Young artists compete in the domestic market

The spring auction of 2012 is in full swing, and the art market as a whole shows a trend of steady adjustment. Many collectors take this opportunity to “slow down” and at the same time, collectors who watch for market trends will find that another market trend is gradually increasing. Obviously, this is the recent general increase in the appearance rate of young artists. The performance of auctions, art fairs, and galleries is remarkable. For example, this year Hong Kong Sotheby's Springtime specializing in contemporary Asian art, although Zhang Xiaogang's work "Blood-Big Family". "Family-Friendly No. 2" won the top spot with HKD 52.18 million, showing the strength of Chinese contemporary art blue-chip stocks. According to statistics, before this, more than 10 artists from the 70s and 80s have exceeded the one million yuan mark, and the new record of HK$5.5 million seems to be the potential for young artists to appreciate in the secondary market. Opens new space. Coincidentally, the recently opened Art Beijing fair also featured "young cards." Young artists not only shared equally with the market's main artists in the number of works, but many galleries also promoted them with thematic exhibitions, solo exhibitions, etc., and they learned that The works of young artists brought by these galleries are mostly well-sold. In addition, various artistic projects for young artists have emerged in the near future. How do you view these phenomena? The magazine specifically interprets this market trend for collectors and investors.

Promotion of Young Artists and Their Work Becomes a Market Strategy Faced with any market trend, the primary concern of collectors and investors is often the cause behind it, so as to distinguish between real market demands and purely speculative factors and grasp market trends. The current market demand for young artists and their works is mainly reflected in the following aspects: From the perspective of galleries, the Chinese art market has long been dominated by auctions, plus the past two years, Gagosian Gallery and White Cube ( The world's top traders such as White Cube) successively opened branches in Hong Kong and competed with local galleries on collectors' and artist's resources. The international operation of these traders attracted a large number of established artists and further reduced the number of local galleries. Benefit space. Compared with other giant galleries such as Gao Guxuan, the advantages of local galleries are obviously the resources of young artists. Therefore, the art stars of tomorrow will become the survival of local galleries, and a group of galleries that mainly promote young artists, such as China and Star Space, Yang Gallery has formed a stable group of collectors.

Secondly, from the perspective of the auction houses, after two consecutive years of rally in 2010 and 2011, the Chinese art market tends to be polarized. High-end fine arts and high-quality artwork are welcomed, while high-end artworks are Prices are often tens of thousands of yuan, making ordinary collectors discouraged, and there is a limited number of high-end works of art, supply is increasingly tense. As the art market is booming, it also leads to a higher turnover rate and more familiar faces in the market. This situation has begun to show up in autumn last year, and the market needs to import fresh blood. Taking the example of China’s Guardian’s spring auction this year, in addition to the “red classic” works that are held steady, the company also introduced “new ink” and other practices that break the conventional practice. Allegedly, more than 85% of the contemporary calligraphy and painting products are As for the raw goods, Hong Kong's Sotheby's Spring Auctions mentioned above is one of the promotion strategies adopted by post-70 artists. It can be foreseen that the auction house’s demand for the market’s excavation and the rotation effect of the sector will accelerate the entry of young artists’ works into the secondary market.

In addition, what cannot be ignored is the start of art consumption. With the popularization of art collection concepts, some collectors who have not yet been exposed to the art market want to start with low-cost consumer art, not only to decorate their living room but also to meet their aesthetic needs. Progressive art collections and investments began. The demand for the price range below 100,000 yuan is relatively stable in the market, and Art Beijing's "100 Young Art Exhibition" works have achieved a turnover rate of 86%. The emergence of art e-commerce has also played a catalytic role in this, such as HIHEY. Com, Zendai Art Supermarkets and other B2C art sales models relying on the Internet platform, due to restrictions on the online trade of artworks in the logistics, inspection and other aspects, the price of more than 50,000 yuan in the low price, in line with this price range Young artist works are favored. It can be said that promoting young artists and their works has gradually become an inevitable strategy for the long-term development of the art market.

