The art world and its access from the perspective of an artist and an art collector
As you might know, a feral horse is a semi-wild horse that has been set free from captivity. As a member of the Feral Horses community, you are setting yourself free from the traditional rules that shape the art world. We aim to democratise the art world, allowing everyone to own shares of works of art.
Feral horse’s mission shows how difficult it might be for art lovers who do not possess millions of pounds to invest in a Picasso’s painting or a Giacometti’s sculpture. Physically owning or investing in artworks of famous artists, whether they are contemporary or modern, is elusive. It is considered as an activity for the upper class. Consequently, the art world and its access might be seen from the outside as a constrained environment for most people. Some art lovers might have an interest in art investment but do not have enough social and economic capital to buy the last modern painting sold at Sotheby’s auction house. For instance, Pablo Picasso’s painting ‘Intérieur au pot de fleurs’ was sold last February by Christie’s auction house for £7.2 million. The high price of this sale highlights how collecting Picasso’s paintings is not open to all. To understand the inaccessibility of such a purchase, let’s recall the average salary per year of someone working full time in the UK: £36, 611. If an individual does not make any expenditure over the year, which is impossible, he would have to work 197 years to reach the sum of £7.2 million and buy this Picasso’s artwork. In other words, works of art that reach this critical amount of money are not accessible to the average population. See below an image of the latter Picasso’s sale.
Thanks to the art co-ownership platform Feral Horses, art investment becomes more accessible. Artists and investors who seek to access the art world for the first-time struggle and encounter several economic, social or cultural barriers.
This blog post and series of interviews will raise awareness about the complexity of the art world. Both perspectives of collectors and artists will be examined. It will also show how Feral Horses is a potential solution for both emergent artists and investors.
The Collectors’ side
Collector’s divergent aspirations
Many different factors motivate an art collector to invest in the arts; his/her love for art, the money this investment can generate in the future and the social benefits a collector might access to by being initiated and belonging to an artistic community.
Emily Hall Tremaine, one of the most prominent American collectors of the 20th century, explained how these three factors usually correspond to what motivates a collector to invest in the arts. Most of the time, every collector shares bonds and common interests for the love of art and the profitability that an art investment can provide. Although, some collectors care more about the feelings evoked by artworks, the story behind the work of art and the connection they had with the artist if he is a living artist. Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, collector and president of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin Italy explained that she collects pieces of art that ‘share the same way of thinking’ than hers. Nevertheless, some other collectors see art investment as a source of profit not much different than wine or gold investment. More and more individuals are trying to access the market for the profitability they can get through it. Those people are ‘speculators’ which means they study attentively the structure of the art market, its flaws, and qualities to make sure they will invest at the best time. Although Fine art investment is not considered a liquid asset, the main characteristic of a liquid asset is its ease of cash conversion. For instance, the stock market is regarded as the perfect liquid market with lots of buyers and sellers. The stock market is an investment that works through the purchase of financial shares. What attracts individuals to invest in the stock market is the fast, easy possibility of purchasing and reselling their actions and directly get the money out of it. However, the art investment is not considered as a liquid asset because due to time constraints and the market operation, an art collector cannot rapidly and easily resell his/her new artwork. Art speculators who desired to sell their artwork are constrained by the sales dates set by the auction houses. They cannot decide on the time they want to resell their piece of art they have to wait for a suitable sale organised by auctions. This means that an investor who has an objective to collect art only for the goal of making a profit out of it will not get as much money as if he/she was investing in the stock market. Consequently, both the love of art and the potential profit to be made from it motivate an art collector to start a collection.
Consequently, collecting art is not an easy process. Depending on the motivations that drive someone to collect art, a lot of information is to be considered.
I/Constraints faced as an established collector
A) The general risks of investing in art
Collecting art can be a risky activity. As a general investment, no one can forecast the value of the artwork in the future. Will it be as valuable as its original price? Will the artist’s market value grow? Nobody is capable of predicting such things.
Compared to a real estate investment, the art one will not provide its collector with annual or monthly incomes. This might influence collectors who want to collect art only for its profitability. As long as the collector does not charge people to see his collection, he won’t get income from it. The only way to make a profit out of it is to resell the artwork at a higher price than the original one.
Additionally, a more or less old and expensive work of art requires maintenance and security. Any collectors cannot neglect the potential damage and thief of prestigious artworks. These are factors of risk when it comes to collecting art. For instance, the case of José Capelo, banker and friend of Francis Bacon shows how owning art at your house might be unsafe. The banker has been robbed in his house located in Madrid in 2016. He had five small paintings made by the artist Francis Bacon that have all been stolen. The whole theft was estimated at 28 million dollars. Fortunately, three out of the five paintings have been found and returned to José Capelo. Consequently, an established collector who displays a collection of art located in their home is facing more risks than new collectors.
Make a safer investment by investing in a ‘Blue Chip’ artist if you can afford it
To make a less risky investment, the established collector might consider adding to his portfolio a work of art of a ‘Blue Chip’ artist. Investing in a ‘Blue Chip’ artist may be a solution to make a safer and smarter art investment. According to the Art Newspaper, A ‘Blue Chip’ artist is ‘an established historical artist of the highest aesthetic quality, which is simultaneously considered to be a reliable long-term investment.’ Picasso, Basquiat or Warhol are considered ‘Blue Chip Artists’. Blue Chips artists are artists internationally known. The production of their art is generally assimilated as very prestigious. The possession of an artwork from a ‘Blue Chip’ artist is also a way for the high social class to stand out because the prices of these artworks are very high consequently not affordable to everybody. ‘Blue Chip artists’ no longer alive are even more esteemed. The law of supply and demand can explain this. When a ‘Blue chip’ artist dies, the need for his/her work is increasing as there are no more offers available. This is a principle that steam from the law of supply and demand. The usual individual’s behaviour toward the law of supply and demand shows that the more something is available on the market, the less attractive it will be. This behaviour might explain why artworks that are made by dead ‘Blue chip’ artists get more attractive and expensive. The inconvenience is that the work of art of ‘Blue Chip artists’ tend to be the most costly of the market. Investing in a ‘Blue Chip’ artist is not affordable to everyone.
Forgeries and scandals shape the art world
A forgery is the replica of artwork; in other words, not the original one but a fake. Copies and imitations surround the most prestigious museums and art institutions. According to the Independent journal article: ‘The Big Question: How many of the paintings in our public museums are fakes?’ published in 2016 approximately 20% of the work of art displayed in the most prestigious museums is fake. Forgeries are the reason for many scandals that had and still shape the art world. Forgeries scandals might lead galleries to closure, such as the case of Knoedler & Company. The prestigious New-York-based Knoedler & Company gallery sold to one of their top collector copies of paintings from ‘Blue Chip’ artists Pollock and Rothko for the honourable sum of 70 million.
Consequently, this scandal caused the permanent closure of the gallery in 2011 after 165 years of activity. Knoedler & Company made the mistake of not using scientific analysis in their authentication process. Scientific studies are essential tools to identify the authenticity of a painting. The first examination steam from the use of infrared light and ultraviolet on the picture to notice any trace of forgeries. Then a second examination is made in which every painting’s components are tested. To assure the authenticity of the artwork, both an expert analysis and scientific analysis should be made. When there is only an expert authentication, the risk of forgeries is still present. Investment in the art world is regulated while galleries, dealers, critics’ behaviours toward the art and its valuation is never the most truthful thing.
B)The art world lacks transparency, although established collectors might take advantage of it.
How and who can influence an artist’s market value in the art world?
The joint activity of critics, dealers, institutions owners on a specific artist might impact his career and consequently his market value. An artist can be more or less established because of the dealer’s critic or institutions’ influence. In her book ‘Sociology of the arts’ the author Victoria Alexander explained how gatekeepers, art dealers, hobbyists and critics have power on someone who is trying to access the art world. The purpose of art is to be distributed. The gatekeepers decide whether or not they will publish or distribute a creation.
