While prices for unique works are increasingly beyond the reach of many, limited editions of, say, 150 plus are financially and widely accessible, making it possible to acquire pieces by major artists for reasonable prices.

There can be a downside, however. While little beats the pleasure a signed work can bring, generally speaking, the larger an edition, the less likely it is to appreciate in value quickly – or even substantially.

Nevertheless, the contemporary art market is full of contradictions, and with growing demand at all levels, recent trends have often seen this assumption overturned.

As an obvious example, Damien Hirst’s early prints for Eyestorm consistently fetch $10000-$16000 at re-sale, a very substantial profit on their original price. More recently, prints by Banksy and other urban artists have proved equally lucrative.

In other words, it’s becoming increasingly possible – although by no means a certainty – to make profits quickly with relatively little outlay; although the trick, as always, is knowing what to buy and when to sell.

Buying for fast profit

The art world has a curious attitude to speculation. Buying and selling purely for profit is still regarded as just a little unsavory, even though the entire art market is dedicated to this pursuit. Perhaps it’s because art has such a curiously dual nature, combining aesthetic and cultural worth with a commercial value that can reach very high sums indeed.

Whatever the case, it would be difficult to consistently make money from art without some genuine appreciation and an insight into what will stand the test of time. And many dealers are themselves collectors, at least partly funding their own acquisitions through trading.

Yet it’s certainly true that, with contemporary art consistently showing remarkable returns on investment, it’s also become an attractive proposition to a very wide range of buyers.

In general, non-specialist speculators often trade in the work of artists whose frequent media coverage makes them well known to the public. And as shown by the two examples mentioned above – Hirst and Banksy – this can certainly reap substantial rewards.

But it’s also important to remember that, in an increasingly novelty-driven world, the next big thing is usually just around the corner. ‘Celebrity’ artists often take on the nature of a trend, and fads can become outdated with dramatic speed. Knowing when to sell such work is vitally important.

Ups and downs in the market aren’t just related to artists with familiar public profiles, of course. The art world itself frequently generates its own, ‘flavor of the month’ buzz. A few years ago, Martin Kippenberger’s prices rose dramatically, then leveled just as quickly. Chinese and now Indian contemporary art have been subject to the same kind of intensely fashion-led markets.

Clearly, money can be made through quickly identifying and speculating on trends, but you’ll need to have your finger firmly on the pulse. Knowing what’s considered exciting is essential, but you’ll also have to determine how long this excitement is actually going to last.

Long-term investment – knowing your artists

When it comes to collecting art, you’ll often read the following: the safest way to build a collection is simply to buy work you really like.

Such advice seems tailor-made to shield less knowledgeable collectors from potential disappointment, and perhaps even encourage sales of less desirable work. Buy a piece you love and if the value falls no harm has been done. If it gains in price, that’s a bonus.

I prefer to look at buying art a little differently.

Of course it’s important to purchase work you want to own and view.

But since contemporary art presents real investment opportunities, it makes sense to think carefully about what to add to your collection. After all, look at almost any online art site, and you’ll see that prices for fairly standard pieces are often equivalent to what you’d pay for work with far greater investment potential.

Although there’s obviously no way of predicting future value for sure, the key is to familiarize yourself as much as possible with the background of artists you’re drawn to.

How long have they been practicing? Is there a theme or thought process behind their work? Has this evolved coherently over the years?

Artists with at least some degree of complexity and persistent ‘vision’ are generally more likely to gain steadily in appreciation and price.

You’ll also want to know if the artist has achieved some kind of recognition. Is their work held by collections, galleries or museums? Has it been exhibited consistently?

Professional opinion is yet another important factor in trying to determine an artist’s long-term prospects. If a large number of critics and academics coincide in their high opinion of an artist, this is another good sign that they will retain or even gain value.

Mid-career artists can be judged much more easily in relation to their existing work; and after all, good art isn’t just about something that happens to look nice on a wall.

It’s about a certain kind of commitment and an obvious path of development. If all these factors are present, buying probably makes sense. Limited editions by Jeff Koons, for example, were relatively inexpensive 5 or 6 years ago, but with recent record-breaking prices for major works, have also shot up in value.

Even artists who disappear temporarily from the art market radar are much more likely to re-emerge at a later point if they show the ‘right’ kind of commitment and passion.

Emerging artists and the schlock of the new

New young artists are often fizzing with ideas, many of which can seem ground-breaking or even radical, but the problem is that they have yet to prove their long-term worth.

This said, you can certainly gain an insight into potential by applying the criteria above. It’s especially important to determine if they have something genuine to express or are simply employing methods that could, over time, increasingly be seen as just a gimmick.

Of course, if you’re looking to make a high return on investment, rapidly emerging artists can prove highly lucrative.

