Based on The Artwork Market Report 2023 printed by Artwork Basel and UBS, France is the world’s fourth largest artwork market after america, the UK and China, with a gross sales quantity approaching USD5 billion in 2022, an all-time file and equal to a 7 % market share. This dynamism is attracting ever extra worldwide gamers, seduced by the inventive aura and multicultural choices of the Parisian market.
“In over 50 years of existence, 2022 has been our greatest yr ever,” asserts Daniel Templon, founding father of the eponymous gallery in 1966 which boasts two areas within the Centre Pompidou district, one in Brussels and one other in New York that opened final yr. “2023 appears to be following the identical path,” agrees Anne-Claudie Coric, the gallery’s director.
Most gamers within the French artwork market agree that by 2022, Paris had change into essentially the most engaging of European capitals even amid unstable geopoliticals, put up COVID-19 difficulties, inflation and the uncertainties of struggle in Ukraine. Though London stays the European stronghold for auctions, Brexit has led to a number of gallerists to show to the French capital, following the instance of David Zwirner who opened an area within the Marais district in 2019. “Brexit adjustments the sport,” Zwirner advised the Monetary Instances on the time, “… my London gallery might be a British gallery, not a European one. I’m European and I would love a European gallery, too.”
Zwirner’s artists have been seen as a part of the exhibition packages of a variety of Parisian establishments, together with Franz West and Alice Neel on the Centre Pompidou; Gordon Matta-Clark on the Jeu de Paume; Josef and Anni Albers on the Musée d’Artwork Moderne; and Joan Mitchell on the Fondation Louis Vuitton.
London’s White Dice adopted swimsuit, arriving on Avenue Matignon in 2020. Over the previous 2 years, a wave of worldwide gallerists has chosen Paris as their European base, inspired by the rising variety of collectors and artists basing themselves within the metropolis. This contains younger skills similar to Robin Child, Iván Argote, Bianca Bondi, Giulia Andreani, and Joël Andrianomearisoa alongside established figures similar to Jim Dine and Anselm Kiefer, with David Hockney having opted for Normandy.
“By way of the gallery market, Paris ranks second on the planet,” says gallery proprietor Nathalie Obadia, writer of Géopolitique de l’artwork contemporain (printed in 2019 and expanded in 2023). “French collectors are lively and essential, and artists are at all times very pleased to exhibit in Paris,” says Obadia. “Immediately, collectors know that they’ll discover the identical high quality in Paris as in New York. Paris has change into extra worldwide as we noticed with the primary version of Paris + par Artwork Basel, and we’re seeing an actual rise in high quality.”
Emmanuel Perrotin agrees, noticing a brand new native dynamism: “If a good like Artwork Basel has chosen to maneuver to Paris, it’s right down to the distinctive dynamism and variety of the French cultural scene, each private and non-private. It’s a way more open and collaborative world than it was. That’s additionally the energy of Paris!”
It was lately introduced that Colony IM can be shopping for a big stake in Perrotin’s gallery, facilitating the additional development of the enterprise internationally. “I’ve at all times favoured collective determination making, together with within the alternative of artists,’ says Perrotin. “What I lacked was a shared decision-making course of when it got here to the enterprise aspect of issues: it’s an actual blessing to have professionals whose job it’s to work alongside us! The gallery is about to maneuver into one other dimension.”
Furthermore, the The Artwork Market Report 2023 factors to a “appreciable uplift within the phase from USD500,000 to USD1 million,’ And France now appears completely positioned to seize this market phase.
In recent times, the French capital has stood out for its unrivalled cultural providing. The Fondation Louis Vuitton, the Bourse du Commerce — Pinault Assortment, and a rising curiosity in modern artwork by town’s main museums are of just some examples. Including to this, collector Laurent Dumas’s Fondation Emerige, which focuses on the French artwork scene, is because of open an artwork middle on Île Seguin in 2026. Not solely a first-rate market, Paris has change into a platform for change, dialog and experimentation with sturdy worldwide affect.
