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I’m an art advisor – kidding, I’m not. But the truth is anyone can call him or herself one. A qualified advisor is more likely to adhere to strong ethical standards, avoiding thorny issues like conflict of interest. They also handle details like insurers, accountants, and attorneys – as curator of the Hallmark Art Collection, Joe Houston puts it “the unsexy minutia.”

This is where an organization like the Association Of Professional Art Advisors (APAA) is helpful. Because the best advisors will have a deeper knowledge of every aspect of the art purchasing process, including the art itself. Most importantly a great advisor will expose you to work you may not have considered collecting.

Art collecting has been around as long as auction houses like Christie’s. Founded in 1799, it predates the founding of the United States. So it’s surprising to learn that the current art market as we know it is relatively new.

According to Houston, the rise of the art market and the art services industry is only about 35 years old. And this makes sense when you think about the emergence of galleries and blockbuster museum exhibitions as well as the proliferation of new art magazines during this period.

Houston attributes this to the rise of a “new collecting class” in the 1980s. Beyond individual investors, corporations also began building collections as a store of wealth. With so much money being spent on art collection, art advisors suddenly emerged on the scene to act as experts and to help direct and oversee collections.

When choosing an art advisor for yourself, always look at their past experience.

Make sure they are qualified by a reputable organization. A great advisor will spend time educating you rather than simply pushing a quick sale. In fact the best advisors are often with whom you will happily forge long-term business relationships with. This benefits everyone as art collections require special care and the best advisors will have a network of people who will know the best way to conserve your collection.

Anyone can say they’re an art advisor. But only an expert can give you all the information you need to make the best purchasing decisions for now and the future.

Watch the Association of Professional Art Advisors (APAA) Online Talks to learn about additional benefits of choosing and working with an art advisor. Watch Now!

One of the advantages of being an art critic is that you tend to receive an abundance of material to sift through each day, which arrives like clockwork electronically and magically overnight, appearing on my computer screen in the form of hundreds of press releases each morning.

It’s a great advantage to hear from so many galleries and museums on a regular basis, as it’s almost like visiting each show as a fly on the wall, buzzing from one loft to another. There also is a constant flow of publishers’ art-oriented books that come my way, often catching my attention and imagination, but unfortunately, I cannot find the time to read most of them, let alone pen a review. However, one book that drew my immediate attention recently was “Cutting Edge Art in Havana” by ARTempoCuba, a group of art historians, curators and other fine arts specialists who act as a leading resource for literally anyone interested in Cuban contemporary art and culture.

What also got my notice was that the book listed 100 professional artists, including profiles and images, that was an unexpected but delightful discovery for me. Perhaps the final mesmerizing push was that I have been following the amazing work of Cuban artist Kadir Lopez since discovering his work in a West Palm Beach collector’s home a few years ago, and I wondered out loud if I could find him listed in this book. And indeed, I spotted Kadir’s work on its pages; he is now universally considered the hottest Cuban artist in the world, and this prompted my interest in examining other artists in the book, and much to my delight the work represented was indeed first rate.

“Cutting Edge Art in Havana” eventually landed on my bedside table, which is a sure sign that I will get through it someday, perhaps on a rainy weekend afternoon. The more I looked, the more I learned about the remarkable variety and professionalism that these artists demonstrated in a country that is opening up slowly to rest of the world. I once highlighted Kadir in a magazine article about “Artists to Watch,” and was pleased to see him featured in The New York Times a few months later. My beat usually is in South Florida, and when it occurred to me that Cuba was only about an hour’s flight from Miami and finally opening up to visits without restrictions, my wife, Claudia and I, began making plans to finally see Havana. As this was unfamiliar territory, we received a reference to use the services of Havana VIP Tours, a travel agency that turned out to be a godsend as they specialize in arranging private tours of artists’ studios, interpreters, drivers, and historians and suggestions for what to do and where to go. We spent a long weekend there, and it turned out to be an enchanting experience.

The first thing we noticed was how small the airport was to serve a city of two and half million people, but it somehow works, even with the additional flights that are now landing each day. Once outside, bags in hand, we were met by a driver holding up a sign with my name on it as she leaned against her spectacular red and white ‘50s Chevy, which would be our distinguished wheels for the next few days. Under normal conditions it would seem like a big deal to see a car like this on the street in America, but I was stunned to see that many of the automobiles parked in the airport or waiting for passengers were eye-popping vintage vehicles, which seemed at first glance like rented cars for a movie set. If you did absolutely nothing but stand on a corner and watch the constant parade of roadworthy coupes pass by, with impossibly beautiful aged magnificent building façades as the backdrop, your trip would be worth it.

On your way into town, the only billboards are advertising revolutionaries, which serves as a reminder that you are indeed in a very different country with its own rules and regulations and way of living. We didn’t have a problem with anything other than realizing that we just couldn’t see everything on our agenda in only four days. But we were there primarily to visit independent artists in their Havana studios, which I had handpicked in advance from “Cutting Edge Art in Havana.” It’s not possible to mention here all the artists with whom we spoke, but suffice it to say from a man who has spent the last thirty years visiting hundreds of artist studios annually, that this tour was by far the most interesting of my life. I spent a month visiting artists in the then-USSR thirty years ago while it was still a communist country, but nothing could compare favorably with the distinct quality and tropical flavor of Cuba that is really quite astonishing.

Quoting from the book: “Today’s Cuban artist is an interesting subject. With the collapse of the paradigm of ‘State Authorization,’ Cuban artists have been immersed in a constant movement between the local and the global, not only in terms of ideo-aesthetic approaches in many of their creations, but also in terms of how they can afford to comply with the established rules of a global art market abroad, and then break them in their own backyard as they adopt the rules of the idiosyncratic network of relationships that govern Cuban artistic life.”

There is much more to say and to see about why it’s worthwhile to visit Cuba, and I plan to write about it again soon. Until then, I recommend getting a copy of “Cutting Edge in Art in Havana” (Amazon) which lists the top 100 Cuban artists, maps of art districts, choice restaurants and a variety of other points of interest. If this is your first trip, we advocate contacting ARTempoCuba and Havana VIP Tours.

When ‘vandals’ take over the art market.

Up until the 1980’s, street art was mostly considered nothing more than ‘vandalism’. In New York, it was common to see monochromatic subway cars transformed into colourful works of art. All around the city and on public spaces these works were more about expressionism than anything to do with selling art – it isn’t exactly easy to hang a subway car on your walls! And even to this day, the word graffiti can have a polarizing effect on people.

But it was during this era in the 80’s that street art broke into the world of fine art. A major contributor to this movement was artist Keith Haring. During a time when subway ad displays were temporarily empty, it was common for media companies to cover the empty space with black paper. Haring wandered the city searching for these black displays. Before long, his iconic white chalk drawings were appearing all over the NYC subway system. As curator Gracie Mansion points out, it was one of the first times people saw real value in street art; often removing the black paper with its chalk art and selling it.

One artist by the name of Richard Hamilton took this even further. He would actively search out empty ad displays and cover them with archival acid free black paper. Hamilton would then wait for Haring to finish his work only to remove it.

It’s shocking to think that Keith’s work, which was once considered by many as vandalism, is now worth millions of dollars.

Collecting street art still comes with its challenges. Most street artists view their work as public domain and not for commercial use – so put your chisel and sledge hammer away! And besides, these days many street artists go so far as to install their work in such a way that it will crumble or break if removed. Alex Benrimon, Director of Sales at David Benrimon Fine Art, points out that any street art should have a certificate of authenticity. This certificate ensures that the work is actually sanctioned by the artist as being for sale. And Benrimon points out that most major auction houses will issue a certificate.

New York has and will continue to be like one giant gallery.

Wander around the city and you’ll be confronted with all types of street art. This art form has a rich and colourful history and has progressed into a global art movement. The ‘vandals’ have indeed broken into the world of fine art and for this, we all benefit.

Check out the full webinar STREET ART – FROM VANDALISM TO GENTRIFICATION where you can see how street artist Joseph Ficalora, founder of the Bushwick Collective, has transformed a large section of the Bushwick neighborhood. WATCH NOW!

Art auctions are an exciting and accessible way to grow your collection. Offering lots across varying categories and catering to all budgets, attending an auction is a must! Leon Benrimon, Heritage Auctions’ Director of Modern and Contemporary Art, shares his expertise and provides valuable advice on how to buy at an auction.

Who can/should attend an auction?
My advice is that for everyone who can, attend an auction. If anything, just as an observer to start. It’s a fairly interesting and fascinating process that really gives a somewhat transparent insight into the art world which is traditionally held to be an opaque, mysterious, and intimidating. I would suggest attending any auction. Sometimes more regularly scheduled auctions of lower value property prove to be the most interesting and informative. Every auction house is different in that regard.

For anyone who has never attended one of your auctions, what can they expect?
Excitement! For example, at Heritage, there are bids coming in through several different channels, so between live bidders putting their hands up in the room, specialists bidding on the phones and multiple internet bidding platforms, things can get exciting (and sometimes expensive) very quickly. People are welcomed, and encouraged, to attend the exhibitions and auction previews. They are open to the public, no tickets are needed, and some times can be just as interesting as a museum show.

Can someone inspect items of interest prior to the live auction?
Absolutely. I highly recommend inspecting objects in advance of bidding on them if possible. Some auction houses will preview entire auctions or just highlights in multiple locations worldwide to make viewings of works in person easier.

How does the bidding process work?
The bidding process is fairly simple. There are several ways to place bids, some of which are only available during the live auction. Clients can bid on works up to 30 days in advance of our auctions online via an absentee bid which is immediately executed; or online proxy bid, which is executed from the auction floor; or in person by phone, email, fax, mail, or in person at one of our auctions. During the live auction clients can use those same channels to bid live.