In such cases, it’s probably a good idea to invest in as substantial a piece as possible, although as we’ve seen, editions and multiples can also prove money-earners.

But keep a close eye on auction prices and signs of market fatigue. Such artists might be the talk of the town right now, but will they fulfill their early promise?

If, after a few years, their work appears stuck in a rut and prices seem to be leveling or even dropping, it’s time to think twice about their long-term appeal. On the other hand, if they do continue to create great work, any pieces bought for relatively low sums at the start of their careers should steadily rise in value.

Spreading your bets

If you’re lucky enough to have substantial sums of money to spend on art, newer artists, as we’ve just seen, can produce significant return on investment.

But perhaps the best way to offset the risks that they may never fulfill expectation is to ’spread your bets’ across a selection of up and coming names.

Buying the work of several different artists might mean settling for less significant works, but with the right kind of knowledge – and luck – hitting a jackpot is still potentially viable.

If you’ve done your research, the chances are fairly good that at least one – and hopefully more – of your chosen artists will gain in recognition.

And given the phenomenal increase in prices for contemporary art, if that happens, eventual profits could far outweigh the costs of initial purchases, even if other works fail to make the grade.

It’s worth remembering that many well-known collectors buy huge amounts of work by new, ‘promising’ artists.

Charles Saatchi is a particularly good example, and although he is famous for the apparent strength of his collection, a sizable proportion consists of artists who have now faded into obscurity (you won’t see these listed on the website).

However, the phenomenal rise in value of those who became major names – Peter Doig, for example – have reaped him many millions of dollars in profit at auction.

And if those are the rewards, you can probably afford to make the odd mistake.

Mike writes for modernedition.com, a resource providing articles and news on contemporary art, as well as limited edition prints and multiples by leading contemporary artists.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Brennan

Traditionally, an artist’s older works garnered higher bids and more frenzied requests. However, painters like Brice Marden are changing the status quo with a whole collection of recent, sought-after work.

The top 10 contemporary artists, whose works sold for over $5 million at auction, are as follows: Lucian Freud, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Brice Marden, Bruce Nauman, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, and Cy Twombly. Other artists (in the $1 – $4 million range) to look out for include: Chuck Close, David Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly, Anselm Kiefer, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Ryman, and Wayne Thiebaud.

Jasper Johns, one of the highest paid modern artists, can’t seem to keep up with the demand. He paints two projects each month (which will sell for no less than $1 million), but the waiting list is still long. Entertainment giant David Geffen paid $40 million for “Gray Numbers” a few years back and New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art allegedly paid over $20 million for “White Flag.”

John’s colorful paintings touch upon Americana themes — with lots of flags, maps and targets – with subtle messages that affect every onlooker differently. If a collector is fortunate enough to find a Jasper Johns in an art auction house, then there’s no telling how much it’ll sell for.

One can’t help but wonder about what accounts for the noticeable trend towards modern art? Most of the buyers (42%) at the Sotheby’s contemporary art auction continue to be Europeans, with the US trailing at 19%, and Asia / Middle Eastern sales at 12%.

It seems that the high price of the pound is hurting many Americans more than the credit crunch, but London’s weekend auctions saw many advances from interested Indian and Chinese buyers looking for a piece of cultural heritage. For instance, two bidders fought over Yue Minjun’s “Execution” for six minutes, which finally sold for a record breaking $2.93 million. Likewise, one of Putu Sutawijaya’s paintings (“Silent Road”) sold for $350,000 (11 times its estimated price) at the Borobudur Auction!

The art world is changing from the traditional swanky event, complete with fine wine, cheese and fashionable attire – to one of sitting behind the computer screen, credit card in hand. While it may seem impersonal to some, it’s advantageous to others, who have the ability to hop between sites, checking the fair prices for the particular work they’ve got their eye on. After browsing online catalogues, art lovers can get a good idea of what’s available in the up-to-date marketplace, and then make the best purchase later at a contemporary art auction.

369 Niches Rolled Up Into 1 Product

Turn any hobby into a business. Discover 24 totally unique business models.

[http://businessmodels.netbizint.com.au/index.php]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Selvon

It is fortunate enough to win various institutional patrons. Besides, public funded museums, there are commercial galleries, private collectors, corporate patrons and contemporary art museums. The artists run spaces has also been taken an important role in sale of their works. Thus they are supporting themselves, though there are grants and awards for them. There exists a symbiosis between public museums and commercial galleries. The commercial sector, often, earns maximum profit on the works of the creators who has been popularized by extensive exhibition by public sector. Besides, to enhance brand values, often corporations lend their premises or house at their premises exhibitions. Moreover, support of these organizations is evident in sponsoring awards and building up ware house of contemporary creations. Endeavors of these business houses on collecting plethora of corporate art are quite encouraging. Thus it is gaining popularity, too.

