How do we assess contemporary art?

Transcription

#237
22 february 2016
How do we assess contemporary art?
Mesk-ellil (2015)
Hicham Berrada
Courtesy of Kamel Mennour and Biennale
de Lyon 2015
© Blaise Adilon
#237 • 22 february 2016
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table of contents
P.3
P.10
How do we assess
contemporary art?
top stories
P.13
P.14
musEUMS
P.18
fondation
hippocrène
P.21
gaLleries
P.22
artists
data
léon spilliaert
P.29
P.28
auctions
2
thomas bernard
P.17
fairs and festivals
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How do we assess
contemporary art?
I
n a novel retracing the life of Van Gogh’s postman Joseph Roulin (La vie de Jospeh Roulin),
writer Pierre Michon raises a question that
has probably crossed the minds of all art lovers: “Who decides what’s beautiful and, on
this basis, what’s expensive or worth nothing
among humans?” The question of a work’s value is continually raised, and may sometimes be
accompanied by bafflement — a feeling to which
even experts may be prone. So then: how is it
that contemporary art is assessed? Who are the
players who take part in this game of meaning,
that sometimes resembles a game of fools? Evaluating an artwork means placing a value upon
it. An aesthetic value, implicitly, but values are
a porous field where different horizons mix, in
a monumental and plural edifice that we customarily call “culture”. So who is responsible for us
scrutinising a Jeff Koons sculpture or Henri Darger drawings?
Museo Soumaya
Carlos Slim's private museum
Courtesy of Museo Soumaya
#237 • 22 february 2016