Consequently, they are seen as an essential instrument for artists to enhance their career, and they can legitimate a piece of art. Additionally, the famous American author Elizabeth Currid in her article ‘The economics of a good party: Social mechanics and the legitimisation of art/culture’ highlights how the legitimation of artwork relates to the gatekeeper’s decision and results from a social construction that impacts the art’s economic value. These people exercise power in the art world. They are a restricted number of people who have the cards in their hands to make the career of an artist evolve. Gatekeepers, dealers and critics are essential resources for artists but also for collectors. If an established collector has in his contacts the dealer, critic, owner of the most prestigious art institutions that represent many established artists he might receive insights from them on which artist it is time to invest in. This operation highlights how a certain advocate of the art market can use the opacity of the art world to their advantages. Consequently, they find solutions to benefit from the art market’s flaws. There might be a direct link between a collector’s social capital and whether his investments are right or not.
What makes art precious? A secret never fully revealed.
As studied before, renowned art dealers, gatekeepers have a specific power on the artist and the art in general because they determine which art is considered valuable. Although, we never really know what’s being said or done within this restricted group of people.
However, specifically defined criteria make the artwork more or less valuable.
The authenticity of the work is a criterion of value. A copy of an artwork is worthless. The artworld is shaped by forgeries scandals which makes it less credible because even art experts sometimes manage to be fooled. The german forger Wolfgang Beltracchi is an excellent example of a forger who managed to fool many art experts. The provenance of the piece of art and its history is another criterion of value. The origin and the history of artwork regarding its possession is also a process of authentication. Where the artwork has been before and in whose hands impact its value. The condition of the artwork influences its cost. If the painting is in good shape or not, has it been restored or not. This impacts an artwork’s value. The historical significance is a factor of importance. If the object of art has revolutionised a historical art movement like Picasso did with ‘Les demoiselles d’Avignon’ for cubism, the value of the artwork is more significant. The rarity of the work also impacts its value, no longer alive ‘Blue Chip artists’ are the best example of it. Related to the scarcity, the popularity of the artist influences an artwork value. An established artist’s work will have more value than an emergent one. Also, the medium and colours used in the canvas are criteria of value. Past studies have shown that if the colour red was used in paintings, its value was more important. Alike, artwork paintings made on canvas prints are usually more attractive and tend to sell more. Consequently, these criteria might be helpful for collectors who are used to the art world and want to make a smart investment.
The opacity of the art world might generate inequalities between established and emergent collectors.
Established collectors might benefit from an essential social capital due to their past collecting experiences. They might be surrounded by an excellent art dealer, critic or advisor that might help them to access private auctions or to buy an artwork under the best possible price. Unlikely, new collectors might not benefit from any network or community related to the art world at the beginning of their collection. Consequently, it can make things might appear a tad more complicated for new collectors who are emerging the artworld regarding their possible lack of social capital regarding this specific field.
Interview with the established collector Michel Thuault
This blog post is followed by an interview that I conducted with the long time collector Michel Thuault. Michel Thuault has been an art collector based in France for over forty years. The meeting was attended through the phone because Mr Thuault lives in France and I am working in London. Three parts are highlighted in the interview: I/ The history and purpose of collecting art; II/The risks taken as a collector; III/The possible advantages as an established collector due to the lack of transparency in the art world.
I/History and purpose of collecting art
Manon Canto: How would you describe your art collection?
Michel Thuault.: My art collection is only made of Contemporary artworks, although I have a broad knowledge of art history and artists part of each art movement. I have only collected living artists. I am a collector for the artistic life of my time and not the past. Additionally, almost all of my collection is made up of works by artists I knew personally. However, I must admit that I have a preference for paintings on canvases. Painting is for me a medium that conveys an indescribable emotionality.
M.C.: How have you been introduced to the art world?
M.T.: I have introduced myself to the art world. When I was 18 years old, I began to frequent artists and to surround myself with a community of them. I started going to exhibitions, art events and art salons; little by little, my network has grown.
M.C.: When did you start collecting arts?
M.T.: I started collecting art when I started having an interest in artists and their creations. I was around 18 years old, so I was pretty young. I have always been interested in Sociology. In my opinion, artists and their creation is linked to sociological behaviour and is influenced by the society they are living in.
M.C.: Can you tell the reasons why you collect art?
M.T.: I believe that collecting art results from pathology. The collector is interested in the movement, the sociological behaviour and not in the financial aspect of collecting. The writer Stéphane Mallarmé once said this in his poem: ’An artist gives a purer meaning to the words of the tribe.’ I genuinely support this statement and agree with it. The artist synthesises the thought and vocabulary of his time. In other words, I collect art to understand the creativity of my time.
M.C.: Do you resell the artworks you collect? How often?
M.T.: Now that I have a collection not anymore. In the past, when I didn’t have enough money to buy a new artwork that interested me, I would sell a piece of my old collection to purchase fresh artworks and so on. I would usually resell the artworks directly to collectors that I met through my collector background. I also used to go to art auctions to resell pieces of artwork.
Also, what I was able to do at the beginning of my collection and I do not think it is possible anymore was to ask the galleries for credit. I would buy artwork from galleries that would take me two to three years to reimburse. As I started building an artist community pretty early on and I had no money I was also making deals with artists. We agreed that they would give me works of art if I managed to reach and bring more collectors to their studios to sell their work. By doing so my collection was slowly building up.
II/The risks taken as a collector
M.C.: How do you face the perils of forgeries by collecting art?
M.T.: Nowadays, forgeries are real issues in the art world. Nobody can tell if an artwork is a copy or not. In the US, they have this law which requires many different appraisals when a work of art is suspected of being fake. This law is good. In France, when an expert decides that artwork is false, he can destroy the work of art only because of his decision, and this is dramatic. As I have built a strong network of artists, collectors and gallerists, a relationship of trust exists between them and me. Consequently, when I am about to buy a new piece of art to add to my collection, I directly contact people who are part of my network that I can trust.
M.C.: Do you have any tips for emergent collectors to avoid the risks of forgeries?
M.T.: The work of research before considering buying a piece of art is primordial. Identifying the provenance of the work to ensure its authenticity is the first thing to do. Also, I would advise new collectors to start collecting little by little, don’t rush at first. Collecting artworks takes time, having a right eye for great art does too.
III/Possible advantages as an established collector due to the lack of transparency in the art market
M.C.: As an established collector did you build an active
artist/collector/critics/dealers community?
M.T.: Yes, I did. The world of art hunting is a relatively small field. Once you start buying at auctions or directly through artists, your name is getting out, and the sales intermediaries are beginning to take an interest in you. Consequently, sales intermediaries know you are an active buyer. Hence, they start inviting you to private sales or art events where you might be interested in buying a specific work of art. Since I have been collecting for a very long time, I have assisted many auctions, art salons or art fairs. I know many artists, critics and other collectors. The creation of this community has taken place over the years.
M.C.: As an established collector, surrounded by an active art community, do you think you benefit from advantages regarding your future collections compared to emergent collectors?
M.T.: I do. I have relationships with an essential network of artists, critics or collectors. It allows me to take some liberties regarding my collections. For instance, the sculptor Cesar Baldaccini was a friend of mine. I asked him directly to create a personalised piece of art related to my profession. I have an industrial cleaning company, and I asked him to make a compressed sculpture made of small metal bins. I am also advantageous because thanks to the network I build, I am facing fewer risks of forgeries regarding my future collections. As I already said, I directly contact artists or auctions that I know and that I am sure I can trust. It’s a win-win game because I can trust them on the authenticity of the work and they can trust me for sale. Also, I have helped some artists with whom I have a good relationship. For instance, I put them in touch with other collectors who are friends of mine. In exchange, some of them give me discounts on their artwork.
Michel Thuault has been collecting art for a very long period. His collecting motivations are quite unusual. Michel Thuault does not pay much attention to the economic aspect regarding his art collection. What matters for him is the understanding of the society he is living in thanks to the creations of artists of his time. For him the desire to own painting is paramount. However, the sharing of the painting is very important to him, he would be able to give a painting if someone loves it. He said: ‘The more a painting travels the more people understand the artist.’
