The FIAC is one of the world's leading fairs for contemporary
art. The 41st edition of this key global event continues its march
in the face of increasingly fierce competition.
This year, some 191 galleries from 26 different countries will
be gathering together at the Grand Palais. FIAC 2013 featured 129
exhibitors from 25 countries (including 55 from France) and welcomed 73,000 visitors over the
five days of the fair.
The exhibitors have already revealed the names of the artists
they will be presenting. Artprice now delves into the details of
what visitors can expect to see at this latest edition of the fair
(see link):
http://imgpublic.artprice.com/pdf/artprice-radioscopie-fiac-2014.pdf
The works of 1,451 artists will be exhibited in the main hall
and its adjacent rooms. They include prestigious names such as
Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Gerhard Richter, with works estimated in
millions of euros. When we compare this list with the Top 500 of
contemporary artists recently published by Artprice in its Annual
Report on the Contemporary Art Market,
(http://imgpublic.artprice.com/pdf/artprice-contemporary-2013-2014-fr.pdf)
we see that 145 of these visual artists are among the most
sought-after in the world, and the public will be able to view
their works by simply strolling through the aisles of the Grand
Palais. The top five names in this ranking will of course be
represented: Jean-Basquiat, Jeff
Koons, Christopher Wool,
Peter Doig and even Chinese artist
Zeng Fanzhi. These artists each have an auction record of over €10
million.
A glance at the Top 500 soon reveals that a large number of
Chinese artists are missing. This year there will be no works by
Luo Zhongli, Chen Yifei or even
Zhang Xiadong, although they made it into our Top 10 of
contemporary artists.
This is because they are much more popular in Asia (China
and Hong Kong) than in the West.
The two markets are still relatively autonomous, and it is very
rare for artists to battle successfully on both fronts.
For example, 99% of Zeng Fanzhi's turnover from public sales
comes from China, while 99% of
Jean-Michel Basquiat's sales are
made in the USA, UK and
France. As a result, Chinese
artists make up less than 3% of the artists exhibited at the Grand
Palais, despite the fact that they produce 40% of sales revenues
for contemporary art.
According to Artprice, China
will again move ahead this year with revenues in excess of €601
million, or 40% of the global market, compared to €552 million for
the USA. These two strongholds of
the market generate almost 78% of global receipts for contemporary
art. The UK takes third place with €231 million, and France trails a poor fourth at just €26.3
million.
Contrary to certain expectations, the most strongly represented
nation at FIAC 2014 will not be France, but the USA (obviously), which provides 25% of the
artists exhibited. With less than half this total, France comes in at third place with 11.4%,
behind Germany with 11.7%. It is
followed by the UK (9.1%), Italy
(3.3%), Switzerland (2.9%),
Belgium (2.8%) and finally
China (2.7%), among 84
nationalities in all.
Well-known French artists who will not be represented include
Robert Combas, Richard Orlinski and Philippe Pasqua. In fact, not one of the eight
contemporary French artists included in our Top 500 will be
featured at this 41st FIAC.
Some artists will be exhibited simultaneously by a number of
galleries, and the most ubiquitous artist is none other than the
great Pablo Picasso. The most famous
artist of the 20th century will be shown by nine different
galleries. This might seem a little excessive for a show dedicated
to Contemporary Art.
The Spanish artist, who was born in 1881 and died in 1973,
produced his most important work before the Second World War - for
example, Guernica (1937). There are some other surprising names on
the list, such as Vassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Gustav Klimt
(1862-1918) and Edvard Munch
(1862-1944). Can these major visionaries really still be thought of
as contemporary artists?
Or is there another (commercial) reason for the intrusive
presence at the fair of so many works by these great masters? Of
course the definition of artistic periods - particularly
Contemporary Art - remains relatively vague, and perhaps
intentionally so. Experts find it difficult to agree on criteria
for affiliation or specific dates.
Some use the year a work was created as the sole reference,
despite the fact that this is often unclear or misleading. Others
think it should be restricted to living artists. At Artprice.com,
we have chosen to use the objective, unchanging criterion of the
artist's date of birth.
Over 80% of the artists on show at the FIAC are still alive, and
their average age is 51. The doyenne of the show is Cuban artist
Carmen Herrera (born 1915),
exhibited by London's Lisson
Gallery. The youngest in the show are just 25 years old:
Lucien Smith at the Skarstedt
Gallery and Phillip Timischl at Neue Atle Brucke.
Only 54 of the artists announced are under 30. But these include
names that have had considerable success in the salerooms over
recent months, such as Oscar
Murillo, Jacob Kassay,
Ryan Sullivan and Hugh Scott-Douglas.
The last word goes to Thierry
Ehrmann, chairman and founder of Artprice: "This 41st FIAC
is opening under the best possible auspices."
According to Artprice's Annual Report on the Contemporary Art
Market, published just a few days ago, revenues from public sales
of contemporary art (artists born after 1945) have exceeded
$2.046 billion (€1.5 billion): an
increase of 40% compared with the previous period (+34.3% in
euros), making it the best year in its history.
Over the decade, turnover has grown by 1,078% and prices by
70%.
About Artprice:
Artprice is the global leader in art price and art index
databanks. It has over 30 million indices and auction results
covering more than 550,000 artists around the world. Artprice
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108 million images or prints of artworks from the year 1700 to the
present day, along with comments by Artprice's art historians.
Artprice permanently enriches its databanks with information
from 4,500 auctioneers and it publishes a constant flow of art
market trends for the world's principal news agencies and
approximately 6,300 international press publications. For its
3,200,000 members (members log in), Artprice gives access to ads
posted by members. This space represents the world's leading
Standardised Marketplace® for buying and selling art. These sales
take place under two systems: either fixed price sales or
auction-sales (regulated by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article L 321.3
of the French Code of Commerce).
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