How times of investing in the Heart of Art have changed and why?

 Art today is not only seen as an industry that decks up the walls of your homes or office spaces with paintings, sculptures or prints, but as a very much financially viable and beneficial industry. The segments of people investing in different kinds, types and price points in art are expanding the market in all ways possible, growing globally.

The bigger players in the art market, both in terms of receiving investment as well as putting in investing  have remained the same pretty much as of 2022, in many decades now (US, UK, China and France. But having said that, other players are at least slowly if not significantly, are increasing their market share year on year as the art market grows with interest.

From the statistics of the recent past, we do see trends of increasing art investments of all forms whether in paintings, sculptures, prints, photography, ceramics and much more. The industry is growing worldwide both qualitatively with quality, credible investments as well as quantitatively with more number of individuals willing to buy now. The forecast only looks proliferated in the right direction seeing heavy growth trends in the next few years as per many reports.

With different accesses to the culture of art aspects coming in with modernization, expansion and advancement of technology, avenues such as freeports and restoration facilities with nanotechnology have only progressed to become heavily used facets of the given ramifications for both conservation and storage. These are easily anticipated trends for the years to come as cities for hubs of art become more prominent or gain traction from fairs such as Frieze or Art Basel for example. These fairs create a lot of buzz on the prevailing art, price awareness and information / insights on how much and on what people are / are willing to invest their precious money.

There are crucial takeaways from such big events where we can learn what kind of work people are resonating with, where they are investing and what the general liking of audiences is. The rapid changes that we see just in the last couple of decades or more, in the art industry is immense. Whether it be the popularity of contemporary art, fine art auction sales, gallery culture, tastes and preferences, or global outlook as Artnet states,there is definitely a growing awareness and openness with respect to receptivity in art and creating too.

Therefore, What is going to shift this needle forward? Source, Artnews. The role that online art plays, virtual galleries and museums as institutions now play, nature of how auction houses and art galleries are drawing investment and gaining traction and collectively collaborating with fellow artists or designers with the coming together of science and art more and more. Is this going to be the way forward? Well, I feel in many ways yes!

As stated by The Art Basel Art Report on the Art Market for 2023, it stated “As the market recovered in 2021, all segments revived, but auction sales showed the strongest increase year-on-year, advancing by just over 50%. Private sales by auction houses were up by just over one third and aggregate values in the dealer sector increased by 18%. As noted in previous reports, it is often the case that when there is a positive outlook for the market, public auction sales are particularly buoyant, with vendors enticed by the chance of even better than anticipated returns. However, in less certain economic and political contexts, private sales, whether through auction houses or dealers, have often outperformed public auctions as sellers may prefer to keep the details of their transactions as well as the possibility of a failure to sell out of public record, as was the case in 2019.”

“While 2022 started optimistically, political and economic trends that percolated through the year – most notably the war in Ukraine, rapidly increasing inflation rates, interest rate hikes, China’s COVID-19 lockdowns, and looming recessions in key markets, like the US – Figure 1.3 Global Billionaire Population and Wealth 2008-2022 © Arts Economics (2023) using data from Forbes 1. THE ART MARKET 2. DEALERS 3. AUCTIONS 4. OUTLOOK 23 produced a much more uncertain outlook. The more pessimistic context created greater risk aversion on behalf of vendors, reports of thinner bidding at some auction sales, and more cautious and slower transacting in the private sector. This may have, in part, contributed to the better performance of dealers in 2022, as the uncertain and less positive outlook steered buyers and sellers more into the private sector.”

“It also stated as a key findings that “At the end of 2022, looking forward to 2023, 45% of dealers expected an improvement in sales, including 10% predicting a significant improvement; 39% thought sales would be stable; and 16% anticipated a decline (against only 11% in 2021). The smallest dealers with turnover of less than $250,000 were the most optimistic about sales heading into 2023, with just over half (52%) expecting an increase.” And “Surveys of HNW collectors by Arts Economics conducted in collaboration with UBS, showed that collectors were spending more in 2022 than they had prior to the pandemic, including a greater share at the high end of the art market. The surveys revealed that while their share of spending at prices under $50,000 had more than halved between 2019 and 2022, the proportion in the $1 million-plus range increased from 18% to 31%, and at the $10 million-plus level had doubled (to 12%). HNW collectors remained optimistic about the global art market in 2023, with a majority of 77% positive about its outlook, and only 6% pessimistic. The surveys also indicated strong spending plans for this year, with a majority (55%) planning to buy art in 2023, including 65% in the US.”

This is good news even if regional for the worldwide art market. The nature of investment now is the fascinating part. We understand there are amounts, big amounts involved but where is it going and what is the nature of these investments? The art market which is all of this – growing, aware, open, receptive, and willing to invest is curiosity-provoking when we deal deeper into investment in abstract paintings or simply, value of abstract paintings.

