As always, the Art History Babes bring me back to a thingee I had planned and never managed to get done. Jean-Michel Basquiat, which they cover far better than I ever could, was one of the most important of all the artists in the 1980s in establishing what the explosion of the 80s collector market would be, what art of the 1980s would feel like, and set the table for so many other artists, not the least of which being Julian Schnabel, to reap the benefits of an art market that was now interested in the art of the moment for the first time since the early period of Pop. Basquiat was one of the first to bring street art into the gallery world, but did so in a way that existed within the scene that was bubbling in New York. His connection to Warhol is often spoken of, and in a way he was what Warhol could have been had he not found himself so easily bored. As important as Warhol was the 1960s Art World, Basquiat was the 1980s.
There's a lot to be said about the 21st Century Art Market, and particularly the auction scene. While the Contemporary Auctions were going on in New York, I was giving a tour of the Computer History Museum to Benedikt Taschen, and amazing publisher and collector of Contemporary Art. We briefly talked about the auctions, and I mentioned that the Basquiat would likely break 85 to 90 million. "No, it will be 100 million, easily," Benedikt said, "Basquiat is the new Warhol for collectors. He's dependable." That Basquiat has connected in the market nearly 30 years after his death isn't a shock to me, what's a shock is that the market is still baring these prices. There will come a point where the prices will level, or perhaps collapse, for a vast majority of artists much like the tulip market, but the timing never seems to work, no? We've been hearing about a near-term crash for decades, but it never really seems to happen. The one thing that is obvious is that we won't be able to keep this system going; we jus thappen to find a remarkable way to make it happen every time we see the edge of the cliff approaching.
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Your HostChristopher J Garcia - Curator, Fan Writer, Podcaster, and a guy who just loves art. Archives
February 2019
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