Aotw • How do we assess cont. art?
Biwat Flute Stopper
Yuat River
Papua New-Guinea
© Sotheby's Art Digital Studio
For American sociologist Howard Becker, the
art world is a "collective action" (Art Worlds,
1982). Evaluation is based on several criteria —
not merely formal ones — and can be divided
into various temporalities at which different
players intervene. And yet, the process is not so
transparent in the eyes of the public in a broad
sense. Perhaps this is because the evaluation
process is not as rigid as one might think, but
based instead on a fragile balance, subject
to ongoing reconfigurations. It seems quite
obvious that the reality is somewhere between
two extremes: the relativism of taste-based
judgments that amounts to implying that a
work’s value is strictly subjective, and the idea
that the work innately carries objective value.
In the end, who should we hold responsible?
Between the illusion of a whim underlying a
judgment and the illusion of a work’s objective
value, what is there left for us to understand how
we evaluate contemporary art?
As ingenious or inspiring as the works of the past
may be, they belong to a world that is no longer
ours. It is up to artists to continue to create new
forms for our present time. In L’Atelier d’Alberto
Giacometti, Jean Genet writes that an artwork is
not aimed at future generations, but rather, “it is
offered up to the countless people of the dead”.
When an artist invents a new form, it is almost
always a homage to the past that manifests
the necessity to update the way we perceive
and think about the world. For example, when
Kader Attia explored the theme of repair at
the last Biennale de Lyon, in Traditional Repair,
Immaterial Injury (2015), we encountered a form
that translates, into matter and signs, certain
elements in our societies where the issue of
repair is backed up by a nostalgic feeling of
loss. Many observers agree to say that we are
in the midst of a crisis, in other words, a period
of mutation, deep and violent questioning of
our societies. A break with the past, especially
when the past is close, is the object of grief —
a loss that must at all costs be compensated
and repaired. The work of Kader Attia is in line
with this perspective and gives us, through
what can be perceived, keys for deepening our
understanding of our situation as Europeans
and Westerners. There is something necessary
about this form and it speaks to “us” even when
we turn our backs on it.
The three stages of recognition
During a conference held at the Collège de
France, “Évaluer l'art contemporain”, Philippe
Dagen suggested distinguishing between
three stages in the process under analysis.
Before an artist becomes an artist, many players
are deployed in a relatively long temporality,
beyond the very short time occupied by the
market.
Aesthetic evaluation
What criteria do we use to evaluate the art of our
time? There is one crucial criterion in assessing
a work, and that is the question of form and
formal analysis. What we ask an artist to do is to
invent new forms and new creative procedures.
Since the imitation of what already exists lacks
interest, invention — of new forms and new
procedures — is a basic element by which to
consider art history.
Inventing a new form comes from feeling the
necessity to express a new situation in a form
that corresponds to it. This new situation is that
of our contemporary era; it may be personal as
well as collective, with both often joining up if
they are not inextricably linked. This is also the
reason why it is necessary to renew the forms
by which our world expresses, considers and
represents itself.
4
Traditional Repair, Immaterial
Injury (2015)
Kader Attia
Courtesy of the artist, Biennale
de Lyon, Nagel Draxler and
Lehmann Maupin Gallery
#237 • 22 february 2016
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The first stage of the evaluation process is a
critical one. Indeed, this is a selection process
that is set off — one that singles out, amongst
all contemporary creations, those that deserve
to be shown. Works are firstly selected through
the training of artists, in specialised schools.
The profession is learned and transmitted while
taking stock of its specificities. Of course, artistic
movements such as outsider art do not include
this first stage, but this is not reason enough to
ignore them in the midst of all contemporary
artistic creations. The work of an artist who
graduates from art school is evaluated by his
or her teachers but also by critics or gallerists
or curators. This first stage of evaluation thus
takes place under an authority recognised as
such by its institutional function. In this way,
this is a critical stage that consists in sorting
and selecting, detecting what may emerge
as a new form. At this stage, the economic
question is practically absent, or at least no
more than a than a thought at the back of the
mind. Evaluation is expressed through support
or reticence, but from the perspective of an
authority figure. In contemporary art, it is not
rare to see artists accompanying their work with
discourse that also offers keys to its evaluation
without clamping down the work’s meaning.
After this first circle of critics has operated, it is
up to institutional networks to confirm this first
evaluation. This time, it is the gallerist-collector
duo that takes over.
The second stage of evaluation consists in
widening the public’s recognition. It is at this
point that an artist’s internationalisation comes
into play, through big international fairs such as
Art Basel, the FIAC, Frieze, etc. but also public
institutions — the FRAC, kunsthallen, museums,
art centres… — via their exhibition programming.
And while the museum legitimates the artist,
5
the opposite can also be said to be true!
The process of recognition is thus two-way.
Obviously, the Centre Pompidou could make
no claims of being a great modern-art museum
without presenting the works of Jeff Koons, but
reciprocally, Jeff Koons is a major artist on the
contemporary art scene in that he is part of this
museum’s collection.
Walter Vanhaerents
© Karel Duerinckx
Finally, the third stage of evaluation is played
out at the time when art is received by the
media. At this stage, art is in the hands of
what Philippe Dagen calls a “collective social
operation” on which critical authority no longer
has any real influence. It is replaced by the ballet
of auction sales, the sparkling acquisitions of
major collectors or else subject to the opinion
of the public who do not necessarily take
aesthetics alone into account. Recently, debate
surrounding Anish Kapoor’s Dirty Corner in
Versailles clearly shows a shift in evaluation
criteria, whereby ideologies contaminate the
aesthetic experience at the risk of sometimes
overtaking it.
Finally, a work’s monetary value is an evaluation
subject to great variability — as well as visibility.
The work’s objective quality and its formal
description are swapped for a symbolic
exchange value; in other words, we give a work
a meaning that applies for the time present and
that plays on the intersubjective mode. The
symbolic chain is now at work.
Dirty Corner (2011)
Anish Kapoor
© François Guillot
The issue of values and symbols
The issue of a work’s symbolic value arises
during auction sales. Works become something
like brands, and to design them, we often
use metonymy. “It’s a Basquiat.” Descriptive
evaluation
gives
way
to
prescriptive
evaluation.
#237 • 22 february 2016
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This prescriptive power is exercised by great
art collectors, and in their trail, great museums,
both private and public. When Budi Tek
chooses to add to his collection a work by
Adel Abdessemed, Anselm Kiefer or Maurizio
Cattelan, this is a major mark of recognition for
the work of these artists at the same time as a
mark of the artist’s internationalisation. The same
thing applies when Eli Broad, Steve Cohen, or
François Pinault buy a work; the act itself causes
the work’s value to be reconsidered, not merely
on an economic level — even if the phenomenon
remains much more complex as collectors don’t
divulge all their acquisitions.
Risk-taking is therefore relatively moderate.
Of course, these are still bets on the future,
especially for French museums that cannot
sell the works that they have purchased in that
they belong to the country’s heritage. In such a
system, it’s better not to make any mistakes.
As the evaluation of contemporary creation
lacks the perspective of art history, it may be a
prisoner of its time. It is like a snapshot taken
at a specific moment, revealing the trend of
the moment, the values of an era, that may
sometimes overlook certain aspects. It also
sometimes happens that some creations are
so new that they take all their contemporaries
unawares, placing the present into such a deep
crisis that they will only reach the public later.
Without the distance of art history, evaluation
is based on the laws of desire and the mimetic
attitude that this encourages; in other words a
fashion effect which is sometimes very difficult
to shake off.
Art history shows us the extent to which our
evaluation of contemporary art evolves, and
therefore how there is something contingent
about it. It shows us that our evaluation can be
reversible.
« Fernando Botero »
Würth's Collection
Courtesy of Collection Würth
Kar-a-sutra (2015)
Hamilton Anthea
Courtesy of Biennale de Lyon
© Blaise Adilon
The perspective of history
Attempts to rationalise on the evaluation of
contemporary art are perhaps vain. The issue of
values does not hinge on rationality alone. It is
accompanied by an element of imagination and
symbolism that makes the evaluation process
somewhat opaque. This is inevitable but all the
more significant as we lack perspective, and
history has not yet operated its selection.
What this also indicates is the fragility of the
construction of meaning; an inherent fragility
that we need not regret, but can uphold in order
to better evaluate our evaluation. It is normal
for us to overvalue art from our lifetime. Given
that this art’s meaning is not yet stabilised,
it is endowed with a patent symbolic reach
that gives artworks the status of an object of
positioning where rivalry can be played out.
Meanwhile, old art is evaluated differently, with
more perspective. This explains why speculation
about its symbolic reach is less significant.
The mechanism of evaluating contemporary
art is complex and multifaceted, offering a
reflection of the spirit of the times. It is highly
instructive to observe evolutions in how a work
is received. Spectators are generally more
conservative than artists or players on the art
field. Thankfully, in most cases, it is still the work
that has the last word. Evaluation is the fruit
of various temporalities juxtaposing different
players, and the work of the symbolic that links
all of these. Evaluation is a fragile mechanism,
requiring prudence and a certain humility. It is a
continually renewed venture that has something
contingent about it, but that ultimately applies
with the firmness of a necessity associated with
the present time.
6
École des chartes’ official
conference-dinners
Inaugural date : 18th of March 2016, 8 p.m.
Bear : a Cultural History
With Professor Michel Pastoureau
Leading institution specialized in historical sciences and
preservation of cultural heritage, the École des chartes
inaugurates in 2016 high level speakers conference-dinners. The first conference-dinner will take place at the
Club de la chasse et de la nature at the Hôtel Guénégaud in
Paris.
The first guest will be Michel Pastoureau, professor of
medieval history and author of numerous books on symbolic of colors and heraldic. He will give a lecture in French
on Friday 18th of March 2016 on the following theme :
“Bear : a Cultural History” .
The program of future conference-dinners will cover
various topics like “Diamonds of the French monarchy”,
“Women and landscapes in the 19th century”, “Could
animal become the future of human being ?”, “Animals,
human and plants in Amazonia : a network of history”.
Conference-dinner fees
from 95 euros and upwards
All greater amounts will contribute to the
creation of an endowment for a student
scholarship.
Location
Hôtel de Guénégaud
Comité culturel du Club de la chasse
et de la nature
60, rue des Archives - 75003 Paris
Contact
École nationale des chartes
Lifelong Learning Department
01 55 42 21 53
[email protected]
Registration
http://www.enc-sorbonne.fr/fr/actualite/
ours-histoire-culturelle-michel-pastoureau
Bernard Buffet
L’AteLier
February 19
March 4, 2016
Marseille, le Vallon des Auffes, 1957 - Oil on canvas
ONLiNe CAtALOGUe
134 New Bond Street, London W1S 2TF
T +44 (0)207 491 2999
[email protected]
operagallery.com
#237 • 22 february 2016
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top stories
 cultural war Exact replicas of Timbuktu mausoleums reconstructed
hree years after the destruction of Timbuktu
ding of the Koran and a collective prayer session, the mausoleums’ keys were
mausoleums by Jihadists, Mali declares that it
handed over to the families in charge of the sanctuaries.
has regained possession of its sanctuaries, reproThe “City of 333 Saints” was occupied by Jihadists in 2012 before the latter
duced identically and completed on 4 February.
were dispelled by an international military operation initiated by France. The
The replicas of these mausoleums were produced
“Pearl of the Desert” nonetheless remains under threat because an attack carthanks to the traditional knowhow of Timbuktu maried out by presumed Jihadists took place in February this year, on the base of
sons, using the remains of the original walls. After
the UN Mission in Timbuktu. This attack caused the death of one soldier and “at
a ritual sacrifice and ceremony including a full realeast four terrorists” according to the Malian army.
T
 project  France launches two initiatives for
developing artistic creation
he city of Paris will be launching, on 1 April, “Les
oeuvres d'art investissent la rue” (Artworks in the
Streets), financed by the 2014 participatory budget, envisaging the creation of a Street Art fresco
for each arrondissement in the French capital.
The artists selected for the project include Noe
Two, Hopare, 2shy, Shaka, Marko93, Da Cruz, Psyckoze, Alex, Zenoy, Astro and Lazoo.
This is not an isolated project. On a national level,
on 16 December 2015, Fleur Pellerin, then Minister of Culture and Communication, launched the
“1 immeuble 1 oeuvre” (1 Building 1 Work) charter
aimed at encouraging building developers to commission or acquire an artwork from an artist for all
building construction or renovation programmes.
Companies such as Accor, BNP and Vinci have
signed the charter. According to the then minister,
“over a thousand works will thus be created or acquired every year and exhibited in all French territories”. This project was launched at the instigation
of Laurent Dumas, CEO of the Emerige group.
T
Djingareyber Mosque, Timbuktu
© Ka Tzetnik
 forgery  Could Eric Spoutz have sold fakes?
new forgery affair rocking the world of art
may even affect the Smithsonian Institute in
Washington, D.C.
The forger, Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz, who claims
to be the nephew of American artist Ian Hornak,
is being accused of swindling, apparently having
sold a dozen fakes to trusting buyers in the last
five years. While Spoutz seems to be a bona fide
relative of the American artist, it wasn’t by using
this identity that he managed to cheat his clients.
Indeed, Eric Spoutz used multiple pseudonyms
such as Robert Chad Smith, John Goodman or
James Sinclair to cover up his tracks. On his web
site, Spoutz describes himself as “freelance museum exhibition curator, private art dealer”. In
2013, he apparently helped the Smithsonian Institute to acquire several works by Eugene Alain
Seguy and Franz Kline. But according to authorities, the Klines are fakes. A Danish web site
suggests that Spoutz may even have started his
swindling by selling Picasso, Kandinsky, Chagall
or Matisse imitations before devoting himself to
great American masters.
This new forgery affair is shaking up the US art
world after the Knoedler affair in New York. 
A
10
Audrey Azoulay
via Gouvernement.fr
 nomination  Audrey Azoulay named Minister of
Culture by François Hollande
rench president François Hollande has chosen
Audrey Azoulay to take over the helm of the
French Ministry of Culture and Communication, replacing Fleur Pellerin.
The former presidential culture counsellor is therefore
being given the opportunity to replace her previous
supervising minister – a boon for the ex-number two
at the Centre National du Cinéma (CNC) who maintains good relationships with the world of culture.
Unlike her predecessor, Audrey Azoulay can claim
special knowledge about the creative world, namely thanks to her training in film. This appointment comes at a time when the Senate is examining the Pellerin Bill on the “freedom of creation,
architecture and heritage”, aiming to establish and
guarantee the freedom of creation and to update
the protection of heritage. 
F
#237 • 22 february 2016
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ARt News At A GLANCe
Free subscription at www.showonshow.com
this week: New YORk!
THE PLACE TO BE
THE ARMORY SHOW. 3 - 6 March 2016
images: The Armory Show, image courtesy of Roberto Chamorro for The Armory Show. Marcel Broodthaers. Armoire blanche et table blanche. 1965. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2015 Estate of Marcel Broodthaers/Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York/SABAM, Brussels. Andy Warhol (1928–1987) In the Bottom of My Garden [New York, ca. 1956]. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, © 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, inc. / Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York. Henry Flynt. The SAMO© Graffiti. 1979. Collection Emily Harvey Foundation, New York. irving Penn, The Bath (A) (Dancers Workshop of San Francisco), San Francisco, 1967. © The irving Penn Foundation.
PiERS 92 & 94, NEW YORK, NY, USA
11
As a leading international art fair and a New York institution, The Armory Show continues to
evolve as the premier destination for discovering and acquiring modern and contemporary
art in New York. Now in its 22nd year, The Armory Show remains a highly-anticipated event on
the global arts calendar, connecting the world’s leading galleries with international collectors,
curators and art professionals in the capital of the art world.
MUSEUM ExHIBITS
MARCEL BROOdTHAERS: A RETROSPECTiVE JUST OPENED
The Museum of Modern Art. Until 15 May 2016.
VigéE LE BRUN. WOMAN ARTiST iN REVOLUTiONARY FRANCE
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Until 15 May 2016.
JUST OPENED
WARHOL BY THE BOOK
The Morgan Library & Museum. Until 15 May 2016.
ANRi SALA. ANSWER ME
The New Museum. Until 10 April 2016.
gREATER NEW YORK FINAL DAyS
MoMA PS1. Until 7 March 2016.
OTHEr FAIrS
VOLTA | NEW YORK
Pier 90. 2 - 6 March 2016.
AdAA - THE ART SHOW
Park Avenue Armory. 2 - 6 March 2016.
GALLEry ExHIBITS
LUigi gHiRRi. THE iMPOSSiBLE LANdSCAPE
Matthew Marks gallery. Until 30 April 2016.
LARRY BELL. FROM THE ‘60S
Hauser & Wirth Uptown. Until 9 April 2016.
AUCTIONS
HENRiK OLESEN FINAL DAyS
galerie Buchholz. Until 5 March 2016.
CONTEMPORARY CURATEd
Sotheby’s. 3 March 2016.
PERSONAL WORK - iRViNg PENN
Pace gallery. Until 5 March 2016.
FiRST OPEN: POST-WAR ANd CONTEMPORARY ART
Christie’s. 4 March 2016.
LiAM giLLiCK. PHANTOM STRUCTURES FINAL DAyS
Casey Kaplan gallery. Until 19 March 2016.
FINAL DAyS
Les dîners-débats d’aaaaaaa
au Club de la Chasse et de la Nature
www.artdiners.com
Hervé Aaron
Directeur de la galerie Didier Aaron, New York, Londres, Paris
Président d’honneur du Salon du Dessin
Le Salon du Dessin : 25ᵉ édition
L'Histoire d’une manifestation de renommée internationale
lundi 21 mars 2016, 20h
60 rue des Archives, F-75003 Paris, France
80 € par personne, réservation obligatoire.
#237 • 22 february 2016
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museums
 announcement The Serpentine Gallery reveals the architect of its 2016 architecture pavilion
he Serpentine Gallery has announced that it has searchitects Yona Friedman, Asif Khan, Barkow Leibinger, and Kunlé Adeyemi have
lected five architects this year — instead of the usual
been commissioned to produce summerhouses. The latter are to be inspired
one — for its yearly exhibition dedicated to architecture.
from the classically styled Queen Caroline's Temple, constructed in 1734.
But as is the case every year, the exhibition will be
Co-director of the Serpentine Gallery Julia Peyton-Jones, made the following
organised around the pavilion constructed in the
declaration in what is her last year at the head of the institution: “After fifteen
Kensington Gardens. For this new edition, the seyears, the pavilion program has expanded. It now comprises five structures, each
lection has gone to architect Bjarke Ingels and his
designed by an architect of international renown, aged between thirty-six and
agency Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). At the same time,
ninety-three.”
T
 closure  Closing of the Paris Pinacothèque
t’s been official since 12 February: the Paris Pinacothèque is closing its doors on Place de la
Madeleine.
The establishment, in receivership since the start
of November, has encountered difficulties due to
a variety of causes: tepid visitor rates in recent
years, all the more affected by the attacks in Paris
in 2015. The institution is nevertheless looking for
new projects, and hopes to open two new sites in
the next three to four years: one first site dedicated to contemporary art, the other to sculpture
and tribal arts, on “economically more bearable”
premises, declared the Pinacothèque’s president
and founder Marc Restellini. The establishment is
setting its sights overseas, namely in Asia and the
Near East. The closure is more an “act of management” than a bankruptcy, reassures Marc Restellini, who offers a disturbing assessment of the
situation in France to The Art Newspaper: “As a
private museum, we provide a public service, but
we face unfair competition compared to other
museums that do not pay 10 % VAT on ticket
sales or rent or insurance for works guaranteed
by the State. There is work to be done in France
on this issue of general interest. There should be
more opportunities for setting up projects. The
private realm contributes a great deal.”
While the institution’s financial difficulties were
no secret, the news has still produced the effect
of a small electric shock. The biggest jolt is the
cancellation of the photo exhibition “Karl Lagerfeld, a Visual Journey”, initially scheduled to run
until 20 March, which thus closed on Monday at
6 p.m.
I
Fernando Cocchiarale
 hr  Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro
has a new visual arts curator
ccording to Artnexus, the Museu de Arte
Moderna (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro has appointed a new visual arts curator: Fernando
Cocchiarale.
This philosophy and aesthetics professor at the
Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro
has also notched up over twenty years of teaching experience at the Visual Arts School in Parque Lage.
A former curator of the cultural programme “Rumos: Itaú Cultural”, the curating career of Fernando Cocchiarale is now taking a new turn. 
A
13
 project  New edition of the Wikipedia EDITA-THON at the MoMA
he third edition of the Wikipedia EDIT-A-THON
will be taking place on 5 March, in hope that it
will achieve the same success as its previous editions. It will be held at the Dorothy and Lewis B.
Cullman Education and Research Building of the
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), in New York.
The EDIT-A-THON lasts one day and aims to create
more Wikipedia pages dedicated to female artists and feminist artistic movements. During the
previous edition, over 330 articles were added to
Wikipedia by 1,500 volunteers. This year, the edition will include discussions on child protection
as well as tutorial sessions on publishing articles
on Wikipedia. The edition is being organised in
partnership with the association Art + Feminism —
with already a Wikipedia workshop scheduled at
the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on 16 February.
According to Art + Feminism, other similar events
will be taking place in 2016, at nearly 100 sites including the Tate Britain, the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, Yale University, the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, the Museo Universitario Arte
Contemporàneo in Mexico, and the Archives Nationales in Paris. 
T
Thomas Bernard,
the gamble to leave
Bordeaux
T
he Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Atlantico recently moved to Paris after earning
its stripes in Bordeaux. This was the opportunity for Art Media Agency to ask Thomas
Bernard about the prospects opened up by
such a change and to hear his lucid, critical views
on the art market.
Exhibition View
"Franck Eon, Abstraction faite d'une
conception plutôt magique de la
situation."
Photo Rebecca Fanuele
Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Bernard
- Cortex Athletico
#237 • 22 february 2016
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interview • thomas bernard
We could have kept our Bordeaux space as a laboratory, a more alternative place. But for now,
the priority is to develop our activity on the spot.
There’s still so much work to do!
Have you kept your Bordeaux clientele?
The Bordeaux clientele has never been very significant — but faithful. It’s the long experience of
a gallery that’s important.
You know, it’s not often that people push open
the door of a gallery by chance… Clients always
know where they’re going, and this implies the
establishment of mutual trust. It’s a matter of
winning loyalty, accompanying certain buyers in
their first choices, training new collectors. This is
what we’ve done since 2003 in Bordeaux, where
we initiated new collectors who now see with experienced eyes.
You recently moved your Bordeaux gallery to
Paris. Can you tell us what motivated this decision?
The move took place in two stages. We arrived
in Paris in 2013 as a branch of our Bordeaux
gallery. The idea was to arrive gently in Paris, to
take the time to test, observe, take stock of this
change and this new city. I don’t like rushing into
things, going too fast, and above all imposing
myself. We needed to take our time. In 2015, we
acquired this new space and we closed the Bordeaux gallery for good.
Why did you close the Bordeaux gallery?
We’ve come to a more functional venue. The
gallery has four spaces: one for exhibitions, one
for offices, a showroom, and a storage space.
It’s also a warmer, more convivial, larger, more
comfortable place.
Our initial experience revealed a few things.
First – and perhaps it’s surprising for me to say
so –, everything’s less expensive in Paris! I’m
talking about the gallery’s structural costs. The
professionals are very specialised – for example
accountants or framers who work only with galleries – and this allows them to offer more attractive
prices.
Exhibition View
"Franck Eon, Abstraction faite
d'une conception plutôt magique
de la situation."
Courtesy of Galerie Thomas
Bernard - Cortex Athletico
Exhibition View
de la situation."
The art market is a centrifuge system; it’s the
edges that construct the core. And in this core,
we find gallerists such as Taddeus Ropac or Almine Rech. Some of our clients are continuing to
follow us to Paris. Here, we’ve gained in speed
what we’ve lost in comfort. In Bordeaux, galleries
are in the shadows; we can take risks and if we
fail, it’s no big deal. We can adopt an experimental approach. In Paris, it’s different.
In Bordeaux everyone knew your gallery. In
Paris, competition is fiercer.
In Bordeaux, people would come about once a
year. You had to be ready that day! The risk in
Paris is not the same as in Bordeaux. That said, in
our profession, you need to always be ready to
welcome clients. To do so, you need to be available, to be generous. The gallery’s site should
enable this. When we sell a work to the FIAC,
what do we represent? The packaging, and that’s
about it!
Above all, the professionals here have skills that
are specifically adapted to our needs.
Secondly, inviting people to Paris is more practical, especially when they come from overseas. If you bring over an Australian artist to
Bordeaux, it’s very likely that he doesn’t even
know where Bordeaux is… Finally, there are
structures that allow us to exist. Bordeaux, like
other cities outside of Paris, isn’t big enough
for the market to have its own identity. The way
in which the market is constructed depends
on institutions taking things in control. In Bordeaux, culture is in the hands of the municipality. In Paris, we – the gallerists – are numerous
enough to hold weight in the face of these institutional structures.
15
#237 • 22 february 2016

