Howdy!
On Tuesday I went to the auction of (mostly) Canadian Art at Iegor – Hôtel des Encans. It was vaguely frustrating as less than 50% of the lots offered up for sale sold. I don’t know if that was due to reserves being placed to high, or lack of interest, or if it was more indicative of lower quality work, or something else entirely.
I was interested in it because of a bunch of items, specifically two Marcel Barbeau paintings, prints by a Johanne Corno, Alfred Pellan and Jacques Hurtubise, a Zilon painting and a Robert Roussil sculpture. Along the way there was also Vladimir Lebedev print, some Frère Jérôme stuff and three Fernand Toupins that looked kind of funky. Overall Iegor – Hôtel des Encans grossed almost $250,000. (Please take care when quoting my figures, taking notes at an Iegor auction is not an easy thing, there are numerous question marks in my notes and while I would feel comfortable using them as a rough guide, I would not trust them to be the definitive word – there is a reason why M. De Saint Hippolyte is extremely secretive).
The blockbuster, if you can call it that, was a pair of Cloisonné Qilin (Cloisonnéd Qilins?) that went for $30,353.40 with the 20% buyer’s premium and taxes included (all prices quoted here have the 20% buyer’s premium and taxes included). It seems to me that while M. De Saint Hippolyte initially made his name selling Quebecois art, he is more and more moving into the more generalized practice that really doesn’t differentiate objects that cost a chunk of change and takes advantage of the fact that most potential buyers will be first time, only time buyers from him. Emphasizing that while they know the objects in question (such as the Cloisonné Qilin in question) and therefore unlikely to overpay, there are a bunch of practices that M. De Saint Hippolyte can employ to obtain fair market value.
I’m always a large believer in taking full advantage of arbitrage, buying winter coats and boots in the middle of the summer, buying baseball cards of Tampa Bay Rays’ players in Seattle, playing Beach Boys songs in December, etc. In short going against the grain. Shorter still: Contrarian.
So you’d figure that after this much time M. De Saint Hippolyte would have figured out how to maximize sales of and on Quebecois artists. That he would have fostered and promoted collectors of Quebecois art. But as far as I can tell paintings by Stanley Cosgrove, Goodrich Roberts and others of their ilk are still selling for about $5,000, like they were a decade and a half ago. a rising tide is supposed to lift all boats, but if the tide never comes then everything just remains beached. And from where I am sitting Quebecois art has been beached and left out to rot for the longest time. If a new painting by Zilon will cost something like five figure but you can pick up an older pre-loved one for $1,793.61 like someone did on Tuesday, why in anyone’s name would you buy new?
That all being said, I will repeat myself again and say that there is sole pretty gosh darn phenomenal art being made here right now (and in the past as well) but the people whose job and responsibility it is (like M. De Saint Hippolyte, Nathalie Bondil, Simon Blais, and others) to make the rest of the world aware of how amazing, kick-ass and wonderful the art made here is are dropping the ball and screwing around big time.
Pop Shop, the one on top sold for $1,103.76.l Au bord de la mer (on the bottom) did not sell.
And then finally, if you’d like my spreadsheet of prices from the auction, download this.
Dude!
1. People here have an inferiority complex.
If some expert in New York is not boasting about our artists, then they are worthless.
If Japanese/russian/dubaiote/Chinese collectors are not buying in troves, our artists are sub-quality.
If they are not showing at the Louvre, Versailles, the Tate, in Soho etc. then they are worthless.
2. The colonised and inferior mentality has it that only imported stuff is good. So people will wall-up with American and European artists. Newest trend: buy Chinese artists. And should anything local be worth of consideration, it has to be approve by the international “scene” (i.e. this boils down to Riopelle and that’s it).
3. Anything “popular” is frowned upon. Exit Corno. Exit Zilon. If your even mention her name in the school she graduated from (UQAM) your application is flushed. Just so you know how Academia and the Intelligentsia are participating in this atmosphere.
4. People in Quebec don’t buy art. They don’t see a point in it. Art is something the government commissions to put in public buildings and parks. In people’s houses, they would rather have their kids drawings and mononcle Réjean’s same old winter scenes or worse matante Guylaine’s portraits of her three cats.
5. There is no notion of patrimoine national. Or rather, the one we have is only a mortifère one, focused on past and dead stuff, hasbeen language issues, deadbeat chauvinistic issues etc.
Whatever has been done recently or is being done currently does not interest anyone unless it can be manipulated to fit national identity and chauvinistic agendas.
Just my opinion…
Howdy!
You’re spouting cliches, that for the most part are still appropriate. Personally, I’d like to see someone other than Landau go to serious and big fairs. I’d like to see some galleries step up (like Corno’s and MX for Zilon) and make sure that the stuff in the secondary market holds it’s value. I’d like to see the MACM trading shows with San Francisco, Chicago, LA, Boston. Not Sherbrooke, Oshawa, Halifax and Hamilton. I’d like to see the MBAM return to trading shows with Moscow, Paris and New York.
There’s a lot wrong with the Montreal/Quebecois art world, but there are a lot of people who could be doing more…
Hi there,
“there are a lot of people who could be doing more…”
And of course, the 1 million $ question is WHY in the world aren’t they doing anything… Hence the clichés… I don’t see any other reasons…
Oh, and Heffel is also doing “something” to help…
I forgot…
WHAT secondary market? There is none. Whatever events we attend and think are part of the “secondary market” are nothing but glorified garage sales.
See, your Zilon sale did not and I garantee it will not show up in my Artprice files…
Point 6. to my list of reasons:
The general level of education about both art and art market is very low, even within galleries.
I bought a Corno poster the other day in a gallery. The lady thought I was buying it for the image, calling it a “nice reproduction”. I tried to explain how a “Poster” is not a reproduction, how it is a product on its own right with its own market, I pointed out the vintage rock band poster market, Swann Galleries, etc. To no avail. She didn’t beleive me. She did not see a difference between a reproduction (an art product which purpose is to look like and replace the original) and a poster (une “affiche” i.e. a marketing product which purpose is to advertise something, a product, place, event)…
What can you expect from that?
Howdy!
Ballsy, buying a Corno poster. Although could I also suggest that you might want to give her your mailing address? The hard copy invites to the exhibits are instant collectors’ items.
And I wish I could get out west to see a Heffel auction, I’d love to see their technique. I hope that it is very different than M. Saint Hippolyte’s.
Not sure Heffel’s technique in situ is that different.
However, there is a lot of background work done, networking, PR, connections etc. that seems to be working. THEY have results on the secondary market.
They are very snob, snotty, posh etc. very unpleaseant folks and you can feel their “market” is composed of investors rather than afficionados but hey, better than nothing. Gotta live in the real world.
PS: I bought the poster because I like it. It was two for 32$!!
Howdy!
At some point, in person, I’ll explain M. De Saint Hippolyte’s technique. And glad you like the poster, that’s by far and away the best reason to buy anything.