‘It has to be said, there were a lot of young artists doing it for the money. In recent years, we’ve seen the market go into overdrive for these precocious talents. Artists between 25 and 28 whose works were selling for 50,000 to 100,000 euros and more. But the crisis...
Belgium has its own microclimate for art. On the one hand, since the ’70s the country has developed an established tradition for boundary-pushing art collections (see for example the fabulous Herbert foundation in Gent (www.herbertfoundation.org) and MoMA’s purchase...
Until 5 June, the Grand Palais in Paris has a lavishly produced exhibition featuring 278 extraordinary treasures belonging to Sheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al Thani, son of a former Qatari prime minister and cousin of the current Emir. In France, this family is also known...
The Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery in Paris is showing the early works of Robert Mapplethorpe. Each is unique and made in his own hand. Some pieces incorporate photography, but not all of them. It’s proof – if proof is still needed – that Robert Mapplethorpe was not simply a...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJC9wbiKeV8 You can’t mistake her. She is coiffed like a contemporary Capuchin monk with her two-tone haircut, white at the roots, burgundy at the tips. She walks slowly but her spirit fizzes like lightning. Agnes Varda is...
‘Asia’s Precarious Rise’ was the headline the Wall Street Journal ran across its front cover not long ago (1). In fact, the eyes of the world are turned towards the great Chinese Leviathan to see whether this boom is not in fact a mirage, none more so than the art...
At a time when the world has been shaken by a series of catastrophic election results, France is growing increasingly nervous about the approaching presidential contest in April. Running counter to these trends is the Tefaf antiques fair in Maastricht, taking place...
New York is the international epicentre of the art market. And it’s here, from 2 until 5 March, that The Armory Show, a fair that is emblematic of the city, takes place, assembling 210 contemporary and modern art galleries along the banks of the Hudson. It is also the...
There was once a time, until the late '90s, when if you wanted to be considered a prominent artist, you were best off being North American. Back then, money and institutional support was primarily found on the other side of the Atlantic. But thanks to globalisation,...
When uncertainty reigns, everyone tries to protect themselves, and the art market is no exception. ‘For some time now, there has been a strong trend towards contemporary artists with recognised careers and a place in history. Serious collectors who previously showed...
The court decision came like a thunderbolt. Guy Wildenstein, the heir to the world’s largest dynasty of art dealers, was accused in France of a massive tax fraud (‘The most sophisticated and longest tax fraud of the Fifth Republic’ (1))  but on 12 January, before the...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxv2qthiSYg As a young boy Subodh Gupta lived in Bihar, one of the poorest states in India. Everyone in the small city of Khagaul where he grew up worked for the Indian railways. The young Indian boy with the very common...