Arts
fromThe Art Newspaper - International art news and events
2 days agoArt crowd saddles up at the High Desert Art Fair
The High Desert Art Fair offers a unique, cost-effective alternative to traditional art fairs in a distinctive setting.
Looking at old art gives me a sense of craftsmanship, of what can be achieved with paint. There is nothing comparable with Tefaf. The atmosphere of quality is unmatched. Contemporary art collectors are discovering value in historical works and the fair's curatorial standards, representing a potential shift in how different collector demographics engage with art across temporal boundaries.
But the Year of the Horse technically arrived on February 4, the first day of spring and the beginning of the new zodiac. As the seventh sign of the 12-year cycle of animal signs rooted in the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, the Horse symbolizes freedom, vitality, and success, as seen in the Chinese idiom 馬到功成 ("When the horse arrives, success follows"). This is also a year of the Fire Horse, according to the sexagenary cycle.
Last July, ADAA's Art Show coined the term when it announced it would take a year off to 'reimagine' the New York fair. Days later, Taipei Dangdai, an art fair in Taiwan, said it too would take a beat to examine 'the model, timing, scale, and format' of future events. In December, an unprecedented number of galleries sat on sidelines instead of taking a booth at Art Basel Miami Beach.
If you're looking for art advice, consider asking your bank. Rebekah Bowling, an art advisor at Citi, helps ultra-high-net-worth clients in Citi Wealth manage and build their art collections and knows how hard it can be to make sense of the market. Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and UBS are among the other banks offering art advice to wealthy clients.
The aim is simple: to establish who is buying what, where, from whom and for how much, so we might get a glimpse into where the market might be headed. Much of the market for "blue chip" art today is built upon the tastes of Boomer and Silent Generation collectors, largely male. But analysing the tastes and behaviours of Millennial and Gen Z buyers helps auction houses, galleries and fairs to predict what the next generation of collectors will want to buy.