The risk-benefit analysis of young artists' works mentions the collection of young artists' works. We can cite many successful cases. In the 1990s, when Liu Xiaodong stood out from the new generation of painters, he was under 30 years old. Liu Xiaodong’s works have been recorded since 1991. According to the Yachang Oil Painting Personal Index, the average transaction price in 2000 was still at 5855 yuan/sq.ft., and in the autumn of 2011, this figure was 246,000 yuan/sq.ft. At present, the post-70th-century artists whose unit price exceeds 1 million yuan are mostly emerging around 2005, and the appreciation of their works is considerable.

In addition to direct investment returns, young artists also bring two additional benefits for collectors. One of them is the pleasure of discovery. Before young artists received extensive attention, they first discovered their potential for growth, enabled their own appreciation of the arts to be verified, and relished by many large collectors. This is why some international art fairs targeted at promoting young and middle-aged artists, such as the Frieze Art Fair in London and the Basel Liste Youth Art Fair, often attract top-tier collectors to discover new people and enrich their collections. The second is to participate in the history of creating fun, especially for the new collectors, the opportunity to establish a systematic collection of historical value is not much, and young artists and works can best reflect the sharp sense of the times, means that art With the possibility of the next page, collectors may obtain important representative works, so the collection or investment of young artist works is full of opportunities.

However, this method of post-analysis ignores the almost brutal elimination rate among young artists. Buying a young artist's work is like “Angel Investment”, which not only tests the historical perspective, but also fully considers the investment risk. The biggest risk is the interruption of the artist's artistic career, which means that the artist suddenly withdrew from the market, and his work completely lost its circulation and economic value. If the artist’s artistic career is roughly divided into several stages such as budding period, growth period, high-speed growth period and mature period, the risks and factors to be considered at each stage are different. Collectors and investors can use their own The amount of money and risk appetite, the development of a reasonable collection of investment plans.

Where to Find the Star of Art in the Future Given that young artists are going through a process of academic and market natural elimination, limiting the shortcomings of young artists is a headache for quality problems. How to choose potential young artists, the author believes that collectors and investors can make full use of market screening mechanisms. These screening mechanisms are first of all galleries. When a good gallery selects works of young artists, it will not only take into account both academic values ​​and market values, but it will also be able to help young artists to hold academic exhibitions and participate in internationally important events. The annual exhibitions and art fairs have entered the collections of important collectors and museums. These promotion will promote the artist's growth and appreciation of the works and gain wider recognition. Another feature of the good gallery is to consider the long-term interests of young artists and collectors. They are not in a hurry to seek success. Generally, they will develop a development plan for artists for more than five years, so that the market of their works will increase steadily, which will reduce the younger generation. The artist has no success or risk of leaving the market.

So, can a wide variety of young artist projects become effective screening mechanisms? Judging from historical experience, artistic awards with higher academic standards have a huge impact on artists. Take the British Turner Prize as an example, the Turner Prize was established in 1984 and has now become a benchmark for contemporary British art. According to statistics, the prices of works for artists who are nominated by the Turner Prize will increase by 1/3, and the prices for works by award-winning artists will increase at least twice. Many of the works of the successive Turner Prize winners will be collected by the Tate Art Museum.

Specific to the country, the projects that support young artists can be broadly divided into awards and “Young Artists' Growth” designed with reference to the APT** (Artist Pension Trust) model. The former, such as the "Passion for Future Arts Talents" program recently held at the award ceremony, the latter is supported by CYAP Young Artists. The above mentioned Jia Duoli, a post-70 artist who produced a high price at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, won the 5th AAC Young Artist of the Year award in 2011. The winners were Wei Jia, Gao Wei, and Chen Wei. The familiar young artists show that domestic art projects can play a role in screening and promotion. At present, these artistic projects are very hot and it seems that there has been a "competition battle" for discovering young artists. The identification of the gold content of these art projects requires the judging of the judges' academic level, authority, and the comprehensive operational capacity of the establishment institution. Although the market value and academic value of the artwork are not positively related, the market value is based on academic value. With the development of the Chinese art market toward rationality, academic value has become an important clue. Especially for young artists, artists who have inherited artistic traditions and have their own independent thinking and unique language can stand the test of time.