As the art world goes online, a generation gap opens
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Tuesday, November 5, 2024


As the art world goes online, a generation gap opens
In a photo provided by Sam Roberts, David Breuer-Weil, who is an artist as well as a collector, with his sculpture “Emergence” in London. Young collectors are still viewing and buying pieces, but they’re spending far less time and money than their older counterparts once did, and that’s a problem for the industry. Sam Roberts via The New York Times.

by Scott Reyburn



LONDON (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- What with everything else that’s going on, international art collectors might seem to be the last people we should worry about right now.

Yet this small group of wealthy individuals is the customer base that supports a $60 billion global industry, with an estimated 310,000 businesses employing about 3 million people, according to a report published this year by Art Basel and UBS. And that industry, like so many others, is hurting.

The coronavirus pandemic caused a near total shutdown of the art world in April and May. Auctions and art fairs were postponed or converted into online-only events. Sales plummeted. Commercial galleries tried to do some business through virtual viewing rooms, but revenue has declined sharply: Many are cutting jobs and facing closure.

Unlike the music industry and other retail sectors, the centuries-old art market has been slow to adapt to the digital era. The uniqueness of original works has made collectors nervous about buying from websites sight unseen, especially at higher price levels. But now the industry is trying to persuade collectors to spend thousands — even millions — online.

Younger, digitally minded collectors are predictably more receptive to online purchases, albeit at relatively low price levels. By contrast, more experienced collectors, conscious of possible condition and provenance issues, remain wary — and it is their spending that makes the art world go around.

Like sport, tourism and hospitality, the international art trade relies heavily on clients’ ability to travel and congregate. The Art Basel and UBS report estimated that collectors with at least $1 million in liquid assets attended last year on average seven art fairs and about the same number of dealer exhibitions. What had become a frequent-flying lifestyle has been grounded, along with the billions of dollars of spending that went with it.

Some galleries have reopened; live auctions have recommenced in cities including Berlin, Paris and Hong Kong; and fair organizers have been hoping that their live events can resume in the fall. But organizers of Art Basel, the industry’s flagship fair, announced Saturday that they had canceled the 2020 edition, having already moved it to September from June. An online version will take place this month.

With so many virus-related restrictions still in place, digital approximations of the events that keep the industry moving are the only way to stay in business. But online-only transactions represented just 9% of the global market’s estimated $64.1 billion sales last year, according to Art Basel and UBS.

“The art trade will be fully online for the foreseeable future,” said Saloni Doshi, a 40-year-old collector based in Mumbai. “And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“It is cost-effective, visually efficient, less time-consuming and can be used democratically,” Doshi added, referring to the way online platforms remove what can be an intimidating aura of exclusivity. “It’s a matter of time before the older collectors get used to it.”

Doshi said that she had bought works online during the lockdown by South Asian contemporary artists in the $10,000 to $35,000 range.

The generation gap in collectors’ buying habits may take some time to close. The 2019 Hiscox Online Art Trade Report found that 29% of surveyed collectors younger than 35 said they preferred the online buying experience. By contrast, only 10% of those older than 60 said they preferred buying art online.

“The resistance from older collectors is still there,” said Anders Petterson, founder of London-based analytics company ArtTactic, which prepared the survey. (The 2020 edition is set to be published this month.)

“When there is no physical art world, how do you substitute that experience?” he added. “Younger people are a lot quicker to adapt.”

Andre Gordts, 69, a contemporary art collector based in Brussels, is among those who value up-close connoisseurship.

“Online initiatives are not going to replace live fairs, auctions and exhibitions,” Gordts said. “They are OK for information but nothing more.

“I have not bought work online,” he added. “One needs physical contact with an artwork to grasp it. Removing the analog element will kill collecting.”

Howard Rachofsky, 76, who owns a museum-quality collection of postwar and contemporary art in Dallas, said he was not sure he would ever want to visit an international art fair again.

“The most active and voracious collectors that I know are aged between their 50s and 80s,” he said. “That’s the demographic that’s most vulnerable in the current health crisis.

“I will not go to a mass preview. I don’t want to run the risk of getting sick,” Rachofsky said.