What is a “buyer’s premium”? What does “reserve” mean?
The buyer’s premium is a percent of the hammer price, paid in addition to the hammer price. The hammer price is the winning bid at auction. The buyer’s premium goes directly to the auction house and not to the seller. The buyer’s premium is typically tiered, and ranges anywhere from 12 – 25 percent depending on the tier. The reserve is a number agreed to between the seller and the auction house which reflects the minimum amount a work can sell for. It can act as a protective measure by the seller.

For tips on collecting art, watch Leon’s online talk on The Art of Collecting Art at Art Southampton.

To participate at an auction, join Heritage Auctions for their Modern & Contemporary Prints & Multiples Signature Auction in Dallas on October 25. The preview will run from October 22-24.

Technology promises to affect every aspect of the art world.

A great work of art can appear timeless and unchanging, its insight and beauty set apart from the march of time.

The art market paints a different picture. Traditionally hampered by opacity and inefficiency, it is primed for digital disruption — the same sort that has transformed industries ranging from transportation to publishing. A new wave of startups has the art world in its sights, bringing to market products like provenance trackers, collection management systems and virtual-reality gallery experiences.

Silicon Valley has taken note: Twenty-three art-focused startups received $505 million in venture capital in 2015, and art startups have received nearly $1 billion since 2013, according to Deloitte’s 2016 Art & Finance report. That’s a gold rush of activity in a sector that hadn’t received much attention.

For artists, collectors, galleries, dealers and auction houses, the influx of technology promises to affect every aspect of the art world, from the creation of new works to the way masterpieces are vetted, bought and enjoyed.

“As our ability to track the history of each piece improves, it’s going to eliminate a tremendous amount of energy that right now is spent around wondering, ‘Where did this come from?’ and ‘Who previously owned it?’” — Howard Tullman, 1871

“This is going to really drive the democratization of the art market”, says Phillip Ashley Klein, who leads Deloitte’s art and finance practice in New York. “It’s going to allow aspiring collectors — those with traditionally less knowledge and access — to get up to speed quickly. And with the greater access that comes along with more globalization and democratization, savvy collectors will have much more opportunity to see potential deals.”

Here are three ways technology promises to change the art market landscape.

1. Expanded global and remote access. When art was examined and sold exclusively at auction houses, it made sense that art market activity would be concentrated in cities like New York and London. But today, internet-based auction houses such as Paddle8 and Auctionata enable far-flung buyers and sellers to connect with one another, decentralizing and expanding the marketplace.

That has contributed to the globalization of the market and opened opportunities for regional dealers to reach a broader audience. Klein predicts that top-priced artworks will continue to be sold at live auctions, but the vast majority of sales under $1 million will move online. It also puts “pocket listings” — art for sale that’s made available only to a small group of prospective buyers — on the endangered species list.

“The future is going to be 100 percent about transparency and efficacy. It’s about making true global markets where all the information is available and accurate,” says Howard Tullman, an art collector and CEO of the Chicago-based startup incubator 1871.

In the same way, education-focused services, such as One Art Nation, train new collectors and their advisors in the intricacies of the art world, enabling a new generation to quickly learn to discern art market tendencies and negotiate the purchase process. As collectors grow more confident and comfortable with the art market, they are better able to evaluate art purchases as investments.

2. Power shifting to collectors from gallerists. Remember when you read the newspaper or asked a friend about a new restaurant in town? That was before online restaurant review sites. The art world is in for a similar shake-up thanks to a confluence of several trends.

First, virtual-reality technology promises to give more people access to art works in private collections or faraway galleries. Second, data-focused startups such as Aura solicit user comments about art. When a broad base of art aficionados weighs in on new art, some of the star-making power that has long been the exclusive domain of collectors and gallery owners transfers to the vox populi.

“We’re creating a new class of tastemakers,” says Klein. This means an artist or artwork that connects with a mass audience can leverage the new exposure. “That artist can be that next big up-and-comer, even if they don’t have that traditional financial backing or big endorsement.”
Mass audience tools and virtual- and augmented-reality platforms also promise to expand the reach of art, enabling more people to view more work, and build community among fans of different artists and media.

A second class of art-tech businesses aims to apply big data to the art market in a different way: assimilating market trends and past performance to predict the asset value of new works. ArtAdvisor.io, for example, predicts the longevity and influence of artists based on algorithmic analysis of factors such as an artist’s background, medium and critical reception over time.

3. Tracking art and its provenance going digital. Two of the trickier aspects of art purchasing — at least outside of the major auction houses — are tracking an artwork’s provenance and facilitating the transaction itself. Deloitte’s Luxembourg team recently debuted a prototype of a product that could employ blockchain technology (a relative of bitcoin) to reliably track the provenance of a work. Startups such as Athena Art Finance Corp. allow buyers to pay for their art over time using the art as collateral, therefore removing friction from the purchasing process.

“As our ability to track the history of each piece improves, it’s going to eliminate a tremendous amount of energy that right now is spent around wondering, ‘Where did this come from?’ and ‘Who previously owned it?’” says Tullman.

Deloitte’s Klein says the biggest factor driving the art market toward greater transparency may not be technological but cultural: The auction houses and galleries that sell high-end art know they need to change.

“Considered as an asset class, the art market is viewed as obscure, esoteric and nebulous,” he says. “The market realizes that needs to change and that there’s a need for standards and regulation. It’ll take time for these standards to be enforced, but there’s agreement that these changes are needed.”

The article was originally published in Wealth Magazine. View the article here.

The decision to purchase a work of art, whether a contemporary installation, a fauvist streetscape, a folk art masterpiece or a continental porcelain garniture, is a moment that follows an emotional response to the work.

This response can range from desire and fascination to hope and excitement, whether you see the work as an image that can’t be lived without, something that fills the perfect spot in a growing collection, or a way to diversify your investment portfolio.

Unfortunately, often missed in making this decision is an important question: how do I best conduct due diligence before making this investment? Art is the only major asset class where deals are still done on a handshake, people make decisions based on the seller’s reputation, and objects are purchased without having the work inspected prior to the sale (all of these scenarios took place in the Knoedler Gallery’s sale of faux Abstract Expressionist works). However, the sophisticated collector is becoming increasingly educated and realizing how to navigate today’s often opaque market.

As someone who has spent her career answering questions about the authenticity and state of preservation of artworks by studying the presented materials, I can recommend the following questions to consider before purchasing an important artwork:

1. Is the work made with period materials? A 17th century Dutch golden age painter will have a much more limited palette available to the artist than the 19th century landscape painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, for example. Make sure that the palette of the considered artwork is appropriate to the period, whether buying an oil painting, a pastel, porcelain or even a duck decoy.
2. How much of the piece has been restored? It is estimated that about 20% of what you see in a museum reflects the work of conservators rather than the artist’s hands. This makes sense for objects that are hundreds or thousands of years old, but a large amount of restoration is unacceptable for any purchase unless all of the conservation has been fully disclosed and the price reflects this condition.
3. Is the work a marriage? This is a major concern for period furniture, classic cars, silver, and objects of vertu. It is not unusual for these objects, which were in daily use, to have replacement parts given their original functions, but these parts should be disclosed and again the price should reflect these changes from original condition.
4. Does the work have inherent vice? This means that the work is made from materials such as masking tape, for example, as physical elements that were never meant to have sustained, long-term use and function. Another example is a Naum Gabo sculpture made from cellulose acetate or a mid-century design chair filled with polyurethane foam. These works are made from materials that literally cannot survive into the future. Understanding the question of inherent vice is critical for purchases of modern and contemporary art.
5. Is the work actively degrading? Although it is well-known that textile dyes are highly light sensitive, the field is just starting to understand that the pigments which the Impressionists, the post-Impressionists and the early modernists (including Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, and Claude Monet) used are extremely light-sensitive. When purchasing an artwork from this period (roughly 1880s – 1920s), it is critical to examine the state of preservation of the pigments and to understand the parameters that will be required properly to display the piece to minimize further change over time.

By having these questions in mind and taking the time to answer them to your satisfaction, collectors can get carried away with their emotions in the best possible sense – to feel free to fall in love with your artworks and to know that you have found a passion in your collecting which will sustain you for years to come.

Like most of us, if you were constantly glued to the TV during the last few weeks, it was likely due to the Olympic Games in Brazil. And no wonder, as athletes from the United States won a record number of medals (121), including a total of 46 golds, more than any other country.

For the art world, the parallel to Olympiad achievement is the international attention and excitement surrounding auction houses like Sotheby’s or Christie’s during an important evening auction, which officially recognizes the winning bid that quite often, just like the Olympics, goes down to the final seconds as an historic benchmark to beat. Bona-fide living “art stars,” like Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, and Jasper Johns, all made it to the top by developing their remarkable natural talent, self-confidence, determination, burning ambition, discipline and determination, a competitive spirit and passion for perfection, again with a similar parallel to 2016 Olympian winners like Canadian high jumper Derek Drouin, U.S. swimmers Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps, and (aptly named) sprinter Usain Bolt from Jamaica, called the “fastest man alive.” In the track races in Rio, it was the ‘bang’ of the starter pistol that initiated the collective contest of wills as the runners dashed forward to hopeful stardom, and all participants focused on crossing the finish line, often with a painful final push to break an existing record or even a score. Come to think of it, the sound of the shot in the air is a bit similar to the amplified echo of an auction hammer during a major evening sale in Manhattan, as the last moments of jockeying for position and frenzied bidding ends, the crowd goes wild, and the winner is assigned bragging rights and the privilege to run with the art.

All this concentrated running and jumping and swimming were reminders of my similar activities many moons ago in high school. I was attracted to participating in track and field events that eventually consumed my after class time, with workouts nearly every afternoon. I ran the medley relays, and was a high jumper and pole vaulter for a few years, until I realized the physical commitment was overwhelming. My interest in becoming an artist finally ruled out serious sports as I pursued a career in fine art. Once I got to College Hill in Providence to attend the Rhode Island School of Design, sports faded into the background as my dedication to exploring my true love of painting became a fascination that never went away. Years later, I am happy to say that I have reached my own ambitious goals to be a successful artist, writer and museum curator with no regrets.

