In the latest BRICHouse, we brought together leaders from the art world to discuss the impact of customers and creatives from the emerging nations on the global art market, with a particular emphasis on finding and guiding development of art from new markets. The art market was defined to include artists at all levels; from emerging to headline-grabbing superstars. Participants in the discussion included art collectors and investors, advisors and consultants, cultural policy makers, and artists themselves.
What are the clues that a new art market has potential to grow?
The first sign is a growing wealth among the citizens of a nation. This has created patrons throughout history that encourage and support creators. We see China and now India as current examples. Hence, the most effective action for developing new art markets involves starting from the source: supporting and giving confidence to new art enthusiasts who will buy into their local emerging artists.
‘Patronage is key and education of the patron is imperative’ – Henry Howard-Sneyd, Chairman of Asian Art at Sotheby’s
Government support is a double-edged sword
Government sponsorships, grants and support are great for encouraging creativity with their resources and connections (including exhibition spaces, funding, events, etc.). However it, more often than not, has political agendas and hence stifles true and honest creativity. In a similar vein, corporate funding has problems too, encapsulated by the recent example of BP’s sponsorship of the Tate coming under fire following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
The group’s consensus was that while policy makers can still act in ways to support and grow their native art markets, being aware of these issues suggests that their activities should instead be aimed at encouraging patronage and educating patrons to be confident in new markets and help with accessing emerging artists. Suggested tasks for policy makers are to give tax breaks (e.g.reduce capital gains tax), ease rules on import/export of art and encourage sponsorship.
Is being underdeveloped a bad thing?
Emile Durkheim, sociologist, said that ‘it is precisely such periods of revolt and upheaval that provide the perfect conditions for artists to do their greatest work and for art to prosper’. Art is supposed to evoke emotion in the observer, and when the artist has experienced trauma, tragedy and upheaval it often seeps through in the art, (deliberately or subconsciously). This in turn sparks a response in the observer and opens their eyes to something they may not be used to or be uncomfortable with. It is often suggested that countries going through turmoil (for example the Arab Spring) combined with a period of good economic growth can create a growing market creating fascinating and current art.
Being underdeveloped is also exciting for the art community:
Russian art for me is such an exciting area because since the collapse of the Soviet Union we are finally seeing a number of collections coming onto the market for the first time, so if you are a new collector looking to build up a collection I think Russian art is very good place to start – Theodora Clarke, curator of Russian Art Week
Investors, accumulators and collectors
“Investors are often unfocused, blindly following big brand names and potentially never even seeing the work in real life as they go straight into storage”, commented Howard Lewis, Director of the Schorr Collection, discussing tax benefits and lack of space in the owner’s home. We further commented that their large budgets get focused on the art superstars and not often enough on new art markets. This leads us to suggest to advisors to explain to these participants that it’s a great investment opportunity as prices are low, to focus on long term holding, to create a coherent collection that reflects the owner’s vision and to give ideas on how to keep it out of storage and in the public’s eyes.
Regarding the Indian art market, Sotheby’s have recently opened a new office in Mumbai, India, due to the growing demand for their services and expertise from Indian collectors. Conor Macklin, Director of the Grosvenor Gallery mentioned; “…the Indian art market has only really been a thing since 2003 and so it’s seen as not quite mature”. He also noted that Indians don’t have many patrons yet, which could explain why the Indian art market hasn’t exploded as much as others. Conrad Carvalho, art consultant for Oaktree & Tiger, pointed out that “…currently the IMF expects India to be the world’s fastest growing economy in 2016 with GDP growth estimated at 7.3%, and is a clear candidate for an art market to watch…”.
Other significant participants in the art market are art auction houses, art fairs and galleries. They do tend to congregate to form arts hubs in locations where buyers like to be, for instance London and New York. It was suggested that new markets don’t need to become arts hubs/centres to assist growing art markets. The hubs attract collectors from around the world and they reach out to new markets anyway. Auctions can be focused on new markets and be based in hubs, especially London; Theodora Clarke set up Russian Art Week in London, which auctions a variety of Russian works in prestigious London auction houses and this initiative has worked well to develop the Russian market.
Patronage is key
Before we state our final thoughts, two great and current examples of patronage were discussed. Karen Levy, representing the DSL Collection, gave various examples that support our earlier comments. She described how the collection came about from discovering emerging Chinese art in Shanghai. It became a changing portfolio of artworks that represented the owner’s’ ideas and experiences, and their passion has fueled their enthusiasm to promote the artists and artworks around the world. Further, it has helped support and grow Chinese emerging art.
Howard Lewis, Director of the Schorr Collection has been actively and very successfully getting as much of the Schorr Collection out into the eyes of the public as possible, and stated this should be a key responsibility of the patron.
Last Words…
So we find ourselves concluding with the key point made at the start. Growing economies appear to be the best clue of a new market with potential, and the growing interest in patronage that comes with that are far more beneficial to developing fascinating new art markets than other forms of support. Therefore our advice to all participants is that it is most effective to educate, give confidence to and allow patrons to support emerging talent.
Which then gives us a new question to think about; what will the new and old art markets look like in 5-10 years time?
