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Last week I went to a public lecture by Tamar Almor at Sotheby’s Singapore. It was a good lecture to hear about trends in the art business. If you’re simply an art enthusiast, art investor or creative business professional interested in art, you will enjoy to see new perspectives in the art world. The speaker was a MBA lecturer Dr. Tamar Almor from Israel. Dr. Almor’s expertise is on strategy and entrepreneurship with a special emphasis on art. In her talk she tried to look at artwork as a contemporary good or service that could attract investors’ attention. In other words, she portrayed the artist as a creative entrepreneur.
She named Christo, Koons, Hirst, Murakami… just a few contemporary artists whose work has become brands. They know how to emotionally involve people. Christo loves to package buildings or islands, and marks his signature as an act of activism followed by mass media coverage. Koons is famous for his balloon animals made of stainless steel.
Hirst is the famous artist of the diamond human skull with thousands of diamonds. Murakami is the Japanese artist/art entrepreneur who created an art factory of consumer products from digital images, small figurines to Louis Vuitton bags. They are all contemporary artists who provoked a lot discussions, reactions and comments from art critiques, environmentalists, scholars and journalists: Are their works art? Or are they simply producing for the consumers?
Christo
Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude worked as an artist duo till 2009 when Jeanne-Claude passed away. They’re known as the wrappers of the environ. Be it a bottle of Coke, a building in New York, a bridge in France or an island in Miami, it could be the ideal artwork for Christo and Jeanne-Claude. As soon as they are inspired for an artwork in the environment, they start to act on the long process of studying the site, planning the gigantic artwork and applying for permits. Sometimes getting the permits lasts a few decades but Christo and Jeanne-Claude are patient and determined to create their environment altering art. Christo described his work at an interview as ‘a scream of freedom.’ The reason they package buildings is to change the environment we live in.
Although they created every art piece together, their brand was Christo. So, the artist was known as Christo and the manager or dealer was Jeanne-Claude. Like most artists they created artwork because they loved what they made. In the turn of 21st century, they were over 60 years old and seen as controversial artists. Most of you would remember the striking images of Surrounded Islands in Miami. 11 islands on Biscayne Bay were surrounded with 585,000 square meters of pink polypropylene fabric covering the surface of the water. The purpose of Christo was to showcase the ways that people in Miami connected with the land and water. It is a vivid demonstration of relations between art, society and nature. This temporary artwork attracted so many people to Miami including environmentalists who expressed harsh criticism. Christo successfully changed the way we look at buildings, islands and monuments.
Koons
If you’re looking for irony and fun in artwork, you’re likely to enjoy Koons’ interpretations. He reproduces banal objects in gigantic dimensions. His balloon animals could take you to your childhood memories, his highly sexual artwork would bring you back to your adulthood. When he created his famous Puppy located in the garden of Guggenheim Bilboa Spain, he wanted to symbolize love, warmth and happiness. His ‘Banality series’ featured pop culture icons and celebrities. One of the most popular art piece was ‘Michael Jackson and Bubbles’ painted in ceramic sculpture where the singer was depicted seated with the pet chimpanzee Bubbles on his leap. In 2001, Koons’ Michael Jackson was sold for $5.6 million. So his success lies not only on his expression of emotions in different styles but also the incredible value creation and commercialization of his work. He transcends from being an artist to becoming a brand or a rising stock that attracts investor’s demand. How does he do that? His brand name, personality and self-promotion play an important role without any doubt.
Hirst
‘For the Love of God’ is the name of the human skull masterpiece by Hirst. The human skull is modeled based on an 18th century skull with 8,601 diamonds with a weight of 1,106.18 carats. The value of diamonds used on the skull is over $23 million. The asking price for the piece was $100 million. It was sold to a consortium that includes Hirst and his gallery White Cube on August 30th, 2008. Hirst’s early artworks evolved under the sponsorship of Charles Saatchi who offered to fund his work in the early 1990s. Saatchi gave Hirsh the freedom to make any artwork he wanted. In a year, he exhibited his controversial artwork of a live shark in formaldehyde in a vitrine. This was to become an iconic image of British art in the 90s.
Later in his career Hirst successfully followed a different distribution channel. He bypassed galleries and sold directly to the art lovers at the auction houses. In a two-day auction at Sotheby’s London, he sold 218 art pieces for $198 million. This was a pleasant surprise that exceeded expectations and contributed to Hirst’s wealth. Today, Hirst is one of the richest living artists in the world.
One might think that an artist should be in the right circles in the UK or US to become famous and wealthy… you might be right but there are always exceptions…
The Japanese artist and entrepreneur Takashi Murakami will make you believe otherwise…
Murakami
Murakami has a PhD on Fine Arts and Music, he is a contemporary artist, curator and, without a doubt, a genius entrepreneur. He took his passion for manga, animate and other Japanese traditional arts and turned them into current art forms. He knew that Japanese people loved art but could not afford it in the post-war years. He thought that he could create art in form of consumer products. So, he designed and manufactured toys, flowers, digital images, t-shirts and accessories that everybody can enjoy. His vision exceeded Japanese borders and Murakami started to design bags and accessories for Louis Vuitton. In 2000, he curated an exhibition on Japanese art and announced a new art movement towards mass production of entertainment and changing notion of aesthetics.
He differentiates from his Western contemporaries in the variety and price range of his art produce. You can buy a Murakami figurine for $2, a tie for $20 or Louis Vuitton bag designed by Murakami for $1,750. If you’re an art collector or investor, you can always find rare art pieces by Murakami for over $1 million.
Ela Erozan Gürsel writes a weekly column named “Değişim Yelpazesi ” on global business trends for Dünya Gazetesi on behalf of Datassist for almost two years. Her feature topics include: green energy; climate change; impacts of financial crisis on companies, sectors and regions; innovative technologies in sciences, human resources and management; social networks transforming business and politics; changing dynamics of marketing and branding.
She also writes articles for international magazines published in Singapore.
Prior to her writing career, she worked at Datassist as a Project Manager in a project that combines human resources and mobile communications with the aim to connect blue-collar workers and employers through mobile phones. Before engaging in this exciting project, she was in pharmaceutical sales working for a multinational company. She graduated from American University, Washington, DC, majoring in International Studies with a concentration on International Business and Europe. She worked in Washington D.C. as an Account Manager at a boutique telemarketing firm that specializes in fund raising and publication renewals. She speaks Turkish, English, French, and Spanish. She currently resides in Singapore with her husband.