interview • thomas bernard
What makes galleries different from museums or fairs?
In my opinion, the gallery is the place that has
the most potential in the art world. It’s here that
we can manipulate works, think about them with
our hands – this is something that I understood
when I was an artist’s assistant. The gallery remains a central place. We’ve reached the end
of a consumption system and at the same time,
a certain idea of luxury. I’m not going to sing
the praises of slowness but things are gradually
being relocated, recontextualised.
I’ve done a good deal of thinking thanks to the
book by Yves Michaud, Le Nouveau luxe: expériences, arrogance, authenticité. He questions
experience. And the gallery is the place of an
ultimate experience. When we ask Axel Dumas
from Hermès what luxury is, his answer is, I find,
extraordinary: luxury is what can be fixed...
Today, the market has been divided up, so it’s
necessary to keep looking for new clients and
ensure a high visibility coefficient for artists.
When I see the photograph by Ai Weiwei on
which he reproduces the position of the Syrian child Aylan on the beach, I’m not afraid
of saying that I find that disgusting. This stems
from intellectual misery. And yet, this artist has
been constructed by a system capable of absorbing and creating that.
Internet platforms will never take the same place
or play the same role as physical galleries.
The gallerist’s role is to take care of the curatorship of his own gallery. This is why fairs are so
different: the spaces there follow norms, they’re
all identical. Generally, the riskier and more innovative a gallery’s offer, the more original the
stand’s furnishings. This is a sign of the times. The
issue is to bring domesticity back to this type of
place. This is possible through more intimate staging, based on the model of curiosity cabinets
for example.
Thomas Bernard
© Florent Larronde - Same O
Exhibition View
de la situation."
What are your future plans?
I’m giving myself about three years to really get
settled in Paris. We’re young here, but not new.
Next, the issue will be to find an exit path so that
we’re not exclusively Parisian. I’d like to look at
London, with the possibility of setting up connections over there.
I’m confident, I can rely on a great team and on
the special relationships that we have with our
artists. We still have a lot of room for improvement, but we don’t want to rush ahead. We’re advancing one step at a time, calmly. People have a
good opinion of our work. Our exhibitions have
followers, including students. Our Parisian clientele will build up over time. 
As for fairs, I think that they’ve created an aesthetic of sparkle. A fair is a very concentrated unit
of space-time. As a result, it keeps out a huge
share of the field of art. Driven by the desire to
be the world’s most beautiful fair, Art Basel can
become deformed. Sure, it’s a magnificent fair,
but I do not know what I can think about Unlimited section with its 300-metre-long hangars.
It’s up to us to make things change in an institutional system where public money is short. But
as soon as we call on private sponsorship, automatically the law of the strongest applies. Today
in Versailles (and this is only an example), you
need to get people in through the door, however you do it. We’ve gone from a best-efforts
obligation to obligatory results.
Should local fairs be favoured over international fairs?
The issue of proximity is far more complex than
one might think. Paris and London are two cities
that are geographically very close, but in reality they are very different. As a result, they are
further away from one another might appear.
London not only has another language, another
currency and another culture, but above all it
has another art market and history of art.
What are the challenges for a gallery today?
The question of place is crucial – or in the process of rebecoming crucial.
16
#237 • 22 february 2016