Also, his past experiences as an art collector give us insights into how important it is for whoever who wants to start collecting to consider the risks of forgeries regarding wealthy works of art. Also, having a broad network in the art world might be helpful.
II/How complex is the art collection for new collectors?
Attending a live auction or even bidding for the first time in one is an astounding experience. Being part of a room full of art collectors, market analysts that are ready to bid and spend a significant amount of money on an artist’s sale can be disorienting. This is a feeling that a new collector might experience before becoming an art collection connoisseur. New collectors struggle with the same constraints as long time collectors, but they also face additional ones by generally emerging in the art world. They fight as long-time investors with the lack of transparency that shape the art market and the risk of investing. Still, on top of these constraints, they may lack social capital such as contacts in the art world. They may also require cultural capital which corresponds in this case to knowledge related to the art world, art history or the art market. Compared to established collectors who might have increased their financial wealth by collecting art over the years, a new collector might not possess sufficient amounts of money to start a collection which can be an additional constraint to the start of their art collection. Although this is not a generality, a new collector might have both bits of knowledge related to the arts and enough money to start their portfolio. This blog part will be applied to a new collector who does not benefit from an important economic asset to collect art and does not have specific knowledge related to arts. The social, economic and cultural constraints this latter might encounter will be highlighted.
A) Social, economic and cultural constraints encountered by a new collector without any art background and no important economic capital compared to an established collector.
Social constraints
A new collector who does not have any contacts related to the arts will face social constraints compared to established collectors, although there is always a start. Being aware of the limitations that a new collector might face will firstly help them to realise how the art world function and which posture is best to adapt to access it. As stated before, the art market’s flaws, such as its opacity might be used advantageously by established collectors. For instance, some established collectors, once, are part of the art world, they are known as essential collectors in prestigious institutions such as Sotheby’s or Christie’s and get privileges such as access to private auction sales. Private auction sales regroup a small number of buyers who are the most likely to buy a very wealthy piece of art. This process of a private sale is a win-win for both collectors and dealers. The buyer won’t see his name published publicly so will have more security concerning his investment.
Such private sales take away the auction from public scandal if the sale fails. Consequently, they are advantageous for both collectors and art auctions although, they increase inequalities between established and emergent collectors. These privileges have been acquired over time. They proved to third parties their long time interest, passion for the art collection.
However, new collectors do not benefit from this gaze from the outsiders of the art world toward them. They are emerging in the art world, so they will have to prove themselves, and it takes time. This is a social inequality that a new collector faced compared to an established collector.
Cultural constraints
A new collector might or might not have strong knowledge in art history or the art market. In this case, the new collector will struggle more to enter the art world and start his collection. It is not mandatory to carry an art background to start a group, but it will be helpful and insightful to start it in the best conditions. Consequently, a new art collector should focus on improving his knowledge of art and how the art market works to start collecting optimally. Going to an art event to learn more about a specific type of art might be an opportunity to meet people who might be helpful concerning the new collector. The new collector can bond randomly with an advisor who will then help him to build his portfolio. It might also be an opportunity for the new collector to start networking and increasing his social capital.
Economic constraints
From the perspective of a new collector who does not benefit from much money, starting an art portfolio will be burdensome but not impossible. A new collector lacking economic capital might be interested in buying a piece of art of a ‘Blue Chip’ artist although his financial capital will not allow it. They might first focus on purchasing a piece of art in their budget, try to make an outcome from it and then slowly buying something more expensive.
Consequently, what a new collector lacking funds has to consider before starting his collection is the complexity of the art world itself but especially the art market one. Many barriers shape the art market, and it is primordial to identify those and get knowledge of it before starting.
B)Tips for new collectors, the right approach to adopt
As studied above, starting an art collection is not an easy task. The art world is a complicated place where there are many rules. As we have seen above, a new collector might face social, economic and cultural constraints when it comes to accessing the art world. This blog post’s part will focus on some tips that are good to know and acknowledge to access the art world in the best conditions. Some of these tips are from a blog post of the website Artwork archive.
Tips to fight against social barriers:
1. Build a relationship with anyone you will meet in the art world.
2. Try to attend as many events as the city you live in offers to meet as many people as you can.
3. Keep in touch with every person you meet that works in the art world and do not hesitate to ask them further advice on artists, history and opportunities in the art.
4. Become a member of the Feral Horses platform to get access to an artsy community of artists and collectors.
Economic barriers:
1. Try to bargain art prices with the artist directly or the gallery. If they want you to come back, they might make you a discount for your first investment.
2. Set yourself a budget, know precisely how much money you can spend for a specific work of art
3. Consider hiring a professional if you want to make a smart investment.
4. Become a member of Feral horses to invest in shares of artworks instead of buying the full artwork. It is less expensive and thanks to their investment platform, you can rapidly make outcomes of your investment and invest in different artists on their platform.
Cultural barriers:
1. Make sure you are aware of what type of art you want to invest in, what kind of artworks attract you the most.
2. Read as many books on the art market and try to find online sources on the artist’s market value you want to invest in to make a smart investment.
3. Be aware that the art world and artworks are full of forgeries. Make sure you got in hands all the valid documents that prove the authenticity of the artwork you want to buy. More than just the valid documents, make sure you have done enough chronological research regarding the physical possession of the artwork.
4. Become a member of Feral Horses to get access to their newsletter and know more about the latest updates of their artist’s platform. Their blog and newsletter will provide insightful knowledge and increase your general knowledge of art.
Moreover, with the digital age, online sources on the art market keep increasing. Websites such as Artnet, Art Price or Mutual Art provide various market-performance analyses for the art market. These tools are crucial to get the most recent data on an artist’s secondary market value. Consequently, thanks to the internet, you can find easy ways to learn about certain artists and their market value!
Interview with a new collector: Jules Chevalier
Jules Chevalier is a French 20 years old student based in Paris. Both of his parents belong to the art world. Jules grew up in an artistic environment that might have influenced his will of starting an art collection. Jules’s father is a film producer and his mother a curator. Since his youth, Jules has always been passionate about the cinema industry. As a matter of fact, he started an art degree at IESA, a cultural art school based in Paris. Jules will now tell us more about his experience in the art world as a new collector. The interview is divided into three parts: I/ History and purpose of collecting art; II/Constraints face as an emergent collector; III/Feral horses: A useful tool to start a collection as an emergent collector.
I/ History and purpose of collecting art
Manon Canto.: Can you describe your art collection?
Jules Chevalier.: I was twelve years old when I bought my first work of art. I was roaming around with my dad near the Grand Palais in Paris. We just got off the FIAC. Outside the Grand Palais, there was a little market where art dealers were exhibiting some art. I remember that there was this gallery displaying photographs of Mitch Dobrowner that generated my interest. A specific picture caught my eye. For some reason, I felt like I have seen this photograph before in my life. I then purchased the picture along with the advice of my father. So far, my art collection is made of a photo of Mitch Dobrowner, which is the first photograph and artwork I purchased in my life. It depicts a landscape in which you can see a storm. The particularity of this photograph is the black and white and the silver grain of the photo.
I have two other photographs of Marylin Monroe taken by the artist Andre de Dienes.
I also have a Japanese painting that depicts nudity in some ways. I like it when an artwork has an erotic side. Every picture that is part of my art collection is in black and white photographs. It adds a particular charm to the photos.
Picture of Mitch Dubrowner’s photograph that belongs to Jules Chevalier’s art collection.
M.C.: How long have you been collecting for?
J.C.: I started collecting art pretty early on. As I said, I was 12 when I purchased my first photograph.
M.C.: What motivates you to collect art?
J.C.: I don’t really like considering myself as a collector. To me, this word directly implies the will of making a profit out of the purchase of art. I am absolutely not motivated by the potential profit I could make out of collecting art. Although I will collect art all of my life because it is something that I am particularly sensitive to and it evokes my emotions. I think everybody should collect art to fulfil themselves.
