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Art markets
Sarah Thelwall reveals that there is not one art market but several different ones. These markets are very different in terms of the artists, gallerists and collectors who participate and develop them. This Art market tour articulates the main markets and looks at what drives them.
If a market is a location where products and services are sold between sellers and buyers then many markets operate in the art world – there are markets for art as a service eg residencies, workshops and education projects and markets for art as a product eg commissions and the activities of commercial galleries. I will focus on the market for art as product as even the most ephemeral, process-based practices will, on occasion, be productised (though not necessarily driven by interaction with the commercial gallery system). I will also focus on the primary art market (the first time a work is sold) and won’t explicitly cover the secondary art market (every other time a work is sold) on the basis that most living artists engage with the primary but not the secondary market. The most distinct two art markets are probably also the two most easily separated from each other. The ecology of activity which includes Frieze Art Fair (and international equivalents), Venice Biennale (and similar), the collections of major institutions such as Tate or MoMA and all those artists, gallerists and private collectors who participate in this world is the contemporary art market. The...
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