[ArtPro Talk 2021 Spring Sale Summary II] New collectors have emerged in the Beijing auction market
After the end of the 2021 Spring Sales, ArtPro Talk planned two forums on the summary of the 2021 Spring Sales, Trends and Changes in the Asian Art Market, inviting senior experts to have an in-depth discussion on this Spring Sales. This issue, we invited senior experts in Beijing. Lin Lin, senior business manager of China Guardian, taking charge of the 20th Century and Contemporary Art (hereinafter referred to as Lin Lin of China Guardian ). Tian Heng, senior business manager of Poly Auction, belonging to the Modern and Contemporary Art Department (hereinafter referred to as Tian Heng of Poly Auction). Li Huanhuan, general manager of Huayi International auction Beijing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Li Huanhuan of Huayi International). Li Lanfang, the president of Beijing Gallery Association (hereinafter referred to as Li Lanfang). Lin Song, the senior expert, Deputy Secretary General of Beijing Gallery Association (hereinafter referred to as Lin Song). Li Lin, the co-founder of ArtPro (hereinafter referred to as Li Lin of ArtPro). Xie Mu, the Vice President of ArtPro as the host. They all came together to do a live discussion. Let's focus on the highlights of this issue.
Host: The 2021 Spring Sales, how is the performance of Chinese Modern and Contemporary Art? Has this reached an explosive stage?
Lin Lin of China Guardian : After a period of savings and gestation, it naturally came to this stage. This year of Guardian is a volume and is the first time to open an all-weather auction mode, the total number of lots reached more than 400 pieces, but also could feel that the market is in this demand, is a good start, and then, we will continue to have a quantity improvement.
Tian Heng of Poly Auction: Judging from the overall results of the Poly Auction this year, we can clearly feel the buying spirit and enthusiasm of the market, but it is not an accidental, concentrated blowout situation. First of all, the consolidation of the whole Modern and Contemporary part itself, from 2008 to now, after accumulation and depositio. Then, the changes in the general environment, the impact of the epidemic and sufficient liquidity in the past two years have naturally fed back to the secondary market.
Li Huanhuan of Huayi International: Huayi International has been established for nearly 30 years and is also so-called senior in the industry. Although the Beijing company was established officially last year. But we have done a lot of academic promotion and brand activities, which have laid a good foundation for opening up the Beijing market. We are deeply impressed by the market activity and list changes that have been auctioned this spring. On the whole, the Modern and Contemporary Art section has performed well, such as Chang Yu, Pan Yuliang, Damien Hirst, Markus Lupertz, Anish Kapoor and other artists who have made good deals. The transaction performance of Yu Hong's two works is also very good, in which Patio has created the highest price on the market for Yu Hong who is also worked as a teacher; the whole post-70s special auction atmosphere is very enthusiastic, and there are a lot of deals at a premium.
Generally, Huayi International Spring Sales reflects the trend of the Contemporary Art market this spring to some extent, which is the result of the market becoming more and more stable and collectors becoming more and more mature. Of course, we still have to return to be reasonable to look at the current market environment. Personally, I think it is in an upward stage.
Li Lanfang: Contemporary Art has been a relatively benign environment up to now. since 2009, the Contemporary Art market has experienced a small wave in 2015, and the influence of the global political and economic environment in 2017 has accumulated for a long time. The outstanding performance of the Modern and Contemporary Art is also inseparable from the threshold of art entry and the process of laying the groundwork for a long time. Our gallery's efforts in the primary market for more than ten years will be fed back to the results of the secondary market, which is a long-term brewing process. This time was a little bit quick, also made us surprising.
Lin Song: This wave of market is very good and passionate. First, in terms of the expansion of the share of Contemporary Art, it has grown very rapidly, and other sectors may decline somewhat. Due to the changes in the domestic economic environment and the superposition of various factors of the epidemic, we have chosen the Modern and Contemporary Art. In addition, it is an inevitable result that it has accumulated to a certain extent over the years, and auctions and fairs are particularly popular during this period of time.