In general, art and sports don’t mix naturally, except that those practitioners should be in reasonably good physical and emotional condition and have special talents in order to favorably compete. Recognizing the value of incorporating public art in and around the Olympic stadium in Rio, an artist in residence program was inaugurated, intending to “…open up Olympism and its values to the widest possible audience,” according to a statement by the Olympic committee. The French artist somewhat anonymously known only as JR, has had the biggest visual impact in Rio of all other public works on display. His 2008 installation, Women are Heroes, where he spliced together over-sized photos of female faces and eyes and pasted them on structures around town, including slums, earned him the coveted TED prize a few years later. It’s still hard to believe that hugely successful former non-profit street artists, such as Keith Haring, Banksy and Shepard Fairey, who displayed their “illegal” work without permission, often resulting in an arrest, owe everything to the public 24-7 subliminal exposure their art enjoyed early on. With enough coverage and comments, the thankless job of shimmying up an apartment building to glue down a predetermined set of multiple images started having its advantages, as the vernacular of this art literally made for the streets started to receive more views and acceptance on a daily basis than those that can be found in a museum or gallery. It is not at all surprising that some art fairs currently are featuring wall fragments from commercial buildings that were excavated to salvage an early Banksy stencil painting originally worthless, but currently can be sold for a hefty sum.

Well, for the moment, the artist known as JR is not exactly on his way to the Banco de Brasil, as money clearly is not a priority, but testing the limits and values of communicative devices through teamwork and interaction with the community is. JR creates the visual magic anointing him as the most recognized de facto collage artist on the grandest scale in history. As one example, this summer, JR and his team collected portraits of world-class athletes, as well as volunteers and others associated with the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony, and increased the sizes on paper to about 5 feet high, which were then pasted and stacked up and across. The results were exciting, and could not be missed by anyone strolling by casually. I’m reminded of Andy Warhol’s most infamous public commission, done for the New York Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair, where he created a series of controversial printed mug shot images of the F.B.I.’s “Thirteen Most Wanted Men.” It cost Warhol about $4,000 to make, only to have the work rejected by then-Governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller, and sadly, was painted over before the fair even opened. It was another Rockefeller, the industrialist tycoon and “art collector” John D., that challenged Diego Rivera in 1932 to alter the artist’s already completed mural commission, because Rockefeller didn’t appreciate the political content, or take the consequences of having it chiseled off the wall. Guess what happened? Times have certainly changed, and now the notion of celebrating the efforts of “street artists,” their freedom of speech, and the visual vitality of public murals are commonplace in many urban centers around the world. In fact, public “street art” literally has changed and charged up the urban landscape in communities like Miami, through the Wynwood Walls initiated by the late Tony Goldman, and in the vibrant City of West Palm Beach, now even more of a tourist destination because of CANVAS, the outdoor murals project that is the brain child of organizer and art dealer Nicole Henry.

The artist JR turns urban landscapes into massive poster-like sections, consisting of pasted-down squares placed together whose strength is in numbers. But JR doesn’t stop with two-dimensional wall murals, as a visit to the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro reveals almost instantly. Perhaps the most pioneering and unique public art created within the last decade, these huge mixed media outdoor works, embellished with photographic transfers, are supported by meandering but carefully planned scaffolding that reinforces the shape of a giant Olympian figure. For example, a spectacular portrait of the French triathlete Léonie Périault rises out of Guanabara Bay in Rio, with nearly a 100-foot wingspan of arms making it looking ready to dive back into the sea. It has become the most ingenious and arresting giant sculptural “billboard” since viewing Kara Walker’s monumental sugar “Sphinx” that was installed inside Brooklyn’s cavernous, abandoned Domino Sugar Factory few years ago. Another illustration of extreme invention by JR is a rooftop sculpture set high in the sky and braced by framework that depicts Ali Mohd Younes Idress, a Sudanese athlete unable to compete in the Olympics due to injury, but who convincingly appears here to be leaping over an abandoned building in the airborne upside down position of the award-winning high jumper that he is. A perfect creative decision for repositioning an image of a giant champion jumper in flight. “Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane!…Able to leap over tall buildings in a single bound!” As Superman’s vintage comic book introduction exclaims, JR brings a whole new meaning to capturing the high flying winning spirit propelled by human velocity and determination, giving others a true run for their money.

For more information the artist JR, please visit: http://www.jr-art.net/

Never before has the art world been more connected. Through increased access to online resources, collectors, galleries, artists, and professionals have the ability to buy, sell and learn about art from all across the globe.

This explosion of discovery is connecting collectors with artists as well as experts in the field. Traditionally this would have required scouring the art market, including countless art fairs and galleries across continents. Increasingly, many of these collectors are younger and tech-savvy, with a growing number coming from emerging markets.

But while the online art industry has helped connect more people to more art, the market isn’t always straightforward – especially for new collectors.

We know that when people are provided with the right tools, it’s easy to overcome these challenges. More than ever, online resources are helping eliminate barriers by providing invaluable knowledge to collectors. A prime example of this new approach is One Art Nation. They provide unbiased data and information from art experts and artists of all kinds. The beauty is in the network that they’ve cultivated. Key opinion leaders and industry experts are brought together to speak on topics that range from building and maintaining an art collection, to protecting your work. This is the type of content that matters to collectors both experienced and new.

As you can appreciate, the online art market is vast. Hiscox Online Art Trader Report 2016 puts the value at ($3.27 billion). It is a market that is global and growing. Through educational talks, artist showcases, and expert interviews, One Art Nation is demystifying the process of art buying from start to finish. Their success seems to come from a commitment to staying connected to the art world – both online and traditional. By hosting live symposia at Art Miami, Art Southampton, Art New York, and Art Silicon Valley, One Art Nation is keeping an ear to the ground while offering various perspectives and guidance for collectors. Resources like this help make the whole online art market seem less daunting.

Today collectors can buy art from almost anywhere on earth without ever having to leave home – it truly is an art world. But purchasing is only one part of the puzzle. Online resources are bridging this gap. They have the power to bring collectors and expert advice into one place. This goes a long way to making confident, educated decisions.

I always hated homework – especially math. But it was a necessary part of life. When you purchase art, doing your homework can be just as important.

In 2013, the estimated size of the global art market was over $60 billion. Since many of these transactions can be private, some elements of the art world can be opaque. Amelia Brankov of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC uses the contrast of buying a home to illustrate this.

When buying a home, you have a formalized process whereby two parties are represented by an independent sales agent. For the most part, a formal evaluation of the home and its value is completed before signing off. In the art world this is not always the case.

Thankfully today there are an increasing number of tools at your disposal to make wise and informed art purchases.

Litigation is one area that has helped bring awareness to the importance of authentication.

High profile cases have seen courts come down hard on art collectors who were found to have not done their due diligence when buying and selling work. Some art collectors who unknowingly purchased fakes have found themselves with little legal recourse; courts may find that a collector failed to pursue authentication in a timely manner. The lesson here: financial losses are so much worse than angry teachers. So do your homework and have the work authenticated.

If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. I hear so many art collectors, advisors, and gallerists say this on a regular basis.

The key to buying art is finding something you actually like. Once you find something you like, use this key to open the door to deeper questions around the art and artist. David De Buck, a gallerist and owner of De Buck Gallery in New York advises to dig into the background of the artist. For example, look at the age of the artist and who has collected the work, or look into which museums and collections the work can be found in.

De Buck goes into further detail to explain the primary and secondary art markets and how they can shape and validate pricing. He suggests looking at auction sale prices to act as guidance.

Hear more from our art experts as they dive deeper into the methods behind art collecting. And the best part? No homework when you’ve finished watching. To learn other great tips, check out the webinar on PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ART INVESTMENT. WATCH NOW

Talk to any art collector and they’ll tell you that art fairs are one of the best ways to discover incredible work.

But the trouble with art fairs is that they take time to explore. You often end up seeing so much variety that everything can become a blur – also known as ‘art fair fatigue’. Use this to your advantage says Leon Benrimon, Heritage Auctions’ Director of Modern and Contemporary Art in New York. You’ll know you’ve stumbled upon something exceptional when it stands out among the other work.

Open your imagination at gallery openings. They’re almost always free and the best part is the artist or artists are usually present. So not only do you get to see new art but you also get to ask questions and gain knowledge about the work.

Pay an artist a visit – it’s free.

Curator, consultant, and collector Anne Huntington tells us seek out at as much art as possible. One of the best ways to do this is to contact the artist and schedule a studio visit. Other avenues include online sites such as Paddle8 and Artsy, as well as non-profit auctions that support causes that you believe in.

Talking to art curators of museums is also a useful tip when trying to discover work. In addition to this Karen Boyer of Elements in Play highlights the importance of talking about art with friends, family, and anyone in your social circle. This can help influence your purchase. And as Benrimon adds, when friends and family don’t love a piece but you do, it indicates that the work is really resonating.

Which brings us to a common theme that you’ll hear many seasoned collectors tell you: go with your gut.

Sure, collecting can be for the purpose of investing. But there often has to be something about the work that connects with the individual who is buying art. And if the work is going on your wall you’d better love what you’re collecting.

To learn other great tips, check out the webinar on THE ART OF COLLECTING ART. WATCH NOW

Like her fascinating flower collages, Kathryn Adele Schumacher’s work is blossoming into handsome, sophisticated compositions made of torn and cut paper from the printed page, which have an unforgettable appeal. As with most motivated artists I know, Ms. Schumacher became enamored with creative projects by the age of five, as she dabbled in finger paints and realized that this satisfying activity was a bellwether for the serious artistic pursuits in her future. Her natural attraction to creativity continued throughout her childhood, and ultimately would prompt her to major in fine art and art history in college. These two academic concentrations would stay with the artist as her career continued to develop and mature, leading to an exciting focus on expressing her imagination by utilizing the esteemed ritual of collage.