Which Art is Contemporary and which is not – institutional viewpoint

* Creations after 1960’s and 1970’s to till date are counted in the category.
* Crafts like paintings on ceramics and textile designs have strictly been excluded from the category.
* Creations by present day self-taught painters and sculptors, though lack historic inheritance, is literally contemporary.

Prizes

There are several prizes on this practice. The most eminent ones can be enumerated as follows:

1. Named after J. M. W. Turner, Turner Prize is for British painters and sculptors under 50 years of age.

2. Whitney Biennial exhibition is for less known American enthusiasts, arranged in New York City by Whitney Museum of American Art.

3. Hugo Boss Prize is annually sponsored by the Hugo Boss Clothing Company for individual or group working on any medium from anywhere of the world and it is administered by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of New York.

4. The most coveted Dutch prize is Vincent van Gogh Biennial Award for Contemporary Art in Europe. It has been initiated by The Broere Charitable Foundation and hosted by Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdum.

5. The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists is awarded by the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

6. Each year, Ricard Prize for French painters and sculptors under 40 years of age is bestowed by a committee of French Collectors.

You are welcome to visit Private Art Museum for contemporary art Mumbai.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jacob_Taylor

Although it may seem like a provocation, the contemporary Indian art is very old. It has about forty years and is still contemporary, though, of course, has been changing over the years. An unwritten history of Indian contemporary art pick up his powerful birth in the mid of sixties, and its classic moment during the seventies. The paradox is purely terminological, since here we use the term contemporary, not their sense of current, but in a generic sense that slowly is emerging among sociologists, historians and art theorists, but without there being less unanimity. The use of contemporary in the sense that it proposes seems to us a convenient and rigorous action to collect a wide variety of families and individuals. There is a big contribution from the Indian artists to grow the contemporary art in the past and present days.

Within the panorama of indigestible contemporary art confluence of two trends. The first has to do with aesthetics as practiced during the modern period, based on the experience of formality as something that transcends the real and natural. The second is more related to the experience of enjoyment, as a principle an art of the difference, an art budgets and aspirations different to modern art. In contemporary art, there is a combination of philosophy and psychoanalysis. The perception aesthetics goes hand in hand of psychic structure, driven by parental authority imposed by the institutions (school, museum, etc) and into the instinct of pleasure and desire of self, both facing in the sand as possible and the indefinite.

If one were to summarize very bluntly what contemporary art is well understood, we should say it is one that departs from the ancient tradition of Western art, breaking with a history museum that Indeed the vanguards had continued candidly, and adopts a reflective stance that takes no account of the work or the artist as the essence of artistic practice.

Hari Sharma is a painter for Artflute and it is an endeavor to build the contemporary Indian art of Indian art gallery. It’s a best platform to share the views and ideas of emerging artists to give the best of their art work. Approximately it has the complete collection of Indian art gallery and bagged the great artists in their community.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hari_Sharma

A gallery exhibits art for the enjoyment of others, with the added bonus of being able to purchase their favorite pieces when the exhibit concludes. This means that the gallery changes frequently, depending on how often shows are conducted. A gallery often puts together a show based on the work of one individual artist with the option of work from other artists put together. Visual art is the most common form shown in a gallery, with paintings being the most popular. Artists who are sculptors or photographers are able to display their work as well. Unlike museums, galleries typically collect a commission from each piece that is sold. Rarely is admission charged, although there are some galleries that prefer to do things that way. Sometimes artists are supported by grants, and they are able to win awards and prizes. The Guggenheim Museum in New York presents the Hugo Boss award every other year to an artist or a group of artists working in any place anywhere. Hugo Boss clothing company sponsors this by presenting the winner or winners with a $100,000 check.

Contemporary art is a term used to describe the modern era of art. Though there is speculation, it is thought that art developed since World War II until present day is considered contemporary art. There is no reference to a specific style of art when discussing contemporary art. It is exhibited in many ways. There are contemporary art galleries, publicly funded arts organizations, contemporary art museums, or by the artists themselves. Most contemporary art galleries are found grouped together in certain districts of bigger cities, although medium sized cities are known to have one or two galleries for local artists. Corporations are becoming more and more a part of the contemporary art world by organizing and sponsoring local art galleries, and even displaying some inside their own walls.

Contemporary art galleries have been criticized because of their showing of art that is not considered by others to be art of this form. Art created by common people is literally what contemporary art is, but there are always skeptics somewhere. Contemporary art can be at odds with the world at times because of what is thought to be art and what is not. Respected galleries and other institutions are under fire because of the thought that they do not share another point of view. It goes back to the age old question of what is art, and what constitutes it to be so. It doesn’t stop those ambitious artists out there who want to get their work out there, though.

