Bur@rt Diary
Bur@rt Diary is published every Monday morning.
The editor-in-chief of art on writes in diary form about art, everyday interests, and passing thoughts. Please read it whenever you have a spare moment.
We held a framing event at the recent Collectors’ Collective, and I’m delighted to hear that attendees have actually been consulting the framer. The framer who gave the explanation on the day was a shop called nabis (Kuramae). Please feel free to consult them as well.
Art Auctions
The lots for the SBI Art Auction “Modern and Contemporary Art” to be held on February 1 have been announced.
Registration for SBI’s art auctions is free, and the catalogue delivered to your home is of high quality — enjoyable even just to browse.
You can also request photos of pieces that catch your interest online. For works you’re interested in, an email is returned immediately with a URL where you can view the images — a convenient and easy-to-use service.
The condition-check images include shots from the back that aren’t visible during exhibition, so you can even confirm the artist’s signature or the state of the back of the canvas, which makes them very useful reference material.
Several notable works appeared this time as well, including a piece from Yukimasa Ida’s 2017 solo exhibition.
It’s a small work about the size of a Japanese official postcard (14.7 × 10.0 cm). At the time it was sold for 30,000 yen each, and I recall that quite a few were still available even in the latter half of the exhibition. The estimate (auction estimate price) is 50,000 to 100,000 yen. It’ll be interesting to see how much the price goes up. Will it climb to around 150,000 to 200,000 yen?
For reference, at his most recent group show (KOTARO NUKAGA), an F4-size work was priced at 650,000 yen.
If the primary price is 200,000 yen per go (a Japanese canvas size unit)…
At the recent Taiwan art fair “Taipei Dangdai,” several works appear to have been shown by Kaikai Kiki Gallery, and reports have come in suggesting prices have risen even further. How far will Ida’s prices go from here?
On the other hand, looking at recent trends, some artists are being sold at auction for prices lower than their primary market prices. Prices don’t always go up — that’s one of the pleasures of auctions. Recently, popularity seems to be concentrating on a subset of artists. If you find a work you like, please watch it carefully and work toward building a smart collection.
Site Design Change
I changed the WordPress theme.
It now has a more blog-like feel than before. Rather than a design change, I focused on usability. I think it’s become just a little easier to use — what do you think? Truthfully, I’d love to spend more on the design…
More than spending money on design, the one thing I really want to try is “multilingualisation.” I want to communicate Japanese art to the world and break through the language barrier. It’s easy to say, but multilingualisation involves many interconnected tasks: article text, site structure and domain (URL), global SEO, and more. The platform that builds the site, WordPress, has many simple and convenient tools called plugins. Using a multilingualisation plugin would be easy, but things aren’t that simple… I keep worrying and time keeps passing.
Collector Visit Series
Finally, an announcement.
Our popular “Collector Home Visit Series” is currently looking for people who “have only been collecting for a short time” or “collect only a few works.” art on wants to increase engagement with entry-level art collectors as well.
If you’re interested, please contact us here.
See you next week!
art on Editor-in-Chief
Mahiro Kobayashi