Li Lin of ArtPro: From the perspective of objective data, the overall turnover of the The 2021 Spring Sales this year is USD 1.24 billion, which is nearly twice of 2020 and more than three times that in 2019, showing a steady upward trend. The point of view of trading volume is the same. If you suppressed a certain amount of purchasing power last year, the overall trading volume has increased by 42% this year compared with 2020, and even compared with 2019, there is also a growth rate of 37%. It can be seen that the trend of the overall market is very good.
Host: As you have mentioned, the Modern and Contemporary Art sector has entered a stage of rapid growth in 2021. Western artists continue to have high prices in Asia, especially in Beijing. What do you think of this phenomenon?
Lin Lin of China Guardian : Everyone is quite impressed with Richter's Column (Seven couplets). We have made a lot of contacts and made our own judgments before. We are relatively conservative and academic. We have examined that this work is the work of the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale at that time, so we chose this one. Although we also had some price communication adjustments, we received great results in the end, which was very satisfactory.
The market has also reached a stage of understanding the works of Western masters. Collectors have generally improved their awareness in recent years, have too much knowledge and learn very fast. In fact, oil painting itself is imported, because the West has some good experiences, it is a reference and helps to us. In the process of learning, it is very helpful to establish our own cultural structure.
Tian Heng of Poly Auction: Now is a very timely and rapid exchange of information society, there is any knowledge, valuable things, we will be accessing and sharing very quickly. So it is very natural to pay attention to the Western Art. This year's Spring Sales, Poly Auction and Phillips' second Spring Sales, the night and matinee are white gloves, the price is also great. A considerable part of it, even the main force, is the Contemporary Art of the West. A large number of guests from Beijing are also entrusted through us. I think this is a very mainstream trend. Western Contemporary Art will be more involved in the market, which is also strongly related to the guests' own knowledge background, educational background, vision and so on. From the market point of view, we have more objects to choose. At the same time, through the intervention of Western art, there will be a stimulus to our local art creation and industry, which in turn will promote our own continuous renewal, growth and progress, and finally form a real sense of equal dialogue.
Li Huanhuan of Huayi International: This is the demand and requirement of globalization and marketization. We plan to put the Western works of art in one section, and we will increase this section one after another. Western master works in this Spring Sales, such as Damien Hirst's sculpture Saint Bartholoby-Severe Pain, are very rare. There are only three editions in the world, and it is also very difficult to get in China. The competition is fierce, and both the scene and the commission are quite capable of bidding. Changyu’s Qunma did a lot of key investments before shooting, and received a lot of effective feedback in the first three days of the preview. Customers actually have a psychological line, but after the on-site bidding exceeds this line, everyone is still reluctant to give up. The result was unexpected, and the client was also very satisfied.
Li Lanfang: Now the information is convenient and developed, and important auctions are live, so collectors are not limited by region. I think ArtPro is really a great company, because the live effect of the official website of overseas auction houses is mediocre and the video is slow, so I seldom watch the official website auction. But with the advent of ArtPro, the global live broadcast effect is very good, the message transmission is also very fast. I also often look it up recently. With such convenient tools, I believe domestic collectors will also grow up quickly.
Lin Song: The fundamental reason is demand and supply. For example, mainland collectors have been paying attention to Chinese local art for a long time, but now with the expansion of the collection group, there will be some problems in supply in the short term. Local Chinese art alone is not enough to meet the demand. Especially in the demand for funds, so it is natural to introduce new categories and parts as a supplement to form a reasonable and balanced relationship between supply and demand.
Li Lin of ArtPro: According to the statistics of ArtPro this Spring Sales, there are some very interesting figures. The total turnover of Western artists in Hong Kong this spring is USD 680 million, surpassing London for the first time and ranking second. There is no doubt that New York is the main battlefield of the West, with the first turnover. The second data, we focus on the market performance of Western artists in Beijing. From 2019 to 2021, the total turnover of Western artists increased by 6.7 times and 5.3 times respectively. From this multiple of growth, we can see that Western art is very recognized in the collector market in China, especially in Beijing. The third figure is the number of new records, 46 new records for Western artists traded in Hong Kong, ahead of the regional market, with the largest number of new records for artists, followed by New York and Beijing.
Host: The 2021 Spring Sales, important auction houses in China have set up the 70s and 80s special shows. What do you think of the market performance of the artists in this section? Are there any artists worthy of special attention to 70s and 80s?
