post-war art markets

New York, creating a culture capital

It is easy to forget that Impressionist and modern masters—Cézanne, Manet, van Gogh, and Picasso, for example—were dismissed or derided early in their careers. Their audiences were small. There was no overnight acceptance. In fact most of these artists were not even known in the United States until the International Exhibition of Modern Art, known as the 1913 Armory Show (New York), which later traveled to Chicago and Boston. 

Decades later, Duchamp, de Kooning, Pollock, and Warhol challenged conventional ideas about art making, reshaped the contemporary art canon, and slowly gained acceptance. A handful of art dealers and a gaggle of upper-middle-class collectors, transformed a rather white-glove business into an increasingly hyped market, fueled by dramatic post-War wealth creation. Paris was nearly abandoned, and London remained a cultural backwater until the late 1990s.

In transactional terms, today’s art market is unquestionably international, but it is mistakenly termed global. Only New York City has all of the essential attributes of a “perfect market,” the most important of which is its concentration of wealth. Apart from New York City, only London, Paris, and Los Angeles have high concentrations of art programs, galleries, museums, and fairs. In reality, most art markets are regional, if not, local. Mexicans prefer Latin art; Germans favor European art, and Indians favor South Asian Art. There is a multitude of reasons for market insularity, beginning with cultural ones and including all-important economic ones.

Since the 2010s, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and, most recently, Seoul have gradually emerged as prominent, but geographically dispersed, markets with dozens of galleries—sometimes short-lived—auction house representative offices, ballyhooed art fairs, and numerous, often indistinguishable, biennales and triennials. Perhaps the sundry art markets’ greatest competition has flourished on the Internet and social media, where websites and networking apps compete for collector attention and money.

Size matters

Contemporary art evolves, often quickly, sometimes radically. Tastes do too. There is still the "shock of the new," seeing new and sometimes confounding paintings, photography, sculpture, mixed media, or new technologies like video or installation art. More recently, long overdue identity-focused art in all media has triggered new market trends, many of them short-lived.

Reinventing taste

Contemporary art evolves, often quickly, sometimes radically. Tastes do too. There is still the "shock of the new," seeing new and sometimes confounding paintings, photography, sculpture, mixed media, or new technologies like video or installation art. More recently, long overdue identity-focused art in all media has triggered new market trends, many of them short-lived.