The value of art or what makes art valuable is a rather tricky question but how much are people willing to pay for art can be tangibly answered by art deals themselves as evidence. The important part to note here is that abstract paintings have always been a talk of town since the 1940s. Whether it be a famous artist or one that isn’t so famous, abstract paintings have always captivated the minds of viewers to make them think about the meanings and value of the work. What each person sees is different in case of abstract paintings and therefore, how one feels consequently is different too. Having said that, the investment therefore depends on the extent of resonance from a buyer based on his / her tastes and preferences many a time or simply, having the money so when found with a good art deal worth an art work in their eyes, they buy it with the purchasing power as the simple reason.

The prices attached to abstract paintings like all art works at auctions have their own parameters, here, I am referencing the Southeby’s guide to assessing value of works by 10 factors – authenticity of the work, condition in which the work is, rarity or commonality of its availability and why it is special, provenance or history of ownership of the work, historical importance of the work in timelines, size of the work, fashion and manner in which it is done, subject matter of the work, medium of the work and Of quality and beauty in the work.

I am sure this offers some further clarity on the nature of investment in abstract paintings and how deep the process of understanding assessed values in art is. The investments in art go a long way in terms of how where when and on what to invest depending on various situational factors too such as current trends, genre popularity, demographic, customer targets, purchasing power, emerging styles and wider range of tastes and preferences being traced.

The nature of investments therefore in art are of the heart. How special is the work of art to us, how credible is it after being assessed on the parameters and how do we feel about buying it upon seeing it and feeling what we feel. Acknowledging the fact that we dwell on feeling in abstract art either takes a consumer in fully or absolutely not in an abstract painting. I personally do not see a middle ground of I relate to this in the painting but not that. This is practically speaking. Intangibly, we may feel many things we resonate with with the depictions in abstract art and many things we don’t as abstract art is to do with the subjective totally in colour and form.

But, the important factor to keep in mind always is to be mindful that the pull of abstract art can be robust in character to attract investment and appeal very deeply to potential buyers. Sales figures from the last 2 years account for the growing popularity of abstract and contemporary art and art earlier too beong viewed from a contemporary lens. Art Basel stated that, “All sectors of the market grew from 2020 levels, but auctioneers saw the most dramatic recovery. Public sales increased by a remarkable 47% and private onesrebounded by about a third. The dealer market, by comparison, rose in value by 18%.

Postwar and Contemporary art continued to rule the roost, accounting for 55% of the value of global fine art auction sales, or $6.7 billion, an advance of 42% year-on-year. The newest of the new – works created in the past 20 years – accounted for more than a third (37%) of that value. Modern art was second, with 22%; its sales increased 23% in value to $2.7 billion and included the year’s top-selling lot, Pablo Picasso’s 1932 canvas Femme assise prèsd’unefenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), which fetched $103.4 million at Christie’s New York. Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art accounted for 15% of sales.”

Investment in art, though market capped by US and UK as the giants with China and France being next in line are showing positive trends of moving upward in other Asian and European countries too! Though most pf our stats and data on the market and investments come from the west, we could explore physically the art scene nationally and see that we are evidently growing. Evidence of that could be the increasing number of galleries in cities in India, expanding participation in fairs like Chitra Santhe in Bengaluru and Kala Ghoda in Mumbai. Huge Biennales such as the Kochi Muziris in Kochi and Many more exhibitions that are happening in prestigious institutions a and galleries such as NGMA nationally as well as Delhi House, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad, Kiran Nadar Art Gallery and Jehangir Art Gallery to name a few. There is also growing enrollement and admission into art schools whether it be JJ School in Mumbai, MS College in Baroda, Shantinikethan in Bengal or Chitrakala Parishad in Bengaluru and many more regional art schools. This is a very good sign for our national growth on all grouds in art – whether it be in art creation, learning, teaching, investing or selling.

Therefore, investment in art is a topic discussed rarely but is of utmost significance in the business of art. We evolve as a people and it is only more interesting for us as Artists to see where the market trends are going to go. It is of great motivation that the sizeable  markets are growing and people are becoming more aware, accepting and open to the intricacies of the art world with widespread narratives and large scale projects of reverence today. We look forward to more investment, more creation and proliferated growth in the future from this culture and worldwide.

Exploring possibilities through a variety of these artistic doors, at Sparsha by Radhika, we explore possibilities with concept and feeling to embed memorable experiences for our clients’ spaces to be energized in the most effective and special ways with our abstract paintings in Bengaluru. We work Pan India and Abroad.

Get in touch with Radhika to get going with your very own abstract painting!

Radhika is an abstract artist creating abstract paintings based in Bengaluru, servicing abstract art requirements for HNI homes and Commercial Spaces.

Check out her abstract paintings here.