Midas contra Venus? — What Recent Art Market Reports Tell Us About Tomorrow’s Women Artists

ArtTactic’s recent “Women Artists” report (February 2024) has found that female artists have achieved record prices at auction, with more lots at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips’ Contemporary or “Now” auctions coming from female artists than ever before. As such, there are clear and encouraging signs that the market for women artists – especially in the Ultra-Contemporary bracket – is changing for the better. However, how can one distinguish soaring, if not speculative prices attained at such auctions from potential markers of tomorrow’s blue-chip women artists? This article attempts to respond to this question by first taking a closer look into recent and pertinent reports, before outlining a tentative account of what will need to happen to such female artists and their works in order to remain on the minds and walls of collectors in the future.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Birth of Venus (After Botticelli). Photo Courtesy: Christie’s.

ArtTactic and Art Basel Reports — Reasons for Optimism?

The aforementioned ArtTactic “Women Artists” report [1] announces a certain generational change in the market for women artists. In particular, there has been a noticeable growth in the amount of works by Ultra-Contemporary women artists – defined as under 30 years of age – present at major Contemporary auctions within the past year. In fact, Ultra-Contemporary women artists accounted for almost 70% of total auction sales within the respective age bracket. This implies that women artists are not only more prominent in Contemporary or “Now” auctions than ever, but that such auctions themselves may become increasingly associated with women artists. Taking a look into the future, this can imply that collectors looking to acquire Contemporary may have women artists in their sight more often than ever – ripe grounds for a heightened integration of female artists within the global market.

In fact, the report also mentions a certain closing gap between average prices fetched for Ultra-Contemporary female and their male counterparts. Given that, as we have seen, female artists comprise close to 70% of Contemporary auctions, this may well translate into women artists fetching overall larger sums than male artists in recent auctions – an evident historical first.

Readers of the respective reports even distinguish a certain “market domination” exercised by artists such as Jadé Fadojutimi, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, all of which feature in the top positions of ArtTactic’s confidence rankings [2]. Taking a brief moment to discuss the recent (ultra-)performance of Ultra-Contemporary British artist Jadé Fadojutimi (currently 31 years old and represented by Gagosian gallery [3], and the youngest artist ever shown at the Tate), one is taken aback by her auction record of£1,552,500 achieved at Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Evening Sale in London, more than double the high estimate [4]. Fadojutimi’s works achieving such records at the artist’s age of 30 is indicative of the trends discussed in the two ArtTactic reports and will certainly influence her popularity in the future.

Jadé Fadojutimi (b. 1993), The Woven Warped Garden of Ponder. Photo Courtesy: Christie’s.

All in all, it seems that there are a number of signs that many of tomorrow’s notably priced artists may be predominantly female, while the works of such artists are already gathering extensive amounts of attention by even outperforming canonized, art-historical names such as Freud or Picasso in terms of price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios.

Collecting Within the Market for Women Artists — Between Activism and Philanthropy

Turning from the auction market into the world of collecting, we see that women collectors are also playing a key role within these market shifts. Art Basel [5] writes that the “current class of activist female collectors” such as Lisa Perry, Pamela Joyner, and Yan Du, present a type of “patronage embedded in their buying power”. For instance, Lisa Perry, founder of private exhibition space and studio Onna House, East Hampton, describes her mission as focused on discovering and engaging with new work by female artists [6]. In fact, her exposure to Japanese female artist Mitsuko Asakura has granted the latter a prestigious position within the collection of New York’s Museum of Arts and Design [7]. We therefore see the creation of a new type of “social collecting” on the part of these women patrons. Art Basel also reports that such collectors acquire works not necessarily based on the latter’s investment value, but rather intuitively, agnostically, and philanthropically.

Lisa Perry, Activist Collector. Photo Courtesy: Onna House.

Furthermore, Clare McAndrew’s keystone Art Basel and UBS 2023 Collecting Report [8] highlights that women collectors’ median spending has, in fact, surpassed their male counterparts, with high-net-worth collectors – understood as individuals who frequently allocate more than $10 million on their art collections, but also as a key type of educated and proactive collector base – dedicating 9% more of their budget to female artists than in the past years. As such, the past two years are seeing sustained and serious participation on the part of women collectors, a trend which will undoubtedly continue to shape both auction catalogues and the larger art market.

