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PARIS, March 13, 2020 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Art history has traditionally analysed the evolution of artistic trends by

reference to precise criteria such as dates, places, movements and techniques.

Nowadays, however, a far more flexible and interconnective approach seems to

prevail, most likely driven by the dynamic links between ideas, exhibitions,

artists and works resulting from the proliferation of the Internet and social networks.

Thierry Ehrmann, President and Founder of ArtMarket.com: "Museums have

accustomed us to view art history in a linear way, grouping works together by

eras and by movements. But museums are now being tempted by a much freer

presentation. At the MoMA for example, there is a gallery showing altogether

Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), Louise Bourgeois's sculpture

Quarantania (1947/53) and a 1967 canvas by Faith Ringgold entitled American

People series # 20: Die. This presentation seems to reflect another trend in

auction catalogs, where Contemporary works are highlighted by the pictures of

Old Master or Modern masterpieces, and vice versa. Remember... Christie's sold

Salvator Mundi in a Post-War & Contemporary Art sale."

To mark the publication of its 2019 Art Market Report, Artprice organized a

round table at Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York to discuss this paradigm

shift. Artprice would like to thank all those who attended this debate on 3

March 2020, as well as the experts who agreed to share their ideas and the

whole team of the Sotheby's Institute of Art.

Visual shocks and associations of ideas

When in 1937 the MoMA presented an exhibition entitled Prehistoric Rock

Pictures in Europe and Africa, its currator Alfred Barr exhibited works by Miro

and Picasso alongside cave art tracings by Leo Frobenius. But as the prehistorian

Emmanuel Guy stated on France Culture radio in June 2019, "[The Modern and

Prehistoric works] were not exactly mixed. Certain works were brought somewhat closer...

but there was still a certain reticence, one might say, which consisted in separating them

spatially." In 2019, an exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris entitled Prehistory:

A Modern Enigma, Palaeolithic Venuses were uninhibitedly mixed with sculptures by

Giacometti, Moore and Brancusi; a Miro painting was hung directly in front of prehistoric

tools and tracings by Leo Frobenius were hung opposite a video by Pierre Huyghe.

We are now accustomed to these connections between extremely contrasting art forms and

this type of juxtaposition are very much in vogue at the moment. For several years now,

the Palace of Versailles has invited Contemporary artists to exhibit works in its gardens and

salons: Jeff Koons, Xavier Veilhan, Takashi Murakami, Bernar Venet, Lee Ufan, Anish Kapoor

and even Olafur Eliasson. Such 'associations' between Contemporary artists and a lavishly

Baroque decor have produced a 'visual shock' each time. When it works, this shock offers

an original way of contemplating older art with Contemporary pieces.

Judd Tully, writer and art critic: "There is a pretty good example that some of

you may have seen a couple of years ago at the Frick, this collector Tomilson

Hill who collects Renaissance sculpture alongside Francis Bacon and Cy Twombly.

He made a big pitch for mixing, in his apartment actually and now in his Foundation

in Chelsea. At one point I interviewed him and asked where he got this idea of mixing genres.

And he said it was the architect Peter Marino who started it."

Incidentally, Tomilson Hill may also be the buyer of the 'Toulouse Caravaggio'.

When the painting sold in June 2019, Hill was hosting an exhibition of works by

the abstract painter Christopher Wool to inaugurate his brand new Foundation.

Flexible links

These direct or indirect associations between artists separated by several

centuries offer a freedom that mirrors that offered by social networks, notably

via hashtags. As for the visual clashes between Old Masters and 

Ultra-Contemporary works, they are clearly very popular on Instagram and Pinterest.

Peter Falk, editor of Discoveries in American Art: "Instagram has become such a

great force in the Art Market. The question is: Is it a facilitator or a disruptor?

And if it is a facilitator, what is the next evolutionary stage?

Does it mean that Instagram can create new movements?"

Artprice is interested in hashtags because they allow us to identify trends in

the art market by identifying commonalities between things as varied as places,

exhibitions and artists. For example, there's a whole generation of female

artists who have in common being African-American painters under the age of 50,

using collage techniques to make portraits of their friends and acquaintances.

There is also a whole group of artists close to the Street Art scene whose

references come from popular culture and who are generating remarkable results

in Hong Kong. Hashtags allow the creation of flexible links between things that

could otherwise escape a traditional approach to art history, perhaps because

they evolve too quickly.

Kathy Battista, of the Sotheby's Institute of Art: "The major change is who is

writing the history. So we have this long legacy, with people like Barthes

writing the history of Modern Art, and now suddenly everybody writes history,

because the Internet and social media have completely democratized the field.

So I think we are living in a new era, and hashtags are emblematic of this new

era. It is interesting to see how 'academia' is responding. For example, at

Yale's Art History department, Tim Barringer has abandoned the entire canon of

Art History for the first time."

Indeed, art history has long been dominated by Western canons, of white,

heterosexual, male artists. But things are changing with incredible speed and

sometimes in a deliberately provocative way. In Los Angeles, the David Kordansky

gallery shocked the art market by reserving certain pieces in its solo show of Lauren Hasley

for collectors of a "certain ethnicity". This extreme case is however exceptional...

and Kathy Battista nevertheless recognizes that "It is refreshing to walk into the Whitney

and see a 13 foot painting of a black person in front of a barbecue."

Today artworks are related by much more flexible links than before, and these

links are much less restrictive and, above all, in constant evolution. Several

of the MoMA's galleries should change every six months in order to show a

greater number of works and propose new associations. There can be no doubt

that the Art Market will have to develop new tools to adapt to this acceleration.

Copyright 1987-2020 thierry Ehrmann www.artprice.com - www.artmarket.com

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