Bur@rt Diary
Bur@rt Diary is published every Monday morning.
This is a diary-style column where the editor-in-chief of art on shares thoughts on art, everyday favorites, and personal reflections. Please read at your leisure.
Over the weekend, I left Tokyo and flew to a rural area for a collector-visit project.
I’ve also been receiving interview requests from art magazines and newspapers, and the response to the Colle Colle Exhibition still lingers as a pleasant afterglow. I’m delighted that many of you seem to remember it.
I also welcomed a reporter into my home for the first time.
Since my house is small, I’d never invited anyone over before, but the reporter seemed to enjoy it more than expected, which was a relief. If people enjoy it that much, I thought I might host a drinking party with fellow collectors sometime. Though with such a small house, I could only invite a few people…
The Relationship Between Art and Instagram
Both the art publisher and the newspaper had Instagram as one of the major topics of their interviews. They were interested in the affinity between art and Instagram.
Recently I’ve been re-reading Fuyuhiko Yamamoto’s book “Gallery Hopping on Weekends,” a paperback. Fuyuhiko Yamamoto is well-known as a salaryman collector and is a senior collector with a long collecting history. When I speak with people in the art industry, I hear that many became art collectors after reading this book. Indeed, the content is gentle and lowers the barrier to art collecting. Compared to Daisuke Miyazu’s book “Let’s Buy Contemporary Art,” which describes buying masterworks worth millions of yen, this one has a much more approachable feel.
Fuyuhiko Yamamoto is the type of collector who visits many galleries and buys a large number of works at low prices — a very relatable style. There’s a chapter in his book called “Sources of Art Information,” but the situation is a bit different from today, and you can feel how times have changed. *The book was published in August 2009.
The art-related sources listed in the book were “newspapers,” “television,” and “art magazines,” in that order, with “websites” added almost as an afterthought at the end. Among them, the following recommended sites were listed. Unfortunately, all of them appear to have stopped updating.
- Geiriki (http://geiriki.com/)
- Gallery Serch (http://garou.imagista.com/)
- Museum-Cafe (https://www.museum-cafe.com/) *Currently closed)
- gaden presents (http://gaden.jp/ex_but.html)
Needless to say, today the traffic flows actively on SNS. Instagram in particular allows artists, galleries, and collectors to interact, and connects them with the world.
Various messages come into my account too, and I find them enjoyable. Messages from overseas asking things like “How can I purchase works by artist XXXX?” are quite common. Tools that connect you with collectors around the world are truly fun, aren’t they?
Art Events in February and March
The novel coronavirus is frightening. I hope it doesn’t affect Art Basel Hong Kong…
It’s about time for an announcement, but my prediction is “postponement.”
I’ve bought a non-refundable plane ticket, so I might just cry…
Art Fair Tokyo, held around the same time, will probably proceed as usual, I predict. Since it’s a domestic art event, I’m assuming (rather selfishly) that the impact will be small.
This month I’m planning to visit Kyoto twice.
For the graduation, completion, and works exhibitions at Kyoto University of Art and Design and Kyoto City University of Arts, and for Artists’ Fair Kyoto.
I’m looking forward to meeting Kyoto-based artists and collectors.
The SBI art auction had a fairly high number of unsold lots, from my impression. Yukimasa Ida’s prices were surprising… It looks like the polarization between popular and unpopular is growing more pronounced.
Let’s keep at it this week too!
art on Editor-in-Chief
Mahiro Kobayashi
