SmArts

January 16-22, 2017

Art + Market

By Molly Rector

In keeping with the theme of recent columns, I’d like to write a little bit about the art market, and the speculations experts are making about the impact the upcoming inauguration will have.

Many experts have posited that potential changes to the tax code will stimulate the art market, as those with the highest income will have more capital to invest in high-dollar works of art. But experts have also noted that art collectors, even since the election in November, have been more likely to focus on “sure thing” art “investments” – those by established artists, with less investment in contemporary works.

As I’m sure readers of this column have noticed, most of the time talk about significant events in the “art market” refers to what’s going on at large-scale auction houses (Christie’s and Sotheby’s being the top two) trading in works priced in the six-figure to multi-million dollar range.

This is somewhat similar to the conversation about the general economic market, which tends to refer less to the collective actions of everyone participating in financial exchange (all of us) and more to the trade happening on the floor of the stock exchange (driven, in large part by investors with the kind of capital mentioned above). The performance of the stock market is one of the primary measures of how well our economy is doing.

This could be a fair measure, or not, considering that only a little bit more than half of Americans own stock (with lower and middle-class adults and those under the age of 35 least likely to invest), according to Gallup polls this year.

In this economic model, it’s possible to have a “strong economy,” which nonetheless leaves out a significant number of Americans. It’s a model that judges the strength of the economy as a whole by only taking into account what’s happening in the highest income brackets.

The art market is this way, too – its performance is generally talked about in terms of what’s happening at high-dollar auctions, in a conversation that neglects what is happening at the smaller galleries or for individual, less-established artists. Trading at the top level in an environment where collectors are looking for investments with a sure payout often means collectors shuffling around paintings and works by artists who are no longer living, in a market model that serves collectors, but often neglects to stimulate innovation at the lower level.

Of course, economics is, at its heart, a human enterprise – it’s primarily about understanding what people feel and therefore what they want. The marriage of market and art is an interesting one, since it highlights the complicated nature of “value” itself. I’ll be curious to see how that marriage fares over the coming years.

Molly Rector is a staff writer for the Daily Record. Contact her at molly@dailydata.com.