These components have prompted main French galleries to solidify their base within the capital by opening further areas round Avenue Matignon (together with Mennour, Perrotin, Galerie Nathalie Obadia and Almine Rech) whereas highly effective overseas galleries are opening Parisian branches. This growth phenomenon was highlighted in The Artwork Market Report 2023 with 9 % of worldwide sellers surveyed working in a number of areas, virtually double from 5 % in 2021.
It’s a pattern famous by even Clément Delépine, director of Paris+ par Artwork Basel: “France is a market whose world share has risen from 4 to seven % in 20 years. Immediately, 50 % of artwork transactions in Europe happen in France. Concrete indicators of this embrace the variety of galleries opening or increasing. Gallerists present confidence within the French market.”
Newcomers to town additionally embrace Berlin’s Esther Schipper who opened an area at 16 Place Vendôme in October 2022 and believes Paris is on the best way to regaining the main position it as soon as had. Galleries Hauser & Wirth and Mendes Wooden DM may even be opening new areas in time for the second version of Paris+ par Artwork Basel this October, the previous on Rue François-Ier and the latter on Place des Vosges. For these three newest arrivals, housed in historic buildings, the thought is to open distinctive and opulent venues steeped in historical past and consistent with the French artwork of dwelling.
Marc Payot, President of Hauser & Wirth, is fast to level out that their future Paris house might be “unrivalled in magnificence”: “Paris is dwelling to a novel and complicated public, an unimaginable focus of excellent museums and basis and a group of bold and astute collectors and patrons — perfect audiences for a rigorous, conceptual program like ours,” says Payot. “What’s extra, Paris has impressed our artists to such an extent — from these born right here like Louise Bourgeois and Pierre Huyghe to these from elsewhere like Barbara Chase-Riboud, Takesada Matsutani, Alina Szapocznikow, and Ed Clark — that their careers can be virtually unimaginable with out it.”
Pedro Mendes, a co-founder of Mendes Wooden DM additionally talks a few particular relationship with Paris and artists primarily based in France. “Over time, now we have developed a really shut bond with French cultural establishments and collections which have believed in our program and supported the careers of a lot of our artists,” says Mendes. “[This new space is] our probability to offer again and recognise a spot that has been so beneficiant with us.” Mendes and co-founder Matthew Wooden additionally emphasise the enchantment of Paris-based trend and luxurious manufacturers, a lot of which “are dedicated to modern artwork through collections or collaborations.” Their solely concern? “The upcoming artwork tax which threatens the continued development of the artwork market.” The pair refers right here to the VAT price in France presently at 5.5 %, the bottom in Europe being threatened by a brand new European directive set to take impact in 2025. The difficulty is presently being examined by the French authorities in collaboration with a working group of artwork professionals, together with the director of Paris+ par Artwork Basel Delépine.
Whereas the seller Franck Prazan (a member of the Artwork Basel choice committee) factors to a contraction in gross sales on the secondary market within the first half of 2023 because of a shortage of provide, he additionally notes that the good French painters are on a roll. Artists similar to Pierre Soulages, Jean Fautrier, Georges Mathieu, Serge Poliakoff, and Nicolas De Staël (the main target of a retrospective opening in September on the Musée d’Artwork Moderne in Paris) have seen their costs reassessed, an “upward motion that goes hand in hand with the refocusing of the Paris market,” says Prazan. His gallery, which specialises within the post-war Faculty of Paris artists, will have a good time its thirtieth anniversary this fall with a presentation of seven key work by Jean Hélion at Paris+ par Artwork Basel.
A model of this text was first printed on artbasel.com
Julie Chaizemartin is a journalist and artwork critic primarily based in Paris. She is a daily contributor to Transfuge, Artpress and Le Quotidien de l’Artwork.
All photographs are from Paris+ par Artwork Basel 2022, courtesy of Artwork Basel.
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