, or prints, there’s bound to be something that will fit your budget and can work within your space. Additional to art fairs, get on local gallery mailing lists to receive invitations to their openings. It’s a great opportunity to connect with like-minded collectors as well as meet the artist in person. Here is a great video where our experts share strategies for emerging and experienced buyers.
What art trends are you noticing in Toronto?
One of the biggest trends we are noticing is how technology is changing the art world, not only in how artists are creating their work but also in the way collectors are buying and selling. Technology is connecting artists, collectors and experts like never before, whether it be through sourcing platforms or social media channels. At Art New York on May 5 at 3 p.m., we are hosting a panel discussion that will focus specifically on this topic – How Is Technology Changing and Shaping the Art World?
Should we pay attention to these technological trends when developing our own collections?
The art world is getting more innovative as the years pass, so it is in your best interest to tap into the online resources available. From collection management sites to buy/sell platforms, there is no shortage. These new outlets eliminate boarders and provide collectors with access to emerging artists and reputable experts outside of their local markets. One Art Nation is great resource for providing easily accessible, high-quality content by international experts, with a goal to create greater transparency in the art market.
I want my next trip to be heavy with art. Any recommendations?
New York City in May! Not only is it New York Auction Week (when all of the big contemporary sales take place) but Frieze and Art New York and a bunch of smaller satellite fairs also come to town! It’s the perfect time for fair hopping, to attend auction house previews, to visit local gallery openings and of course, hit up all the other great stuff New York has to offer. If you are in town, make sure to stop by Art New York for the One Art Nation Symposium from May 5 to 7, starting at 2 p.m. daily! We offer a whole roster of talks that cover art collecting from A to Z.
As the art world becomes more complex, so does the need for qualified legal professionals. Barbara Hoffman of The Hoffman Law Firm, who practically invented “art law” forty years ago, shares her insights into how this need developed.
You are one of the pioneer practitioners of art law. What are the characteristics of the field of art law?
An art lawyer addresses the subjects of commercial and contract law, international trade, intellectual property, trusts and estates, through the lens of the art world, its activities and players.
For example, I developed the model contract for commissioning works of public and private art in public spaces. Before, real estate, or municipal lawyers prepared contracts as if they were purchasing a toilet fixture. The contracts failed to address key issues in the commissioning of an art work: copyright artists’ rights, a reasonable payment schedule and issues of liability and termination.
Whether representing a collector, developer or an artist, general real estate or commercial lawyers lack familiarity with important concepts. Similarly, your average trust and estate lawyer or commercial lawyer knows little about the donation of art collections or the use of private foundations to secure a collector’s legacy. Finally general commercial law principles do not provide adequate guidance for a collector dealing with stolen art, provenance or authenticity.
What inspired you to develop a specialty in which you had no role models?
There were no art law courses when I became an art lawyer. I was a major in art history at Brown and had studied art from a young age. I was a participant in the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts as a law student and then proceeded to found the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts at my law school when I became a professor in Washington. As they say, the rest is history.
When might a collector seek the advice of a specialized art law firm?
The type of advice depends on what is being collected.
Collectors of contemporary and modern art have sought my advice on a variety of issues including setting up private foundations to exhibit and travel their collections for the gift and/or sale of museums, estate planning, auction sales and consignments, private treaty sales, gallery acquisitions, and commissions of large scale, including site specific, works of art and installations.
Other collectors have sought my advice on issues such as authentication and provenance. Collectors of video and performance have other special concerns regarding maintenance and copyright while collectors of Native American art worry about feathers and other collectors worry about provenance.
You work closely with many prominent clients as well as representing foundations and organizations. Are there any specific challenges in representing celebrities, public figures, and government?
With all clients, a lawyer has an obligation of confidentiality. Representing important political, art, entertainment, and religious figures is difficult not only because of the voyeuristic tendencies of the press and the possibility that comments may be distorted. In addition, rights of publicity and privacy are more limited for public figures, particularly when the issues are newsworthy. Representation of countries adds yet another dimension: different agencies have different political agendas. Of course, there are always two sides to a coin: artist clients may be, on the other side of the publicity, privacy dichotomy.
In your work with governments and NGOs focused on cultural heritage and arts preservation, what has been your most rewarding success?
Most of my work in this field is extremely rewarding. If I had to choose I would say that being able to participate in the successful return to a country such as Peru, of its looted cultural heritage, is rewarding both for me and for the recipient country. I have also been participating on the Antiquities Coalition Task Force, which is dealing with issues posed by conflict antiquities and terrorist funding.
What tips could you give to first time art buyers? Why did you start to collect art? How have you grown your collection over the years? Where have you purchased art and do you have a preference?
Joined seasoned Toronto based collector, David Angelo, as he provides advice on building a collection by educating yourself about the process and selecting pieces that tell the story of who you are.
Video recordings from the Toronto Spring Series – Know Your Options are and will be available online. Join us live on April 13 for Part 3 of the series on Buying Art at a Gallery with Olga Korper. We conclude the series on May 24 with a Waddington’s Auction House specialist as they explain Buying & Selling at Auction including a private preview of an upcoming sale. View the full program here.