I do not want to buy artwork to sell it back to make more money, and so on. I do not wish to purchase artwork that has international recognition just because of its price or fame. If I buy a work of art and it happens that its price is relatively high, I would purchase it but because I would have felt a specific connection with the artwork and not because of its potential future rise in the art market. I want to purchase artwork that I like and arouse my feelings. The sensitivity and emotions you can get from artwork are different from a person to another, and I would purchase artwork all my life that stirs my emotions out of their perception.
Obviously, I would love that an artwork’s market value from a specific artist that I collected increases because it would mean that my opinion and my love for this artist and his work has been approved by many people. That would result from the hazard and not from a specific study of the art market and artist’s market value studies.
M.C.: Through which process do you collect art?
J.C.: I usually collect artworks that I have seen in real life. I would never consider buying art online, I need to see the painting with my own eyes. The size and quality matter to me, so I prefer seeing it alive. I am lucky to have my mother, who is a curator so she is used to working with artists so she can always advise me on which artists I might like.
II/Constraints face as an emergent collector
M.C: Are you facing any social, cultural or economic constraint in your collector path?
J.C.: I am a student, so I do not have enough economic capital to purchase new artwork all the time. However, I am still considering purchasing original artwork later, and when I will have enough money. Consequently, my lack of funds might constrain me to buy art.
Regarding social and cultural constraints, I don’t think I am facing either. Thanks to my mother and father, I have been raised in an artistic environment, so they have always educated me and taught me things about art. It is way easier for me. For instance, when it comes to negotiating an artwork, my mom regularly works with artists, so she knows how it operates so she can help me. I am aware that I have totally been influenced by my parents and both of their love for art. I am quite grateful for it, and I think it is all good.
M.C.: How are you trying to avoid these constraints, what type of behaviour do you adopt?
J.C.: Regarding the economic constraints, I will try to resell my first photograph to buy new artworks that arouse my interests. So I purchase artwork for a while then I resold it to have the possibility to acquire new ones that makes me more excited.
M.C.: Do you think that the art world is a complex environment?
J.C.: Every type of art is different, people who work in the cinema industry might not be similar to people who work in the visual art industry. The music world and the contemporary world are two different worlds.
Today the art world is complex. I think it is not very easy to reach success without any connections and I also believe that you can achieve success without having any talent but by knowing the right people.
I have been to conferences which were saying that Contemporary art today is an art of the market. I agree with this statement.
In my opinion, the example of the man who bought the banana stuck on the wall of the Art Basel fair in Miami for 150 000$ shows how some things are not related to the art world in many ways. This type of behaviour is more a way to reach recognition and buzz than participating in the art world because there is no way that someone will spend that much money for a banana stuck on a wall that will perish.
I also think it is quite frustrating to see how some artists can reach success and fame, although they are not making something revolutionary. In contrast, some very talented artists struggled a lot to achieve recognition.
III/Feral horses: A useful tool to start a collection as an emergent collector?
M.C.: Would you ever consider collecting art through Feral Horses?
J.C.: Yes, definitely. I could invest money on the platform, I find it very interesting. I like the fact that you invest money in shares of work of art from an artist you admire and you believe in. Also, it provides accessibility to a lot of people, especially young people who would like to start being part of the art world and do not really know-how and with which money.
M.C.: Do you think that Feral Horses make things easier for emergent collectors?
J.C.: Yes, I think their concept makes everything more comfortable and more accessible. As the art world and especially the art investment side is quite a restricted environment their concept allows more people to take part in it. It’s also a way to extend the culture. Through their website, they provide a range of useful information on art and artists, which allows learning a lot about art. It also pushes you to become an entrepreneur. For once, you can feel concerned about what is going on in the art world thanks to their investment platform because you participate in it by the purchase of shares of artwork.
Jules Chevalier shared with us his experience as a young art collector. He clearly explained to us that his first motivation is his love for art. Born and raised by people who are part of the art world and have a strong artistic background influenced his decision of starting an art collection. Jules also explained that the art market and its third parties might be quite disruptive from time to time. Lastly, Jules told us that a platform such as Feral Horses is a useful tool for new collectors to invest in shares of work of art and to make the art collection more accessible. He said that he will consider collecting shares of work of art through the Feral Horses platform.
The Artists’ side
I/Artists Aspirations and challenges.
Before considering a career in the art world, an artist must identify the operation of the art market. Starting an artistic career means facing challenges. Artists might be hesitant regarding their product’s purpose. An artist might face economic challenges that can potentially come along with the start of an artistic career. There is an oversupply that shapes the art world, which means that they are more suppliers than demanders. This characteristic reveals how starting a career in the arts might be linked to financial instability. When an individual is aware of the financial risks that beginning a job in the art might imply but also aware of the market operation, trends and demands he/she can adapt its production according to the latter have its advantage. An emergent artist might face the dilemma of making art to fulfill himself/herself or to meet the market trends and expectations to reduce his/her financial risks.
In the visual art world, if artists want to multiply their chances of accessing recognition, they might have to submit themselves to rules embodied by art institutions and the art world itself. For instance, to enhance their career, emergent artists may have to collaborate with mid-career of established artists with who they do not obviously bond with but would have to do so for professional and networking purposes. Networking has significant importance in the art world, and many artists have seen their careers grow thanks to networking.
Artists might also consider a wide range of criteria regarding their products that might influence their career. For instance, an artist has an interest in producing small and large canvas to fulfill every type of audience’s needs and will and to sell more. Although this is not a generality for every artist. Many artists have enjoyed a successful career without submitting to the rules of the art market.
An artist’s will of producing art may result from diverse aspirations. Victoria Alexander explained what motivates artists to start a career in the arts regardless of the challenges this includes. In her book ‘Sociology of the Arts’, states that an artist’s motivations to start a career in the art result from the psychic incomes that an artistic career produces. Also, the creative process of making art allows artists to gain freedom in their work environment. Artists create the art they want and use creativity. Works that include creativity are seen as a more satisfying and less annoying profession which is appealing.
Moreover, the profession of artists might be externally assimilated as a ‘genius’ profession. Consequently, artists stand out from any other business by being artists. This external recognition might influence someone to start a career as an artist. Although this positive external recognition is not unanimously agreed and can be arguable.
Consequently, the art world is a complex environment from the perspective of artists. Artists regardless of their career stage, (emergent, mid-career or established) struggle and face social and economic constraints. For instance, artistic professions are still criticised and underrated compared to business professions, although the art economy contributes significantly to the global economy. These barriers are the consequences of the social mechanisms of the art market. However, emergent artists do not meet the same obstacles as established ones. This blog post will focus on challenges that every artist faced then narrow on which different barriers shape an emergent artist’s career compared to an established one.
Artist definition and segmentation
First of all, the profession of ‘artist’ is hard to define. The notion of an artist is usually applied to visual artists, musicians, and writers. As long as it involves a creative activity or outcome, the term ‘artist’ is often employed.
This blog post will focus on the definition of visual artists and which criteria they should meet to be considered as ‘artists’. The sociologist Howard Becker in his book ‘Art worlds’ explained that an artist might fulfill three different types of definitions to be an artist: the marketplace one, the education one and the self and peer one. Firstly, what Becker implies by marketplace definition is that to characterise someone as an artist formally, this individual should make a profit out of his art. Secondly, third parties who have power in the art world such as Academics/scholars, critics and dealers might define and see the individual as an artist. Lastly, the individual might consider himself as an artist or his/her peers or relatives might do so as well. Becker used these definitions to delineate what makes an artist, however, there are many other possible explanations aside from the one above mentioned.
Also: let’s talk about the artist segmentation — many categories position artists on different scales. Depending on their level of recognition and their career structure, they are classified differently.
