How three art collectors adapted their habits during quarantine
Typically at this time of year, the New York art market was on after May auctions at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips, which came just after the race to Randall’s Island for Frieze New York and to downtown TEFAF New York. But of course, 2020 is far from a typical year. This spring, collectors had to replace their VIP passes with online login credentials as the art market went all-digital due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I achieved a few things during this period,” said Brussels collector Alain Servais. His biggest takeaway? “Art is not meant to be seen online, except,” he clarified, “for art that is designed to see online.
“The physical response to work is key,” Servais said. He added that in the months when businesses were closed and art fairs around the world were canceled, he did not collect anything, finding Frieze’s online user experience “no less terrible. and allegedly deleted between 50 and 200 emails about online viewing rooms. a day, “without even looking at who sends them,” he said. “I’m not kidding, it immediately goes in the trash.”
Instead of the more high-profile methods of selling art, Servais and Singaporean collector Cindy Chua-Tay said they preferred to focus on artists whose work they already knew, and take a closer look at works that they had already had behind them. their thoughts. “The works I recently purchased are from artists whose works I already own,” Chua-Tay said. “In a way, this pandemic has made me more attentive to younger and emerging artists, and I strive to support them and the galleries that represent them. But the fundamentals of what and why I collect don’t have not changed as a result of this pandemic.
“[I’ve been] entertain nonsensical investigations,” Lindemann said. “People think that because there is the COVID crisis, everything would be at 30% [discounted] or something. Which I don’t understand, because the art world has never worked like that. It’s not like the stock market. These are things that are rarely traded.
His gallery participated in the online edition of Frieze New York due to the removal of booth fees, but did so with some skepticism. “If they had charged for it, I wouldn’t have paid,” he said. “I saw a dealer say, ‘Well, we’ve had enough of fairs anyway. “”
He continued: “They are going to eat their lunch. [The bigger galleries are] have access to all [the smaller galleries’] customers and all their information. When they go bankrupt, these artists will hope to flee to the biggest gallery. But maybe they were going to do it anyway.
For their part, Chua-Tay and Servais spoke positively about the new collaborations sparked by the crisis. “I am encouraged to see various entities coming together and supporting each other,” Chua-Tay said. “This is positive and extremely helpful as not all galleries have the technical infrastructure and resources to support a fully functional website, let alone the reach of an international clientele to generate sales.”
Many wonder if the current recession will impact the art market in the same way as the 2008 recession – a sharp crash and slow recovery. Servais suggested that a silver lining for galleries is the fact that due to their limited capacity they are likely to be the only art spaces open for some time, with museums and fairs lagging behind. As galleries in Asia and Europe begin to reopen, he said: “I don’t know exactly what will happen in a year, but I think galleries have a unique opportunity to play the role they had there. 15 years ago.… They should take advantage of being the only cultural space available right now, by being a bit more innovative and enterprising than they usually are.
Chua-Tay echoed that optimism. “The real patrons will win. The way we all see and buy art will be very different,” she said. “I think it will be a combination of traditional vehicles, like fairs and galleries (but the format and scale will be very different), with new virtual platforms. It will be a very different artistic world that awaits us.