If you want to learn more about contemporary art galleries new york all you have to do is click HERE!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chad_DeBolt

When it comes to contemporary paintings, Africa is the best one among all others, and it is called a home for contemporary arts. You can find lots of modern days African artists in some of the museum collections. However, their paintings can be sold for high prices in different auctions. Still there are some more artists who are finding difficult to get market to their pictures. Around the globe, every person would like to keep at least one contemporary painting in their home, which is capturing the attention of the guests. In Africa, there are lots of countries having a mixture of villages and small towns varying clans and tribes are having many cultures. This could be the main reason to the regional and cultural variations. The poor people in Africa are making arts and selling them for their livelihood. This is also a main reason for sales in contemporary paintings.

The internet technology is also helping the African artists to grow faster;nowadays, there are so many websites selling their pictures through the internet. Some of the trading people are having their own websites, and they are doing trading from there. You can purchase genuine African arts from these web sites. And some of the web sites are also providing auctions for African arts. All that you need to do is a small search in internet and shop these contemporary African arts from online.

One of the best sites where you can find the genuine African arts is africanartnow.com. You can find contemporary art, African arts, contemporaryart for sale, African paintings etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hillevi_Sterlen

Burma (Myanmar), a Southeast Asian country, has been isolated from the rest of the world since 1988, due to its non-democratic military dictatorship. Similar to its political and economic isolation, Contemporary Art in this region also does not have much western influence. Developing on its own terms, art in Burma reflects a fine balance between modernity and the country’s rich cultural heritage. The motifs and art theme in paintings are often related to the deep-rooted Marxist and Buddhist beliefs in the country. The difficult socio-political situation in the country also has a significant influence on its Contemporary Art.

Contemporary Art is not much experimental in Burma, with oil, poster color, crayons, and watercolor as the most popular mediums for paintings. A characteristic feature of art education in Burma is the system of apprenticeship, where-in students learn from their masters in workshops. The development in Contemporary Art is limited to the two major cities of Rangoon (Yangon) and Mandalay. The State School of Fine Arts opened in Yangon and Mandalay, in 1952. They are the first formal art schools of the country. The National Museum of Myanmar, established in 1952, was first platform for aspiring artists to display the nation’s art.

The Artworks & Artists

Artists U Ba Nyan and U Ngwe Gaing were the first ones to introduce Western Painting style in Burmese Art. U Lun Gywe (Yangon, 1930) is considered the greatest living master of Burmese Paintings. His style of painting is close to Impressionism, with his favorite subject being the beauty of women. ‘Dancer I & II’ (2006), ‘Bathing Beauties’ (2007), ‘Bathing Nymphs’ (2007), and ‘Nude series’ (2005) are among his famous artworks. Aung Kyaw Htet’s (Myaungmya, 1965) work mirrors basic values and rituals that encompass Buddhism and his rural upbringing. Unlike most Burmese artists, his paintings depict the faces of monks and nuns in detail, with a special series of monks in red robes. ‘Four Monks in White’ (2006), ‘Portrait of a Monk in Red’ (2008), ‘Robing at Dawn I & II’ (2009), ‘Innocence & Faith’ (2009), and ‘A Walk in the Sun’ (2009) are among his innumerable artworks.

Some other ace Burmese Modern artists are Maung Di, Khin One, Khin Maung Yln, Kyi Twe, Nyunt Myat, San Myint, Paw Oo Thet, Win Pe (Mandalay), Po Po (born 1957), Mote Thone, Soe Naing, San Min, Min Wae, Wah Nu (born 1977), MPP Ye Myint, San Naing, Paw Thame, Nyein Chan Su, The Maw Naing, Aung Myint, Aung Ko, Moe Satt, Mrat Lunn Htwann, and Nyan Lin Htet.

Conclusion

Despite the absence of affluent collectors, the close-knit contemporary artists group in Myanmar exhibits its works in the private galleries of Yangon and Mandalay with enormous zeal. Insulated from the western world, the unique ‘eastern-ness’ of their art expression has shown beauty in the social realities of its conservative society. Myanmar’s economy has seen enormous growth, since it became a member of ASEAN in 1997. With this awakening, Myanmar Modernism, in its traditional pictorial connotations, also gained recognition in international art circles. Art critics across the world consider Myanmar Contemporary Art, with its dedication to most common everyday situation, enlightening and fresh, compared to the sophisticated Western Art forms.

Annette Labedzki received her BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She has more than 25 years experience. She is the founder and developer of an online art gallery featuring original art from all over the world. Please visit the website at http://www.Labedzki-Art.com It is a great site for art collectors to buy original art. Artists can join for free and their image upload is unlimited.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Annette_Labedzki