Art Market Research Articles

Corpus-based critical discourse analysis of NFT art within mainstream art-market discourse and implications for the political economy of digital art

The recent advent of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has profoundly disrupted the contemporary art market, but their status remains contested. While advocates tout the democratising potential of NFTs, critics dismiss them as a speculative bubble. This study elucidates the position of NFT art within mainstream art market discourse through an interdisciplinary analysis synthesising critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and the political economy of art. Examining three key 2023 art market reports furnishes empirical insights into how influential institutions frame and valorise NFT art. Linguistic patterns reveal NFTs’ increasingly solid yet variable positioning across art market segments. NFT art appears well-integrated into mainstream discourse but remains emergent at the high end. The analysis reveals a complex picture, with the data showing both positive institutional framing and valorisation of NFT art, as well as the identification of ethical tensions and concerns around issues of accessibility, diversity, and sustainability within the NFT art market discourse. We find NFT art simultaneously amplifies and challenges existing hierarchies, creating new opportunities counterposed by risks.

Проблема ценности в цифровом обществе роевого интеллекта

Introduction. The emerging digital society demonstrates the problem of justifying the value, worth and price of digital products and services, which requires consideration of the specificity of value in this society. Theoretical analysis. Following the financial and art market, the boundary between “value” and “worth” is blurred in the digital society. Value, including the value of an individual, becomes variable and is conditioned by the presence of unique attributes and unique experiences that obtain market value. At the same time, under standard digital protocols and technologies, the true uniqueness of an individual experience can only be achieved through the creation of customized digital ecosystems in the form of robotic swarms that support human life activities. A set of digital devices that have sufficient resources to continuously self-renew and form a closed environment around the individual that provides a unique experience can be called a chrysalic swarm. The chrysalic swarm creates an opportunity for the individual to escape from the logic of mutual competition dictated by society. Conclusion. Studying the value problematization in the digital society of swarm intelligence opens a theoretical perspective on the problem of the crisis of social elites in the context of the fulfillment of this scenario of society development.

Analysis of Art Incubation and Related benefit Mechanism: Ex-ploration of Transformation from Traditional Market to Digital Collection

This paper deeply analyzes the incubation and related interest mechanism of the transformation of the art market from the traditional model to the digital one. Firstly, the article summarizes the gradual attention paid by the state to the management of art market, including policy support and legislative guarantee, and points out that the value of art is multidimensional, involving aesthetics, philosophy, politics and finance. The article further discusses the stakeholders in the art market, including artists, middlemen and consumers, as well as their interaction and market operation logic. This paper discusses in detail the transformation of artworks from marketization to financialization, including different operation modes of art investment funds, such as portfolio investment, artist trust investment and art hedge investment. The article also emphasizes the rise of the digital collection market and how it can innovate the incu-bation and trading methods of works of art with the help of blockchain technology and NFT. Finally, the article puts forward some suggestions such as strengthening market supervision, perfecting laws and regulations, promoting the integration of market and finance, and supporting the development of digital collection market, to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the art market.

Crypto-aesthetics: towards a New Materialist theory of NFT art

ABSTRACT The advent of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the art world has led to the emergence of a unique aesthetic sensibility, ‘crypto-aesthetics.’ This nascent phenomenon is marked by the amalgamation of digital and traditional art forms, the exploration of decentralisation and blockchain themes, and an emphasis on scarcity and digital ownership. This article proposes to examine the crypto-aesthetic phenomenon of NFT art through the lens of New Materialism, in particular the key concepts of two major New Materialist thinkers, namely Karen Barad and Jane Benett. Our application of New Materialism elucidates crypto-aesthetics as a distinct occurrence stemming from the interplay of object-reality, agency and networks, sociomateriality, and cultural and historical contexts. Utilising the New Materialism perspective to investigate crypto-aesthetics sheds light on the intricate relationships, processes, and consequences shaping the art market vis-à-vis NFTs and digital art. By acknowledging the agency of matter and the entwined nature of human and non-human entities, a more holistic comprehension of crypto-aesthetics’ transformative potential for artistic expression, value generation, and cultural dynamics can be attained. Our theoretical framework offers a novel lens through which to explore and understand the burgeoning world of NFT art and its crypto-aesthetic tendencies.

The Early Formation of the Moscow School of Landscape Painting. Landscape Class of the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture (MUZHV), 1844–1857

The article delves into the formative years of the landscape class at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture (MUZHV), whose growth parallels the advancement of the landscape genre in Russia during the latter half of the 1 9th century. It explores the pioneering efforts of Karl Ivanovich Rabus, the inaugural head of the class, and evaluates his instructional techniques in landscape painting. His methods introduced academic traditions of landscape painting to the School, thereby laying the groundwork for its future development. Additionally, the article delineates the challenges encountered by the nascent landscape painting tradition, attributable to a range of internal and external factors.Drawing from archival records and periodical sources, the author endeavors to reconstruct a detailed portrayal of the class's early years (1844-1857), emphasizing the pivotal role of students in the evolution of artistic life and the formation of the art market in Moscow. The research enhances scholarly knowledge by bringing into focus the identities of the class's students, most of whom are lesser-known artists, alongside their artistic creations, enriching our comprehension of Russian landscape painting during the late 1800s.

