04 EDITORIAL BY THIERRY EHRMANN 05 INTRODUCTION 06 GROWTH 08 THE CONTEMPORARY ART RUSH 14 THE MARKET’S PILLARS 22 PAINTING... ABOVE ALL 26 DIVERSITY 28 A NEW LANDSCAPE 36 “NO MAN’S LAND” 40 BLACK (ALSO) MATTERS (IN ART) 42 VALUATION 44 IN SEARCH OF NOVELTY 48 MULTIPLE CHOICE... 52 DIGITAL AGILITY 55 TOP 1,000 Methodology The analysis of the Art Market presented in this report is based on results from Fine Art public auctions during the period from 1 January 2000 to 30 June 2020. This report covers exclusively paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, prints, videos and installations by contem- porary artists -herein defined as artists born after 1945, and excludes antiques, anonymous cultural goods and furniture. All the auction results indicated in this report include the buyer’s premium. Prices are indicated in US dollars ($). Millions are abbreviated to “m”, billions to “bn”. 3 EDITORIAL BY THIERRY EHRMANN Artprice is proud to present this exclusive report which Inspired by Pop Art, Contemporary Art continues to traces the evolution of the Contemporary Art Market democratize, to engage in dialogues with a much wider over 20 years. The story it tells reflects a multitude of audience. Street Art symbolizes this breadth of appeal: sociological, geopolitical and historical factors, all of Banksy’s stencils are known all over the world. Among which contributed to the rapid rise of Contemporary today’s youngest generations, the recognition of female Art in the global Art Market. A marginal segment until artists represents an even more important revolution, the end of the 1990s, Contemporary Art now accounts to which must be added the new success of artists from for 15% of global Fine Art auction turnover, and is now Africa and the African diaspora. its primary growth driver, having increased +2,100% In short, the Contemporary Art Market has been over 20 years. through a very long and very profound transformation This extraordinary progression is driven by the pas- over twenty years, which Artprice has followed. We sions that Contemporary Art elicits, but it is also based have witnessed its exponential rise until 2008 – until on the confidence that it has won. Nowadays, collec- Damien Hirst’s insolent sale just after the bankrupt- tors no longer necessarily prefer work by dead artists, cy of Lehman Brothers at Sotheby’s – and the subse- and they allow themselves to be convinced by new quent ‘arrival’ of the Chinese Art Market with its peak techniques, new art forms and new influences by liv- in 2014. Clearly, the health crisis that began in March ing artists. Today, at a time of unprecedented crisis, the 2020 has once again broken the market’s rhythm, but Contemporary Art Market is still galloping forward. there are few markets that resist rhythm breaks quite Indeed, it’s the segment that adapts fastest to changes like the Art Market. and the one that lends itself best to online sales. So we seem to have reached a perfect spot for a pause This is the story of how certain living artists rose to and for serious analysis of the metamorphoses of the Con- the rank of true icons, while the number of contempo- temporary Art Market – the segment of the Market which rary artists sold at auction multiplied by five and new harbours the biggest risks and opportunities – before it ful- marketplaces sprang up all over the world. While some ly resumes its undoubtedly unexpected activities. prices have risen extremely quickly – so quickly that the MoMA missed the opportunity to acquire a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat – a new market for affordable works has been created, with prints, multiples and de- thierry Ehrmann rivative products circulating in abundance. CEO and founder of Artprice by Artmarket.com 4 INTRODUCTION Nowadays the whole planet is interested in Contemporary Art Does today’s art auction universe bear any resem- number has literally rocketed. From around 60 art fairs blance to what it was 20 years ago? This is the ques- listed in the year 2000, we now have more than 600… tion we asked ourselves through this report. In this year Some gallery owners and collectors attend 10 or 20 per 2020, severely shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, we year. No wonder that the term fairtigue has entered com- felt it necessary to take a step back in order to broaden mon Art Market jargon. our vision beyond the “lost year” by observing the evo- Alongside the proliferation of events, auction compa- lution of the Contemporary Art Market not over one nies have adapted their strategies in order to capture year, but over twenty years. new collectors by opening offices around the world, -or Before looking at the changes in the Art Market it- ganizing exhibitions and conferences, hosting high-pro- self, just a few words about how our connection to art has file sales, updating