Visual Artists ‘Take Heart’

 

ART’S NOT DEAD!
Not according to our man ‘down under’.

There’s a man, Nicholas Forrest, who is an art market analyst, art critic, and journalist based in Sydney, Australia.

He is the founder of  Art Market Blog writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications and does a wonderful job of keeping an eye on and anayzing the art market.

Here’s some encouraging tidbits for artists from one of his recent Blogs.

Staggering Art Market Statistics

The transformation that the art market has undergone over the last few years has been nothing short of staggering. As an Art Market Analyst I am constantly analysing and using facts, figures and statistics for various different purposes such as to justify the purchase of a painting or to try and predict the best time to sell an artwork.  Every day I come across another amazing art market fact or figure that provides me with yet another reason to be excited about the future of the art market and art as an investment. As you have probably already guessed, I just love statistics and numbers.

One of the reason’s that I started the Art Market Blog was to share my enthusiasm and passion for art and art investment in the hope of encouraging more people to buy art so I am going to share some of the more interesting and exciting statistics that I have come across.

Staggering Fact Number 1: It is estimated that there are four times as many art buyers now as there were during the art market boom in the early 90’s.

Staggering Fact Number 2: Taking inflation (a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money) into consideration, the current art market has not yet reached the levels of the art market boom of the early 90’s

Staggering Fact Number 3: According to Sotheby’s, the number of countries that their clients came from increased 61% in 2007 to 58 different countries

Staggering Fact Number 4: Again from Sotheby’s, the number of clients purchasing valuable lots worth US$500,000 or more from Sothebys increased 238% over five years resulting in a total of 848 for 2007

Staggering Fact Number 5: The 2007 figures for the art market showed China as having the third highest sale proceeds pushing France from third spot in the rankings.

Staggering Fact Number 6: According to Artprice, in 2007 the USA accounted for 46% of the world’s art auction turnover

Staggering Fact Number 7: According to Artprice, in 2007, of the 35 most expensive contemporary artists, 15 were Chinese

Art Market vs. US Economy

With a US recession (A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months) seeming more and more likely, people are beginning to question how such an event would affect the current art market. My first reaction would be to remind people that the US economy has been unstable for quite a while, partly as a result of the sub prime mortgage crisis yet the art market has continued to defy the odds and flourish.

There are some people that are saying that it takes 12 months for the art market to show any reaction to outside markets which would make that reaction due about now considering that the sub-prime mortgage crisis really took hold in early 2007. Even if the US economy was to have a major effect on the art market (which I don’t think it will) and the art market were to experience a downturn right now, it would most likely last for a very short time because the housing market is predicted to make a recovery by 2009 at the latest and the US economy is tipped to make a strong comeback as well. There is also the fact that 2008 is an election year for the US and election years typically have a positive effect on an economy.

A US recession would reduce the number of American buyers in the art market and would most likely cause the price being paid for artworks, especially in the US, to drop. However, because of the massive contingent of international art buyers it wouldn’t be long before the American buyers were replaced. The lack of American buyers would probably cause a very short term reduction in the price being paid for works being sold in the US which would entice the international buyers to the American market thus causing the American market to recover.

The other factor to consider is that people are turning to art as a secure investment and as a hedge against inflation due to the very low correlation between the art market and more mainstream investment markets such as the stock market. All in all the art market is in a very good position at the moment and is showing all the signs of being able to weather the US economic storm.

So you visual artists - stiff upper lip, the glass is half full, and all that sort of stuff - it seems there are people buying art out there.  Go sell something!

Thanks Nicholas!

http://www.artmarketblog.com