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Aboriginal Art Finds New Fans in China

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The Australian Broadcasting Company in Perth is excited about the success of Aboriginal art in China. Gary Proctor organized a show that started in Shanghai and is now touring the country where it has been seen by more than 100,000 Chinese:

“The aim was to make a virtual bombing run of big museums in China, offering the finest Warburton works in a large selection,” says Proctor jokingly. “We started with Shanghai, then Beijing’s premier contemporary art museum came on board. Then several second-tier cities came forward, and we were off.”

‘Our Land- Our Body’ has been so popular that Xi’An Art Museum – which is currently hosting the exhibition – has offered to further tour the show to six satellite cities in 2013. […]

Under an explicit community order to keep culture safe, the Warburton Arts Centre has retained some of the best works by local artists over the past twenty years, rather than selling them.

It means that Warburton’s collection, the largest of its kind in Australia, now contains 760 paintings, all linked to a meticulous data base detailing family trees and site locations.

For ‘Our Land- Our Body’, 65 canvasses were selected to tour; they are displayed alongside 6, 500 photographs taken mainly by Aboriginal children and a 24-channel digital audio-visual show. “It’s the largest Australian art exhibition ever to go around China,” says Proctor proudly. “It’s massive.”

From Warburton to China: The Aboriginal art exhibition taking China by storm (ABC)

Do Aboriginal Artists Care About the Market?

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CNN says that Aboriginal artists are driven by the creative opportunities that come from transferring their culture’s imagery and techniques into new media despite the fall in the market for Aboriginal art:

It wasn’t until the 1990s that a secondary market for Aboriginal art developed, but it quickly began to make serious money. “Aboriginal art had never appeared at auction before, and it was incredible to see the reaction to it,” said Cavazzini. “Collectors were fighting over it.”

By the turn of the century it had become a major business, and in some cases art centers were making enough money to become self-sufficient.

According to Bonhams, Emily Kame Kngwarreye has achieved AUS$1 million at auction and the market peaked in 2007, before the global financial crisis, with the AUS$2.4 million sale of a work by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri.

More recently, prices have been dropping — with a Deutscher and Hackett auction in Melbourne this month grossing just AUS$1.25 million from estimates of double or triple that.

Yet for many Aboriginal artists, the motivation is not financial. “The current correction in the speculative end of the market is not only of no concern to the artists, they are generally unaware of it,” said Will Stubbs, coordinator of the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka art center in North East Arnhem Land. “Their concern is with the ceremonial and spiritual health of their land.”

Aboriginal Artists Ignore Spotty Art Market (CNN.com)

Aboriginal Art: Stop the Madness!

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The Australian reports that one Aboriginal art auctioneer, Paul Sumner, is calling for a moratorium on the ever-expanding sales within the cratering market:

“The auction houses are putting too many works on the market,” Mr Sumner said. “When Sotheby’s was doing it very successfully, they were doing one auction a year. It’s all about supply and demand, and demand sinks if you increase supply.”

Mr Sumner said his company, Mossgreen, would not stage an indigenous art sale this year on account of the arrival in Australia of the international auction house Bonhams, plus two annual sales each by Sotheby’s and D+H.

Over-selling isn’t the only problem facing the Aboriginal Art market. There’s also the prospect of increasing supply just as the market is glutted in this post from ABC News in Australia:

Tim Jennings, owner of the Mbantua Art Gallery, says the market will be tight for another few years. […] “The next generation are coming along and … the interest is more economic for them, where they can improve their living standards,” he said. “I think the glut is coming in the next generation rather than the older generation.”

Aboriginal Art Market Paints Dismal Picture (The Australian)

New Generation Fuels Aboriginal Art Glut (ABC News)

Chinese Contemporary Up; Aboriginals Down

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Art investing is something of a national sport in Australia though the buying is generally concentrated in Australian art. Now we get the first hint that the collapse of the market for Aboriginal art may be less connected to government schemes to make sure artists receive a royalty from secondary sales than competition from other regional schools.

Tamara Winikoff, director of Australia’s National Association for the Visual Arts, makes the connection between the decline in Australia’s market for Aboriginal art and the rise of Chinese Contemporary:

“Investment can be faddish,” she said. “Certainly we know that there’s a very, very substantial interest in contemporary Chinese art. That seems to be presenting something of a challenge to Indigenous Australian art in terms of the major collectors.”

Chinese Art Infringing on the Indigenous Market (ABC News)

Whither Indigenous Art in Aus

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Sotheby’s is about to hold a sale of Aboriginal and Oceanic art in Australia. The market is threatened by the revelations that a substantial portion of buyers have been using Aboriginal art as an investment asset. Sotheby’s scrapped their previous A$5,000 minimum for works, according to The Australian:

Sotheby’s might have the last laugh yet when it reveals today in Sydney almost 350 paintings and artefacts with an upper estimate of $6.21 million for its first Aboriginal and Oceanic art auction for the year.

The sale will be held over two days in Melbourne from July 26 but it will have to do exceptionally well to surpass the company’s record-setting 2007 Aboriginal art auction, which fetched $8.2m.Continue Reading

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