Artmarket.com and Artprice announce the forthcoming publication of an exclusive report on the Contemporary Art Market (2000-2020) to assuage the cancellation of the Frieze in London and the FIAC in Paris

PR85947

PARIS, Oct 6, 2020 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Over the past twenty years the exchange of Contemporary art works has developed

into a dynamic global market. In its upcoming publication, Artprice traces and

analyzes this evolution, from its rapid acceleration culminating in Damien

Hirst's incredible sale at Sotheby's in September 2008 the day Lehmann Brothers

collapsed, then its vigorous recovery with the boom in Chinese Contemporary art

driving the market until 2014, followed by a period of relatively measured

growth... and suddenly interrupted in March 2020, by the unprecedented global

health crisis we are now experiencing.

According to thierry Ehrmann, President and Founder of Artmarket.com and its

Artprice Department. "Contemporary Art began this century as a 'niche market'

but is now the motor of the entire art market. Our latest report deciphers this

radical transformation over the twenty-year period since 2000".

To side-step the problem of an 'incomparable' year (our Contemporary Art Market

Reports usually cover the previous 12-month period...) our next publication

will provide an overview of the Contemporary art secondary market between 2000

and 2020. A few days ahead of the scheduled publication of this historical overview,

Artprice looks at three specific 'moments' in this 20-year period which punctuated

the Contemporary art market's rapid development at the beginning of the 21st century.

2008-2009

The months that preceded the 2008 financial crisis were among the most

profitable in Contemporary art market history - no doubt a little too

profitable - with astounding results for controversial works and

controversial sales.

In the spring of 2008, New York art auctions hammered $15.2 million for Takashi

Murakami's My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), a larger than life sculpture of a boy

proudly ejaculating. Then in June, Jeff Koons' Balloon Flower (1995/2000) sold

for $25.8 million. And then later in September, just a few hours after news

broke of Lehman Brothers' collapse in New York, Damien Hirst and Sotheby's

hosted a London sale titled Beautiful Inside My Head Forever. Despite the

financial context, Hirst managed to sell animal corpses immersed in formalin,

The Golden Calf (2008) and The Kingdom (2008), for $18.6 million and $17.2

million respectively.

The following year, 2009, global sales turnover from Contemporary art dropped

nearly 60%.

2013-2014

Five years later... The major stars of Chinese Contemporary art, which had

already gained momentum before the financial crisis of 2008, finally began to

assert themselves on the global art market. Artists like Luo Zhongli, He Jiaying

and Ai Xuan all posted their best annual auction performances in 2013.

Zeng Fanzhi was even the second-most successful Contemporary artist at auction

after Jean-Michel Basquiat with his turnover exceeding $100 million (incl.fees),

notably thanks to a historic record of $23.3 million for his The Last Supper (2001).

Since then, no work by Zeng Fanzhi has fetched such a high price.

The period was also marked by another phenomenon, quite different, that the

journalist Scott Reyburn described in the New York Times in September 2015:

"In 2014, recently made works by young abstract painters like Oscar Murillo, Lucien

Smith, Alex Israel, Mark Flood and Christian Rosa were being "flipped" at

auction for eye-watering multiples of the artists' original gallery prices. But

in the last six months or so, this very volatile sector of the market [...] has

undergone a correction ".

In the years that followed, the market for artists under 35 became much more

stable. While some of the young superstars of 2014 remained relatively strong

in the secondary market, there have been many changes in the auction turnover

rankings of artists of this generation.

2018-2019

Between 2015 and 2019, the Contemporary art market experienced five years of

continuous volume growth (number of lots sold). After a historic auction record

of more than $110 million for a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 2017, the

market recorded two very solid years, without any headline-grabbing results,

but maintaining a steady and reassuring level of growth.

In 2008, when the Contemporary art market was hit by the financial crisis,

it was already in very feverish state, with numerous controversial results.

Fortunately, the Covid crisis has interrupted a much wiser and more stable

market. Lots of sales have had to be canceled or postponed since March 2020,

but artists' price levels (and the prices of their works) could well, in general,

traverse this crisis without taking too much of hit.

The current 'interruption' is an opportunity for the market to take a step back

from certain enthusiasms that were beginning to boil over, notably those for

Kaws and Liu Ye. It is certainly preferable that the sharp shock to the

Contemporary art market occurred in March 2020 when it was in full confidence

and when most artists' price indices were climbing gradually, than in a period

of major volatility.

Image:

[https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2020/10/Artprice-Contemporary-Pa

inting-vs-others.jpg ]

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

Contact Artprice's Econometrics Department for your questions relating to our

indices and statistics, as well as for our Personalized Study Services:

econometrics@artprice.com

Try our services (free demo):

https://www.artprice.com/artist/15079/wassily-kandinsky 

Subscribe to our services: https://www.artprice.com/subscription 

About Artmarket:

Artmarket.com is listed on Eurolist by Euronext Paris, SRD long only and

Euroclear: 7478 - Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF.

Discover Artmarket and its Artprice department on video:

https://en.artprice.com/video 

Artmarket and its Artprice department was founded in 1997 by its CEO, thierry Ehrmann.

Artmarket and its Artprice department is controlled by Groupe Serveur, created in 1987.

See certified biography in Who's who (c):

https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2019/10/biographie_oct2019_WhosWho_thierryEhrmann.pdf 

Artmarket is a global player in the Art Market with, among other structures,

its Artprice department, world leader in the accumulation, management and

exploitation of historical and current art market information in databanks

containing over 30 million indices and auction results, covering more than

740,000 artists.

Artprice Images(R) allows unlimited access to the largest Art Market image bank

in the world: no less than 180 million digital images of photographs or engraved

reproductions of artworks from 1700 to the present day, commented by our art historians.

Artmarket with its Artprice department accumulates data on a permanent basis

from 6300 Auction Houses and produces key Art Market information for the main

press and media agencies (7,200 publications). Its 4.5 million 'members log in'

users have access to ads posted by other members, a network that today

represents the leading Global Standardized Marketplace(R) to buy and sell

artworks at a fixed or bid price (auctions regulated by paragraphs 2 and 3 of

Article L 321.3 of France's Commercial Code).

Artmarket with its Artprice department, has been awarded the State label

"Innovative Company" by the Public Investment Bank (BPI) (for the second time

in November 2018 for a new period of 3 years) which is supporting the company

in its project to consolidate its position as a global player in the market art.

Artprice by Artmarket's 2019 Global Art Market Report published in February 2020 :

https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2019 

Index of press releases posted by Artmarket with its Artprice department:

http://serveur.serveur.com/press_release/pressreleaseen.htm 

Follow all the Art Market news in real time with Artmarket and its Artprice

department on Facebook and Twitter:

https://www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom/ (4.9 million followers)

https://twitter.com/artmarketdotcom 

https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom 

Discover the alchemy and universe of Artmarket and its artprice department

http://web.artprice.com/video headquartered at the famous Organe Contemporary

Art Museum "The Abode of Chaos" (dixit The New York Times):

https://issuu.com/demeureduchaos/docs/demeureduchaos-abodeofchaos-opus-ix-1999-2013 

L'Obs - The Museum of the Future: https://youtu.be/29LXBPJrs-o

https://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999 

(4.5 million followers)

https://vimeo.com/124643720 

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1009603/Art_Market_logo.jpg )

(Photo:

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1307707/Artprice__Contemporary_Painting_vs_others.jpg )

Contact Artmarket.com and its Artprice department - Contact: ir@artmarket.com

SOURCE: Artprice.com