I read the Special Report in last week’s edition of The Economist and found it to be a highly interesting article. I have been thinking a lot recently on how to make a living with my artistic ventures through photography. My passion is to capture moments of beauty in the most hopeless of places, the world over. Here is a short excerpt of the report that was very encouraging to read and apply to what I want to do and build:
A Multicultural Future
“In the short term the art market will follow the world economy. But what will it look like in the long term? Artists throughout history have created work in response to their environment. Many are known primarily for their travels: think of Paul Gauguin, the Scottish Colourists, the artists who went on the Grand Tour. Travel used to be exotic; now it is commonplace. In a globalised environment it is possible to be a world-class artist anywhere on the planet, and many of the most exciting artists will be working from places that previously were not even on the art map. That will start a fresh wave of contemporary art. Collectors follow artists, and the supply of art shapes taste. But the artists have to be there, working, in the first place. A few decades hence America will still be richer than China, and far, far richer than Africa. But for every collector who continues to buy evolving European and American art, an increasing number will turn to art from other parts of the world.
That shift will take time, but it is on its way. If there is a single sale over the past year that symbolises the new globalisation in the buying and selling of art, it was Sotheby’s contemporary-art auction in London on October 16th. The cover lot, “Afro Apparition” (see above), a painting of a stylised black couple kissing, was created by Chris Ofili, a Briton of Nigerian origin who now lives in Trinidad. It was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2003. Fatima Maleki, a London-based Iranian who has been a regular donor to Britain’s Tate, walked out smiling from the auction, having bid nearly 40% above the top estimate to get the painting. In such a multiple melding of cultures lies the future.”
Excerpt taken from October 28th edition of The Economist Newspaper, A Special Report on the Art Market, p. 16
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