Reshaping the art market: Blockchain technology, resale royalties, and the emerging Chinese paradigm

This paper examines the global evolution of resale royalties within the art market, with an emphasis on the transformative role of blockchain technology in enforcing artists’ droit de suite. It delves into the evolution of resale royalties and their enforcement through blockchain technology globally, analyzing diverse approaches in the European Union, the United States of America, Australia, and China, and the universal adaptation of blockchain in this context. Drawing on diverse practices, the paper reveals diverse practices and the complex interplay between economic, legal, and cultural factors in each context. The research underscores blockchain’s potential to offer transparency, security, and efficiency in managing and enforcing resale royalties, as demonstrated by the rise of non-fungible token platforms like OpenSea. The paper also delves into China’s distinctive approach to blockchain, which avoids speculative digital currency markets while fostering digital collectibles within a controlled regulatory framework. The paper concludes by offering strategic recommendations aimed at harmonizing legal frameworks, spurring technological innovation, and preparing markets for these advancements. It calls for a balanced ecosystem that fosters artistic innovation and ensures regulatory compliance, showcasing the enduring influence of early concepts in the current digital era of the art market.

The Death of the Author: The Case of art Market

Recent evidence suggests that the artwork of an experienced artist is usually more expensive than that of a beginner. Additionally, the artwork of a man is often more expensive than that of a woman, and a painting is typically more expensive than graphics. However, this research aims to contrast the influence of the author's age and sex on the price with the influence of the artwork's material and technique. This idea is based on Roland Barthes’ famous philosophical doctrine about the death of the author, which appeared in 1968 and remains relevant today. In our article, this doctrine is tested for the art market. The research question posed is whether the author's influence dies in relation to their artwork after its creation or whether the artwork begins to live its own life without the author. To answer this question, a study was conducted comparing the impact on auction prices of the artist's biography and the characteristics of the artwork. The artist's biography inevitably determines their creativity and affects their art, while the characteristics of the artwork are not directly related to the personality of the author but are important from a consumption standpoint. Several dozen features were identified and divided into author and artwork characteristics. For author characteristics, demographic features such as sex and nationality were used, as well as biographical features such as education and migration. Artwork characteristics included size, material, technique, provenance, author's signature and frame, mentions in scientific literature, etc. By applying hedonic regression on a unique collected dataset of more than 15,000 artworks by the most expensive authors sold at world-famous auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's, it was determined which characteristics have the greatest influence on price and which specific features are most important.

An Insight into México Art's Symbolic Value through their Economic Behavior: One Case of Valuation Comparison Between the Emergent Physical and Digital Abstract Art Market, 2021

This work analyzes the phenomenon of the symbolic value in digital art over the circuit NFT in México, considering the economic behavior as a factor to identify their dynamics and characteristics, but at the same time, to recognize their influence and capacity of change from the interaction of the hybrid spaces that have this new kind of artist and pieces of work; to rethink from there, the traditional considerations for the symbolic value to looking at how to be modified in their relation with the circuit of NFT art. This makes it possible to propose an experimental aesthetic economic methodology to compare their different behaviors positions and structures, this time, in the particular case of two artists, who have different stays of symbolic value and activities in the traditional formats and digital art. Access and review of the hybrid quantitative (financial) and qualitative (trajectories and aesthetic) information, allowed the identification of meeting points, disagreement zones, and new spaces of analysis of these phenomena, to bring to the broad new considerations in the symbolic value, that is to say, new variables to consider in the dynamic values in the different kind of productions of our times.

Gender Disparity and Obstacles Faced by Female Musicians in Iran's Music Industry

Iranian female musicians face numerous obstacles that hinder their entry and growth in the music market despite having the potential to flourish. These challenges include limited access to resources, fewer performing opportunities, and societal biases that favor male artists. This study aims to investigate the gender-related challenges that women artists in Iran face, particularly emphasizing the significant inequities that exist for musicians. Combining qualitative data from in-depth interviews and document analysis with quantitative data from structured surveys, the primary study investigates the gender-related challenges that function as barriers to entry and prevent female musicians' active participation and success in Iran's art market. The objective also hopes to offer valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders regarding the promotion of gender equality and the provision of support for female artists in Iran, especially in the music sector. The research findings articulate four significant barriers to entry to the music market for Iranian female artists: cultural norms, societal pressures, economic concerns, and governmental rules.

