Bur@rt Diary
note is another place I’d been posting, but this time I decided to write a diary entry here on the main site after a long while.
I often get the chance to talk with many collectors and people in the art world, and lately, in conversations with a lot of them, I’ve been hearing plenty of talk that art isn’t selling — things like “The art bubble’s over, right?” or “I was surprised the works at that show hadn’t sold.”In the autumn of 2022, has “the art bubble ended”?I decided to post this, wanting to sum things up a little from my own perspective.
Has the Art Bubble Burst?
The other day I visited a large group exhibition on view somewhere. Normally it’s a perennial crowd-pleaser that’s nearly sold out on opening day.
I went as the run was heading into its second half, and I was quite surprised at how sluggish the sales were.
Many collectors feel the same way, and there’s a buzz going around.
Galleries supported by high-end collectors don’t seem to be affected much, but at shows run mainly around young artists, the momentum of sales does seem to be visibly slowing. What you might call oneart bubble may well have ended.
I thought about a few possible reasons. *These are my personal conjectures.
- With the pandemic winding down, more people are steering their disposable income toward things other than art
- A weaker yen, higher prices, and other economic shifts have tightened people’s purse strings
- New galleries appearing and greater handling at commercial venues have swelled the total volume of shows, creating oversupply
- As year-end nears, collectors who have spent their annual budgets have run out of steam
- Novice collectors who started in the past year or two have developed sharper eyes and begun scrutinizing artists and works
- Some who bought on the bandwagon never grew to love the art, turned cautious about new purchases, or came to feel negatively about art — and have drifted away
- Collectors who sense the market cooling are taking a wait-and-see stance
- Resellers (flippers) are beginning to distance themselves from the art world
When I asked an acquaintance well-versed in apparel, they said apparel is actually booming — high-end brands in particular are selling like crazy. Goods that used to sell only in brick-and-mortar shops seem to be thriving now that the pandemic has eased. The travel industry looks healthy, too.
In the contemporary art market as well, individual collectors with smaller annual budgets may be slowing down, but those with large budgets seem to be collecting as aggressively as ever.
I haven’t spelled out the fine details for each point, but how do you, readers, see the current situation?
The Art Market Ahead
Talk of an “art-bubble collapse” gives the impression that the market has slid into an ice age, but wasn’t the frenzy up until recently a little abnormal?
Rather than a bubble bursting, it may be a backlash — a swing back from that sudden surge — and a transition into the next phase.
Perhaps the contemporary art scene, which had heated up so rapidly, is simply returning to something closer to normal.
At the exhibition I mentioned, plenty of fine works by unknown artists sat unsold at low prices.
Perhaps, as a reaction to concentrating on a handful of artists and inflating their popularity, works by lesser-known names are being shunned. This may be exactly the moment to find the rough gems of the next generation.
Rather than being swayed by the moves and chatter around us, I want to build a collection I can genuinely be satisfied with. Why not take this very moment to face art calmly?