Galleries
 crisis  The Brazilian art market crumbles due to economic crisis
hile observers have praised its resistance in
have melted by 30 %. At the Galeria Luisa Strina, the strategy is to look
the face of the country’s economic problems,
overseas to boost activity (ARCOmadrid and The Armory Show). And yet,
Brazil’s art market has now well and truly plummesales globally increased between 2014 and 2015, producing $67 million in
ted into the crisis.
2015 as opposed to $34 million in 2014. The Galeria Nara Roesler opened
The past year has not been a good one for the
a showroom in New York on top of its two spaces in Sao Paulo and Rio de
country, and many gallerists have come out with
Janeiro.
turnovers down by 50 %. If 2016 continues on
Faced with this situation, gallerists reveal signs of concern about the country’s
this note, it will be a disastrous year, announce
economic situation: the Brazilian currency has lost almost a quarter of its vacommentators. The Galeria Millan, for example,
lue compared to the dollar, unemployment is on the rise, the economy is
one of Brazil’s oldest galleries, is losing 40 % of
out of breath, and the government has acknowledged that it is undergoing
its income while at the Galeria Fortes Vilaça, sales
recession.
W
 expansion  Lazarides: fundraising, development and e-commerce
ccording to the Financial Times, gallery owner Steve Lazarides has signed an
agreement with wealthy Qatari investor Wissam
Al-Mana. This financial contribution is expected
to allow the gallery on Oxford Street (London)
to move, and enable Steve Lazarides to develop
on Internet.
Last week, to mark the gallery’s 10th birthday, the
exhibition “A Decade of Lazarides” opened to the
public, comprising new creations by the most significant street artists including Jonathan Yeo, JR
and Invader. Lazarides thus sends out a message
to the whole of the art world, hinting at vengeance
for this atypical figure in the gallery milieu. The
gallerist makes the following declaration: "Firstly,
no one can ever pronounce the name so we're
changing it to LazInc. Secondly, we're moving to
Mayfair. We've spent years working from a position of isolation, and now it's time to challenge the
status quo from the inside. I can hear the shouts of
'Sell-out!' on the Internet from here. But find out
what we have planned before you dish out any
hate."
So is Street Art in full expansion? At the start of his
relationship with Banksy, Lazarides would sell the
artist’s screen prints for £25. In 2014, they were
worth 10 or 100 times more. A sure way to keep
growing, perhaps at the risk of somewhat losing
one’s street cred.
A
 opening  A new space on the Lower East
Side: Totah
avid Totah is opening a new space, Totah,
on the Lower East Side, demonstrating the
deep-running trend of galleries settling in this
New York district.
Totah will be opening on 25 February at 183
Stanton Street with an exhibition co-featuring
conceptual artist Mel Bochner and the master
of Arte Povera Alighiero Boetti. The exhibition,
called “Verba Volant Scripta Manent”, will tackle
the whimsical theme of puns.
The space will be dedicated to modern and
contemporary art, with an aim to “acknowledge
and channel the creative dialogue between the
artist, their perception and their work through
our platform.” 
D
Steve Lazarides and Shepard
Fairey
© Shepard Fairey
Obscene (2006)
Mel Bochner
Courtesy of Totah
 opening  Massimo De Carlo to open a new
space in Milan in April
ot on the heels of his January announcement
of the opening of a third space in Hong Kong
in March 2016, Massimo De Carlo is now opening a fourth space in Milan in April.
For his second gallery in Milan, Massimo De Carlo has chosen to set up in the Palazzo Belgioioso,
in the city’s historic district.
The inaugural exhibition programme has not yet
been released, unlike that of the Hong Kong gallery that will be welcoming new works by Yan PeiMing. 
H
17
Hippocrene, a blend
of family and
philanthropic values T
aking over from her father as head of the
Hippocrene Foundation (Paris) in 2006, Michèle Guyot-Roze can be said to have inherited the foundation’s genes: family and
philanthropy. To celebrate her tenth year in
this position, Art Media Agency went to meet her.
Propos d’Europe 14
"Thoughts that breathe"
Exhibition view
Photo Aurélie Cenno
Courtesy of Fondation Hippocrène
#237 • 22 february 2016

interview • fondation hippocrène
Could you present the foundation to us?
The Hippocrene Foundation is an independent,
family-run public utility foundation. Our positioning is very much European because our mission is to create a real European citizenship.
So this is why we support projects and set up
partnerships in the wide-ranging domains of
culture, education, humanitarian and social
action. For example, in 2010 we launched the
Hippocrene Prize for Education about Europe, a
competition organised in schools in partnership
with the French Ministry of Education.
What activities do you develop in contemporary art?
First of all, we organise one exhibition per year
since 2002 : Propos d’Europe. These exhibitions
aim to highlight the artistic scene of a country
and the richness of cultural diversity in Europe.
For example, in autumn and winter 2015, we
held the exhibition “Thoughts That Breathe” in
the framework of our “Propos d’Europe” programme, featuring artists Carol Bove, Martin
Boyce, Bojan Sarcevic and Markus Schinwald —
in partnership with the Haubrok foundation.
We also support many initiatives. We lend our
space to the association Les Pépinières Européennes that carries out many projects to do
with young artists. We are letting them put on an
exhibition here. In March 2015, we also allowed
collector Daniel Bosser to organise an exhibition on Claude Rutault: “AMZ ou le soleil brille
pour tout le monde”.
19
I mention our contemporary art initiatives but
we need to bear in mind that these only represent 10 % of our activity, and only in the last fifteen years or so.
Jean Guyot
Exhibition view
How did this develop?
My father started organising contemporary art
exhibitions in 2002. He wasn’t a collector in
the way this term is understood today, but he
owned a few works. Today, people are considered collectors as long as they actively buy art. In
my father’s time, things were different: people
would buy a decent number of works to hang
on walls.
My father’s tastes tended towards modern art,
but thanks to the foundation, he was in contact
with young artists. He started buying works for
the foundation, about once a year at first. I carried on this project. Today, it’d be presumptuous
to declare that our foundation owns a contemporary art collection – we only have around forty
works. Perhaps one day, but today we focus on
our core activity: spreading the arts throughout
Europe.
How is the foundation organised?
Like any foundation of public utility, we have
a board of directors - which I chair. I have two
vice-presidents, my sister and my nephew. Dorothée, my niece, is in charge of communication.
The board of directors includes one of my sons
and one of my nephews. So our family commitment is very strong.
#237 • 22 february 2016