Nevertheless, skeptics claim that these collecting trends are still not exerting any lasting impact on the wider market and institutional demographics. In particular, a number of women collectors and activists also quoted in Art Basel [9] refrain from celebrating women-focused shows at the Royal Academy or the Prado, explaining that although the respective Marina Abramović or Clara Peeters shows were novelties within the respective institutions, most major museum collections are still heavily male-oriented. For instance, the Prado Museum contains only 41 women in its collection compared to more than 5000 men. Lower-status institutions such as the Mellon Foundation, although keen on promoting gender equality within the arts through bespoke exhibition campaigns, also face similar problems, with 25 male works being, in general, donated to its collection for every single female work [10].

Marina Abramovic at the Royal Academy, London (23 September 2023 - 1 January 2024). Photo Courtesy: Royal Academy of Arts.

That being said, certain institutional changes bring strokes of hope regarding artistic gender equality. The National Portrait Gallery in London, for example, has partnered with Chanel in order to increase its female roster by 129% within the past four years, while New York’s Dia Foundation has raised its number of women-made works by 62.5% from 2008 to 2020 [11]. 

We therefore see that there are both reasons for hope and skepticism towards the effect recent auction developments may have on the wider, gender-based artistic demographic. In other words, although a Fadojutimi abstract may sell for one and a half million, the art world – at least on the institutional side – has a long way to go in terms of gender equality. Nevertheless, the women-oriented market and collecting developments and trends are still worth analysing in their own right, in order to ascertain which artists may continue to mark high-profile auctions in the future.

As such, let us delve briefly into the topic of market stability and persistent valuation, and ask what other components must come into play for artists such as Fadojutimi, Walker, Yiadom-Boakye, and Akunyili Crosby – and any other successful women artist – to truly become main actors of the next generation’s art market. As the following half of this article will tentatively discuss, the answer to that question involves a continuation of the positive auction trends we have seen thus far, with a supplementary caveat regarding artist recognizability facilitated by what Lehmann deems an artist’s “poncif”. 

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Six Birds in the Bush (image cropped). Auction record for the artist attained at Sotheby’s London. Photo Courtesy: Sotheby’s.

From Market Headlines to Market Stability: How and Which Ultra-Contemporary Women Artists Can Become Icons of Tomorrow’s Market?

The first and arguably the most intuitive method through which Ultra-Contemporary Women artists can become key names in the art market of the future is to simply do what they are presently doing rather well: have consigned works that continue advancing through and surpassing estimates within Contemporary or “Now” auctions. 

Velthuis, quoted in Hulst [12], remarks how pricing within the arts comes as a type of signification of value. Put another way, the higher a work is priced, the higher we can obviously say that it is valued by the collecting market. This is a notable assumption at the base of all the claims we have previously seen in both Art Basel’s bulletin and Clare McAndrew’s report, since both sources cite collectors allocating larger sums of money towards women artists, which inevitably translates into higher demand, therefore higher prices for said artists. 

The other facet of Velthuis’ price-as-value paradigm is that drops in prices also correspond to lower perceived value within the arts. In fact, Velthuis speaks of a certain “fear” of decreasing prices which art dealers constantly navigate [13], and a number of marketing and business tactics thereof ensured at keeping prices or value for one’s artists high. 

This idea of price fluctuation as correlated to an artist’s value is strikingly important, I believe, when discussing the market for artists such as Fadojutimi or Crosby, both of whom arguably stand before the mid-point of their respective careers. That is because, ideally, the aforementioned auction achievements should not remain contingent market fluctuations, since that would portray the two artists’ works as merely volatile investments, and not stable figures of the art market. Put another way, it is worth applying a type of skepticism similar to the one portrayed within the second article cited from Art Basel [14], and be critical as to whether or not – like the Abramovic or the Peeters shows – these market developments remain largely ineffective regarding women representation in the art market.

“Nigerian Artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby Wants to Take It Slow”. Photo Courtesy: The New York Times.

To that extent, Velthuis offers the notion of “scarcity” as a potential way of generating value for an artist [15]. The author explains how a certain “scarcity” of material was historically present in the creation of the most famous names both within art history and its markets. Velthuis offers the examples of Picasso and Bacon, both of whom have historically presented an extraordinarily high output, but whose works, when seen in galleries, always exalt the viewer as “unique” and offer the impression of an extraordinary experience. Although, understandably, the quality of both authors’ oeuvre is more than sufficient in provoking such awe, Velthuis is certainly justified in implying that the sheer scarcity of works by the likes of Picasso and Bacon is crucial in stirring the respective amazement – certainly, when one scans art fairs or other commercial environments, one remembers the Titian or the Rubens not merely because of their aesthetic power, but also because of the sheer rarity of seeing such works “in the open”, as it were.

A number of Picasso works seen at Art Basel Hong Kong. Photo Courtesy: Luxembourg + Co.

To return to our present concerns regarding the future of the market for women artists, it is worth consideringhow this notion of “scarcity” can or cannot apply to the aforementioned emerging artists. In one respect, Velthuis’ concept may even be in contradiction with the current trends and organization of the Contemporary market – there is always a feeling of oversupply within urban, commercial spaces where the term “emerging” itself has become a common description for a majority of the material sold. Coupled with shows presented as “women”-focused, and the popularity of the very idea of a market for “emerging women” artists very much runs the danger of saturating the market for the individual artists these shows aim to promote.

In other words, although grouping multiple artists under themes promoting social and gender equality certainly carries an impact within these respective causes – the first part of this article withstanding – these very themes – if we are to apply Velthuis’ conceptualization of “scarcity” within the art market – also run the risk of obfuscating the individual quality and collectability of the said pieces. As such, if we are to believe Velthuis’ account of value through scarcity, we also have grounds to believe that the market for the most prominent women artists working and thriving today would do even better by marketing the works as individual items of quality and awe, which go beyond the term “emerging women” artists.

Frieze London 2023. Photo Courtesy: Insignia.

Arguably, one of the most enticing aspects of the art market is that it blends mainstream appreciation of art with high financialization and demand. That is why, one would assert, the exhibitions preceding any major auction are interesting in themselves – works sold for high prices in high-profile sales are, generally, of superior quality and constitute good examples of a certain “selection” by market forces. Considering this scheme of integration into the mainstream, Lehmann asserts that artworks achieve value through a certain recognizable factor deemed the “poncif” [16].

The latter can be understood as a certain trademark of the artist and her work which permits a “framing” of the piece into the mainstream. Lehmann himself considers and titles his piece “The Trademark Tracey Emin” for instantly recognizable reasons: the artist herself has an immediately discernible oeuvre, and, arguably much like other YBA artists, has managed, either consciously or not, to create almost an entire language of patterns around her works, revolving around either materials used (neon or dripping, violet brushstrokes) or the themes tackled by her works (sexuality, identity, gender).

Unsurprisingly, this creation of a “trademark” not only has allowed Emin to situate her aesthetic material in its own right but has also greatly benefited the market for her works. This process of the “trademark” carrying the artist’s work forward both aesthetically and financially is articulated by Lehmann in his account of the three stages of the “poncif”: “invention”, “artistic strategy”, and, finally, a certain “gesture to the art market” [17]. In a way, the “poncif” functions much like a truly aesthetically valuable logo: a type of trademark cast from solitary creation into collective, universalizable commerce.

Lehmann also thematizes the conceptual differences between certain “male” and “female” forms of the “poncif”.The author asserts that because of the gender inequalities present throughout society at large, female artists, in particular, are tied in a form of struggle for subjectivity with regard to their “poncif”,whereby their work is torn between expressing their own subjectivity qua women and their “trademark” qua women artists. A case in point is, again, provided by Tracey Emin: her works (and also her general self-marketing on social media) often evokes a feeling of exacerbated individuality, or of simply being “out there” in terms of her sexuality and personal history.

Tracey Emin posing next to a picture selected within White Cube’s A Fortnight of Fears show, 2019. Photo Courtesy: The Guardian.

