Art Business According to Gelman
No. 3, October 2002
Marat Gelman is definitely the most famous person in the post-Soviet territory selling contemporary art. Starting with collecting in the 1980s, Gelman became the first gallerist in the USSR to name a gallery after himself. In the following decade, he became a semi-mythical figure in the artistic and para-artistic environment. But the undeniable fact remains: Gelman’s Gallery is the most successful commercial institution of contemporary art in Russia. Last year, its branch opened in Kyiv, and this summer it was transformed into a sovereign Ukrainian structure. Since the situation with the art market in our country is stuck at the level of the post-communist early nineties, Gelman’s Gallery will have to repeat its path here, which it passed in Moscow.
Was Marat Gelman’s Gallery in Kyiv opened based on the commercial attractiveness of the Ukrainian art market, or is there some element of charity and a calculation for the prospects of the distant future?
– It is definitely not charity. The question is how to understand the word commerce. We are not selling pies, and it is not about some business plan. It is about understanding several things. First: Ukraine is the last European country without an art market. But in a year or two, this market will appear anyway. And success is always maximal when you are in the situation of a market’s birth, so the conjunctural moment certainly exists. Second: the art I deal with is international, convertible. That is, there are roots, but at the same time, art speaks an international language, and in this sense, a certain network structure is assumed. Some of the exhibitions we will show here will also take place in Moscow, Germany, and other centers. The gallery in Kyiv will also be a platform for finding good artists, who are never many. With a mature art market, there is an excess of supply, but there are also demands for a certain quality. And third – it is something coming from within. The success of Gelman’s Gallery in Moscow in 1990 was connected with Ukrainian art, and I have a kind of nostalgia for those times.
Speaking about the art market, you mention some special technologies of working in this area. What exactly are these technologies, and how do they function?
– If the antiques market can be called a market of rarities, then the contemporary art market is more like the stock market. There, money is also invested in some enterprise, it turns into a joint-stock company, its accounting is opened, and then the company’s shares are in a state of open sale. Not the product is sold, but the corporation’s name. Similarly in art, not paintings are sold, but the artist’s name, his place in art history. When I talk about the formation of the art market, I primarily mean the concept of collecting. We still need to overcome a certain post-Soviet syndrome. In Soviet times, a collector was almost a criminal who wanted to own art himself, opposing the thesis “art belongs to the people.” That is, galleries, first of all, must introduce the understanding that collecting is good and prestigious. Second, what is important is the struggle with the past. If in European countries leftist art fights with state art, then in post-Soviet countries contemporary art fights with the art of the past. Because it is considered here that a spoon that is a hundred years old is a cultural value, but contemporary art is just so, nothing special. Although contemporary art is a full-fledged continuation of old art. Third is work directly inside the created context, inside the market. It is necessary to prove that the art exhibited specifically in this gallery is better than the art exhibited in other galleries. The fourth important task is overcoming isolation. It is necessary to find in Ukrainian art that part which is not regional but international. After all, while there is more money in the international market, it is the trendsetter. Fifth – what has already been solved for Gelman’s Gallery and can be solved for others. The gallery must become a kind of quality guarantor. For example, there are corporate collections assembled by experts. The situation there is very competitive; the person who collects for the corporation’s collection receives good money, and they fight for this position. Accordingly, when he buys works of young artists, someone always criticizes this choice. And the only criterion and quality guarantor is the gallery’s name. When all these things plus the so-called reflexive ability of the environment, that is, the ability to criticize, the ability to form the hierarchy system themselves, exist, we can say that the art market has been established. Regardless of its volume – five million a year, fifty or five hundred.
Is the art market formed in Russia?
– There is no market in the sense that Russia is a huge country, and there are maybe ten galleries that earn income from art trade. In smaller Germany, there are three thousand profitable galleries. But for the top ten galleries in Russia, the market exists. That is, a market model exists, and it functions quite effectively, but exclusively as a model. This means that as soon as something changes in consciousness, in society, this model will very quickly turn into a full-fledged market.
Does such a model exist in Ukraine?
– In Ukraine, there is not even a model. The system of relationships inside the artistic environment here does not imply market relations. I think this will change very soon.
Can the turnover of funds in the Russian model of the contemporary art market be estimated?
– Gelman’s Gallery turnover is one and a half million dollars. I do not look into the pockets of other galleries and cannot name the exact figure of their income. Considering that Gelman’s Gallery is the most commercially successful, I think the turnover of the art market in Russia is twenty million, no more.
Can the technologies of the art market aimed at creating an artist’s name be compared with show business technologies, where financial or organizational investments are made in a personality, and profit is eventually extracted?
– Everything can be compared with everything. I repeat: if we talk about the aspect of selling a brand, the art market is most like the stock market. But there is another aspect. Art, besides producing a product, that is paintings, reproduces events. Vernissage, for example. Events are covered by the press, they attract attention, so there is a PR resource. This means there is also a market for sponsorship money. And if we talk about the sponsorship money market, in this part the art market is like show business. The main difference between an artist and a musician is the difference between a cult figure and a pop figure. A cult figure is always oriented to the professional environment, and a pop figure to the public. A cult figure practically does not exploit their popularity, while a pop figure constantly turns to their audience, trying to please them, that is, they depend on the audience. But in some ways, all markets are similar.
Whose work among contemporary Ukrainian artists would you call commercially attractive?
– Arsen Savadov, Vasyl Tsagolov, Oleksandr Roitburd, Oleksandr Hnylytsky, Oleh Tistol. These are people who have experience of presence in the international market. And this means that even if you buy art not out of love for art but as a kind of investment, you will not lose your money here.
Can it be assumed that the next stage of any Ukrainian artist’s career after the Kyiv art market is the Moscow art market?
– No, it is the international market. The international market today has five centers. The main one is New York. Then there are two competing with each other – Cologne and London. Then Berlin, Moscow, Madrid. I think Paris can be added to this list. These are the world art centers today, and it is clear that it is easier for Ukrainian art to get into Moscow than Madrid, but in principle, it does not matter at all.
How do you think the Ukrainian art market will develop in the near future?
– I think with our help the Ukrainian art market will form very quickly. The main task now is very simple. Just like in the stock market, it is necessary to determine the lists of convertibles. Today even good Ukrainian galleries, like “Atelier Karas,” for example, exhibit very different artists. Very good and very bad. When galleries understand that they cannot be everywhere at once, that the level of a gallery is the level of its worst exhibition, not the best, it will mean that separation will occur. The market requires clarity. People who buy art are not professionals. And if a non-professional has to pay serious money for art, they must be guided by very simple criteria. Just as there are experts in the investment market, in art there must be some number of galleries whose reputation serves as a quality guarantee. If there are five such galleries in Kyiv, that will be enough for the market to start moving.Link