작가의 상징자본과 인공지능 미술의 정당성: 데미안 허스트의 「Beautiful Paintings」를 중심으로

This study aims to understand the linkage between an artist's symbolic capital (reputation) and the legitimization of that artist's AI art. Based on Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, to do so, we theoretically reviewed symbolic capital. Then, the qualitative study was conducted by considering contemporary artist Damien Hirst's AI art project “Beautiful Paintings” as a case. Secondary data such as Hirst's career records, research papers, articles, reports, websites, and the artist's social media were collected and analyzed. The results indicate that the symbolic capital of Hirst has accumulated in the art world and the art market influences the acceptance of his AI art in the market. Hirst, to transfer his symbolic capital to AI art, highlights his role in producing the AI art via social media and connects his established image with the debate surrounding AI art. Furthermore, Hirst intends to generate a visual similarity between his recognized artistic style (Spin Painting) in the art world and Beautiful Paintings, as well as emphasizing the 'randomness' inherent in both AI art and Spin Painting. By doing so, the success of AI Art, supported by the symbolic capital of the renowned artist, implies that the hierarchical structure built within the art world for the legitimization of artworks is partially maintained even in art applying new technologies.

Miniaturists — Graduates of the Imperial Academy of Arts on the Modern Art Market

Graduates of the portrait miniature class at the Imperial Academy of Arts, which operated for more than half a century, were many first-class miniaturists whose names are now, unfortunately, known only to specialists. By now, most leading museums have published their collections of portrait miniatures, but historically, none of the researchers have considered the study of the art market (and the miniatures of academician artists appearing on it) as an opportunity, firstly, to identify new works of miniature art, and secondly, to find out whether an artist’s academic education or title influences contemporary pricing and the interest of buyers (which can be private collectors or museums) in his works.Nevertheless, it is the information on the functioning of the art market that provides data for more in-depth and comprehensive research. Thus, the sales index of a certain author much more clearly than numerous exhibitions can show its demand among art lovers. It should be noted that not all users of auction platforms are professional collectors. There are cases when personal exhibitions of artists did not contribute to the growth of interest in their work on the part of art collectors. There is also an opposite situation, when works by artists about whom only a rare researcher knows become a desiderata for many collectors. The present study expands the understanding of the place on the contemporary art market of Russian miniaturists associated with the Academy of Arts (its graduates and academicians), and makes it possible to fill in the gaps in the attribution and identification of the peculiarities of their works. It is concluded that there is no direct connection between the fact of studying at the Imperial Academy of Arts and the prices of their works, but the high artistic level of miniatures allows us to say that the title of academician was indeed given to the most worthy masters.

Research on Credit Construction of Art Market Based on Collaborative Governance

The art market in China started late, but developed rapidly, showing a good momentum of vigorous development. However, as an emerging market, there are still some credit problems, such as forgery of art series, which seriously hinders the high-quality development of China art market. On the basis of analyzing the credit problem of China art market, this paper puts forward some countermeasures, such as perfecting the credit laws and regulations system of China, establishing the credit mechanism of art market, strengthening the supervision of art market and perfecting the appraisal and evaluation system of art.

Application of AI-Assisted Painting Creation Based on AIGC Background

Image generation in generative artificial intelligence has become a hot AI technology in today's new media era. With the civilian development of AI drawing, AI painting is widely used for painters, helping them improve their production efficiency and product quality, and providing them with more design materials and design ideas. But at the same time, the original ecological market environment of art painting has produced confusion, resulting in a substantial reduction of the threshold of the art market, followed by a large number of contradictions and difficulties. There are still a lot of problems waiting to be solved in the auxiliary application of AIdrawing, and there are multiple voices in the definition of its contribution to art, but the development potential of AIdrawing in the AIGC environment is undoubtedly huge. This paper will start from all aspects of its auxiliary application, through examples to help us continue to learn positively, promote its auxiliary application, and promote the faster and better development of the art field.

Engaging evaluation as a catalyst: Artists and arts managers voices in reshaping the Australian Performing Arts Market

Australian Performing Arts Market (APAM) is the Australia Council for the Arts key strategic engagement to develop national and international touring opportunities for Australian contemporary performing arts. The Market has been delivered since 1994 in four Australian cities hosted by differing cultural venues. Over a sequence of three iterations from 2014 to 2018 the APAM presenting venue, Brisbane Powerhouse, made a commitment to reshape the delivery of the Market. Positioning the Market as a cultural intermediary, this discussion outlines how the Market engaged with evaluative data to transform from a transactional model to a relational focus by foregrounding the experience of artists, companies, and art managers. The findings show how planned and ongoing stakeholder engagement influenced the focus of the Market, and the significance of artist and arts manager voices were in transforming the Market experience away from a focus on buying and selling to collaboration and exchange.

