Art Basel revealed a resurgence in art fairs, shifting collector preferences, rising textile art demand, and expanding interest in diverse mediums and underrepresented artists
Trends in blue-chip art sales can be hard to identify. The biggest contributors to global market value are typically a small percentage of buyers, meaning the factors behind buying and selling can be quite individual. Amid a global pandemic, contrary to expectations, art sales flourished despite volatile economic instability. During that era, digital showrooms and online fairs became the norm. Credible voices in the industry predicted that old-school brick-and-mortar models, like physical fairs and auctions, would become obsolete, and that COVID fast-tracked an inevitable technological shift. And while the number of art fairs did decline during the pandemic, they’ve been rising ever since – an estimated 408 fairs in 2019, 333 in 2023, and over 377 in 2024. Even the resurgence of art fairs is counterintuitive. I find myself leaving booths worried about their bottom line. At Art Basel in Miami, the cost of a gallery booth (including travel, accommodation, shipping, setup, dinners, and promotional events) is astronomical. Even with the sliding scale introduced in 2019, which reduced costs for smaller galleries, the price of participation tends to clock in at six figures. All things considered, I suppose a small gallery exhibiting a solo show for an East Coast artist with no extra frills like dinner parties could keep their costs down to $50,000, but most exhibitors don’t hit a low-operating-cost jackpot like that and fork out $100,000 to $400,000. Knowing that high exhibition costs like these are a leading cause of gallery closure, it’s hard not to walk through preview days with bated breath. Those first days set the tone for a fair’s sales, and those sales are some of the best indicators of future trends.
David Hammons, Untitled, 2014, acrylic and tarp on canvas. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth and The New York Times.
The first-day VIP previews at Art Basel commenced with the highest-priced sale of the week, David Hammon’s Untitled (2014), sold by Hauser & Wirth for $4.75 million, indicating a trend towards textile art this year. Other first-day sales were varied. Notable works included Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets (2017), sold by David Zwirner for $3.5 million, and a historic 193 work on paper by Pablo Picasso from Vedovi Gallery for $600,000. However, Picasso’s classic painting, Couple with Cup (1969), priced at $30 million at Acquavella, remained unsold. Lesser works from big names still fetched impressive prices, such as three Keith Haring pieces from Gladstone, Ortuzar, and Pace, totaling $4.5 million, and two works by Georg Baselitz from Thaddaeus Ropac, a sculpture for $2.6 million and a painting for $1.3 million. Additionally, several historically significant but less exciting works performed well, including Sturtevant’s Flag after Jasper Johns (1967), also from Thaddaeus Ropac, sold for $1.1 million. Strong pieces from undervalued artists like Etelnan, a key figure in Arab art’s Hurufiyya movement, sold by White Cube for $300,000, and Ha Chong-Hyun, a leading in Korea’s Dansaekhwa movement, with two works sold by Tina Kim Gallery for $250,000 and $390,000, also did well. While the price tags seemed modest compared to the opening day in 2023, when Hauser & Wirth sold Philip Guston’s Painter at Night (1979) for20 million, there was more success this year, indicating shifting interests.
Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Nets, 2017, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of David Zwirner.
There are some who criticize a calm preview day, claiming that meandering collectors indicate a negative market trend and that anything less than a frenzied rush is suboptimal. I wonder, when was the last time that happened? In nearly five years of covering fairs, I have never witnessed the legendary buying sprees. Even if there was a time when collecting like two tugging over boots on Black Friday, would that be a positive comparison? When art is purchased just for the sake of buying, quality control is neglected, and emerging artists overlooked. We should a thoughtful approach to acquisitions. Anyone who has been on the floor knows that hidden gems often reside in makeshift closets within gallery booths. In my experience, the way to be invitedocation is to appear wealthy, which is not always the case for advisors and representatives of affluent clients. Otherwise, one must rely on interpersonal skills and clearly articulate intentions. This cannot happen if you are sprinting from booth to booth. If you gallerists, most were pleased with early Art Basel sales. A metric from Thaddaeus Ropac was circulating the floor – their gallery “[hadn’t] sold much off previews since 2022.” By the end of the week, Thaddaeus Ropac was one of at least three galleries with monumental seven-figure sales.
Elaine Sturtevant, Flag after Jasper Johns, 1967, photograph and wax on canvas.
Analyzing a December fair like Art Basel Miami Beach allows on-the-ground findings to be cross-referenced with reports from the first half of the year, such as The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting. Year after year, the US leads in global art market spending, but China is not far behind. High-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) from Mainland China had the highest expenditure on art and antiquities last year and in the first half of2024, with a median spend of $97,000, more than double that of any other region. Consequently, there was a strong presence of Asian artists this year. Gen X (born between 1965-1980) has the highest average spend of any age group at $578,000 last year, extending their lead into 2024 with steady growth rate of 3% year-over-year. The of buyer region and age is a key demographic to cater to, influencing the works included at big fairs. While older generations tend to purchase work by Old Masters or traditional cultural works, generations have unique preferences that parallel their sociocultural perspectives. These trends are supported by data from Daxue Consulting, which focuses on China market research. Gen X and younger collectors prefer Western contemporary art, flocking to modern, while Millennials and Gen Z are interested in the intersection of East and West. Their interest in contemporary work remains, but they often look elements of their cultural heritage. This trend is common, as collectors across demographics seek to diversify their portfolios and support underrepresented artists, with collectors from those groups being most interested in art and artists reflecting their identities.
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