Lehmann’s account is therefore highly useful in discerning a supplementary cause for the deep relation between works made by women and larger feminist struggles for individuality and gender equality: in a way, today’s sociological predicament cannot have one without the other. In a way, one would assert that this is the ultimate riddle of the future of the market for women artists: how can their subjective commitments to gender equality be justifiably reconciled with a market which favors instantly recognizable works and “poncifs”. Or, more simply: how the “women artists” of tomorrow become simply “artists” in their own aesthetic and commercial right.

Coda

The main intent of this article is to highlight certain promising developments within the market for women artists, especially within the Ultra-Contemporary sector. Furthermore, it seems that the respective “next-generation” market is itself largely women-focused, judging from the various cited market studies and articles and that the regrettable gap between male and female artists is narrowing as both the auction and collecting worlds move onto the new generation. As such, it seems that the financialization of art is approaching a gender-neutral level which will both benefit and challenge tomorrow’s iconic women artists. In order to thrive, these artists will need to carefully navigate dichotomies of culture and demand, and of equality and investment value, rendering the market for women artists, besides technology, one of the most interesting and progressive aspects of the art world to follow.

Bibliography

[1] ArtTactic, “Women Artists Report”, February 2024. Available from: https://arttactic.com/product/women-artists-report-february-2024/. Accessed on 19 March 2024.

[2] ArtTactic, “Outlook 2024: NextGen Artist Monitor”, February 2024. Available from: https://arttactic.com/product/nextgen-artist-outlook-2024/. Accessed on 19 March 2024. 

NB: Given the contents of [1] and of [2] are exclusively available on a “pay-to-unlock” basis, the exact figures and prices determined by the two reports have been explicitly omitted from this present article. If the reader is interested in a more in-depth look at the source data this article makes use of, he/she is invited to access the two reports through the payment or subscription services offered by ArtTactic (https://arttactic.com). 

[3] Jadé Fadojutimi’s website is available from: https://jadefadojutimi.com. Accessed on 19 March 2024. 

[4] Jadé Fadojutimi, “The Woven Warped Garden of Ponder”, 20th and 21st Century Evening Sale, London, March 7, 2024, Christie’s. Available from: https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6469719. Accessed on 25 March 2024. 

[5] Art Basel, “Women are spending more on art than men – we look at why”, 7 March 2024. Available from: https://www.artbasel.com/stories/women-collectors-patronage-lisa-perry-komal-shah-survey-global-collecting-ubs?lang=en#. Accessed on 20 March 2024.

[6] Onna House, “Our Mission”. Available from: https://onnahouse.com/mission. Accessed on 20 March 2024.

[7] Art Basel, “Women are spending more on art than men – we look at why”. 

[8] Art Basel & UBS, “The Survey of Global Collecting 2023”. Available from: https://theartmarket.artbasel.com/download/The-Art-Basel-and-UBS-Survey-of-Global-Collecting-in-2023.pdf. Accessed on 20 March 2024. 

[9] Art Basel, “Why is the art industry still failing women – and what needs to be done?”, 8 March 2024. Available from: https://www.artbasel.com/stories/art-industry-still-failing-women-what-need-to-be-done-despite-recent-push-for-progress-backlash-hurdles-underway. Accessed on 20 March 2024. 

[10] Ibid. 

[11] Ibid. 

[12] Velthuis, Olaf, “Symbolic Meanings of Prices” in “A History of the Western Art Market”, edited by Titia Hulst, 51-53. Oakland: University of California Press. 

[13] Ibid. 

[14] See [9], Art Basel, “Why is the art industry still failing women – and what needs to be done?”, 8 March 2024.

[15] Velthuis, Olaf, “Symbolic Meanings of Prices” in “A History of the Western Art Market”, edited by Titia Hulst, 51-53. Oakland: University of California Press. 

[16] Lehmann, Ulrich, “The Trademark Tracey Emin” in ““A History of the Western Art Market”, edited by Titia Hulst, 91-94. Oakland: University of California Press.

[17] Ibid. 

Virgil-Petru Munteanu

Art Markets Co-Editor, MADE IN BED