Research on Influencing Factors and Strategies of Art Collection Investment Decision

The realm of art collection holds an irreplaceable position in the long-standing cultural heritage, showcasing the taste and status of the holders from ancient nobility to modern high-net-worth individuals. However, with the development of economic globalization, art collection is not merely a symbol of identity, but also a hot investment target sought after by numerous investors. In recent years, the market value of the global art industry has rapidly climbed, making art gradually an essential component of diversified investment portfolios for investors. The development of the art market has sparked widespread attention from various sectors, prompting scholars and companies to explore, through scientific methods and data analysis, how to maximize the investment returns of art collection. However, art differs significantly from other investment tools in the financial market, involving not only the intrinsic value judgment of the art itself but also complex market environments and individual judgment and psychological expectations of investors. Its unpredictability and unique value assessment system make art collection investment more challenging and research-worthy compared to other types of investments.

Integrating NFTs into Feminist Art Practices: Actualizing the Disruptive Potential of Decentralized Technology

The integration of NFT technology into the art market utilizes a two-pronged approach of decentralization and increased accessibility as an equalizing answer to rectify gender discrepancies in the contemporary art world. This is not the first time that technology as an art medium has been used as a feminist tool to disrupt the previously established status quo. Through the exploration of the 1990’s Cyberfeminist Net Art Movement, this article will discuss how female-identifying artists employ technological characteristics such as anonymity and online gender masquerading to answer the exclusionary issues affecting their art practices. Furthermore, it will examine how NFTs work to build upon the previously established revolutionary movement of the 1990s to evolve the contemporary art practices of feminist artists. Additionally, this article will address the impacts of this new digital landscape, where anonymity is preferred and algorithmic ordering is non-existent, as a more pragmatic way of creating, selling, and buying art. Finally, this article will examine how the integration of blockchain technology—entirely machine-operated and free from human manipulation—aims to eliminate the human biases of identifying factors such as gender that can be concealed or fabricated when operating in an online sphere.

Looters to collectors

Abstract During the plunder of the Summer Palace in Beijing (commonly ‘Pekin’ in English until the 1890s) by the Anglo-French army in 1860, soldiers of the British forces acquired imperial objects. They repurposed these at home in Britain as commodities, trophies and decorative art. This essay takes a critical look at their activities as collecting – the purposeful selection and assembly of objects – and considers the tastes and priorities that were factors in the selection of treasures from the imperial estate; it then examines how, in the hands of soldiers, dealers and collectors, new meanings accrued to objects that were economic, political and aesthetic. This collecting history is told through case studies involving exhibitions, designed interiors and auctions at which objects from the Summer Palace figured, and situates these within the wider collecting and exhibition cultures of the later nineteenth century. The facts show that soldiers’ collections of Summer Palace material not only fed the art market, but also had a formative impact on the understanding and valuation of the objects in the marketplace.

Artwork pricing model integrating the popularity and ability of artists

AbstractConsiderable research has been devoted to understanding the popularity effect on the art market dynamics, meaning that artworks by popular artists tend to have high prices. The hedonic pricing model has employed artists’ reputation attributes, such as survey results, to understand the popularity effect, but the reputation attributes are constant and not properly defined at the point of artwork sales. Moreover, the artist’s ability has been measured via random effect in the hedonic model, which fails to reflect ability changes. To remedy these problems, we present a method to define the popularity measure using the artwork sales dataset without relying on the artist’s reputation attributes. Also, we propose a novel pricing model to appropriately infer the time-dependent artist’s abilities using the presented popularity measure. An inference algorithm is presented using the EM algorithm and Gibbs sampling to estimate model parameters and artist abilities. We use the Artnet dataset to investigate the size of the rich-get-richer effect and the variables affecting artwork prices in real-world art market dynamics. We further conduct inferences about artists’ abilities under the popularity effect and examine how ability changes over time for various artists with remarkable interpretations.

The concept of Audience Development vs. Arts Marketing. Critical analysis

The concept of Audience Development vs. Arts Marketing. Critical analysis

Ivory and feathers: St Jeromes across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

On both sides of the Pacific, seventeenth-century ivory carvers in Manila and feather workers in New Spain produced triptychs depicting St Jerome: the feather-backed triptychs made in Mexico are based on the Filipino-made ivories, which may be based on Flemish prints. These related objects made variously of paper, wood, feathers and ivory, reveal the mechanics of early modern globalization, the ways in which copying at a distance allowed for a realignment of economies of labor and materials, affording opportunities for artists both to imagine and respond to faraway consumers, and to experiment with acts of appropriation and creative assembly in a newly global art market.