There are three different categories: emergent, mid-career, and established. These criteria and segmentation are a way of classifying artists depending on their success and level of recognition. Specific benchmarks such as the number of their exhibitions or prestige of the hosting institution influence their position in the art world. The artist segmentation can be schematised like the below pyramid.
To dive more into an artist career’s evolution, this blog post will reveal which characteristics might influence an artist’s career and make it grow from an emerging artist to an established one. The consistency of the quality of the art produced is a criterion that might influence an artist’s career stage. For instance, Bridget Riley is an Op art artist known for her excellent consistency and quality concerning her prints. Adversely, an artist who based his/her production on inferior quality materials might tend not to reach a good career. For instance, an artist who uses the wrong varnish on top of low-quality pastels may turn yellow with time. The size of the body. In other words, the artist’s production is a factor for enhancing an artist’s career. This criterion results from the art market’s operations of demand and supply. An artist who has many artworks in circulation within the art market tends to be less attractive than an artist who is less accessible and produces fewer works of art. Although such a statement is not valid for all artists. The high or low demand for a specific artist’s work might influence this particular behaviour. Different behaviour exists Galleries often play with this law of supply and demand to sell their artist’s work of art. They will ask the artist they are representing to produce only one work of art for their gallery to generate more interest in it and sell it quicker.
Moreover, the development of a singular style might enhance an artist’s career. An unusual technique is a more straightforward manner for an artist’s audience to be recognisable. For instance, the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat has a unique painting style that makes his work recognisable when someone has already seen it before.
The amount of external attention an artist’s work receives plays an essential role in the artist’s career stage. The more press releases are published about an artist’s work, the more people will hear and know about consequently the artist’s career will rise.
Additionally, the general artist’s recognition influences an artist’s career. The more the artist is supported publicly, or through social media, by a broad audience, the more successful his career will be. An artist’s career stage is also influenced by the level of recognition from experts and institutions. The more an artist is surrounded and supported by institutions members and art dealers, the bigger his career will be. As explained in the collector’s side, dealers, critics and institutions owners have power in the art world and may affect positively or an artist’s career. The volume and the value of the sales generated also defines an artist’s career step. The ‘Blue chip’ artist is an excellent example of this factor. For instance, dead ‘Blue chip’ artists have a high market value because they are no longer alive so they can no longer produce art. As the offer is no longer available regarding a new production the demand regarding their work of art might increase. Although, ‘Blue chip’ artists are iconic figures of the art world which increase the demand regarding their craft. This criterion is once again the results of the law of supply and demand (to know more about Blue Chip artists see the collector side part: ‘Make a safer investment by investing in a ‘Blue Chip’ artist if you can afford it’). The scope of an artist’s presence, audience and market impact its extensive career. The range of an artist refers to whether an artist is known and works locally, nationally or internationally. Lastly, the capacity to produce striking innovations is a factor of importance regarding an artist’s career. An artist who decides to create a new trend and starts getting success will enjoy a more successful career than an artist who is copying what is currently trendy on the art market. Also, it might enhance a renewal regarding an artist’s life cycle. For instance, an artist who was approaching the end of his life cycle might know a booming trend thanks to the use of innovation in its work. Becker, in his book ‘Art Worlds’, explained that success in the art world results from the right balance between the respect of conventions and the addition of innovation.
II/Constraints faced by any artists regardless of their career stage.
The underestimated artist’s trade.
A study from the Cultural Times showed that the contribution of creative industries massively affects the worldwide economy. In 2015, it estimated that the creative industries generate US$250 billion in revenue a year, creating 29.5 million jobs worldwide. The study considers cultural professions such as marketers, advertisers but also dancers and artists.
However, people still underestimate the profession of artist. In today’s society, the general thoughts on the trade of artists are often negative. Many people see the job of the artist as a hobby more than a real job which makes the profession less credible.
Moreover, forgeries and scandals annually take part in the art world. This leads to the perception of the art world as a shady environment. Additionally, people who are not part of this environment hardly understand how artworks can reach certain prices. This lack of understanding accentuates the underestimation of the artistic professions.
In the 20th century, artistic professions were more negatively perceived than now. Artists who were making art without respecting the criteria of academic art schools were more likely to be criticised and underestimated. Compared to today, there were no studies that exposed the art economy’s contribution to the worldwide one. The mentalities were also different.
Francis Bacon and Vincent Van Gogh are ‘Blue chip’ artists known for not being supported by their relatives in their artistic career. The creative profession was assimilated to the inability to make a profit.
Consequently, an art career was less esteemed than a scientific one. These varied reasons make it more understandable the negative perception of such as decision back in time. However, now that we know how much the creative industry contributes to the global economy, it is less coherent. Making art in today’s society is still criticised and sometimes seen as an impossible way to obtain a regular income.
Artists are subject to unavoidable lifecycles
An artist’s life cycle is different than an artistic movement. They are two separate things. First, this blog post part will briefly describe the life cycle of artistic movements then focus on the different artist’s career life cycles.
The first stage of an artistic movement lifecycle is the emergent one. The emergence of a creative movement usually results from the manifestation of a group of artists centralised around a specific dealer or institution. The artists concerned might share common interests and painting styles. This group of artists starts exhibiting at the same place or institution and consequently, the artistic movement emerges. The second step of a creative life cycle is the growing one. If the artistic institution where the group of artists ‘exhibitions generates a vital public interest, the aesthetic movement will grow. The benefits of an artistic movement are made through many publications and press releases about it. The third stage of a creative movement life cycle is the mature one. In this stage, the artistic movement achieved a vital recognition. More and more third parties of the art world start reproducing similar art than the latter artistic movement. They do so to make their art more attractive. The fourth and last stage of an artistic movement life cycle is one of the declines. During this stage, the creative movement lacks success compared to its beginning. Many people reproduced similar work, and many exhibitions have been done about their work. It is seen as less innovative than it used to be. Consequently, the whole movement will eventually decline.
An artist within an artistic movement should be aware of its lifecycle stage to avoid any decline regarding his work.
Artists may experience different life cycles that are not related to their painting style. In the article: ‘Creativity and life cycles of artists’ Victor Ginsburgh and Sheila Weyer explained how artists might produce their best work in their early career stage while others might do so at the end of their career.
Artists who boom in their early career stage planned to advance their ideas and sketches regarding their future production. These artists are known as ‘conceptual’ which means they use a conceptual form of art through planning their work in advance. They expect the organisation of their work. Picasso was known to be a conceptual artist. Picasso’s quote: ‘I do not seek to paint I find’ highlights conceptualist artist’s mindset.
‘Experimental’ artists are more focused on the aesthetic criteria of their work. Experimental artists use experimentation as their form of art. These artists tend to boom later in their career because they are continually looking for the perfect aesthetic, visual perception regarding their production. For instance, contradictory to Picasso’s approach, Cézanne’s approach was experimentalist because his goal was ‘to seek in the painting’.
However, it isn’t effortless to identify whether a painter uses a conceptual or experimental form of art. Criterion like the age of the artist at the time of his first exhibitions and the number of publications about the artist are helpful to identify whether the artist is an experimentalist or a conceptualist. Critics, art historians who have strong relationships with artists are able to categorise artists and their approaches.
Being an artist involves many challenges, whether you are emergent or an established one. Artists face different life cycles throughout their career. An artist may boom at the beginning of his career while another at the end or never.
III/Constraints faced by established artists.
Established artists are subject to the art market rise and fall.
Commercial established artists are located at the top of the artist’s segmentation pyramid. Artists known as settled are successful artists, represented by one or many galleries. These artists achieved an essential level of recognition, usually international. During their career, they have built a strong network of critics and dealers. They can also count on the support of their community and art lovers. Established artists are subject to market value; their art is rated by prestigious artistic institutions, art catalogues or appraisers. An artist’s market value is a tool for art lovers and collectors who want to know how good the artist is doing in the art market.
Even though established artists are doing good socially and commercially, they are not immune to seeing their market value fall. The art market rise and fall are mechanisms that no one can control or predict. From one period to another, established artists can see their market value dropped. Although, the respect of certain criteria regarding an artist’s production can slow down the fall in their market value.
