Reinvent or die, say Old Master dealers looking

THE ART NEWSPAPER SECTION 2 Number 265, February 2015
3
ART MARKET
News, comment, analysis and fair & auction reports
Reinvent or die, say Old Master
dealers looking to modernise
In this section
ART MARKET NEWS
AND ANALYSIS
ART MARKET
● Sibli
ngs go to war
over Modern mas
ter
• FAIRS • AUCTIONS
● In-de
pth look at
the French mar
ket
The market loves contemporary, so galleries change look and stock
Art dealer Johnny
Van Haeften has
been joined by his
daughter, Sophie
Hawkins. With
her background
in fashion and
interior design,
she has brought
a different
aesthetic to the
London gallery
TRENDS
London. Reinvent or die seems be the
maxim of the leading Old Master galleries. After more than a decade of difficulties, the trade is rallying. “There’s been
a sea change,” says the London-based
dealer Johnny Van Haeften. “We’ve got
rid of the velvet curtains and we’re welcoming people in.”
The industry has been struggling with
shrinking supply, rising gallery rents and
a market share dwarfed by the Modern
and contemporary sector. Now, the Old
Masters are modernising. Dealers are
experimenting with modes of display,
expanding into art from different periods
and embracing new technology.
“If we’re thoughtful and clever,
we can get people excited about Old
Masters,” says Anthony Crichton-Stuart.
He is the director of the recently revived
Agnew’s Gallery. Founded in 1817, the
company closed in 2013, but was bought
last year by a group of investors led by
Cliff Schorer, a US entrepreneur and Old
Master collector.
The new management hopes to “contemporify” Old Masters, Crichton-Stuart
says. “Often when you hear contemporary artists such as Bill Viola talk about
their work, they refer to what’s been produced before them,” he says. “Old Master
dealers can show these influences.” This
could mean inviting a contemporary
artist to curate a show or working with
an expert in the Modern field on exhibitions or events, all with the aim of
making Old Masters more accessible.
MAIN IMAGE: PHOTO BY ERMANNO RIVETTI. ETCHINGS: ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/© HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II. INDONESIA: © PATRICIA CHEN. MUMINIA MASK: COURTESY OF SOTHEBY’S FRANCE/ART DIGITAL STUDIO.
Redress the balance
These kinds of overtures to contemporary collectors are an attempt to redress
the balance between the two markets.
More money was spent on Modern and
contemporary art in 2014 than ever
before, while the Old Master sector
lagged behind. The record-breaking sale
of Turner’s Rome, From Mount Aventine,
1835, for £30.3m in December highlights
the discrepancy. “People would pay
twice that amount for an Andy Warhol,”
says Guy Stair Sainty of Stair Sainty
gallery. “Warhol is a good artist but it’s
a totally disproportionate relationship.
Reinventing Old
● How
Indonesia
collector is mak ’s top
ing waves
2
Masters
Dealers adapt
U. ALLEMANDI
• SPECIALS
to the 21st cent
ury
& CO. PUBLISHIN
G LTD. EVENTS,
POLITICS
AND ECONOMI
CS MONTHLY
. EST. 1983, VOL.
XXIV, NO.265,
FEBRUARY 2015
ART MARKET
3 News Old Masters dealers adapt
to contemporary taste
4 News Athens fair looks for
international support
4 In the trade This month’s
market moves
6 Legal news Family feud over
Reinhardt sold at Art Basel
8 Film review Indonesia’s art
scene under the microscope
9 Legal news Indian collector
loses fight with auction house
10 Dealer profile Christian Berst
takes his Art Brut to New York
We look on in puzzled fury, jealousy and
amazement that people want to spend
anything at all on artists like Jeff Koons,
but not on our work.”
Some dealers, such as Robilant+
Voena and Baroni, now sell Modern
and contemporary art as well as Old
Masters. Others are wary of dipping
their toes into this competitive market.
