The Contemporary Art Market in 2021
thierry Ehrmann, CEO and founder of Artmarket.com and its department Artprice
The market is back at full speed with unprecedented stats!
After a very difficult year in 2020, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan all posted outstanding performances in the latter half of the year and the first half of 2021.
Behind China/Hong Kong ($1 billion in turnover), the American market nevertheless posted an exceptional total of $889 million, its best in the history of American Contemporary Art sales.
The Contemporary Art segment (artists born after 1945) posted a historic performance in H1 2021, up 50% vs. H1 2019.
The Art Market has its stars. Those whose works sell publicly for millions, sometimes tens of millions of dollars, constitute the market’s economic base.
The fact that Jean-Michel Basquiat is still the most expensive Contemporary artist at auction is not surprising.
In the 2020/21 period, almost 102,000 Contemporary artworks changed hands in auctions around the world, an increase of 34% compared with the 2018/19 period (i.e. before the pandemic).
Demand is sometimes so intense for artists who have the wind in their sails, so to speak, that their prices literally explode.
As early as March 2021, the Art Market showed a form of obsession with NFTs, the value of which soared literally overnight.
Technological epiphany… New Renaissance… Art Market revolution… Digital bubble… and of course… New speculative niche…
The remarkable rise of non-white artists is continuing to gather pace in a global phenomenon that is transforming the landscape of the major museums, art fairs, private collections and the entire Art Market.
Top 100 artists born after 1980 by auction revenue
Top 500 Contemporary artists by auction revenue
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The Contemporary Art Market in 2021
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