But even still, he has not bought works online during the lockdown. “I’m more likely to go to a gallery and have a one-to-one social interaction,” he said. “It’s a little old-fashioned, like it was years ago.”

Tiqui Atencio, a Venezuelan collector based in Monaco who began buying art in the 1980s, is another seasoned participant who has not bought art from digital platforms. She said she appreciated them as an information source. “I told myself I’m never going to buy anything online, but I’m getting used to it,” she said. “I’m happy to discover emerging artists. I’m looking and thinking about it.”

“I’m not going to buy a million-dollar painting” in an online viewing room, said Atencio, who in 2013 sold a Jean-Michel Basquiat at Christie’s for $48.8 million. She added that she would not sell a painting online, either. “If I had an artwork worth millions and millions of dollars, I would sit on it.”

Collectors’ reluctance to offer exceptional works online, much less buy them, has resulted in a dramatic reduction in high-value art sales during the pandemic. In April, sales calendars at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips consisted solely of online auctions for the first time. The aggregate revenue of $44 million was 92% lower than the equivalent sales last April, according to data provided by Pi-Ex, an art analytics company based in London.

But with online channels currently the only way for collectors to buy, higher prices are being achieved in that category, though the threshold is far below that of live auctions and fairs. On June 2, Sotheby’s sold a landscape by 19th-century Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky for $2.8 million, a record for a painting at an online-only auction. But that is a long way from $48.8 million.

“I do think many young people in their 20s, 30s and 40s are happier to bid online than the more experienced collectors, but I have always been happy to buy from catalogs and online,” said David Breuer-Weil, 54, a London-based artist and collector who is among the growing number of art market participants who value both live and online channels.

Breuer-Weil said he recently bought a 14th-century silver Jewish amulet from Spain for 2,750 pounds, or about $3,450, at an online-only auction.

“Lockdown has given many collectors time to search for pieces they might have missed before,” he said. “I would have missed this if I hadn’t spent hours searching online. I do think collecting will go online more and more.”

But many older buyers have yet to be won over. Lockdown sales have exposed a generation gap in the culture of collecting. Until it is bridged, the art trade looks as if it is going to suffer a serious gap in its sales figures.

© 2020 The New York Times Company










Today's News

June 10, 2020

Rubens House in Antwerp presents new Peter Paul Rubens self-portrait

As the art world goes online, a generation gap opens

The National Gallery acquires its first painting by Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla

Bonhams announces highlights included in its Modern British and Irish Art sale

Part of China's Great Wall not built for war: Study

Mask-clad music lovers trickle in as Vienna concert houses reopen

'Pointer Sisters' founding member Bonnie dead at 69

Phillips unveils highlights for Hong Kong July sales of jewels and jadeite

Renaissance in France's Loire Valley: 'rebirth' for Chambord castle

Street art star unveils Paris mural to George Floyd, Adama Traore

Theater artists decry racism in their industry

Zeit Contemporary Art opens 'Andy Warhol: The Last Decade'

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam announces the appointment of Yvette Mutumba and Adam Szymczyk as curators-at-large

Martin Myrone appointed Convenor of the British Art Network

Powerful portraits by Amoako Boafo offered at Bonhams Modern & Contemporary Art sale

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts receives $2M gift to endow curatorial position

Taymour Grahne opens an online solo exhibition of new paintings by Craig Kucia

A 22-metre-high bronze sculpture by the Belgian artist Thomas Lerooy installed in Knokke

Manifesta 13 Marseille announces the participants of its central exhibition

Alessio Bolzoni presents billboard project in Milan

Leading artists donate works to 100 NHS staff respite rooms across 5 east London hospitals

Delineating Dreams: Inaugural exhibition from Kovet.Art

Oscar Castillo photography exhibit open for private viewing at The Muck

Salzburg Festival saves 100th edition with slimmed-down event

Overcoming artist's block - 7 ways to jumpstart creativity

Why do you need World of Warcraft boosting right now?

Fun Facts About Sudoku, From World Guinness Records To Solo-Fun At Home

Know these before playing casino online

Woodshop tools and equipment that you should own

5 Types Brain Injury from Car Accident You Must Know




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful