The Entire Art Market is a Giant ball of hot air

On the surface the art market seems to be booming with $400 million for the Salvatore Mundi, 86 Million British Pounds for Banksy's Girl with balloon,75 Million for Picasso, 80 Million for Rothko, and so many more seemingly record braking prices.

Art fairs like Frieze, which just took place in London, draw huge crowds. Prominent Galleries like Gagosian or Marrion Goodman and Koning Gallery Regulary make front line news.

Significant museums around the world regularly make lots of noise in the news.

At the same time most galleries struggle to survive in this seemingly booming market.

Most artists struggle to understand where to proceed in this seemingly booming market.

How can this be and is there something deeper going on?

I am here to tell you the truth. Every single establishment that successfully sells art, regardless of location, size or cultural denomination, has no interest at all in the creative talent or process of an artist.

It isn't even part of the discussion, they just simply don't care.

They won't tell you that! Rather you will get all kinds of excuses like we don't accept submissions, or our calendar is booked for the next 7 years, or they will tell you to send information and then they won't get back to you, or they will say they are not looking for new artists.

I have explored every single opportunity for artists all over the world and have spoke with thousands of gallery owners, art consultants, museum curators, art dealers, auction house experts, critics, and journalists. In all that time nearly all of them with very rare exceptions have no interest in creative energy or talent, at all.

The only thing they care about is how much the artist sells for and how much fame they will get from showing this artist, if the artist doesn't already sell in their market, they will not consider selling the art to their clients -not because they aren't interested in the creative abilities that the artist represent. It isn't even part of the discussion! No gallery, dealer, consultant, or auctioneer is interested in starting the career of an artist. { there will be more on auctions later} unless the artists happens to have become magically famous over night like hunter biden{ his art isn't bad} but the only reason people are paying so much for a artist who one year ago couldn't get a gallery to take him and now sells for so much money is for one reason only he shares the same name as the president and is therefore famous nothing else to it.

There are a few very rare exceptions which i will note. The Luxemburg Art Prize is one very special institution which really gives an artist a chance and reimburses all of the expenses of the shipping and the travel. There are 11 finalists who get a one month show at their museum and one winner gets a 50,000 euros prize which is very commendable. You can only win the grand prize once but you can be a finalist many times.

I have had the pleasure of working with an incredible pair in Italy on showing a unique artist outside of the gallery system. They have been doing an amazing job and i appreciate their commitment. This is currently the only way to get into the highly controlled market in the current state of affairs. We haven't broken into the system yet but are doing a very good job on promotion and have aroused nice interest, although the art is not currently represented by any gallery.

Auction houses ( i promised to get back to that) tell you that the auction market is exclusively for secondary sale and the artist rarely gets any of the proceeds from that. This is fake news! After speaking with hundreds of contacts from all of the auction houses, both the major and the minor , i ascertained that this is not the truth but a cover to protect a highly controlled market.

I will tell you the story of Damien Hirst which proves the point. He once took 200 pieces to Sotheby's and sold it directly at auction it was a two day event, and it brought in 300 million dollars. Now, if auction was a secondary market this would not have happened. So the truth is that auction is an exclusive market for famous artists.

I spoke with a certain supposedly, well known auction house in Boston. They told me that it would start the process of selling a certain artist at auction. But when i went through the process, they told me that they won't do it. when i asked them on the phone to clarify it they couldn't give me a straight answer as to why not. First they told me that auction is exclusively a secondary market. When i brought up Damien Hirst, they actually said that the difference is that Damien Hirst is famous but my artist was not. Again the value of art and the creative abilities of the artist where not part of the discussion no matter how many times i tried to bring it up.

Nearly all collectors don't care about or understand art. They are only interested in the investment, and if you will ask why they buy art, it is the same reason why some people buy stock in National Geographic and others buy stock in Porsche. When i spoke with a number of employees at Sotheby's, both in their NY and Milan Office, about a certain contemporary artist, whom i represent, they told me that the art is good but collectors won't be interested and they can't offer it for sale because it doesn't already have an auction record. Now you are probably asking how an artist starts an auction record. since there are many living artists who sell for ridicules sums at auction, the truth is that the artist has to be famous, and the auction market is an exclusive market for very famous artists.

Now we shall discuss the topic of curators if there is such a thing any more. Most curators around the world have become distracted by social and political topics like " black lives matter" or other political material, but they hide it under the table, and they won't ever admit it.

The big question is what can we do to fix this and open the market to all artists.

The first thing that must happen is transparency in the art market. We must spread the information in this article to as many people as possible.

The second thing that must happen is that we need a movement to shock the current state of affairs out of existence. We need to bring creative talent back to the forefront of our collaborative conscience.

The 20th Century had many masters of creative talent, but the 21st century doesn't have any so far. We need to bring awareness of this important issue out into the open, break down the barriers out there.

"Art is social commentary" a quote from Mr Dovber Marchette { formerly known as Barry}

Every movement throughout history has been a reflection of the society it finds itself in, including the world we find ourselves in today. The reason the art market is so empty and superficial is because life today is that way, so many conveniences in modern life and more anti depressants than ever!

The reason the art market is a giant marketing game is because all of life is that way. Every brand and item that you buy is out to get you to spend more money, not because of quality but to ascertain how much they need to spend to get you to spend more.

What needs to happen to make the art world a better place is that we need to create a open medium for discussion on how we can inspire our own creative talents and to awaken every day with a determination to make ourselves and the world around us better for the present and the future. Once we do that, the result will be that creativity will rule again in our art and our live.

It's time to burst the bubble, and let us open the market to creative discussion.

Looking forward to a better tomorrow