Ms. Schumacher always has admired the French Impressionists—particularly the Fauves and the Nabis—who worked in a type of abstract realism primarily with color, but also with texture and line. She also discovered that many of her inspirations and influences had a relationship with the collage practice, particularly with the connection to abstract impressionism that could manifest itself in the manipulation of adaptively reused paper. Schumacher also greatly appreciates the genius of Pablo Picasso, and in particular his inventive and pioneering technique of applying paper to painted canvas, and his assemblage of disparate materials. The word “collage” comes from “colle,” the French word for glue, and this type of art-making developed into an original concept and style that is closely associated with the beginnings of modern art. The technique was first invented by Braque and Picasso, who experimented with the concept that painting could be delightfully accented with non-conventional unusual items such as newspapers or magazines. The very thought that an oil painting could be somehow “diluted” with the deliberate placement of foreign objects on its surface was a novel, revolutionary idea, and initially caused quite an uproar in the arts community.

From its roots in European Dadaism in the early years of the twentieth century, shadowing modernism and tracing its way through photography, collage became a respected medium as diverse and distinguished as traditional fine art categories. Emerging as a reaction to the First World War, collage allowed artists to interact with existing resources; from any published page to maps, tickets and photographs that could be torn apart and cut into sections and then reassembled, creating visually dynamic hybrids. According to British critic Anthony Haden-Guest, artists experimenting in Paris in the early nineteen hundreds were the first to incorporate collage into fine art. However, collage actually received widespread attention years earlier as genteel hobbyism, initiated by Victorian ladies gluing clippings from fashion publications and the like onto screens and other surfaces. Later, as collage entered into the mainstream of modern art, it opened up an entirely new medium to examine and with which to experiment. Picasso would use chair caning, fake wood grain and newsprint, while others utilized labels and newspaper segments to anchor artworks in the real world. Kurt Schwitters used train tickets, gas bills, playing cards, cloakroom checks and a array of detritus picked up on the street. Max Ernst, a friend of both Picasso and Braque, illustrated his 1934 novel, Une Semaine de Bonté (A Week of Kindness), with 182 collages made by cutting up plates in Victorian encyclopedias and journals and rearranging the constituent parts into an exotic dreamscape. Later, artists like Hannah Höch, Joseph Cornell, Man Ray and Schwitters used collage as an exclusive medium for their works.

In today’s contemporary art world, collage is accepted universally as a legitimate creative tool that can be utilized as a maquette and serve as a blueprint to be incorporated in developing works of art. Major 21st century artists, such as Richard Prince, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Nancy Spero, Romare Bearden, Eileen Agar, Helen Frankenthaler and Robert Motherwell, have all depended on the initial intimacy and scale of collage as a supportive and flexible medium to extend their vision and creativity.

Collage artists like Kathryn Adele Schumacher clearly enjoy the challenge of reinvention and adaptive re-use (in the car business it’s now called ‘pre-owned’), as they manage to take on disparate clips and snips that reduce a magazine page to a pile of scraps, waiting for a new life to take place. The magic that Schumacher employs in her recent work is her natural ability to forage about in discovery and glean promising bits of materials to glue down into an engaging configuration. In many of her collages, I am reminded of Rauschenberg’s early works, which seemed to have a natural alignment and portrayed one form on top of another, adding drama and an illusion of space on a two-dimensional surface. Schumacher demonstrates in these works a clear respect and understanding of art history as it relates to her palette, and the ingenious method in which she has developed her own arresting style within the time-honored tradition of collage.

For more about the work of Kathryn Adele Schumacher, please go to: www.kathrynschumacherartist.com

The head of Deloitte’s Art & Finance Practice in the US, Phillip Ashley Klein and insurance expert Donald A. Poster from Alliant Americas, examine art collectors’ needs in a constantly evolving art world, as art market growth and technological advancements increasingly combine.

The rapid transformation of the art market provides opportunities for art collectors who are seeking to protect and grow their wealth. The expertise provided by art and financial services bridges the gap between clients and professionals, offering support in key areas, such as monetizing, partnering, transferring and protecting one’s art collection. In an ever-growing industry, our specialists each extract four key areas of focus, based on their respective expertise.

Phillip Ashley Klein, head of Art and Finance practice at Deloitte, delivers creative solutions to art collectors seeking a return on investment.

Art funds can yield results, with flexible investment options starting at around the $1 million mark, lower than many wealth managers offer.

Surprisingly, some art collectors lose track of exactly what they own and where it is located. When it comes to protecting wealth and managing risk, reporting is key, as is receiving advice on purchases. In today’s world, buyers require reassurance that the collection they are building is a viable investment, as well as a passionate one. A key strategy is increasing the visibility of an art collection by lending to museums and digitising artworks. As well as providing the emotional reassurance that a work or art collection makes sense, it develops the art historical significance, by increasing provenance, which in turn increases economical value.

Wealth managers are expertly placed to carry out due diligence and provide the best advice on all of the above.

In terms of converting wealth to income, or in plainer terms, monetizing an art collection, art secured lending, and boutique lenders, have experienced huge growth in the past few years for several reasons. Like a mortgage, based on collateral, in this case art, banks and private banks offer an attractive rate of interest. This not only serves client’s interests, but offers banks a chance to diversify their own portfolio, while providing further opportunity to negotiate control of a greater portion, if not all, of a client’s portfolio.

Finally the transferral of wealth, or succession management, is something that advisors stress art collectors should organise as early as possible. Whether the intention is to transfer to family, sell or give to charity, having a clear plan in place is essential. A development of the past fifteen years or so has been the increase of private art museums set up by collectors. With 70% having been founded since 2000, this reflects the benefits of loaning works to museums, as it creates provenance and visibility, thereby increasing value.

When it comes to insurance, seeking out the best protection for your collection, no matter the size or value, is essential.

Donald A. Poster, insurance expert at Alliant advises us on the process, while breaking down some of the mysteries behind fine art insurance.

The key is valuation, the starting point of insurance in any category. Most insurers rely on objective third party companies, professionals who will appraise the work or collection and provide a valuation. It is important to know the difference between market value versus retail replacement. Market value refers to the price based on the purchase, whether from an auction, art fair or gallery. Retail replacement is required in case the work is written off, and a replacement, similar work needs to be sourced – of course this will take extra resources, at extra cost and over extra time.

Risk management refers largely to preventing damage to the work. Although most of us know in theory that we should never entrust our artworks to a non-specialized shipper or courier, an enormous 60% of losses are breakage caused during transit or damage while in storage. Clearly damage can happen even when the utmost care is taken, but minimising the risk is key. Receiving advice from art experts regarding packing and shipping will ensure proper crating is provided and care is taken at every stage.

Art collection management is exactly as it sounds, but it is surprising how many collectors don’t enlist assistance with their inventory. As well as using the latest collection management software to collate all collection-related information in one centralised source, collectors can also receive practical advice on anything from specialised framers, to expert installation and lighting for their work.

Those familiar with insurance of home contents will note that in some regards, there are similarities insuring art – protecting against smoke and fire, rain and water are also essential for artworks. More specialized is the need for sunlight and UV protection – certain insurance will be conditional on works being hung away from windows and direct sunlight. In many instances, clients will be advised on a loss prevention plan in case of disaster – this involves minimising potential loss by having certain procedures in place, such as briefing staff on what to do in case of an emergency.

To learn more from our experts, check out the video on THE EVOLUTION OF ART AND FINANCE SERVICES IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT. Watch Now!

Steven Schindler and Katherine Wilson-Milne of Schindler Cohen & Hochman LLP, a premier art law boutique in New York City, address some common questions and concerns with transparency and risk mitigation in the commercial art world.

How does transparency or lack of transparency impact the functioning of the art market today?

The lack of transparency in the art market has been of great concern to buyers and sellers of fine art, as well as, and increasingly, parties lending against art as collateral. Lack of transparency in art transactions may create a more hospitable climate for money laundering, forgery and other illegal activities that threaten the value of any given work of fine art. Opacity related to pricing, in particular, may encourage insider trading and conflicts of interest in ways that are not apparent to the market, or to a good faith purchaser. Of course, the art market has always had a culture of secrecy, which in many ways contributes to its identity and uniqueness as an industry. But while this secrecy may attract certain buyers, it also discourages increased investment. Despite the potential allure of secrecy, players in the art market increasingly see their fine arts investments as an extremely valuable asset class, and they want to protect these assets as they would any other.

There has been increased attention by the market and courts of law to the diligence efforts conducted prior to sale regarding title, provenance, and authenticity. Similarly, and possibly as a reaction to increased legal scrutiny, we are seeing a real effort (and desire) for transparency in the form of increased art investment literature, art market indices, art fairs that are open to the public, auction and price databases and art market research services.

Several recent lawsuits continue to raise an ongoing issue in the art world related to how much diligence buyers must undertake before purchasing a valuable piece of art. The many Knoedler Gallery cases (about the large number of forged art works sold through the oldest and most respected gallery in New York), for example, rested largely on the question of whether the purchasers of forged art works can argue they “reasonably relied” on the Gallery’s representations as to authenticity without conducting extensive diligence. Another recent case from the federal district court in New York, ACA Galleries Inc. v. Kinney, upheld on appeal, suggested that professional buyers may even have a responsibility to hire experts before purchasing a work of art or they will be blocked from fraud and mutual mistake claims.

What can buyers, investors or financers of or in fine art do to mitigate risk?

Our best advice to our clients is to do as much research as possible before entering a transaction involving a work of fine art, such as a sale or a loan. Purchasers and lenders should run UCC lien searches, review all available provenance information, ask for chain of title documentation, ask for import or export documentation, review prior sales history where available (or ask for it), consult artist foundations and other experts to learn about the history of a work and to inspect it. Parties should also be alert to red flags that signal the transaction is too good to be true or not as it seems. Where the purchase price or value asserted is far below market value or where the deal negotiations differ from typical art market negotiations, there may be harmful information hidden somewhere. This may also be true where a seller or borrower has current or regular financial difficulties or prior known ethical misconduct.