This blog post will highlight why art prices rise and fall from time to time.
According to the article ‘Why art prices rise — inflation, status and market value’ from the website Making A Mark, there are three reasons why art prices rise.
The first reason is inflation. Inflation is the rise in the general price level. Consequences of inflation are less buying in general because people have less purchasing power. Prices of basic necessities are much higher than they were in the past, hence customers have less capital to invest in luxury commodities such as art pieces. This is valuable for an artist’s sales. Most of the country’s economy is subject to inflation, people’s general reaction to it is to purchase fewer goods which are not of primary necessity such as artworks.
Artists have to maintain rigour in their work and good relationships with the galleries representing them
An established artist might take his career for granted because of his career stage. Although, this type of behaviour might lead to the artist’s job to fail. Once an artist reaches a high level of recognition thanks to the places he exhibits, who represents him and the value of his work, he might be aware that this situation can be fleeting. Artists and galleries have an interdependent relationship. If one leaves the other, both of their careers can be impacted. Consequently, even established artists couldn’t afford to make any less of an effort concerning their production or maintaining their social capital. They continuously have to try to get to a higher position regarding their market value and their social situations.
As explained by Georgina Adam in her recent book ‘Dark Side of the Boom,’ the secondary art market is a complex environment where galleries have to use tools to maintain high prices and demand. Galleries representing artists have to push the artists to produce their best work and rationing the sales in the gallery to make it more attractive for the buyers/collectors. Prestigious commercial galleries representing artists give them a certain level of recognition. In return, galleries expect the artist to produce work as well as possible. Consequently, established artists are more subject to pressure from galleries regarding the production of their art, although some artists have a hard time dealing with this kind of pressure, and as a consequence, their career may have a negative impact.
Pressures set up by galleries may lead the artist to overproduction and then to failure.
Contemporary art keeps generating more and more interest in today’s society. An extensive amount of books, articles are published about new contemporary exhibitions or art events. Rich environments such as prestigious restaurants and hotels enjoy displaying art in their environment to increase the prestige of their place. They use contemporary art and its display as tools to generate more interest. This mass mediation and trend made around contemporary art might influence artists to produce more artworks although at a lower standard.
Adversely, a prestigious hotel or restaurant displaying the artwork of a specific artist might affect his career positively. This display increases the artist’s visibility so his potential chances of selling.
Interview with an established artist: Eileen Cooper
Eileen Cooper is a British artist born in 1953. She stands out thanks to her commitment to figuration. After a foundation year in fine art in her local city in the North of England, Eileen moved to London to study fine art at Goldsmiths in 1971. She did a bachelor’s degree at Goldsmiths then she did three years of a master’s at the Royal College of Art in painting. After her studies, Eileen Cooper was a part-time artist and a part-time fine-art teacher. She taught at prestigious art institutions such as the Royal Academy, Camberwell or Central St Martins. Eileen always had a family, so she never wanted to have a full-time job, so part-time teaching was perfect for her. Eileen Cooper started her career pretty early, she started exhibiting in her early 20’s. This conversation with Eileen Cooper will tell us about her experience in the art world as a woman artist. The interview is divided into three parts: I/Artistic career; II/Constraints faced as an established artist; III/Opportunities regarding her institutional background.
I/Artistic career
Manon Canto.: How would you qualify and describe the type of art you make?
Eileen Cooper.: Since I am an established artist, I extended my practice. I started working on a new medium such as ceramics and bronze. My work is primarily paintings and prints. I make a big part of my income by selling prints. My prints are definitely truly original not a reproduction of any sort. I try to be very clear about this, my impressions are very special, authentic and are limited editions they do not exist in any other form. A Cynical aspect of the art world is fake prints, and forgeries. It is quite hard to get your head out of this when you are a collector. Think that my impressions are very original, only exist through my work, they are not reproduction in any way.
What describes me and is part of me is also my gender identity. I am a woman artist. And I think the art world is a complex environment from a woman’s perspective.
M.C.: Can you tell us about what motivated you to start a career in art as an artist? Did it steam from a passion?
E.C.: Take into account her generation was very different no expectation of making a living out of their art, was always a personal journey, a way to discover about yourself and express yourself. I was not materialistic in any sense. I think it is still a mistake to try to chase the market because, by the time you get there, the market will be wanting something different. You cannot control the market, and you cannot let that define you.
M.C.: Can you tell us about your background in the art world? Will you be able to highlight the different phases of your career development?
E.C.: I can clearly see the different phases of my career as an artist. As an emergent artist, I think that I was fortunate to benefit from a new interest in figuration. As a response to maybe, a quite dry intellectual approach to art, before that abstraction when a delayed reaction to emotional figuration came back, I was already making that kind of work. In the ’70s, there was an awareness that women have been overlooked, have something to say, so I was lucky that I fitted into this for a short time. I attracted a lot of attention when I first emerged at the end of the ’70s and beginning ’80s. At that point, I had a family, I never stopped working, and I always showed commercially. However, I don’t think I was able to participate in the development of my career in terms of networking which cynically is essential. I didn’t have time to do that. Nevertheless, I’m not grumbling because I think I kept my integrity, and I managed to develop my work. I brought people who responded to my work along with me.
Then I had mid-career. I started to show when I was very young, I was in my 20’s when I began to exhibit, so I was very young when I hit mid-career. I was only mid to late thirties, but I have already been showing for ten years. Tied in with a recession in the early ’90s. There was an all change in direction in the art world, and that’s when the Brit artists emerged from that. Some of them came from goldsmiths also, but I was ten years ahead of the Brit artists movement.
So now I am Beyond mid-career, I think it feels like I have been there forever. People will like or dislike what I do, but I am not interested in the same way emerging artists are. I kind of got my territory. I’m still very aware that I am maybe out of fashion regarding the market’s expectations. I can resource myself by buying different materials such as using bronze or ceramics. Things that I could not do as a mid-career of an emerging artist. I think this keeps my process alive, working with all different materials. I am continually looking to extend my practice, improving, getting better, and discovering.
II/Constraints faced as an established artist
M.C.: Have you ever been a victim of underestimation regarding your profession
E.C.: That’s an interesting thing. I think less so. I am very confident now. Also, possibly because I am not going to be bothered to answer these questions if people ask me. I would only say the artist’s career is bloody challenging. I think it’s always good to have a part-time job.
M.C.: Are you represented by commercial galleries and since when?
E.C.: I have been represented commercially since I started to exhibit around 1980. I have not always been in the same gallery. You still have this nightmare question of exclusivity.
When I was exclusive with a gallery, they would put more interest in me. When I stopped being exclusively with a gallery, my income doubled every year for about four years after that. It’s also because I was older, I had a reputation, I built a lot of contacts. I was able to have those conversations. When you are younger, I think you prefer to have a gallery to work on your behalf, and then you discover that galleries are not that good at their conversations anyway. Although there is an all range of galley, this is not a generality.
M.C.: Have you ever felt pressure from galleries regarding the production of your art?
E.C.: I think because I was young, people respected that I was working on my own terms. I had enough work for shows every couple of years but maybe not a lot in between. It wasn’t facing the same pressures as people who exhibit all over the world have now.
Sometimes they would not like the work I made, and that was always an awkward conversation. Many of the students I have taught and started to exhibit, makes me aware that they have more significant pressures than I had in terms of the market and what the galleries want them to make. I think my generation was pretty lucky. We escape that.
M.C: Throughout your career, have you ever considered producing art to meet the expectations of the market?
E.C.: No, I haven’t, I absolutely believe that if you try to do that by the time you make that work, it will be redundant. You have to be true to yourself. When I started my career, in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s there was not really an art market at this time. Along with my career, I have noticed massive changes in the art market. I think it is much easier for a wide range of people to make a living off their art now. If they are right and they put enough hours of work they can get support quickly. When I first started showing my work at the end of the 70’s you could count on the fingers of your hand the number of galleries in London. So I think people have much more opportunities now.