interview • fondation hippocrène
How are you financed?
We benefit from the fruit of our capital — which
can cover both operating costs and the basis of
our action. But this alone is not enough for us to
finance ourselves. So we use family money with
gifts. Since 2011, we’ve set up the Circle of Hippocrene’s Friends that contributes to our activity.
architecture, unlike Corbusier. It was thanks to
an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 2005
that he came back to centre stage – we also held
an exhibition at the foundation echoing the one
at the Centre Pompidou.
Why did you choose this site?
In 1992, my father decided to set up a foundation. He started developing it without having
any special site. He ran it by himself, which in
a way was quite modern. Today, there are many
more family foundations – and perhaps even
more endowment funds, which have the advantage of flexibility.
Finally, we dedicate a limited budget to our
operational fees. In this way, 75 % of our budget
is devoted to grants.
The building that you’ve occupied since 2001
is the former agency of architect Robert Mallet-Stevens.
That’s right. Very surprisingly, when we bought
it, hardly any mention was made of this “detail”.
Renowned architects or artists can stay in the
shadows for a long time before being rediscovered. In the case of Robert Mallet-Stevens, it’s
very clear that he was a poor relative of modern
20
Exhibition view
In 2000, he was invited to visit the agency that
we currently occupy. He liked what he saw and
things progressed very quickly after that. The
foundation developed and we needed premises. Today, this site allows us to keep the
foundation alive. 
#237 • 22 february 2016

Artists
 prize  Announcement of winners of the ICP Infinity Award 2016 he International Center of Photography (ICP,
graphy critic for The New York Times Magazine and Brian Sholis, curator at the
New York) has announced the winners of its InfiCincinnati Art Museum.
nity Awards. Prizes will be awarded in New York on
David Bailey received a prize honouring his entire career from the board of
11 April.
trustees and senior staff. Other prizes were awarded to Walid Raad in the “art”
This year, the different Infinity Awards have been
category, Matthew Connors in the “artist’s book” category for his Fire in Cairo,
attributed by a committee including Charlotte CotJonathan Harris and Gregor Hochmuth in the category of "online platform/
ton, curator in residence and director of the new
new media", Zanele Muholi for "documentary and photojournalism", and SuICP's space program, as well as Teju Cole, photosan Schuppli for "critical writing and research". 
T
 exhibition  The Collège des Bernardins to
host the exhibition “Solitaire”, giving carte
blanche to Stephane Thidet he exhibition “Solitaire” can be seen from 1
April to 10 July 2016 in the former Sacristy of
the Collège des Bernardins (Paris), in association with the Rubis Mécénat Cultural Fund. For
this exhibition, the institution is according carte
blanche to Stéphane Thidet, the third guest in
the residence programme initiated by curator
Gaël Charbeau.
Stéphane Thidet’s work is characterised by reflection on the perception of time and the aura
specific to each material. In the former Sacristy
at the Bernardins site, the artist will be offering
a metamorphosis of this space that is blatantly
loaded with history and symbolism. An installation has been designed by the artist, associating
a “drawing machine” with the “bachelor machine” model invented by Michel Carrouges,
performing a “liquid, mineral and solitary
choreography”.
We’ve previously had the chance to see an installation by Stéphane Thidet at the “Inside” exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo: his “refuge”, a small
wooden cabin inside which torrential rain fell
continually.
T
 contestation  A group of Croat artists
demands the resignation of the Minister of
Culture
ulturnjaci 2016, a group of Croat artists, has
launched a protest campaign against the Minister of Culture, historian Zlatko Hasanbegovic.
In a press release whose virulence recalls certain Surrealist tracts from the 1920s, the artists
consider the minister incompetent in the culture
domain, and assert that some of his decisions
flirt with fascism.
A few choice morsels: “We, the cultural workers
signed below, believe that we are witnessing
the threatening and humiliation of the field of
culture by the decision of the new Croatian Government to appoint Zlatko Hasanbegović who,
on top of being entirely incompetent in the management of cultural institutions, local and international collaborations as well as the use of
the European cultural funds, holds completely
unacceptable reactionary ideological positions.
“We believe that culture has to be defended
from all ideologies that champion bigotry, narrow-mindedness, revisionism and nationalist
concepts of cultural politics and production.
A culture robbed of humanist principles and
rolled in the mud of dictatorship no longer represents freedom but is only a medium for political pragmatism.” 
K
21
Le Refuge (2007)
Stéphane Thidet
© Stéphane Thidet
 death  Death of David Weinrib (1924-2016)
culptor and multimedia artist David Weinrib
has died.
Recognised in the 1960s for his abstract sculptures, David Weinrib worked with different media, namely sculptures from resin moulds. His
more recent work has consisted in cut-outs of paper forms, 3-D acrylic collages and nude self-portraits. He taught at Pratt University for over twenty
years, and set up the Clinton Hill sculpture garden at Pratt University in 1999, showing nearly 50
works per year. 
S
La Crue (2010)
Stéphane Thidet
©Stéphane Thidet
Léon spilliaert
L
éon Spilliaert (1881-1946) is a Belgian Symbolist
artist, renowned for his melancholic watercolours,
gouaches and pastels, characterised by wide empty
spaces and an ingenious use of chiaroscuro.
Léon Spilliaert was born in Ostende (Belgium) on
28 July 1881. He was the son of a perfumer whose clients
included King Leopold II. His childhood was happy until
he started school. His letters reveal the following: “I keep
a wonderful memory of my childhood until the day I was
sent to school. From that point, my soul was stolen and I
never again found it. This painful search is the full story of
my painting.”
Between 1899 and 1900, Léon Spilliaert had a short stint
at the Bruges Academy of Fine Arts. He signed his first
drawing in 1899. However, he was essentially self-taught,
namely from his time in Ostende.
In 1902, the Brussels publisher Deman hired Léon Spilliaert
as a salesman and public relations manager. He worked in
this capacity only briefly, preferring to continue his artistic
learning. In 1904, he painted his well-known Self-Portrait
with Masks.
Still in 1904, Léon Spilliaert met Émile Verhaeren for the first
time, in Saint-Cloud. The meeting was life-changing. Léon
Spilliaert was born twenty years after the main Symbolists,
but he followed in their footsteps and perpetuated the
movement in the early 20th century. He read Nietzsche and
Lautréamont. He also attended Symbolist salons alongside
Maurice Maeterlinck and even Émile Verhaeren. He also
became close to James Ensor. During this period, Léon
Spilliaert painted a great deal, mainly in Ostende. He drew
inspiration from long nocturnal strolls, for example by the
sea. Between the age of 26 and 27, he created a series of
nocturnal self-portraits, lit by moon or artificially, showing
plays on light to advantage. In 1908, Stefan Zweig bought
four of his works and gave him a letter of introduction
addressed to Hugo Heller. In 1909, he exhibited his works
for the first time, at the Salon de Printemps, in Brussels.
Then came the war. In 1915, Léon Spilliaert met Rachel Vergison, and the two married in December 1916. For good
reason, because in the same year, the artist was called up
to join the Civil Guard. This contact with the war plunged
him into violent fits of anguish. In 1917, the couple settled
near Brussels and their daughter Madeleine Spilliaert was
born. The new father changed his artistic practice. His palette opened up to more colours, and Léon Spilliaert tried
his hand at painting.
As of 1922, the couple returned to Ostende where he
stayed until 1935. Léon Spilliaert devoted himself to marine
art, a genre that he handled in a quasi-abstract manner. He
and Rachel Vergison would live their final years near Brussels. The artist died from an angina pectoris attack in 1946.
Digue de mer, Ostende, reflets de
lumière (1908)
Léon Spilliaert
#237 • 22 february 2016

