Reports of the Demise of Shiraga’s Market Are Greatly Exaggerated

The Art Newspaper has a long market history of the rise of Gutai and, especially, Kazuo Shiraga on the market. The story frets that somehow the Shiraga and Gutai markets are teetering. The evidence presented turns out to be thin. Then there are the reports from Art Basel this week where Lévy Gorvy, Fergus McCaffrey and Hauser + Wirth all making sales of $3.5m, $5m and $2.8m respectively. Those don’t seem like prices that reflect a fall—or even a potential fall—in Shiraga’s market which backs up what the reporter was told:

Dominique Lévy, of Lévy Gorvy gallery, who entered the Gutai market around ten years ago, says, “What happened with Shiraga is unfortunate. He went from complete unknown to complete fever, and now to a very strange moment of calm.” She mounted a show at her London gallery in February and reports that two works sold “at what we consider market price—which is a bit less than it was a year or two ago… right now [the market is in] a bit of a quiet moment, but it doesn’t call into question the quality of the artist.”

Gutai’s spectacular rise—and potential fall (The Art Newspaper)