2 thoughts on “New Auction Maneuvers”

1. Looking at trends as described here, hot-new-artists-getting-hotter, is it just that ‘bricks and mortar’ are over. Have many of these buyers even seen the work except online?

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2. It used to be that in order to get accepted into art fairs, dealers had to maintain a bricks and mortar establishments. Today there are many galleries that only exist online, holding mock events and mock exhibitions. So much has migrated to the Internet that vetting galleries, verifying physical gallery addresses is beyond the budgeted resources of art fair organizers, who seem to be mostly interested in what kind of art an exhibitor might bring to the party. Presumably someone can see artists’ works at the fairs, and then buy online. A friend of mine who is an artist and a dealer assures me that few people buy anything sight unseen, but there are many way to see artworks other than in a traditional gallery setting. Consider the Koons “Popeye” being sold for the first time at a Sotheby’s auction in May. Why wouldn’t artists rather roll the dice at auction? They pay a consigner’s commission, which is half what a gallery would take. At the same time, the more time we spend online, the greater our appetite for escape into the physical pleasures of life–maybe one reason why craft-arts like ceramic and textile are on the rise again. I think it’s insane for artists to spend so much time calculating ways to intersect with the market. It’s like farmers hanging around supermarkets when they should be tending their herds and minding their crops. There are so many ways today to get ideas out there, only the most desperate dolt worries about how to do it before the time comes. By the time one finishes a body of work and gets it ready for exhibition, everything will have changed. Better to be nimble.

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