Where is the Center of Art?

How Knowing This Influences Current Artists.

For centuries, Paris was the obvious hub of the art world and in the 19th century received the reputation as the “City of Art.”

However, after World War II, New York City surpassed Paris as the global center of the art market. And, NYC remains the central hub for art.

To give some perspective - in 2012, art sales were around $20 billion in NYC. In 2022, art sales rose to $30 billion and the USA accounts for almost half of the global art market (May 2023), rising from a 35% share a decade earlier.

In other words, the USA and NYC, in particular, are the strongest performers in selling art in the 21st century (C. McAndrew, economist, “The Art Market-2023” publ. Art Basel & UBS).

This is no small matter, especially if you are an artist trying to be successful in this market.

A study of over 500,000 artists' careers (2021) from data provided by Artfacts.net — a leading data company in the art world — and art prices — provided by Magnus.net — discovered a pattern linking particular institutions with successful artists.

You can read more about this study in “How to Become A Successful Artist” by Magnus Resch (2021).

The findings are alarming. I quote:

“One hub immediately stands out…[which] contains “a handful of museums — the MOMA, Guggenheim Museum, The MET, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. They are surrounded by a few commercial galleries — Gagosian, Pace, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner. These museums and galleries are crucial because an exhibition at any of them essentially guarantees that the artist will ascend to fame and earn headline prices.”

What this means for current rising artists is that

“99% of all institutions … will never make a real impact at the higher end of the market or change the lives of the artists represented by them.”

This is bleak information. But it’s hard evidence and I present it because it allows serious artists to rethink how they will sell their work.

Don’t expect to be discovered. And, don’t expect that you can become better and better at drawing or painting. These efforts will not give you one twit of a heads up in the art market.

There are no rule books in art and the vast number of “how to” books that dominate the art publication market are not going to make you a famous artist.

These are hard facts to swallow but they are coming from real data.

In future articles, I will discuss how the types of artists are changing (e.g., there are more women artists, LGBTQ+ artists, and artists of color), how art auctions make an artist more famous, and a clear definition of fine art for readers to appreciate this complicated world.

Thanks for reading this!!

Buy me a coffee for my 30-day challenge: ko-fi.com/lorwenpaintings