Winners, losers, favorites, bests, worsts, loves, hates etc. As artnet News was looking back on the year in art, we realized quite a few trends—be it in artistic practice, at art fairs, galleries, or auctions—that we were decidedly not enthusiastic about. Here are some we hope fade away in the year ahead.
1. Over-Instagrammers—we’re looking at you Jerry Saltz, and Rob Pruitt.
2. All Warhol, all the time. We get it, we get it. He was a visionary who totally anticipated today’s pervasive tabloid and celebrity culture not to mention our voyeuristic, Instagram obsessed lifestyles. But come on! Enough with all the seven and eight figure paintings at every single major auction not to mention pre- and post-sale hype. Also the endless branding, be it apparel, shoes, fragrances, snowboards, china, or glassware. Fine, we admit we once got a laugh out of a Warhol camouflage packaged condom that read: “They’ll never see you coming.”
Andy Warhol, Miriam Davidson (1965).
Photo: Private Collection © 2015 the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
3. Auction guarantees and chandelier bidding. They distort value and actual demand for a work. Case in point?
Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Field Next to the Other Road (1981), acrylic, enamel spray paint, oilstick, metallic paint and ink on canvas.
Photo courtesy Christie’s.
4. Breaking ranks when it comes to gallery opening nights. No, your show is not so important or outstanding that it can’t coincide with the dozens of others slated for that first Thursday night in September (or January, or February, or May). Make life easy for us and keep it on the same night we’re already making the rounds. Let’s face it, we’re only going to stay long enough to say we saw the work and maybe have a glass of wine. Which brings us to our next pet peeve.
5. No wine or any alcohol at a show’s opening night. Enough said.
6. And while we’re at it. So called “VIP” opening nights at art fairs with barely any food, or food you have to fight for. We won’t name names but at one recent Miami fair, a waiter sped through a waiting crowd holding a tray over his head, informing surprised fair-goers: “They told me I have to start over here this time!”
7. Unrelated corporate art crossovers/marketing attempts to jump on the Art Basel in Miami Beach bandwagon. We’ve got enough art to cover already without worrying about diamonds, vodka, luxury cars and/or fashion and the ensuing parties. Especially when said effort is billed as an “aggressive subliminal guerilla marketing campaign during Art Basel.”
8. Lone corporate art crossover concepts. Apparently even worse in New York in midwinter.
9. Mirrored art at art fairs.
Camilo Matiz, Take a Selfie, “Here Not Here” (2015).
Photo: courtesy Indiana Bond.
11. Art selfies and selfie-baiting artworks at art fairs.
12. Art fair art that’s intentionally easy to digest. (Ahem Mr. Brainwash)
13. Overcrowded art fairs. One source suggests art fairs adopt the “nightclub” approach, no new visitors can enter until someone else leaves.