Lin Song: The big goods at auction are the Poseidon needles. It is impossible to trade the record-breaking works of Zhou Chunya and Zhang Xiaogang in the short term after they enter the museum, so in addition to traditional big goods, auction companies will also make reserves for the future and train new artists in a forward-looking way. this sector has a lot of interaction with the primary market. Although the price of a post-70s and 80s artist is less than that of a painting by Chang Yu, it has a large number of participants and has the most growth. The three photographers in the head, China Guardian, Poly and Huayi, all made special performances for Contemporary Art. If divided by age, they are post-70s and 80s and individual post-90s echelon construction. The 70s and 80s has become a very important bright spot, Guardian 93% deal, Poly Auction and Phillips Spring Sales white gloves, Huayi white gloves, we all need to grasp the future growth points.
Collectors are also making progress and changes, becoming more international, open and broad-minded, opening up a huge space for the growth of Chinese artists. With the joint efforts of galleries, auction houses and collectors, the market will be opened. With the progress of the market, new sectors and artists will have to keep up.
Tian Heng of Poly Auction: First, after graduating from school, the post-80s generation has been in the industry for more than ten years, not overnight. Within three years of graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts, no more than 50% of them are still engaged in professional creation, and no more than 10% of them are still engaged in professional creation within 5-6 years of graduation. The elimination rate of this industry is extremely high and the rate of finished products is extremely low. In such a cruel professional environment, after more than ten years of precipitation in the market, a result is about to be presented, so it is natural to start from the primary market to the secondary market.
Second, at present, 50s and 60s of the lists of several major auction houses in China are highly overlapped, and important works of historical and aesthetic significance by important artists are increasingly scarce in the market. If the market wants to maintain trading, it is necessary to have active cultural choices for post-70s and 80s. As Chinese people pay more attention to the local artists, Poly Auction should be the earliest and start to pay attention to post-70s and 80s since 2015. We still hope to embody some kind of cultural appeal and active cultural choice.
Li Huanhuan of Huayi International: It was just mentioned that the list of post-50s and post-60s is highly overlapped. In fact, the post-70s and post-80s lists also have a high degree of overlap. Huayi International considered carefully when setting up this special show, which is mostly young artists, so we are very careful in the timing of the opening and the choice of the list of artists. In the autumn of 2020, we began to test, and the effect was very good, so this Spring Sales opened the Special Post-70s Contemporary Art special. From the age division is mainly born in the 1970s and 1980s, their artistic features are diversified, personal artistic style tends to mature, basically there are gallery agents, there are also good gallery academic exhibitions. This part can be said to be very successful in Huayi International this year, the premium rate is very high, and the buyers at the scene bid very enthusiastically.
This special show has also attracted many new collectors. I would also like to thank many colleagues for recommending collectors to us, and the guests who have come from the calligraphy, painting and artifacts industry have shown a considerable proportion obviously. As practitioners of the secondary market, we still need time to precipitate and build the academic bottom, and we need to keep our original mind when selecting artists and works.
Lin Lin of China Guardian: It has been demonstrated for a long time that China Guardian has set up the Contemporary Night Show I and Contemporary Night Show II for a long time. When I used to live in New York, Pace and Gagosian galleries were very strong. When selecting their artists, they had to track them for 15 years and the artists didn't do a solo exhibition until they were 45 years old. This is a very good way to choose. On the list of artists, we also deliberate with the primary market, this is a very natural process, this list can be trusted, we also hope to give the market a credible and sustainable artist.
Li Lanfang: As a primary market, galleries are very cautious in their choice of artists. Artists in our own galleries account for about 40% of gallery artists in the 1970s and more than 10% in the post-80s generation. In this respect, the primary market has helped the secondary market to avoid certain risks, such as a process of strict selection of artists, a very serious selection of artists from auditions.
When it comes to how to find the list of potential artists in the market, there is a way. If you don't know how to look at paintings, then look at people first. If you don't know how to look at paintings, then you can look at galleries first. There are 53 member galleries of the Beijing Gallery Association, each of them has an official website, and the list is there. In fact, it is easy for you to choose these artists. For example, among the 20 or 30 best galleries in China, there are dozens of artists. Auction companies strictly select them again on the basis of strict selection of galleries, and finally select more than 30 artists to participate in the night auction. Therefore, this is a very rigorous and cautious attitude for artists, art markets and collectors. There is a lot of room for the growth of post-70s and 80s artists this year, and some works have been sold several times as much as estimated, and a good turnover rate is required in the case of overall volume, which is a great risk for the auction house. At the same time, it can also prove that the current market situation is already very good.
