art market trends and art for the super rich only

As there turned out to be little or no interest in the work, the act of creative destruction proved a gift. Lesson learned: If you auction anything you are unsure of, ask for it to be installed in the no man's land by the elevators.

I had better results with another painting. Though this work also proved to have little or no interest prior to the onset of the sale (none of the day sales had much action to speak of) the painting was used as an invite for a high-end fashion event held at Christie's and because of it the work soared past its high estimate by a factor of three.

Call it a rare instance of a happy marriage between fashion and art. Though this practice of auctioning fairly recently bought art understandably doesn't sit well with dealers and artists, people move on from people and things. And so it goes.
Photo: Kenny Schachter.

Bruce Nauman, detail from Hanging Head #1 (1989).
Photo: Kenny Schachter.

Few final asides before the season shuts down. The pressures on art galleries that aren't called Zwirner and Gagosian (and a smattering of others) are enormous and many are getting hammered in a world that increasingly buys obvious things from obvious people. I know a dealer with multiple venues so overstressed he's never without his gallery bag filled with a potpourri of illicit drugs.

It isn't going to get any easier for dealers (for art dealers that is) who must lead incessant nomadic lives from fair to fair, sale to sale, sometimes at the expense of health and/or family life.

And who said there is no regulation in the art market? Art related lawsuits are probably at an all time high and banks scrutinize each and every transaction like junior private detectives. Here is a doozy: a payment from the sale of a painting is still being withheld by a bank that required the following information before funds could be cleared, “Information of Ostrowski: What is the meaning, if this is a person?" What an existential line of questioning from a bank no less. Maybe they observed his market downturn and were expressing concern. Are there resident art critics now on the HSBC payroll?

High estimates wrought by greed reflect false expectations and yield false hopes. Whether it's wads of Warhols or redundant Richters, you'd better get it right or it can prove a costly gamble.

We've experienced the most prosperous year in art ever. Art is a market like any other that just as swiftly falls as it rises.

Sure, art could be cracked for long-term capital gain with knowledge, passion, intuition and luck, but you'd better put on your seatbelt (especially in the back of cabs) and tread with caution.