Burart Diary
Burart Diary is published every Monday morning.
In diary format, it loosely sketches the everyday goings-on of this site’s admin and the little realizations that come to mind.
Please read it whenever you have some free time.
Art Fair Tokyo 2020
Last week, press releases dropped in quick succession — first Art Basel Hong Kong, then Art Fair Tokyo.
Art Basel Hong Kong (March 17-21, 2020) and Art Fair Tokyo (March 19-22, 2020) overlap almost perfectly on the calendar.
The Basel Hong Kong I attended this past March was extremely stimulating and full of energy.
I’m planning to go again next time, but juggling the schedule against Art Fair Tokyo looks like it will be a real headache.
A gallery I’m particularly looking forward to this time around is the newcomer ANOMALY. Since they represent many artists, I’ll be watching closely to see how they compose their booth.
Art Auctions
Two weekends in a row, SBI Art Auction held the Harajuku Auction and the Modern & Contemporary Art Sale.
Sky-high hammer prices for major works continue as usual, but talking with fellow collectors, what caught my attention was that prices for solid mid-career Japanese artists were not rising as much as expected. I’ll refrain from naming specific names, but I noticed prices significantly below primary market rates. It seems that speculative activity is outweighing collectors who purely enjoy art, and that has me somewhat worried.
I was also surprised to find that works by the emerging artist Saya Okubo are already appearing on the auction market.
An F10-sized work carried an estimate of “¥100,000-200,000,” but it appears to have gone for over 300,000. That’s about three times the primary market price. *Final hammer was 368,000 yen (including fees).
For artists and their representing galleries, having secondary market prices for their works made visible through auctions carries various meanings. For emerging artists in particular, I suspect there are mixed feelings. I’ve heard that once a work by an artist appears at auction, it can trigger a chain of similar works continuing to appear. I’m in favor of increasing the liquidity of art, but it’s a thorny issue.
By the way, as I believe is the case with every auction house, SBI Art Auction does not guarantee authenticity for its works. *This is clearly stated in their terms and conditions.
In cases where forgeries are discovered, it seems that the purchase contract may be cancelled (refunded) subject to multiple conditions, but the buyer carries substantial responsibility. Careful scrutiny is essential.
This is totally FAKE! https://t.co/8gB2ERCYVM
— yoshitomo nara (@michinara3) 2019年10月23日
Google and SEO
Thanks to everyone’s support, October 2019 marked the site’s highest ever monthly pageview count since launch.
Publishing our access data for the first time — from the chart below, you can see that pageviews have been steadily trending upward. It’s thanks to the support of our readers that we’ve made it this far.
The other day I had the chance to hear from an expert about SEO.
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization,” an IT term. The collection of activities aimed at raising rankings in results on search engines like Google is collectively called “SEO measures.”
To share some insider info: our site “art on” is relatively diligent about SEO measures, patiently stacking up small improvements as we publish articles.
Perhaps as a result of this accumulated fine-grained work, our pages tend to rank highly in Google search results.
There are several traffic sources — SNS, RSS, bookmarks, external links, and so on — but search traffic makes up the largest share, at “over 80%.” There are multiple reasons behind this, but if you’re aiming for pageviews, SEO simply cannot be ignored.
Google has apparently been changing its algorithm frequently these days.
When the algorithm changes, even with the same keywords, rankings can shift dramatically.
Algorithm here refers to the rules that determine the rankings.
Since rule changes can shift company revenues by as much as one billion yen, this has enormous social impact.
The expert’s talk was full of fascinating and useful insights, but the key to staying in the good graces of search engines was said to be being what readers seek and being genuinely used. These sound like similar phrases, but from the perspective of someone producing articles, the difference between them is very clear, and it was a major eye-opener for me.
Speaking of “being genuinely used,” one of art on’s unexpectedly popular pieces of content is the article listed below: “Painting Size and Number Chart (Sizes 0 to 500).”
Ever want to check the exact size of an artwork?
Collectors, in particular, may find it useful to bookmark for quick reference at galleries, and it also comes in handy for art students and artists on many occasions.
https://art-on.jp/2017/11/size-chart/
This is getting long, so I’ll wrap up this section, but talk related to running the site — the kind of thing this section is about — is one of my favorite topics, so I’ll keep bringing it up little by little in the future.
A feature answering search queries
When I look at the admin panel of Google Analytics (GA below), it’s packed with all kinds of information, and one item I check occasionally is Organic Search Terms. This shows the search terms that led people to the site. Some of them are hilarious.
This feature picks one term from last month and answers it in detail.
October search term (1): When is the graduation exhibition of Kyoto University of Art and Design for 2019?
2019’s was in early to mid-February. I expect 2020 will be around the same period.
I plan to go again next time. I first met Shohei Yamamoto at this exhibition.
Student works are for sale and at very reasonable prices. It was also memorable to visit Kurumi Kotani’s studio and receive one of her works.
October search term (2): Kenjiro Okazaki, long work titles
Yes, they’re characteristically as long as poems.
Okazaki’s titles apparently correlate with size. Small works have short titles, and large works have long ones.
At the end of this month, his solo exhibition “The Reversal of Vision” will open at Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (November 23, 2019 – February 24, 2020). Below are the two titles from that exhibition — both large works measuring 180×130×5cm.
Title: “You wouldn’t understand. You’re just a child” The child moved his face around a while, fidgeting, then suddenly disappeared from view; a flash of buttocks skimmed the water’s surface, and in the next instant a whitish shadow was already sinking toward the bottom. On the clear water, as if a single drop of rain had fallen, concentric circles spread out one after another. It only just struck me that nothing about it was strange. Even in the dead of night, the eye can probably see. Day and night were inseparably linked, and even if tears clouded the glass, eyeglasses have no eyelids. “I can’t see a thing through the tears. So I stretch out my hand and grasp whatever is closest.”
Title: “You’d be able to hear it, wouldn’t you. Auntie” The woman had fallen into a brooding silence, but in the end she yawned deeply toward the wall. In an instant her own hand covered her mouth. On the wall, the shape of the moonlit window stood out clearly. The bare branches of leafless trees swayed faintly, casting their shadows on top. In the distance a telephone rang, and from the room on the other side of the wall someone’s voice was audible. At the same time, one’s heart is torn between two contradictory worries in the same place. If she could only see her own face, everything would be understood. “I’ve even forgotten my own name. But I do know who lives in this room.”
What do you think? A very characteristic Okazaki mode of expression, I’d say.
As a side note, Okazaki’s wife is the poet Kyongmi Park.
October search term (3): Koji Nakazono, purchase
art on gets a lot of search terms related to purchasing works.
Nakazono, an artist who left this world at a young age, seems to be enjoying reappraisal since the 2018 solo exhibition “Outer Circle – Landscape I Wanted to See” at the Yokosuka Museum of Art.
According to someone connected with Tomio Koyama Gallery, which handles his work, at the wishes of the bereaved family they aim to sell to overseas collectors going forward. Buying his work in Japan may become somewhat difficult, but art fairs abroad look like a promising route.
*Please note that even if you search here hoping to have your question answered in this corner, GA doesn’t remember all search terms, so please understand in advance.
In closing
Less than two months left in the year — I really feel how fast this year has flown by.
The Collector Collectors exhibition planned for year’s end will be held with a collector I first met at the end of January this year. Time really has flown.
I’m also planning a collectors’ year-end party. It may end up somewhat larger in scale, but if you’re interested, please contact me directly.
See you next week!