Art Analytics
Data • léon spilliaert
was 60 years since the artist’s death and two major
retrospectives were organised: “Spilliaert” in 2006
at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Brussels) and “Léon Spilliaert – Autoportraits” in 2007 at
the Musée d´Orsay (Paris).
Léon Spilliaert earned very little institutional recognition even if museums have hosted 81 % of the exhibitions dedicated to him. His work continues to
be little shown to the public – an average of barely
two exhibitions per year since 2000. Between 1998
and 2015, only a handful of personal exhibitions
were dedicated to him.
The work of Léon Spilliaert is found in several eminent public collections including those of the Musée d’Orsay or the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of
Belgium.
Evolution of the number of
exhibitions by type
Only 2006 and 2007 stood out, with eight exhibitions in the space of a few months. The reason? It
exhibitions by type of venue
8
6
4
2
0
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
group shows
2008
2010
2012
2014
solo shows
8
6
4
2
0
1992
1994
1996
gallery
1998
2000
2002
2004
museum
2006
2008
biennials
2010
2012
2014
other
Autoportrait, 2 novembre 1908
(detail)(1908)
23
Léon Spilliaert
#237 • 22 february 2016

Art Analytics
Owing to his nationality, it is in Belgium that Léon
Spilliaert has been exhibited the most. Belgium has
hosted 38 % of his exhibitions, followed by France,
the artist’s second home, with 17 % of his exhibitions. The Mu.ZEE (Ostende) has hosted five exhibitions featuring Léon Spilliaert.
Léon Spilliaert has most often been exhibited
alongside Belgian Symbolist painters Maurice
Maeterlinck and Émile Verhaeren.
exhibitions by country
8
6
4
2
0
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
Belgium
Distribution by exhibition type
Distribution by country
In terms of media, coverage of Léon Spilliaert leapt
up between 2006 and 2008. This was a logical consequence of the major exhibitions (two retrospectives at the Musée d’Orsay and the Royal Museums
of Fine Arts of Belgium) devoted him on the 60th
anniversary of his death.
Dutch and French are the two languages in which
24
17 %
2012
2014
33 %
83 %
81 %
gallery
events
2010
other
5 % 10 %
Distribution by venue type
2008
museum
other
articles about Léon Spilliaert
group shows
solo shows
12 %
38 %
17 %
Belgium
Italy
France
other
the most number of articles about him have been
published (respectively 40.7 and 40.4 % of his
media coverage). The most prolific journalists
writing about him have been Éric Rinckhout (De
Morgen), Guy Gilsoul (Le Vif / L’Express), Gerrit van den Hoven (Brabants Dagblad) and Suzy
Menkes (Vogue).
200
150
100
50
0
1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
#237 • 22 february 2016

Art Analytics
sold a watercolour, The Absinthe Drinker (1907)
for $440,800. The artist’s third-best auction sale
was also concluded at Sotheby’s Paris, in June
2013, with Dike, Ostende, Light Reflects (1908),
sold for $392,430.
At auctions, the works of Léon Spilliaert have
yielded $18.4 million in 856 lots, in other words
an average price of $21,476 per lot placed on
sale and $13,980 per lot sold. The artist’s unsold
rate is high (33 %) – a phenomenon that has intensified since the start of the 2000s (an average
of 42 % over the period 2000 - 2015). In 2003,
out of 39 lots placed on sale, 24 were withdrawn
from sale.
The record price for a work by Léon Spilliaert
sold on auction was reached by De Vuyst in Lokeren (Belgium) in October 2015, with Self-Portrait,
3 November 1908 (1908), going for $665,100. A
few months earlier, in June 2015, Sotheby’s Paris
Distribution of lots by
medium and revenue
Distribution of lots by
country and revenue
5 %
8 %
6 %
Unsurprisingly, the artist’s drawings and watercolours are his most sought-after works. His most
lucrative period is the intense creative phase
taking place between 1906 and 1910, a time at
which Léon Spilliaert was violently distressed
and deeply nourished by Symbolist ideas. The
self-portraits produced over this period include
his most famous ones — those that are the most
in demand.
6 %
9 %
17 %
11 %
87 %
Drawing
72 %
93 %
Multiples
Painting
Belgium
United Kingdom
51 %
20 %
11 %
T e Netherlands
other
France
Rate of sold lots vs. bought-ins
Distribution of lots and revenue
by auction house
25
33 %
33 %
67 %
sold
bought in
22 %
30 %
10 %
18 %
10 %
De Vuyst
Sotheby’s
24 %
Campo
other
23 %
12 %
20 %
Christie’s
Evolution of unsold rate
100 %
75 %
50 %
25 %
0 %
1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015
sold
bought in
#237 • 22 february 2016

Art Analytics
Evolution of the
number of lots
80
60
40
20
0
Evolution of the
average value
per lot
26
1987 1989
1991
1993 1995
1997 1999
2001 2003
2005
2007 2009
2011 2013
2015
$60k
$40k
$20k
$0
Evolution of
the yearly
turnover
1987 1989
1991
1993 1995
1997 1999
2001 2003
2005
2007 2009
2011 2013
2015
1987 1989
1991
1993 1995
1997 1999
2001 2003
2005
2007 2009
2011 2013
2015
$3m
$2m
$1m
$0
> $100k
Turnover and number of lots
by price range
21
$50-100k
35
$20-50k
$10-20k
163
167
$5-10k
< $5k
84
259
$0
$1m
$2m
$3m
$4m
$5m
Rate of unsold lots
by estimates range
> $100k
$50-100k
$20-50k
$10-20k
$5-10k
< $5k
0 %
25 %
sold
50 %
75 %
100 %
bought in
#237 • 22 february 2016