In the current climate, players in the art market have a greater awareness of the need to ensure by private agreement all legal protections and avenues for recourse possible in the event the work is later found to be fake or otherwise not as originally represented. Consulting a trusted legal advisor is the first step to thinking through the steps one can take to maximize the transparency of any deal and feel secure that the risks of bad title, forgery and hidden claims are mitigated. A good legal advisor will also help draft deal documents that protect the rights of his or her client with respect to any lack of transparency risks present in a given transaction.

How important are appraisals and authentication opinions have in mitigating risk?

They are an important element of high stakes due diligence, but they can be hard to get. Art appraisers and authenticators face significant legal risks in offering opinions as to authenticity, or simply questioning assumptions about provenance, authorship and dating. For example, we have seen the art world’s major authentication boards (the Warhol Foundation, for example) call it quits because of the risks and expense involved in taking a public stance on authenticity. Because there are such great assets at stake (thinking of art as a major investment vehicle, not just an aesthetic collector item), collectors and owners or potential owners are invested and directly affected by expert analysis of art authenticity. These opinions can shake art markets. We have seen defamation and interference with business dealing type lawsuits against art appraisers and authenticators. We are also, in our own practice, seeing great hostility to art experts conducting scientific analysis because it seems to present a threat to the connoisseurship model that has dominated art authentication study for so long.

This is why legislation to protect art authenticators, such as a recent bill introduced in New York, is so important. Those who offer expert opinions need to receive protection if they are to freely give such opinions and without those opinions courts will be relatively handicapped in evaluating authenticity and appraisal issues.

It is important that anyone offering an expert opinion about authenticity have a solid engagement agreement with the client that indemnifies the expert against any future lawsuits related to his or her work and makes clear that the opinions rendered are just that, opinions.

What are key legal risk factors when transacting art deals across international borders?

This depends on the countries involved. Most European countries, for example, have export laws that regulate the export of art and cultural property. So if you are in Europe, you need to be keenly aware of those laws. The United States does not have such export laws and does not enforce the export laws of other countries, but is a signatory to the 1970 UNESCO Convention regarding the illicit transfer of cultural property and under the 1983 U.S. Property Implementation Act recognizes some rights of other countries to claim their cultural property and the U.S. government has been increasingly aggressive in assisting other countries to repatriate antiquities that were improperly obtained. U.S. courts actually look to the law of the country of origin in determining what must be repatriated, which adds complication to the responsibilities of U.S. courts in these types of lawsuits. These considerations apply equally to lenders who typically look at these issues as part of their due diligence – in the same way they review issues of authenticity and title.

In addition, for dealers in antiquities, selling cultural property from countries with patrimony laws can land you in prison for violating the U.S. National Stolen Property Act. This criminalization of our cultural property laws has been extremely controversial, particularly among the dealer community, and there has been a vocal movement to get the U.S. Congress to enact legislation overruling judicial decisions affirming convictions of dealers who knowingly trade in stolen cultural property.

To hear from the experts themselves, check out the online talk on NAVIGATING RISK IN THE CONTEMPORARY ART MARKET. Watch Now!

It can be difficult to enjoy a work of art when you’ve had the wool pulled over your eyes. In the last few years, the art world has had to deal with some significant forgeries.

Several years ago some of the world’s most reputable collectors were defrauded when they purchased modernist masterpieces that turned out to be fakes. These pieces of art were sold by, what was at the time, New York’s oldest and perhaps most venerable gallery.

Laws vary from place to place. One way to handle this situation is to bring forward a fraud claim. But, as Amelia Brankov of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein + Selz says, “a judge might find that the collector did not do their due diligence in a timely manner”. The lesson here is that when it comes to purchasing expensive works you need someone who can see through the wool.

Authentication is what it’s all about. It should be done before even purchasing the work.

According to Nica Gutman Rieppi of Art Analysis & Research, there are three stands for determining authenticity:

The first is connoisseurship; the oldest of the determining factors. It involves engaging the expert eye of someone who has studied the body of work of a particular artist or artists.

The second strand is provenance. This involves the history of the work including its past ownership and documentation.

The third strand is scientific analysis combined with technical art history. The reason being is that the scientific analysis of materials, as well as imaging technology, enables us to see not only the materials that the artist was working with but also the technique in which the materials were applied.

Technical art history adds a layer of context to all of the scientific analysis.

The example Nica uses is the painting Massacre of the Innocents by obscure artist Jan Van den Hoecke. There was a growing suspicion that it was actually painted by Sir Peter Paul Rubens. After scientific analysis, including x-rays and infrared imaging, all of the materials were understood to be correct for the time period. But thanks to a large reference database of thousands of paintings, Art Analysis & Research undertook a comparative study of the work and determined that the piece was in fact a Rubens.

An appraisal is something that any collector should have. But not all appraisers are equal.

Emily Thompson of Gurr Johns, Inc. offers a shocking statistic to demonstrate this point: there are over two million appraisers in the US but only around two thousand of these appraisers follow a strict set of standards including USPAP, AAA, and ASA. You also want a third party appraiser to avoid any potential conflicts.

To see what I’m talking about and learn other great tips for authenticating your collection, check out the webinar on AVOIDING LEGAL PITFALLS IN ART TRANSACTIONS. Watch Now!

George Lucas once said that art is a continually evolving process. When he said that technology keeps moving forward, making it easier for artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want he was probably (almost certainly) talking about motion pictures.

However, that comment is as easily applicable to other forms of art.

Today’s artists have an incredibly wide canvas on which they can express themselves. The new digital art movement, for instance, has evolved from artistic expressions on the Internet using some of the most advanced software available in the 21st century to one that can now harness the inherent possibilities of 3D printing. Now three dimensional artistic expression is as easily accessible as two dimensional.

3D printing was originally designed to allow the creation of real world objects designed using graphic design software. Once the darling of the industrial sector 3D printing has now become the playground of artists the world over.

There is now continual discussion over whether the widespread and more cost effective availability of 3D printing will render traditional approaches to sculpture completely obsolete. The answer, at least for now must be no. This is a technology that is still in its infancy. There are widespread limitations in the materials that can be used, as well as the size of the products that are the end result of the 3D printing process. For now this must remain a technology of niches – more use to those who are studying engineering, manufacturing or graphic design.

Of course 3D printing technology will have an influence on art. Irrespective of whether the artist is working in wood or marble 3D design skills will only improve the ability to present concepts, as well as scale up 3D printed designs and blueprints to the dimensions the finished piece.

The power of 3D printing as it currently stands is similar to the power of the Internet. Just as the Internet allows users access to vast amounts of information that were previously only available in libraries, so the power of 3D printing can allow these same users to print and enjoy realistic simulacrums of famous artwork in their own homes. This technology may just represent the first steps towards the true democratization of art and sculpture.

This democratization of art is also taking place in cities across the world. Whereas social protest has, in the past taken the form of street marches and civil disobedience today it is harnessing the power of art and installations to take messages using art to the people.

In cities like Cairo and Rio de Janeiro, street art or even the projection of images onto abandoned buildings is taking messaging to a whole new level. This is true art for the masses – and it’s making even the ordinary person sit up and take notice. Art has always been praised for its beauty and emotional impact and now it’s being harnessed for the good of communities in built up areas across the world.

This is a type of art that is driving social change. Some may argue that this type of art is merely branding, however that ignores the fact that branding is often art in a commercial sense. This new wave of art is changing social protest from a divisive issue into one that draws people in. Although in many cases this new urban art is jarring to the senses it is without doubt encouraging young artists to explore the meaning and impact of art in the modern urban setting.

2016 will be seen as yet another watershed year in the continual evolution of the artistic process and the way in which the public appreciates art – not only for its beauty, but also for its utilitarian value. And the artists of 2016 are at the forefront of taking charge of the continual evolution of self expression.

About the Author

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As a professional artist and critic as well as a curator, I have many advantages for which I thank my lucky stars every day. The great benefit of dividing my time between the studio, art galleries and museums is that eventually I developed a sharper perspective on the art world while cultivating a critical eye for the huge amount of works that regularly come to my attention. The more you look the more you learn, and the more comfortable and secure you become in making significant judgments as well as mastering the technique of articulating your opinions into a cohesive statement, which also may incorporate a bit of related art history along with expressing what makes certain works “tick” while others seem to fail.

In fact, most art critics will tell you that often it is a genuine challenge to find new work that is compelling and inventive, even if it is a new interpretation of an existing genre, from cubism to abstract expressionism. When I first saw the fresh paintings of Joseph Conrad-Ferm on exhibit at the Paul Fisher Gallery, I immediately was impressed with his freewheeling, risk-taking talent that was quite obvious, and with his unmistakable visual footprint that was unlike anything I had seen in many years, I knew I had made a compelling discovery. I soon learned that Conrad-Ferm is a self-taught artist, who was encouraged by experimentation and a fearless approach to creating disparate marks complemented by vertical and horizontal lines, splashes of raw color and random acts of visual kindness in the form of sweet little painterly areas that are at once rough and smooth, providing a kind of off-balancing act where lines and forms compete with each other to hold the composition together. I also found out that renowned collector Beth DeWoody, who has a knack for discerning new and original artists, had begun acquiring Conrad-Ferm’s work, a sure sign of his future success.

Joseph Conrad-Ferm, whose survey exhibition opened this month at the Coral Springs Museum of Art (through August 27), has an evident gift for exploring the far corners of an initially blank canvas, and, starting with a brushstroke like the warm-up habits of de Kooning or Kline, he begins to “build” a picture by intuitively sensing which forms will attract each other and mesh, while others spin away in an opposite direction, leaving a scratchy haze as if from a distant comet streaking across the night sky. As the white background begins to fill up with expressive brushstrokes and an occasional scrape by a large palette knife, there is a noticeable energy that begins to stir, as if the shapes were communicating in a post-modern language all their own that is not only genuine, but able to repeat segments and “sentences” in other works that are part of the series on view. There is a very strong common denominator throughout this innovative collection, which is recognizable instantly, and taken together the handmade energy collaborates with each companion work to form a pictorial bond that is undeniable.