“There are too many people who know
“We can no longer
say we specialise in
any one period”
what they’re doing at a very high level,”
says William Mitchell, a director at John
Mitchell Fine Paintings in London.
Instead, most Old Master dealers are
becoming generalists in their own field.
“We can no longer say we specialise in
any one period. All of us are having to
do other things,” Stair Sainty says. “We
recently sold a major work by Jacob Jordaens—not an artist we usually have—
to the Abu Dhabi Louvre.”
Expanding definition
As dealers broaden their stock, the
definition of “Old Masters” is being
expanded, particularly to include
19th-century works. Never an art historical movement, the phrase “Old Master”
was invented by the Grand Tourists of
the 18th century, and has always been
a “label that expands as time moves
forwards,” Crichton-Stuart says. “If one
were to be cynical, one would say that
the auctions and dealers are combining
Old Master and 19th century as supply
runs out, but there is in fact a logical
reason why the Old Master world no
longer ends abruptly at 1800.”
Another shift is in communication, as
dealers wake up to the potential of technology such as Twitter and Instagram.
“By its nature, the Old Master trade is not
a fast-moving business but a newer generation of dealers are using social media
to their advantage,” says Toby Campbell,
a director at Rafael Valls, which is also
adding QR tags to painting labels so visitors can link to the company’s website.
New blood brings new ideas, too.
Sophie Hawkins, Van Haeften’s daughter, joined the gallery last year and has
introduced a different aesthetic, based
on her background in fashion and interior design. Gone are the dark-green
walls, thick carpets and dark furniture,
as Hawkins has introduced simpler,
more modern frames for many of the
works. “The pictures look so much
better. Honestly, it’s refreshing,” Van
Haeften says.
Meanwhile, the daughters of Konrad
Bernheimer, whose Bernheimer gallery
celebrated its 150th anniversary last year,
have also brought their own style to the
business. Blanca Bernheimer is running
Bernheimer Fine Art Photography as a
separate department in Munich, while
Isabel Bernheimer has launched an
agency for contemporary artists, Bernheimer Contemporary Art Solutions and
Projects, with her father as a client.
“I probably resisted change to start
with, but it’s so important to keep up
with the times,” Van Haeften says. “Now,
I feel very relaxed about it, and very confident about the future.”
Charlotte Burns
11 News Slowdown at auction in
France, but which items were a hit?
12 Analysis Why is tapestry
neglected?
Controversial Indonesian collector
Oei Hong Djien, p8
12 Round-up This month’s
market news in brief
FAIRS & AUCTIONS
14 Fair preview Latin America
comes to Arco Madrid
15 Auction preview Our pick
Victoria and Albert’s etchings
to go on show at print fair
Etchings by Queen Victoria (right) and Prince Albert
(left) from the Royal Collection are due to go on show
at the London Original Print Fair in April. Both keen
amateur artists, Prince Albert introduced the Queen
to the practice of etching soon after their marriage
in 1840. The couple often worked on plates together;
the two prints on show, one by each, are dated 13
January 1842 and both depict rustic figures modelled
on sketches by the Queen’s favourite artist, Edwin
Landseer. Martin Clayton, the senior curator of prints
and drawings at the Royal Collection, has selected 30
prints for the standalone exhibition, which marks the
30th anniversary of the fair (23-26 April). The show
will also include etchings, woodcuts and lithographs
by Old Masters including Dürer, Raphael, Castiglione
and Canaletto. None of these works will be for sale.
Meanwhile, 50 print dealers, galleries and publishers
will be selling a range of works at the fair, to be held
at the Royal Academy in London. Artists range from
Rembrandt to Grayson Perry, with prices between £100
and £250,000. A.S.
of objects coming to market this
month
14-15 Listings Fairs and auctions
around the world
Mask sold for €3.6m, p11
COVER IMAGE: ROB AND NICK CARTER’S FLOWERS IN A WAN-LI VASE, 2013
(AFTER AMBROSIUS BOSSCHAERT THE ELDER, 1573-1621)