The Scotsman Goes to the Hirst Auction with Sarah Thornton

The subhed on this Scotsman story about attending the Hirst sale with art market author, Sarah Thorton, gives you fair warning: “Sarah Thornton cut her academic teeth in Glasgow and sank them deep into the booming contemporary art market. She bares her fangs for Jackie McGlone.” Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World comes out in November. Until then:

In the end, the most talked about art auction of recent times doesn’t quite live up to the hype, but Thornton is very good company. “Who’s bidding on the phone with that Sotheby’s employee who I happen to know speaks Russian?” she whispers as we sit among the hack pack observing proceedings. [ . . . ] Roman Abramovich perhaps? “That was exactly my thought,” responds Thornton. “But I know Molly Dent-Brocklehurst, who used to work for the Gagosian Galleries, always bids for him. It’s definitely another Russian oligarch. I’ve a few ideas who it is – I’ll find out his name eventually.” Read the rest of this entry »

Jed Perl is one of those alternatingly sublime and annoying writers. And this Barnes and Noble video displays that in equal parts. But it also makes his book on Watteau enticing. Watch and decide for yourself.

Felix Salmon passes judgment on Seven Days in the Art World

We generally don’t agree with Felix Salmon’s rote assumption that Contemporary art is a bubble. But there are two good reasons to start to worry: Greed and the Magazine cover signal. Two old saws about markets seem to be coming together this Fall. The first is the idea that magazine covers (or, in this case, a book) are the signal of a top. When a subject appears on a magazine cover, it’s not news to anyone anymore. Does Thornton’s book signal the top for Contemporary Art? (Video after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Asian Contemporary Art Market Gravitates Toward Hong Kong

Sotheby’s announced this week (pdf) that it will be consolidating its Asian Contemporary art auctions in Hong Kong next year. The news will not surprise anyone who saw the dramatic difference in results between the sales of Chinese Contemporary art in New York and Hong Kong last Spring. Hong Kong is clearly the center of market.

And Quick Way to Bone Up on Contemporary Chinese Art

Meanwhile, Bloomberg runs this interview with Karen Smith, author of the now-updated Nine Lives profiling nine of China’s most influential contemporary artists. Though Smith doesn’t seem to share the auction houses’ enthusiasm for price as a measure of artistic merit: Read the rest of this entry »

Chapter One is Done and Dusted

Sarah Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World

Portfolio’s Market Mover blog is reading the forthcoming Sarah Thornton book that seeks to explain the art world to the uninitiated. In chapter one, she covers the auctions. Here’s what Felix Salmon has to say about the auctions’ role in establishing prices and collectors’ keen interest in those prices: Read the rest of this entry »

The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art has provoked this exceptionally long review/rant from Portfolio’s Felix Salmon. The post is too long to summarize. Beyond Salmon’s nitpicking, it is noteworthy for the barely contained strong feelings Salmon clearly has. He seems to take art very seriously, which is good. But, perhaps, too seriously. To Salmon, art is an asset to be measured by its price. But the long rise in prices leaves him uneasy: Read the rest of this entry »