Another appealing and memorable aspect of Conrad-Ferm’s orchestrated, line dancing party is the intentional rhythm and poetic streaks he seems to enjoy nourishing with a demonstrated segment of non-narrative painterly spaces. In the same way that Christopher Wool produces intuitive space on his canvas by whipping away sections of paint to expose ghostly images beneath, Conrad-Ferm has a natural ability to wipe away certain spots to generate depth and often offer a new base on which to reconstruct shapes and gestures that function well.
The opportunity to view these early works at the Coral Springs Museum of Art is indeed a surprising experience, where a new and completely novel approach to painting with an abstract expressionist foundation is revealed. What’s so exciting to me as the curator of this exhibition is that if you can be this good this young, just wait until this artist shifts into high gear and the polished formula and instinctive painterly approach blossom into a recognizable and completely unique form of contemporary picture-making.

For more information on Joseph Conrad-Ferm at the Coral Springs Museum of Art: http://coralspringsmuseum.org/joseph-conrad-ferm/ and on the artist: http://www.paulfishergallery.com/

It is widely reported that the finance industry increasingly views art as an asset. Reported from Art New York 2016, our panel of experts discuss this development and advise on the trends and financial benefits of this investment.

There is no doubt that art is a unique asset. Since 2008, there has been a move away from assets with a perceived connection to the financial downturn towards more tangible options. In addition to a traditional portfolio, art offers diversification as well as aesthetic appeal; immediate aesthetic reward with the promise of financial return down the road. As a result, not only are more and more collectors seeking to monetise their art and invest it in other interests, non-established art collectors are looking to art as a viable addition to their portfolio.

What needs to be considered before entering this seemingly opaque world of art auctions, fairs and galleries? Is this a suitable investment for all, or just those with insider knowledge?

According to our experts, it is essential to engage a specialist, advisor or curator before starting to collect. For the inexperienced, it can feel like a privilege working with an art advisor, so don’t be afraid to choose someone with a proven track record – as Madelaine D’Angelo, Founder & CEO at Arthena, stresses, “nothing replaces experience”. Ask copious questions around transactions, transparency and commission, to avoid any unpleasant surprises down the line.

At present, most art market data comes from auction results, which constitute only a small portion of the market overall. Our specialists were keen to point out that the phrase “The Art Market” can be misleading, in that it is fragmented – in reality it is several much smaller markets, all operating in tandem. Therefore, lenders and funds rely on diligence, trust, vigilance and human intelligence to glean the most accurate data. We hear from Terence Doran, Managing Director at Art Capital Group that his company has an invaluable “network of proprietary relationships built over time”.

Over the past ten years, we have seen a huge increase in the amount of specialised art lenders. Lending against an art collection allows for collectors to gain collateral without selling their works, unlocking funds to invest elsewhere. In terms of a comparable asset, D’Angelo cites real estate, in that it has value in the current market, requires maintenance, a passion factor and it is advisable to engage with a specialist before investing.

Doran points out that art lending is attractive due to the current low lending rates. Innovative new art funds offer investors an opportunity to buy high-end art along with a complete art service solution – individuals can obtain a mortgage rate against their collection, alongside a tailored concierge service to manage their portfolio.

And what about the art itself? With the aim to make more money than the cost of the debt, Doran prefers “underlying artists to have a quantifiable track record at auction”. Therefore, emerging contemporary artists are less likely to be considered. Title is critical when it comes to lending, with additional authenticity coming from provenance, bills of sale and auction results. D’Angelo backs this up with a requirement for good gallery validation, and our experts agree that if title is not identifiable, the deal stops there.

Innovative art finance firms offer investors something unique – the opportunity to borrow against an asset that they can, on the whole, retain on their walls to enjoy. Prior to this, it is essential to find the right people to work with – the right art advisor not only saves time and mistakes, but seeks to find clients the most cost-effective way to sell, when the time is right to do so. And with both experts agreeing that, despite conjecture, the market is not really softening, D’Angelo confidently states that now is “a really good time to buy”.

For more insights into Trends of the Art World from an Investment Perspective, check out the entire video. Watch Now!

Sure there will always be a place for the old masters and impressionist painters but as Laura Doyle of Chubb National Fine Art Specialists points out, younger collectors are choosing new and innovative art forms like never before. But these newer forms of art also pose challenges involving storing, shipping, and displaying.

Next gen collectors are increasingly opting for contemporary paintings as well as photography and design from emerging artists.

One of the challenges with this trend is that unlike more traditional paintings, contemporary works are sometimes crafted with everything from bubblegum to bodily fluids. Preserving these works is therefore more difficult and requires specialized care from the help of conservators.

Laura highlights the unique challenge of preserving work with an example by Marc Quinn. His works are created using his own blood and can take years to produce. Each piece by Marc has to be displayed in a custom refrigerated case (and no you can’t store your wine in it). So, if a collector wants to preserve the work they really should consider a backup power supply in the event of a disruption.

An interesting stat she highlights is a recent Merrill Lunch study that found 64% of millennials are more comfortable investing in physical assets than in stocks.

Increasingly this generation is fully comfortable viewing their art collections as part of an investment portfolio. Because of this they are not only storing more of their work for preservation but also lending it to museums and galleries at a higher frequency. This generosity has its rewards as greater exposure of the work can lead to an increase in value.

Whether you’re a millennial or a seasoned collector this webinar on Trends Among Next Gen Collectors will get you thinking about new trends and various ways to protect your assets. Watch Now!

Artists are emotional, irrational and completely unhinged from reality. At least that’s what some people would have you believe. This same criticism is often placed on the art market when talking about pricing. Evan Beard, National Art & Exotic Assets Executive, dispels this notion by showing us tangible aspects of the market that can drive prices.

Evan starts with a story of a famous work by Johannes Vermeer in the 20th century. The painting, considered a masterpiece, was supposed to have been created while Vermeer was studying in Italy. It was so highly regarded that the renowned Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam had it on showcase. But after WWII it was discovered that the Vermeer was actually forged by Han van Meegeren. And so it was that the masterpiece so highly prized at Boijmans was no longer so cherished.

This is an interesting paradox. As Evan says ‘how does a piece that one day was considered an important work of art, a day later become totally irrelevant?’ The painting hadn’t changed. But the perception of it had.

The first thing a collector has to get over when investing in art is that value has little to do with aesthetics. You can have both but more than anything, the importance of work is measured by the influence that it has on future art and culture in general.

Evan uses Piet Mondrian as an example. Mondrian’s early work is much more detailed in comparison to his later geometric compositions. Yet in 2014, Mondrian’s compositions sold for far more. The reason is that the compositions were innovative and original. No one had seen anything like this before and it went on to influence everything from fashion to architecture.

By now it’s clearer that what drives price is not only the work but also the artist who created it. What is the artist’s worldview? What is the artist trying to say? Sometimes the best way to discover this is to take an artist out for tea or schedule a studio visit. Many artists spend so much time alone it can be refreshing to have visitors. Getting to know what makes the artist tick can help guide your decisions when searching for the next piece to invest in. And who knows, you may even find that artists can have a rational side after all – just like the art market.

For more insights into What Drives the Price of Great Paintings, check out the entire video. Watch Now!

Even the best picture frames won’t make you want to put your investment statements on display. This is one of the reasons why art is so compelling; as it ascends in value, you get to enjoy it on your walls.

These days we take for granted that paintings can be used as a store of value. In fact in the last twenty-five years, contemporary art in particular has returned the largest profit percentage of almost any other commodity.

Yet less than 50 years ago, the majority of art in New York was collected by a small group of people such as the Guggenheims and the Whitneys. Back then art wasn’t necessarily purchased as a store of wealth. Bruce Helander’s recalling of a story involving Pollock and de Kooning illustrates this change. A struggling Pollock once convinced a landlord to show his work in a building lobby. Despite his efforts the work didn’t sell. The landlord was implored by Pollock to purchase a large piece but the landlord passed on the offer. And what a mistake that was. Thirty years later the same piece sold to the Australian Museum for $30 million.

Current Trends

If you’re new to collecting, navigating the current trends in the art market isn’t always straightforward. But after listening to One Art Nation’s expert panel on Contemporary Art Market Predications, the forces behind the scenes of this seemingly opaque world became clearer and easier to understand.

The first aspect is supply. Unless you have the ability to time travel or bring an artist back from the dead, non-contemporary art is in finite supply.

But here’s the twist. Only the most eccentric collectors will opt to be buried with their works of art. So as the baby boomer cohort downsizes there will be more work from private collections available to purchase.

Price also plays a huge roll in the world of art. Currently a lot of contemporary art by a living artist is (gulp) overpriced. No one likes to overpay for anything – art included. Like any market, there is always the possibility of volatility and this is especially true with contemporary art. Learning about these trends and past crashes in the market is the best way to build a collection while keeping an eye on the bottom line.

One way dealers can create price stability is by controlling supply. By keeping some of an artist’s work out of the market, dealers can prevent oversupply while increasing demand. This in turn prevents prices from dropping; essentially killing two birds with one stone. And with these two birds you get collectors who are hungrier than ever for some artists’ work. The take away from this panel discussion is that your appetite for art collecting should be well planned.

Disclaimer: No birds were harmed in the writing of this blog.

For more insights into current trends in the art market check out the entire video featuring One Art Nation’s expert panel. Watch Now!