M.C.: Have you ever been affected by the market rises and falls regarding the sale of your artwork?
E.C.: Auction is something you can never control. It is the scariest thing. My work is still very affordable and not very expensive for the level I am at. I have always been conscientious not to be represented by a gallery which would try to speculate and then failed.
M.C.: Do you often feel the need to bend under social conventions of the art world, such as maintaining good relationships with people that represent you?
III/On the opportunities that arose thanks to your educational background
M.C.: Do you think the institutions you come from (Goldsmiths, Royal Academy) and the persons you met there have influenced your career?
E.C.: Certainly at Goldsmiths. We were part of that first generation of changes. The year that John Thompson took over. The next thirty years at Goldsmiths were very different. I was fortunate to be part of the Goldsmiths fine art student community. Those people helped me to develop my work; it was constructive criticism, so it was exciting. Also, I always got inspired by other artists, mostly because I was studying them. Once I was out of school, I think I really did it all by myself actually.
The other thing that really fed me was when I was a teacher for many years. I have been teaching at schools such as the Royal Academy and at the Royal College of Art for at least two days a week. Everyday I thought I learned as much as I gave. I was explaining to fine-art student painting or printmaking.
Eileen Cooper shared with us her experience as a woman artist who emerged in the art world in the ’70s. She told us that in some ways, being a woman artist might be binding, especially at the commercial level. Eileen highlighted her different career stages which helped us to realise the various steps an artist has to walk through to reach the stage of being established. Additionally, Eileen shared with us her opinion on the art market changes from the ’70s to now. She explained that the art world is now an environment that has been clearly extended.
She shared with us her essential values as a woman artist but also as a fine-art teacher part of the art world, which are honesty and integrity. Eileen also mentioned that cynically the art world is a lot about networking and connections, so the better you are at networking the better it is.
IV/Constraints faced by emerging artists.
The general lack of knowledge in the art field might bias the start of an artist’s career
The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu explained that whoever tries to take part in a field might identify it physically and socially. This can be applied to a new artist emerging in the art world. Primarily, acknowledging the mechanisms and the operation of the art world is essential. Who are the suppliers, the demanders and the sellers to seem the first thing to understand? Secondly, how the third parties interact with each other and under which conventions they have to bend should be taken into account. Consequently, an artist emerging from the art world might identify the required social, economic and cultural capital necessary to enter this environment in the best conditions.
As announced in the collector side, the art world is a complex environment where conventions should be respected to maximise an artist’s career. However, other factors such as luck can enhance an artist’s career even though the latter does not bend under conventions of the art world. Additionally, the respect of more or fewer criteria regarding an artist’s production might positively or negatively impact his career stage (see the ‘Artist definition and segmentation’ part).
In the art world, the artists are the suppliers, while the art dealers, the collectors, the gallerists and the art institutions employees are the leading sellers. This commercial world operates under various mechanisms, more or less fair and transparent. (To learn more about the lack of transparency of the art world and its operation see the collector side of the blog post the part called: ‘the artword lacks transparency’).
For an artist to be successful at the start of his career, he should identify the economic, social and cultural capital required to maximise his chances of success in the art world. As stated before, he might fulfil the art market’s expectations by fulfilling the criteria for valuable works of art. To do so, the new artist might increase his cultural capital to learn about what type of art is considered valuable and under which criteria. Learning about the art world and its operations might be the cultural capital that an emergent artist should acknowledge before considering the start of a career in the art world.
Moreover, an artist needs enough economic capital to produce his work. Art supply costs, and sometimes it is not easy for emergent artists to find money to buy an amount to present their work. Mainly if the developing artist does not sell his work already and does not have a job on the side, the lack of economic capital might bias the start of the new artist’s career.
Social capital is very important to start a career in art. As explained before, if an artist emergent or not surrounds himself by people who have power in the art world such as art dealers, critics and institutions owners, his career might grow faster.
New artists are pushed to work collectively instead on their own to get more recognition.
One of the conventions set up by the artworld to multiply an artist’s chances of accessing fast recognition is to encourage them to work collectively. New artists, when they start their career, have to face multiple choices. They can choose between making art to fulfil the market’s expectations or to express their own creativity without taking those into account.
Emergent artists usually begin their job through exhibiting in small galleries and try to get publications from art institutions and art critics to launch their career. To do so, they need social capital which means they have to know someone in the art world who will agree to represent them. To make this task easier, an artist might decide to take part in an artist’s community. Past experiences such as the emergence of The Young British artist’s movement proved that artists who work collectively instead of working on their own tend to see their career grow faster. Working as a community of artists multiplies the artist’s social capital which increases their chances of working with good art dealers that might influence all success of the latter society. This method of approach is a social convention set up by the art world. New artists have the choice between taking part in an artist community or not. Although they are aware of this mechanism and the benefit that flow from their choice can be influenced.
Emergent artists might be trapped by collectors who only have investment purposes.
Many artists have been trapped by collectors who are attracted by art only for investment purposes. For the past fifteen years, people are more and more motivated by the outcome they can make through purchasing art than genuine love for art. Consequently, many collectors use speculation for commercial purposes. They buy artwork and keep it for at least one or two years. They are waiting for the artist’s market value to increase, and then they take out the artwork of storage and double, triple his original price.
However, the issues related to illiquidity concerning art investment has shown that investing in art is less interesting than doing so in real estate. Although some investors find ways to make a lot of profit out of emergent artist’s work. Emergent artists might not know how to price their work at the beginning of their careers. Consequently, collectors will play with this form of weakness and their eye for good art to purchase works of potential very successful artists and make a lot of interests through it. For instance, the case of the art dealer Simchowitz and the emergent artist Ibrahim Mahama highlights this type of behaviour. Simchowitz found the artist Ibrahim Mahama at the beginning of his career and noticed this artist’s potential. Back in 2013, Simchowitz purchased six lots of jute sack material made by Mahama for the amount of £90,000. Three years later the art dealer Simchowitz cut in 300 mini pieces Mahama’s original artwork to make more profit out of it. The original work divided into 300 parts of artwork was supposed to be sold for the amount of £4.5m. When Ibrahim Mahama heard about this, he sued the art dealer Simchowitz with the mutilation of an original work of art as a motive. Both ended up in court. The results of the case remain confidential, although both Mahama and Simchovitz had to pay their own costs and legal fees.
Interview with the emergent artist Valerio Angiolillo.
This blog post part is followed by an interview with the emergent artist Valerio Angiolillo, a second-year fine art and history of art student at the Goldsmiths University of London. Valerio is from Rome and has always been making art. Valerio decided to pursue his career as an artist by choosing fine art as one of his primary subjects for the final exam of High school. Later on, after his graduation, Valerio decided to go to an art school to continue his artistic career.
This interview is divided into three parts: I/The artist’s work; II/Start a career in the art; III/The constraints faced as an emergent artist.
I/Artist’s work
M.C.: How would you qualify/describe the type of art you make?
V.A.: I mainly paint, but I also make video art. I love working with sound, as well. Thanks to the studio access I have with Goldsmiths, I mainly focus on the painting here. Having a considerable space allows me to work on a more significant medium and explore more because I have enough space to put many paintings and work on them at the same time. My background has always been related to paintings. In high school in Italy, you can choose your specific subject, and I selected fine arts. After five years of high school, I moved to Plymouth for fine art and history of art foundation year to pursue my career as a fine art artist. After this foundation year, I applied to Goldsmiths, and I got in. I want to keep separate for now the sound work and the painting work. I focus on the sound work on my own while I do the painting work as part of my fine art degree as the studio allows me to freely experiment fine art.
M.C.: What kind of materials do you use? What subjects do you depict in your work?
