In a recent post I offered a few guidelines for the art buyer intent on investing in art. While I generally encourage clients to buy art for the love of it, and invest elsewhere, if you want to invest in art those tips were offered to help put you in the right direction.
Now let’s test your art market smarts about three current art market facts which shed a bit of light on the world of interior design and the global art market.
What was the top style of artwork sold at auction in 2019?
- Abstraction
- Representation
- Surrealism
- Impressionism
This one really surprised me. The top ten most expensive works of art sold at auction worldwide in early 2019 were representational works of art. While these sales were at auction and at the higher end of the market, what does this mean for the rest of us? Hard to say, but my guess is a return to the known and tangible in a time of rapid and often unsettling global change.
Do uncertain times explain the return of representational art as the most desirable?
Nicole Hogarty Interiors, Michael J Lee Photography
What was the single largest motivation art collectors site when buying art?
- Investment
- Personal inspiration
- To decorate their home
- To build a collection
Interior designers will not be surprised with this answer: today’s buyers most often site the desire to decorate their homes as their motivation, followed very closely by the desire to be inspired. But an artwork’s visual appeal is frequently a gateway to a deeper dive into the artist and their career. From there, most buyers will be motivated more by the specific story behind an individual work of art than by the artist’s over all career.
Art is often among the most personally meaningful objects in our homes,
serving to both enrich décor and fill our souls.
Interior Design Kristi Will Home + Design
What single obstacle do today’s art collectors report most often?
- Wanting to know they can resell art at a reasonable price if they needed to divest
- Feeling that art work was simply not affordable
- The lack of easy access to artworks’ price
- Lacking confidence in their artwork selections
If you guessed 3, the lack of easy access to artworks’ price, you are probably familiar with the unpleasant experience of needing to ask an art dealer the price of a work of art. One of the strongest drivers for online art work sales is the perception that price information is easier to find and free of any discomfort. It’s interesting to note that it is high end art buyers, not entry level newbies, who are most likely to find the lack of easily available pricing off putting.
Art exhibitions lacking signage and pricing, like a recent Miami Basel art fair, above,
can be intimidating to prospective art buyers.
