2023-07-02 21:54:29
In the equation of a rising market, pushed by the high-end purchase of works of art, by conservative collectors in times of crisis and uncertainty, when women artists are somewhat more represented but very far from their prices, it is not expected the economic phenomenon of Anna Weyant. The Canadian painter from Calgary multiplied the prices of her works of art at auctions in the year of her debut and this is reflected in the 2022 annual international sales report, which has published Art Basel and UBS. Its author Clare McAndrew, founder of Arts Economics, draws attention to the case of this painter —who has not yet turned 28— to underline something extraordinary last year: “It was marked by a series of record prices and debuts at auctions of very young artists, with prices above a million dollars”, can be read in the report. Weyant represents the El Dorado of American money.
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Further
The artist is the dream of any investor who buys the work of a living artist because it is cheap and, with a lot of luck, it can multiply one day. In 2022 the frame Falling Woman, which Weyant painted two years earlier, sold for $1.6 million, eight times what the auction house had estimated the painting would pay for. Two other works of his were also paid for almost four times as much, totaling $1.5 million. In total, the paintings that were auctioned with his signature exceeded 10 million dollars.
His painting is as realistic and convincing as the old masters and as ironic and everyday as the pop artists. There are obvious traces of baroque flamenco mannerisms and Instagram gestures. She also highlights the influence of films by Todd Solondz and Sofia Coppola. This aesthetic chimichanga, which makes it one of the most conservative tastes in contemporary art, rose to fame in 2020. That year the cover of New American Painters was illustrated with one of his works… he had been blessed as the future of American painting. .
In Loose Screw it features a lonely woman in a bar, laughing. “She looks kind of desperate and lonely and crazy and I can tell that because she’s kind of a self-portrait,” has recognized Weyant. It was inspired by a letter from The Real Slim Shady from Eminem: “I probably have a couple of screws loose in my head.” Much of his work deals with fear, despair, isolation, ignorance, and sometimes aggression. “Hopefully, there is also humor in some places,” explained the artist who became known in 2019, in an exhibition at the Tina Kim gallery in New York. Since her beginnings, her work has been read as a “Almost surreal figuration, focused on female psychology”.
the path of equality
Clare McAndrew points out in her extensive report that equality is progressing very slowly in the art market. She assures that the number of women artists in the galleries surveyed in 2022 totaled 39%, compared to 37% in 2021, but below 44% in 2019. The author speaks of “stagnation”. This figure is further reduced in the auction sector, where only 16% of artists represented are women. “Which is not surprising given the underrepresentation of women in art history,” says McAndrew.
The study does not provide data on total sales, although it explains that they have contributed 40% to the gallery sales market over the last five years. Strong sales have been limited to “a small group of artists.” Among them is Yayoi Kusama, currently with a retrospective at the Guggenheim in Bilbao.
The report demonstrates that art galleries need women artists to survive: “Those galleries with less than 20% women artists in their programs had stagnant and declining sales, year on year. While those with more than 80% female artists had a significant growth of 21% in their sales. In conclusion, having a higher proportion of women has not been a negative factor for 2022 sales, but having fewer women could be,” says Clare McAndrew. More than 80% of the galleries surveyed say they have more than 20% women among their representatives. Only less than 20% of the businesses have less than 9% women artists.
growing accounts
The international art market grew by 3% in 2022, an increase of 7% compared to the previous year and leaves it in figures close to 2019 (despite the war in Ukraine and the post-pandemic echoes). It is the main conclusion of the report made by Clare McAndrew. She estimates that global sales reached $67.8 billion. It is the second best historical data, after 2014. The art market grew especially in the US, where almost 40% of world sales were closed.
The crises have made collectors much more cautious in their purchases. This is not the time to take risks, which is why the high-end of the art market has grown. In troubled times, money becomes more conservative and bets on safe values, on more recognized, more established and, of course, more expensive artists. The proof is that the best-selling artist at contemporary and post-war art auctions, in the year 2022, was Andy Warhol. His sales totaled about $570 million.
Behind him, a quintet that represents 27% of the total value of auction sales: Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mark Rothko. As the values sought stability and concentrated on them, they increased their sales by 23%. The top 20 artists accounted for 56% of the total value. The best-selling work of the living artist in 2022 was Gerhard Richter, with a total of 226 million dollars. He ahead of David Hockney and the artist Yayoi Kusama.
A model change?
The study warns that to maintain the viability of their businesses, “it is often necessary for galleries to use the commercial success of one or a few artists, to finance their operations and to help subsidize the careers of others, investing the profits of their artists.” best sellers in the careers of those who have not yet been as successful. In 2022, sales of the best-selling individual artist accounted for an average of 31% of gallery sales. The artists with the highest sales in a gallery represented in 2022 just over a third of the average, in sales in 2022.
The specialist introduces another very delicate line of analysis in the sector, which has been talked about for years but which has been “boosted” with technological advances and increased sales. online: the “disintermediation” of the market. “The power of the artists themselves has grown and their direct sales ability has come into the spotlight in recent years, thanks to the growing digital adoption in the market that has enabled more channels for direct sales and marketing”, says the study author.
The expert asked gallery owners if they were concerned about this issue and 35% of intermediaries responded to her survey that they were very concerned. Only 20% did not show concern. Almost 40% of gallery owners forecast an increase in direct sales of artists to collectors during 2023, “indicating that this could be an issue that will evolve in the future,” the report notes. In the last five years, the galleries analyzed by the report have significantly decreased the number of artists represented, from 25 artists to 19 on average.
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