Art Analytics
46 %
De Vuyst
26 %
41 %
33 %
Campo
21 %
39 %
24 %
Christie’s
Sotheby’s
34 %
40 %
40 %
18 %
Percentage of works sold
below, within, and above estimates
21 %
36 %
61 %
21 %
Percentage of works sold below, within,
and above estimates per auction house
Léon Spilliaert‘s popularity is stable. Could the significant unsold rate of the
artist’s works at auctions cause auction houses to undervalue him? 33 % of his
works have sold over their high estimates. Only the auction De Vuyst seems to
slightly overvalue Léon Spilliaert (46 % of lots sold below their low estimates).
Number of lots presented, and
sales figures by year of creation
80
$2m
60
$1.5m
40
$1m
20
$0.5m
0
1900 1903 1906 1909 1912 1915 1918 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1936 1939 1942 1945
lots
turnover
At the moment, Léon Spilliaert’s works are visible at the Museum Kranenburgh
in Bergen (Norway), at the exhibition “Silence out loud”, open until 12 June
2016. 
27
$0
Auctions results
from Artprice.com
Art Media Agency (AMA)
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#237 • 22 february 2016

auctions
 hr  Melanie Clore, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, steps down
Art in 2000, and chairman of the Europe zone in 2011. Her trajectory
elanie Clore, chairman of Sotheby's Europe
led her to become the first woman auctioneer to take charge of a sale
and worldwide co-chairman of Impressioin 2000 and to be appointed as trustee of the Tate Gallery by Tony Blair
nist and Modern Art, is leaving Sotheby’s after
in 2004.
35 years with the auction house.
Her departure is possibly prompted by a voluntary redundancy plan in
tHer career began in 1981 as an intern. She
place at Sotheby's since the end of 2015, instigated by Tad Smith. An allethen climbed up the ranks until she became
gation that Melanie Clore refuses to confirm.
vice-chairman of the Impressionist and Modern
M
 results  2016, a good year for Rodin in auction rooms? n 16 February 2016, at Drouot (Paris), auctioneers Binoche et Giquello dispersed
around fifteen lots from the collection of former
gallerist Jean de Ruaz. The collection namely included five Rodin bronzes.
An American buyer acquired the sale’s two major
lots: a Baiser “the size of a door”, cast by Alexis
Rudier, going for €2.2 million, expenses included,
and L'Éternel Printemps, cast between 1935 and
1945 by Alexis Rudier, for €693,000. Out of the
five Rodin lots, four sold for over their high estimates. The sale also featured furniture pieces by
Paul Iribe, including a Fauteuil Nautile, estimated
as being worth between €100,000 and 120,000,
purchased by a buyer from the Middle East for
€226,800, expenses included.
These pleasing results are not just one-offs. On
3 February 2016, Sotheby's sold Iris, Messagère
des Dieux in London for £11.6 million, expenses
included (€15.3 million) — a record for a Rodin
work and one of the two last bronzes cast during
the artist’s life to still be on the market. Then on
4 February, it was Bonhams that sold a version of
L'Éternel Printemps, cast between 1905 and 1907
by caster Barbedienne, for £938,500 (€1.21 million). 
O
Meuble de collectionneur (circa 1937)
Eugène Printz
Hebey's Collection
© Artcurial
 results  Shower of records for Artcurial “Urban Art” sales
he “Urban Art” sale on 14 February 2015 in Paris was marked by a shower of records, adjudicated by the licensed auctioneer Artcurial.
600 collectors and urban-art lovers gathered for
the occasion. The sale raised a total of $1,567,050
(€1,386,770) with 82% of lots sold. A new world
record was set for a work by artist Speedy Graphito, Captain Spray, selling for €37,700 ($42,601).
Ditto for Toxic’s Ach, selling at $29,380. Ten other
records were set for artists in this category.
Director of the Urban Art department of Artcurial, Arnaud Oliveux, expressed his satisfaction
with this success: “This tenth session on urban art
was a lively celebration of this movement, today
recognised internationally. There is wide interest
in historic graffiti as well as in the contemporary
scene. The new records set this evening confirm
Artcurial as a reference spot for urban art.” 
T
 announcement  Sale of Pierre Hebey’s collection at Artcurial rtcurial is organising, on 22 and 23 February
2016, a sale called “Le regard de Pierre Hebey
- Les Passions modérées”.
The sale is divided into four chapters: decorative arts, books and manuscripts, modern and
contemporary paintings, and French 19th century
bronzes. The collection is estimated at being worth between 6 and 8 million dollars. Pierre Hebey,
a former lawyer specialising in intellectual property, defended many artists with whom he became close, including Max Ernst, Jean Tinguely,
Niki de Saint Phalle, Bram Van Velde, Chagall and
Alechinsky. As of the 2000s, Pierre Hebey devoted
himself to writing.
This sale, offering around sixty works for sale, will
also be the opportunity to retrace the itinerary of
this atypical collector and his collection gathered
via his contact with major 20th century artists.
A
28
Carouge (1967)
Bram van Velde
Hebey's Collection
© Artcurial
#237 • 22 february 2016

fairs & festivals
 announcement  Reed Expositions announces the end of Paris Photo Los Angeles and renounces setting up the FIAC in LA
Compain, head of the culture, luxury and entertainment division at Reed Expohe Paris Photo Los Angeles fair, initially schesitions France, by the “lack of the market’s maturity” that fails to offer adequate
duled to run from 29 April to 1 May 2016, has
guarantees for exhibitors. He nonetheless reassures that alternatives are being
been cancelled despite the popular success of its
explored for the international development of Reed Expositions’ fairs.
previous editions. The project to set up the FIAC in
Paris Photo will be taking place from 10 to 13 November this year at the Grand
Los Angeles has also been abandoned.
Palais, and will be celebrating its 20th edition. 
This withdrawal has been explained by Jean-Daniel
T
 announcement  The Contemporary African Art Fair 1:54 unveils its list of exhibitors
or its second year in America, the fair 1:54
will be taking place in New York. It will be
gathering 70 galleries, 25 countries, and a selection of works by sixty or so artists including
Derrick Adam, Joël Andrianomearisoa, Edson
Chagas, William Kentridge, Otobong Nkanga
and Billie Zangewa.
The fair will be opening at the Pioneer Works in
Red Hook, Brooklyn from 6 to 8 May. The countries represented include Angola, Burkina Faso,
Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.
Fair director Touria El Glaoui said the following:
“The energy, interest, and overall success of the
inaugural US fair in 2015 has led us to return this
May in hopes of broadening our reach and expanding the art world's knowledge of Africa and
the ever-evolving African art market.” 
F
 birthday  ArteBA celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2016
o mark its 25 th birthday, the arteBA fair (Buenos Aires) will be held at La Rural convention
centre, from 19 to 22 May 2016.
In the context of the Dixit section, we will be (re)
discovering three winners of the Young Curators section — Federico Baeza, Lara Marmor and
Sebastián Vidal Mackinson — who will be putting
forward a curatorial project covering the last 25
years in Argentinean artistic creation.
This year, the selection committee will include
Mercedes Casanegra (curator), Orly Benzacar
(director of the gallery Ruth Benzacar), Eduardo Brandão (director of the gallery Vermelho),
Ignacio Liprandi (director of Ignacio Liprandi
Arte Contemporáneo) and Sabine Schmidt (director of PSM).
T
 incoming  The European festival Circulation(s), for young photography, from 26
March to 26 June 2016
he Circulation(s) festival will be taking place
at the Centquatre in Paris, from 26 March to
26 June 2016, in the presence of Agnès b., godmother of the 2016 edition.
Circulation(s), a European festival for young
photography is back for the sixth consecutive
year for a three-month duration. The festival’s
ambition is to promote the emergence of young
photography artists while offering a series of
cross perspectives on Europe today. The programming will draw together a guest jury, gallery and school, as well as a child-high section,
“Little Circulation(s)” including a series of activities for young attendees.
The exhibition will gather some 51 European
photographers, with the hope of reproducing
the success of the 2015 edition.
Pàtric Marin
Courtesy of Festival
Circulation(s)
T
29
Camille Sonally
Courtesy of Festival
Circulation(s)

How do we assess contemporary art?

Transcription

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