For much of the country, the winter months are just something people put up with, as there is little hope of warm weather during that season. As a boy growing up in Minnesota, I experienced a climate that reminds me of the TV programs “Life Below Zero” and “Deadly Catch,” where the floating, freezing cast is thrown about in miserable storms, with bone chilling rain and no end in sight. When my family moved to rural Minnesota, I remember wondering out loud in the autumn why so many people were surrounding their houses with bales of hay up to the roof line, until it dawned on us that it was another layer of necessary protection from a cold wave guaranteed to descend on the state by November and stay put until May. Surreal as this may sound to my South Florida readers, my sister and brother would wait with me by our front door, bundled up to the max, as we listened to the school bus changing gears as it crawled up the hill towards our house. If you plan to go out early in the morning when it’s 30 below zero (or colder), you better dash in a flash, and that’s exactly what we did as the bus driver shifted between second and third gears, arriving next to the mailbox on the road as the bus opened its doors.

You would think I had learned my lesson about living in a cold climate when it became time to choose a college, but contrary to warmer alternatives, I decided to attend the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, which, of course, is in New England and can brutal in the winter months. While I was in graduate school there, a blizzard came through right at the afternoon rush hour. The storm closed I-95 for twelve days, with no city streets passable and most businesses closed. Dale Chihuly and I hiked to a small grocery store miles away for provisions, and carried our groceries home in a big garbage bag that we dragged along on the frozen ice.

So when I first got a call a few years later to manage an art gallery on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, I jumped at the opportunity, figuring it would be fun in the sun for a few years and I could finally have a studio with the doors open as I worked into the night. I’m still here thirty-five years later, and now that the spring has arrived and the coast is clear, ironically, I’m off to New York as an exhibitor in Art New York, as well as delivering several lectures. I understand that after a challenging winter the tulips have sprouted on Park Avenue and the bees, they are a-buzzing.

The real buzz in Manhattan these days is the abundance of art connected activities that are concentrated in early May, from the celebrated Frieze art fair on Randall’s Island to the mighty Art New York and CONTEXT New York at Pier 94 on the West Side. Not to mention the new, improved Whitney Museum of American Art on Gansevoort Street, downtown design by Renzo Piano, which is a magical showplace to visit, especially for the first time. Not far away the neighborhood called Chelsea, the largest concentration of commercial galleries in America. Below that is SoHo (South of Houston) and Tribeca (triangle below Canal Street), home to thousands of artists and art dealers that survive by a magnetic strength of numbers. The new neighborhood that’s getting all the attention is the Lower East Side, especially an area called NoLita, whose epicenter is on Prince Street and Bowery. Gone are the blocks of restaurant equipment out on the sidewalks, replaced by snappy little art galleries that are experiencing a huge draw. The New Museum is right in the center of attention in this vicinity as well, and when their new location finally was unveiled, the ripple effect changed the dynamics of this decrepit spot nearly overnight.

Manhattan is a pedestrian’s town, and now that the meteorological conditions are absolutely ideal, it’s great to stroll around the Museum of Modern Art’s outdoor sculpture garden, and then head uptown along Fifth Avenue towards The Met, where if you have the energy, you can go all the way to their roof to see British artist Cornelia Parker’s newly installed and re-created “Psycho” house, a replica of the home made famous in the Hitchcock movie; Parker also was inspired by the artist Edward Hopper. If you walk another ten blocks under the shade trees of Central Park, you will find yourself in front of Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece, the Guggenheim, where Maurizio Cattelan has installed a solid gold toilet that becomes an artwork only with someone sitting on it or standing over it while answering nature’s call. This artwork is nothing to poo-poo, as Cattelan is following a modern version of the first “readymade” by Marcel Duchamp, signed “R.Mutt.” While you a hiking Uptown, you will no doubt enjoy exploring 57th Street, which as some of the best galleries in New York, such as Marlborough, or Madison Avenue on the Upper East Side (my old haunt on 69th and Lexington), where Gagosian has his headquarters in between some of the finest stores in the city.

So if you are reading this in North Dakota or Maine, you may want to venture outside as June approaches and get on the bus, Gus, to the big Apple, the cultural crossroads of America. If you reside in South Florida, which is my nest, please be assured that you may find similar pleasant weather in Manhattan and that you will not have to pack a parka, gloves and a pair of insulated boots.

The month of May, for all the above reasons above, is the ideal time to get an eyeful and then some of the most innovative work being created by some of the best and most interesting artists in the world, and plenty of them. In the 1940s, the epicenter of the art world shifted to New York from Paris with the advent of the “New York School” and the gang of abstract expressionists like de Kooning and Pollock, and it still is. This is a friendly reminder that it’s time to visit and enjoy America’s most exciting city. Oh, and by the way, the next time you may want to visit Brooklyn, which is even more full of surprises. It’s now the biggest collection of artists in the metropolitan area, and one hot spot, now gentrified, is called DUMBO, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.

Don’t forget to pack your walking shoes!

Wendy Partridge, a Paintings Conservator at ICA Art Conservation, shares her expertise and experience by answering some frequently asked questions.

When should one consult a conservator and what services can a conservator provide?
Conservators are experts in the long-term preservation of cultural property. Their activities include examination, documentation, treatment, and preventative care. If you are an individual collector, you might want to consult a conservator about having a piece examined for condition issues and possible conservation treatment. As a paintings conservator, I examine paintings that have structural problems (i.e. lifting paint or torn canvas) and aesthetic issues (i.e. discolored varnish). You might also want to consult a conservator about preventive conservation measures such the proper way to display and store your collection.

An excellent source of information on art conservation is the website of the national professional organization for art conservators, the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC). On the AIC website you will find information on how to choose a conservator, how to find a conservator in your area, and resource guides written by the various AIC specialty groups on how to care for your treasures.

What is the process in having a piece evaluated?
You may begin the process over the phone or via email. Sometimes digital images can be very helpful. However, if a piece requires treatment, the conservator will need to examine it in person. As part of an initial consultation, the conservators will often look at the piece with you and give you some idea of treatment possibilities and cost.

If the piece needs treatment, you would leave it with the conservator. The conservator will spend time looking at the work sometimes with different light sources or low tech tools. As a paintings conservator, in addition to good bright light, I usually use ultraviolet light and magnification in my examinations. Conservators might also perform small tests on the piece to determine, for example, if there is a grime layer or how the canvas responds to humidity. Any information that you have about the history of the piece or the artist often can be very helpful in the assessment. At the end of the examination, the conservator will write a formal condition report, treatment proposal, and cost estimate.

How does one decide on what approach to take when conserving a piece or art?
The treatment approach is determined in consultation with the owner or custodian of the piece. The conservator can present various options and will explain what to expect as the result of a particular treatment. For example, the conservator might strongly urge that lifting paint be secured to prevent losing part of the paint layer. However, depending on the piece, areas of loss might not necessarily need to be filled and inpainted to match the surrounding original.

What will be included in a condition report?
A key element of professional art conservation is written and photographic documentation. The condition report is a record of the construction of a piece and its current condition. It will contain information about the materials and techniques used by the artist. It will also have information concerning what has happened to the piece over time including evidence of damage, modifications, previous repairs, or past restoration.

If conservation treatment is recommended, there will be a written treatment proposal associated with the condition report. The treatment proposal will outline the steps of the treatment. Additionally, if there are risks associated with a treatment, these should be indicated in the report. Finally, any limitations to treatment should be noted. For example, a conservator might be able to repair a tear and significantly improve the appearance of a painting, but he or she might not be able to eliminate all evidence of damage.

After a piece has been conserved, the conservator will write a treatment report, documenting what was done to the piece and what materials were used. Any additional information discovered during the course of treatment will also be recorded in the treatment report.

How should one protect art over time?
There are a number of preventive conservation measures concerning proper display, storage, and handling that will help protect works of art. Information about caring for particular types of objects can be found on the AIC website at the Caring for Your Treasures (i.e. metal objects, books, textiles, photographs, etc).

Proper environmental conditions are a very important factor in contributing to any art work’s longevity. For example, all paintings consists of various components and materials which expand and contract at different rates as temperature and relative humidity fluctuate. Therefore, the best thing you can do for your paintings is to maintain as stable an environment as possible. While slow seasonal environmental changes are usually acceptable, try to avoid large fluctuations within shorts periods of time. It is best to avoid hanging paintings on outside walls or over heat vents or fireplaces.

Wendy Partridge, Paintings Conservator
Wendy Partridge is a Paintings Conservator at ICA Art Conservation in Cleveland. She has a graduate degree in Paintings Conservation with an M.A. in art history from the Conservation Center, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU. Prior to working for the ICA, she had internships and fellowships at the National Gallery, Washington, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She is a professional associate of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and served for two years as chair of the AIC Paintings Specialty Group. Contact: wpartridge@ica-artconservation.org

The headline on the editorial page of the March 27, 2016 edition of The New York Times, “Who has the Candidate’s Ear?,” got me to thinking, just for a moment, which presidential candidate might bring the most positive influence and support to the art world. JFK and Obama had first class art in the Oval Office. Nixon couldn’t comprehend contemporary art, but, ironically, initiated the National Endowment for the Arts. Hillary and Bernie show some evidence of understanding art, as opposed to the “under-educated” base, who, like their favorite candidate Donald Trump, don’t have a clue about appreciating art, unless you consider NASCAR as some form of culture. Artists Shepard Fairey, who produced a legendary Obama cover poster for TIME, and Andy Warhol, who created an anti-Nixon print in 1972, made their political opinions known through their art; these works are now worth a bundle. Future campaigns will tell artists to support those enlightened candidates who are progressive enough to champion art and make a difference.

Speaking of Andy, I seem to hear evidence of Andy Warhol’s legacy almost every day. It’s hard to believe that nearly thirty years after his untimely death, the work of this Pop Art master continues to be compelling evidence that his revolutionary approach to art making basically changed the way we look at contemporary art. And with that, we seem to be still hungry for bits and pieces about Warhol’s exciting life, both in and out of the studio he called “The Factory.” Warhol, who would have been 88 years old this coming summer, continues to be one of the few artists in history whose work remains an ongoing influence and a great investment, guaranteed at auction by a small group of elite collectors who own hundreds of his paintings and prints and have a personal stake in making sure auction records remain strong and high, thus building a de facto insurance policy that protects them all.

