Contemporary art: the affordable art market

First held in 1999, the ‘Affordable Art Fair’, as its name suggests, believes in art accessible to everyone. The fair focuses on contemporary works priced at under GBP 3,000 (around EUR 4,000) and its growing success has seen the principle extended to Bristol, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Sydney and Melbourne.
The forthcoming spring Affordable Art Fair will see 120 galleries exhibit in London’s Battersea Park between 12 March and 16 March. To coincide with this event, Artprice takes a look at this market segment, in which today’s new collectors often take their first steps.

Based on the Affordable Art Fair budget of less than GBP 3,000, a collector can access nearly 64% of the art market at auction. However, with 5.2% of sale volumes, contemporary works sold for under GBP 3,000 still remain marginal compared with modern or antique art.
In the field of contemporary art, the most recent works are often restricted to the primary market. It frequently takes several years for an emerging artist to make his or her debut in the secondary market – unless, of course, they rapidly rise to prominence thanks to extensive media coverage. This was the case, for example, with Banksy, the new star of the London art scene. When this graffiti artist made his auction debut in November 2003, his work was accessible at practically all levels of budget, with Keep it real selling for GBP 800. Two years later, a metre-wide format like Pest Modernist sold for just GBP 1,100 (USD 1,900) at Bonhams Knightsbridge. On 18 May 2005, he posted a message on his website announcing the exhibition of a remarkable primitive cave painting at the British Museum. The treasure hunt was on, the media picked up the brief news story and the artist was launched, his stencils moving from the street and prohibited locations into the gallery. In October 2007, The Rude Lord, a recent 2006 work, was snapped up for GBP 270,000 (USD 550,000) at Sotheby’s! This art world success story has added two zeros to his price level in the space of just two years with prestigious galleries now showing his work. While this example is somewhat exceptional, it does prove that you don’t need to invest millions to be able to purchase works by a well-known artist. In contemporary art, intuition is enough.

In 2007, barely 2,500 contemporary artists shared the auction market at under GBP 3,000. Half have never exceeded this price level at auction. Those who are most represented, multiplying the sales at less than GBP 3,000, have often already seen sales achieving tens or even thousands of euros. Their works for under GBP 3,000 are thus mostly multiple editions, studies or small-format paintings.
Takashi Murakami is the most evident in this price range, thanks to his numerous prints. And then and then and then and then and then, a 1986 silkscreen in 300 examples, was sold for EUR 1,300 at Artcurial (Paris) in February 2008. However, this artist’s room for price appreciation is limited and a collector can no longer hope for significant capital gains in that his major pieces already sell for more than the million mark, as was the case with Vapor Trail (2004), which sold for USD 2.1 million in November 2007. Thomas Ruff leads the photography market for under GBP 3,000, with no fewer than 43 negatives sold for less than this level in 2007. A series of 6 small ‘nudes’ photographs, edited in 50 examples, recently changed hands for USD 3,500 at Phillips, de Pury & Company. For drawings, the top three are Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, British artist Peter Howson and the Swiss Ueli Hofer. In terms of paintings, there is plenty on offer, with nearly 1,500 artists selling works at under the GBP 3,000 threshold, of whom Mark Kostabi, Marco Lodola or even Bruno Checa are the most prolific.
It is in sculpture where the offer is most limited, although it should be said that this medium involves significant fixed costs in terms of materials. However, paradoxically, the most expensive contemporary artist in the market, Jeff Koons, tops the list of affordable sculpture coming up most frequently at auction. While his monumental Hanging Heart (Magenta/gold) sold for USD 21 million 2007, no fewer than 46 of his multiple-edition sculptures, such as Balloon Dog and Puppy, have changed hands for less than GBP 3,000.