V.A.: I love pigments. Last year I was focusing on making pigments out of natural objects. Last year I was focusing on a specific pigment from Peruvian trees that makes blue and the roots that make red. That’s an exciting process because you cook it as a recipe and then the colours come out really nicely. That’s an essential part of my painting. From that, I started working with pigments of any kind. My method of art is to create layers and layers of painting on the canvas. It creates a beautiful texture, and the colours are really mixed together. This is the result I love to obtain out of the creation of a painting.
M.C.: Where do you get your inspiration from?
V.A.: My inspiration also comes from nature, I depict lots of trees at the moment. Lights and shadows are one of the most significant subjects that I represent. It is fascinating because light and shadow can be in many other specific visual themes such as trees or animals. You can play around with light and shadow in many subjects.
M.C.: Can you tell us how your career is going so far? Have you ever exhibited somewhere?
V.A.: I have done two exhibitions in the past year. Both of them were in Rome. I am represented by a studio there called ‘Ultrablue Publishing’ which is a publisher. We have seven books now about the studio itself, its story and our art. Thanks to the studio facility, we can paint and produce our own projects. It is interesting to see how our studio space allows us to experiment and create our art. It is not a school, so it is quite unusual as a work environment. We started the studio straight after high school with my friend’s and other fine art students who were older than me and used to go to my high school. Our fine art teacher created this studio with the mother of another student who suffers from mental illness issues. The mother of this student’s aim was to create a space for her son, where he could freely produce art without having to deal with any type of pressure. The creation of ‘Ultrablu’ was inspired by the ‘The Maria Gugging Psychiatric Clinic’, known as ‘Gugging’ in Austria. This specific clinic was known for having and supporting artists who were assimilated as ‘Outside artists’. In the same way that the Gugging clinic ‘Ultrablu’ provides opportunities to people who suffer from mental health illnesses to make art in a safe and undiscriminating environment. It has been three years that we are working there now, and the ‘Ultrablu’ keeps growing.
II/Start a career in the art
M.C.: Have you ever felt disoriented regarding emerging the art world as a new artist?
V.A.: Yes, for example, in Rome, when you are between 13 -18 years old, and you are in high school, you do not really know what the art world is. You don’t know how to present your work and how the gallery world works. It is something you never learn, you only learn it through experiences. ‘Ultrablu publisher’ is an excellent starting point because our books are presented to art fairs, and through these occasions, we meet a lot of people. We can directly talk to them, which usually provides us with further opportunities. One of the galleries that allowed us to make a show last year found us through the ‘Ultrablu’ book that was displayed at an art fair. The ‘Ultrablu Publisher’ produces their own books and ideas followed by us who give technical advice such as how to use Photoshop. The context of the publisher, the story behind its creation is what makes us stand out compared to the usual book displayed at art fairs.
M.C.: Will you instead make art for art’s sake or to fulfil the market’s expectations to increase your chances of getting a more successful career?
V.A.: Definitely no, I make art to satisfy myself, not the market. For the moment, at least I want to paint for myself. I’m interested in the relationship between an artwork and its outside’s perception. As I am also studying the history of art, I am currently writing about this subject.
For now, I don’t really care about the commercial side of my paintings. I am awful at selling my paintings although I have already done it. To me, a picture is never done so when I sell art, it is gone, and it is a sort of frustration because I cannot work on it anymore. I don’t think I will ever bend under the conventions of the art world to get more recognition. I make art because I want to make it this way, and I like it, I would not change my method of creations for market expectations purposes.
III/Constraints faced as an emergent artist
M.C.: Have you ever been a victim of underestimation regarding your profession as an artist?
V.A.: Definitely, yes. Although I got lucky because my family has always been supportive even if they are not related to the art world at all.
However, many many people in Rome ask you: ‘so you are doing fine art, what is this?’ ‘What do you do then, for real what do you do in your life?’. In Italy, there is a problem of non-current carrying about the cultural world. There is minimal support regarding the culture in Italy.
M.C.: Do you feel the need to bend to the conventions of the art world, such as taking part in an artist’s community?
V.A.: I am part of an artist community as I am part of ‘Ultrablu’ although this creation started naturally, we did not plan anything. We met in this space, enjoying the fact that we haven’t seen each other for so long, and we could enjoy an area where we can make art altogether in a shared space without any constraints. We started grouping and working all together there because of the similarity of the materials we used.
After we built the studio, the book was exposed to fairs, and people started being more and more interested. Everybody has a different story and comes from a diverse background which generates more interests from the outside. As we are working in the same space when someone is interested in the work of one of us it generally influences interest in everybody’s work which creates opportunity and is a good thing to take from being part of a community.
Now we are a community that has strengths because we are enjoying the fact that we can freely make the art we want.
M.C.: Do you usually face social, economic and cultural constraints regarding your career? Such as lack of funds to buy art supply, lack of connections to exhibit or absence of the general operation of the art world?
V.A.: The pigments, the materials and canvas are expensive. Sometimes I cannot afford it for sure. But the Goldsmiths studio provides wood and materials so you can build your own art which is an excellent thing because once you know how to make a canvas, it is useful for the rest of your life. I always spend my energy in funding my own art. For funding, you need to be able to write a project to finance a project, ask for funds, this is something you never learn, but you often have to deal with as an artist.
Regarding social constraints, I am not really affected by those. Ultrablu provides us with many opportunities and visibility regarding our art. The story of the studio attracts and offers endless possibilities. At book fairs, you can meet hundreds of people in a day so it will provide you connections and something good can happen through this. Although I am aware that not every emerging artist has the chance to work within a publisher that offers an artist studio at the same time. In Rome, emergent artists struggle especially if they are Contemporary artists. In Rome, we have a lot of ancient history. Not a lot of contemporary shows are happening in Rome. Everything is mostly made on classical art that everybody knows, accepts and considers as high art. Sometimes you can find great couples of contemporary shows such as the ones that are run in the Sandretto gallery in the north of Italy. Although this type of shows are relatively rare, and once someone is trying to launch a contemporary art event, it often leads to failure. Recently, a new art fair has been created in Rome. Many artists from the 20th century will be represented, but many problems already came out within the organisation. (the MACRO museum is also a good example of mismanagement of one of the few ‘contemporary’ museums in Rome)
Valerio Angiolilo is an emergent artist and shared with us his experience as one of them. Valerio’s situation is unusual because he gets to have an insight into the art world in two different countries. Valerio studies at Goldsmiths University which is a prestigious art school in England while he is working and represented by a new studio located in Rome, in Italy. However, both of these experiences are lived positively in the artist’s perception. These two experiments give him more visibility and consequently more opportunities for the pursuit of his artistic career. Valerio Angiolillo is an artist that is not motivated by the outcome he could make out of his work, he makes art out of a passion to express his creativity. Although Valerio shared with us his thoughts on constraints he could face as an emergent artist such as the lack of knowledge on the artistic profession and its operation but also on the economic constraints he might face regarding the purchase of his art supply.
To Resume
This blog post highlighted how the art world and its access imply constraints both as a collector and as an artist. The series of interviews gave us a real insight into what the actual world of the art market looks like in the 21st century.
Art collectors, whether they are new or long time ones are not immune from financial, preservation or storage risks. The art world itself has been shaped by many scandals which call into question the transparency of the market itself but also that of third parties. Although the art collection results form a journey that might help people to fulfill themselves such as it did for the long time collector Michel Thuault who has been collecting art his all life. The process of becoming an art collector usually results from many years of experience to get to know the rules of the art world and its operation. Consequently, as soon as you can start an art collection, the better it is. By collecting you enhance your experiences and so on your general knowledge.
The art world from an artist’s perception is also a complex but totally different experience compared to the one of an art collector. Artists have to go through different phases regarding their career stages and are facing many various barriers which can be cultural, economic or social. An artist’s level of institution or an artist’s good network is an essential characteristic that might influence an artist’s career.
Nowadays, people are more and more attracted by the way they can make money out of being part of the art world. It can be done through investment or art speculation. The case of the artist Ibrahim Mahama and the art dealer Stefan Schimchovitz highlight how an artist can be tricked by connoisseurs and should be careful regarding his production and its market value rises.