Host: Is there any change in the overall composition of the main collector group? Has it become a global trend for collectors to become younger?
Tian Heng of Poly Auction: This year's Spring Sales does have more newcomers to join the secondary market. Traditionally, the mobility of collectors in the secondary market is very low, and the conversion rate from basic collectors to real secondary market collectors, especially some important collectors, is very low. But this year, in terms of Poly's Chinese New painting section, it is obvious that there are a lot of new guests, reaching 20% to 30%. According to rough statistics, most collectors come from emerging industries, such as IT, finance, cross-border trade and other industries. They have a good educational background, global vision, and it is easier to understand the creative style and style of relatively young artists. This is a very gratifying phenomenon.
The collectors’ vision of contemporary part is becoming more and more international, which is reflected in the 70s and 80s collectors, and some traditional collectors such as 550s and 60s begin to pay attention to western contemporary. Many heavyweight head collectors have also come to the contemporary section, buying lots ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, and people have begun to pay attention to the 70s and 80s artists. If we can continue the current state, including Western artists' works to join this camp with choice, I think more new collectors will come in.
Li Huanhuan of Huayi International: I mainly worked as clients Before. In the past few years, I devoted myself to the management and Modern and Contemporary Art of Huayi International Beijing Company. My feeling is that there are a certain number of clients who break the circle. Many guests of Modern and Contemporary Art come from calligraphy, painting and artifacts, and their collections may take more account of personal aesthetics, the influence of people around them, and so on. In the past two years, the circulation of fine works of calligraphy, painting and artifacts has become less and less, but collectors have a lot of demands. Most of these collectors are mainly older collectors, and they are greatly influenced by their children, and they often come to us for advice.
Li Lanfang: Following the market for so many years, we watch every auction, whether we care about it or like it. Now I don't know most of the collectors in the auction field, and there will be some collectors’ second generation to buy paintings at the Expo site. Some super collectors spend NT $350 million, NT $80 million, or NT $100 million on Modern and Contemporary calligraphy and painting. He certainly doesn't just be emotional. He needs a long-term accumulation process, and this kind of super collector has his own choice.
The new collector just entered, he may be from different fields and industries of the industry upstart. In the past, his capital was either limited by conditions, or did not allocate resources so well. When his wealth reached a certain degree of freedom, part of the distribution of wealth was in the art collection. The other part of the collectors’ second generation, they come from the cultural heritage of the family, the impact of family origin on them, so that they take a lot of detours.
The growth rate of Modern and Contemporary Art collectors is very fast, but the growth rate of Modern and Contemporary Art part artists has not changed so much. In this case, the group of collectors has become larger, but the artists are still the same.
Host: In addition to the excellent performance of the market in the 2021 Spring Sales , what are the changes in the auction house and related service areas?
Li Huanhuan of Huayi International: We also like the sound of "Ding" in the auction house. Huayi International is also open and simultaneous bids online and offline, and the statistics of the number of bids made by our APP this year is also quite high. According to the statistics of my colleagues, in the simultaneous auction of Huayi International online Network this spring, more than 80, 000 people gathered to participate in the auction, and more than 10, 000 bids were successfully auctioned, with a turnover of more than RMB 38 million. Before the auction, an important customer asked for his quota to be adjusted to 40 million, and some big customers have become accustomed to online bidding.
Lin Lin of China Guardian: The privacy of online bidding is better. Many bosses of Internet are our customers, and it is the progress of science and technology which makes it more convenient to buy. Guardian's Mona Lisa's Design of A Smile is the final deal of the network bid. And we have a lot of video channels this year, and the effect is excellent. Some look like Archives, and some are particularly vivid and wonderful.
Tian Heng of Poly Auction: Online auction, electronization to our auction industry, has brought an updated change, this way of bidding makes the transaction more convenient, I think it is a particularly good phenomenon.
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