their communication tools, and last changed. Contemporary creation has become part of but not least, building their online profiles. In 2019, the the daily life of the wealthiest and most high-profile Art Market reached a peak, with 550,000 lots sold at people in our societies; but it also seems to have found auction generating a total of $13.3 billion (all creative its way into a multitude of popular domaines, from periods combined). This historic record reflects an un- haute-couture, to coffee mugs and skateboards. Initial- deniable appetite for art, particularly Contemporary ly only really encountered in the elite sectors of luxury, Art, a segment which sees an average of over 200 works finance, marketing, music and cinema, it now seems to sold per day. have acquired an almost blue-jean ubiquity and is now Personal taste, the love of creativity, art-de-vivre, fash- an integral part of nearly all spheres of creation, com- ion, investment concerns or just plain speculation... the munication and commerce. In short… it is everywhere, reasons for purchasing an artwork are diverse and spe- and evermore present. cific to each one of us. Together, all these motives have Twenty years ago, we could readily identify a small enabled Contemporary creation to carve out a promi- inner circle of people who understood and knew about nent place in the global Art Market at the start of the Contemporary Art, particularly from a market point of 21st century. view. Today this circle may continue to exist, but it has Via three concepts - GROWTH - DIVERSITY - totally transformed, expanded, globalized, and, above VALUATION - this report looks back at the changes all, rejuvenated. Totally at ease with online shopping, that have occurred in this exciting market. But it also today’s consumers of Contemporary Art have adopted looks at the most important artists, at the evolution of the online auction game just like any other game on collectors’ tastes and at the processes and mechanisms their smartphones. Their eyes and tastes are formed by underlying the valuations attributed to the works it gen- a multitude of information sources (including ours…) erates. Lastly, it considers the ramifications and impact and by the hundreds of art fairs around the world whose of the digital and virtual revolution currently underway. 5 1 GROWTH The beginning of the 21st century was marked by a pyramid, rivaling the values attributed to works by the very significant increase in the offer and demand for most important signatures in Art History. Contemporary artworks. More and more artworks The extraordinary growth of the Contemporary Art were created and investments in their creation and their Market has indeed been driven by a relatively small acquisition rose very substantially. The prices of Con- number of godlike figures… but we shouldn’t forget the temporary Art began to rise very quickly, so much so, massive contribution from the Chinese Market which that a segment which generated less than $100 million effectively marked the end of American hegemony in in 2000 is now worth almost $2 billion. In 20 years, the field of Contemporary Art. artists of ‘our time’ have risen to the top of the art price 6 Portrait of Ai Weiwei at the Abode of Chaos © thierry Ehrmann, Courtesy Musée l’Organe 7 century. Recently a work by Jean-Michel Basquiat beat THE CONTEMPORARY the world record for an art auction result in the year 2000 by fetching over $100 million, starkly illustrating ART RUSH the change in the market’s value scales. Basquiat could well cross this price threshold again in the future, and he may not be the only one. Moreover, the works of At the start of the 21st century, the global art a handful of our Contemporary creators have already world changed substantially as large numbers been consecrated as “historical assets”... as important, of new millionaire buyers joined the Market, in monetary terms, as the greatest Modern artists like and China decided to develop its own market. Monet or Picasso. The Contemporary Art Market is not what it was 20 years ago. It has undergone profound structural chang- In the 21st century, Contemporary es, with evermore artists (from 5,400 artists to nearly Art has become the primary growth 32,000 today) and evermore artworks (from 12,000 lots offered to 123,000) and it has grown and expanded driver of the global Art Market. geographically, from 39 to 64 countries active in auc- tions. It has accelerated with the fluidification of remote Basquiat holds the first and the latest auction records transactions and is now the most dynamic and profit- of the last 20 years. He created the first Contemporary able segment of the entire Art Market. In 20 years, the work to fetch over $1 million (in 1998) and the most number of auction houses participating in the Contem- expensive Contemporary work ever sold (in 2017).