When Andy first jumped from his highly successful career as an illustrator to making fine art paintings, there were few buyers. Considering the controversial imagery, it’s not surprising; Warhol was mocked and misunderstood. Even though asking prices were low at his first few shows, it was a challenge to find someone with the courage to acquire his work. It’s hard to believe now that his first show in Los Angeles at Irving Blum’s Ferus Gallery of the Campbell soup can images in 1962 was a total flop, except for the sale of a single painting bought by Dennis Hopper. It was determined by Blum, his courageous and supportive dealer, that the time just wasn’t right, so he made Warhol an offer to purchase all thirty-two soup “varieties” for $1,000, which was sent the artist in ten monthly payments of $100 each. Mr. Blum promised never to break up the entire set of canvases, and bought back the only soup can that hadn’t been sold originally. (In 1996, it was a very different story: the complete set of soup cans was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art for $15 million.)

I remember the very first show I presented on Warhol’s early works in my Worth Avenue gallery. It was in 1983, and it was a group of “Dollar Sign” images with an asking price of $6,500 for each small silkscreened painting. I was able to sell just a couple of these works over a month’s time, sending the rest back to Leo Castelli on West Broadway after failing to persuade my friends and clients to buy just one painting. Thirty years later, I noticed one of the same “Dollar Sign” images for sale recently at the Art Miami fair, listed for $850,000. Had someone listened to my advice on purchasing all the “Dollar Sign” works, they could have enjoyed a net profit of about $5 million if they were to cash in today. His 1963 canvas Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), unsaleable at the time, sold a few years ago for $105 million, breaking the record for sales of Warhol’s work.

The Boca Raton Museum of Art, celebrating in its fifteenth year with an impressive new building, is commemorating this milestone with not one Warhol survey show, but three exhibitions that explore the depth and variety of the world of Andy Warhol. The first, Warhol on Vinyl: The Record Covers, 1949–1987+, turns a unique lens on this artist’s career, from his early years as a graphic designer to the cultural phenomenon he later became. This is a remarkable show of over 100 album covers, all taking advantage of Warhol’s LP spin. The second concurrent exhibit is a collection of classic prints from the collection of Marc Bell, which presents Andy’s iconic images, such as Campbell’s soup cans, Dollar Signs, Flowers, and even Chairman Mao, who would be delighted to know, if he were alive, that China has overtaken Britain and America as the leading consumer of contemporary art.

The third leg of this trifecta is an amazing presentation of candid photographs by Bob Colacello, titled In and Out with Andy. Colacello was in the right place at the right time, when as a degree candidate in film criticism from Columbia University he wrote a review for the Village Voice on Warhol’s early film “Trash,” which Bob hailed as a “great Roman Catholic masterpiece.” As luck would have it, Andy read the review and invited Colacello to contribute to Interview, and just a few months later he became the editor for the next decade. The magazine flourished under Colacello’s direction, and also became an important instrument in the continuing success of Warhol’s career. This exhibition consists of images Bob took with his small black Minolta camera, given to him by the art dealer Thomas Ammann, which could be hidden in his jacket pocket. Bob was with Andy constantly as one-half of their dynamic duo, and that meant going out every night to an endless array of cocktail parties, dinner parties, art openings, film premieres and after hours clubs. This is the first museum show of these intimate portraits of Andy and friends, which includes snapshots of Mick Jagger, Liza Minnelli and Truman Capote, among dozens of others on display. I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Colacello during the exhibition, which continues through May 1, and it gave me personal insights that I never had before and reinforced my long standing conviction that Andy Warhol was one of the most inventive artists of all time.

Another creative dynamic duo currently setting Fifth Avenue on its ear is Elmgreen & Dragset, with their large-scale sculpture placed outside of Rockefeller Center. The reaction to their latest installation will be similar to first viewing an original Warhol, meaning, it is the most talked about object in town due to its wit, novel juxtaposition and inventiveness. These two artists have pooled their creative resources and dove right into yet another astounding installation by transforming a familiar object, like Andy and his soup cans or Brillo boxes, in this case a large swimming pool on its side, placing it into a grand public space and converting the ordinary into a surreal object taken out of context. The title of the work is Van Gogh’s Ear. An oblique reference to the tortured artist’s self-inflicted razor slice after an argument with his friend, Gauguin, while painting in Arles, France. Certainly from a distance it takes on the curvaceous shape of an large, dismembered, surrealistic albeit powder blue, abstract ear shape. In this case, it looks uprooted from an altogether incongruous setting, where a new context gives the work, like all of these two men’s efforts, an often hilarious but oddly handsome and unforgettable platform that is unique in contemporary art. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the pool shape has a distant connection to Duchamp’s most famous “ready-made” sculpture, titled Fountain and signed by ‘R. Mutt,’ of a found urinal designed to hold water but was as useless as an empty pool, complete with drain. Like one of Elmgreen & Dragset’s most memorable works, Prada Marfa (2005), where they built a full-scale, one-story facsimile of the famous luxury store out on a lonely highway in the West Texas desert, these guys are virtual masters of unforgettable irony. Like Bob Colacello’s documentary images that became iconic and have lasted long after many of his subjects have passed on, the vision of Elmgreen & Dragset’s three-story lima bean-shape in Midtown Manhattan with a limited performance (through June 3) will live on in perpetuity with photographs. The installation is organized by Public Art Fund and Tishman Speyer.

For more information: Boca Raton Museum of Art; Public Art Fund, Elmgreen & Dragset project.

Sharks seem to be everywhere these days, and one of the most extraordinary sightings is the annual blacktip shark migration off the southeast coast of Florida, with more than 10,000 of these creatures taking advantage of warmer waters during the winter months. Not surprisingly, it keeps one on the beach and out of the Atlantic. Another impressive discovery was when I spotted photographer Chris Leidy’s mysterious, haunting image, Silhouette, shot on a night dive in French Polynesia, on display during his recent exhibition at a gallery in Chelsea.

I was reminded the other day of one of the great “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” moments in the history of contemporary art when I unearthed a first edition copy of Don Thompson’s The $12 Million Stuffed Shark from my studio library. This book has become a de facto bible of sorts for thousands of people as they attempt to understand the curious economics of art. The first chapter describes the astonishing initial asking price for a two-ton, fifteen-foot tiger shark “sculpture” by British artist Damien Hirst, which was mounted in a giant glass vitrine and creatively titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. According to Thompson, the shark had been caught in 1991 in Australia, and prepared and mounted in England by technicians working under the direction of Hirst. At the time, many in the art world were uncertain whether or not there was something fishy going on, and if this floating specimen actually qualified as art. The $12 million price tag and subsequent sale by Gagosian Gallery was the highest price ever paid for a work by a living artist at that time, other than Jasper Johns, and it was more than had been paid for a Richter, Rauschenberg or a Lucian Freud before that year. The real question should have been, why would anyone even consider paying this much money for a floating fish? Part of the answer, according to Thompson, is that in the world of contemporary art, branding can substitute for critical judgment, and lots of branding was involved here. But there was another concern, and in fact, a certain deterrent to a potential buyer, as the shark had deteriorated dramatically since it was first unveiled in 1991 at Saatchi’s private London gallery. So the long and short of this fabulous tale with sharp teeth to it was that the techniques used to preserve the shark had been inadequate, and the liquid started to turn green (like the investor’s face) and a fin had fallen off, so the intended illusion of a giant Galeocerdo cuvier swimming directly towards the viewer as it hunted for a snack was murky. In the end, the same kind of creature that made the movie “Jaws” a famously terrifying experience was replaced by a stand-in that Hirst found after posting a “Shark Wanted” announcement in Australia. The rest is history, and the last that I heard, it was floating in a tank on a sculpture stand at the Museum of Modern Art.

There is another “Shark Tank” that is not a work of art and is not in hot water, but is the cool title of the hit TV program that showcases aspiring entrepreneurs, who as contestants make presentations to a panel of “shark” investors, hoping to persuade them to finance their products. The panel of businesspersons is an fascinating group, but it is Kevin O’Leary who takes the cake with his directness, piercing questions and hard-line approach, which has made him a star of the program—where he’s known as “Mr. Wonderful”—and a big ratings success.

What I find so interesting about O’Leary is that unlike a lot of corporate people, he has had a lifelong interest in high-end photography and art, and is a respected photographer. I recently met him during Presidents Day Weekend at the Art Wynwood fair in Miami, introduced by Nick Korniloff, producer of the fair, where O’Leary was showcasing his photography, which revealed his sharp, intelligent eye and a clear perspective on inventive composition. Sales from the exhibition, which were substantial, benefited the Perry J. Cohen Foundation and Teenage Entrepreneurs. Based on the success of this first show, Arcature Fine Art in Palm Beach presented an exhibition in March titled “Irreconcilable Images,” which also benefited the same causes, donating 100% of the profits from sales of the photographs. “Shark Tank has been a lightning rod for entrepreneurial culture in this country, and I’m lucky to be a part of that. Every day, I meet bright, motivated young people who want to become entrepreneurs. I want to do something to encourage them, “ said O’Leary. “Partnering with the Perry J. Cohen Foundation was a natural after I got a chance to meet Perry’s parents, Pamela Cohen and Nick Korniloff, and understand what an amazing and passionate life that this young entrepreneur and art lover lived.”

So, a noteworthy marriage of images, ideas and charity has come together with dignity and compassion, along with a first class show of idiosyncratic photographs.

For more information about the Perry J. Cohen Foundation, including how to make a donation (www.pjcf.org); for more information about Kevin O’Leary’s exhibition at Arcature Fine Art (www.arcaturefineart.com); and for more information about Chris Leidy’s work (www.leidyimages.com).