Art market ... place ...

General market and art market.

The general market is formed by the principles of supply and demand. Consumption occurs by first identifying the needs of consumers and then developing and supplying products and services. This is usually how markets are formed and operated.

However, the art market is an area of exchange between art suppliers and consumers, and by its nature, works of art are at the center. Art works are revealed as commercial value and goods, and a market of intermediary meaning is formed through exchanges between art suppliers and consumers. In other words, in the art market, rather than first understanding the needs of consumers, the method is to find consumers based on the premise of a work of art. As a result, supply and consumption occur and the art market is formed and operated.

Formation of the art market

Sponsorship of Renaissance artists

Humanism, which values human dignity and value centered on absolute God, is a new paradigm of the Renaissance era. During this period, a wealthy and educated ruling class, formed through a religious worldview and a feudal ruling class, patronized artists. For example, the Medici family was a representative family that financially supported artists of the time, and the artists who received support produced works of art according to orders from the royal family, wealthy powerful people, and nobles. Artists who were active and supported at the time included Botticelli, Donatello, and Michelangelo.

Baroque period

After the Renaissance and the Baroque era, absolute monarchs played an important role in expanding the art market. Absolute monarchs monopolize the entire nation's resources and, in the process of showing off their power, hire numerous artists to produce large amounts of artwork. During this period, the Academy, a national art organization, appeared. The Academy was a powerful representation of royal authority in the fields of art, dance, and music, and the absolute monarch and his subjects became the main consumers of works of art. They go beyond simple sponsorship and become involved in the production of works based on their own preferences, such as the subject matter, characters, and poses of the work.

The encounter between art and capital in modern society

In an era when overall social systems were changing based on modern rationality, the subjective role of artists was emphasized, and an art market in a modern sense was formed. Artists gradually break away from creative activities subordinated to specific powers and wealth, such as the church, king, or aristocracy, and enjoy the status of independent artistic creators. As we move beyond the employed status and develop full-fledged modern academic and social fields, a distinction between art and non-art emerges, and in performing arts, performance halls where the audience and the stage face each other are created.

Art Market.

The basis for artists' work activities is now moving from sponsorship to the market. Modern artists produced their works on a custom basis and did not need a separate structure for selling their works. However, after modern times, as a new consumer class emerged, mainly wealthy merchants and citizens, a method of selling to unspecified consumers was introduced. New consumers, not the royal family or nobility but the newly rich, were born. For example, the background to the formation of the modern art market is the Netherlands, where the middle class of citizens grew significantly. The Netherlands formed a modern art market system starting in the 17th century, at a time when commerce and industry were developing and colonies were established, leading to the development of global overseas trade and commerce and industry. As commerce and industry developed, new wealthy citizens naturally emerged, and a modern capitalist market was formed with freedom of religion and thought and social equality, and this new demand class gave birth to a new art genre. A variety of paintings that have not been seen in the past appear, including self-portraits, genre paintings based on the lives of citizens, portraits, and landscape paintings. Artists no longer present paintings of a variety of genres, focusing on subjects such as the royal family, nobility, and the Bible, but also everyday life and individuals. Autonomous competition targeting unspecified consumers has begun in earnest in the art market. Johannes Vermeer's <Woman Pouring Milk>, which reflects this era, depicts the everyday scene of pouring milk in the kitchen of an ordinary home. In addition, Rembrandt, famous as a painter of light, paints Dutch citizens and his own self-portraits and portraits.

Characteristics of the art market.

• General companies identify consumer demand and develop products or services, but the art market discovers consumers based on works of art. Therefore, it is characterized by a market centered on supply rather than demand and led by works of art. The most important thing in this market is the artwork itself.
• The art market emphasizes qualitative value rather than quantity of supply and demand . Since it is a product-driven market where the artistry of a work of art is prioritized, the importance of artistic quality is inevitable, and this becomes the driving force for artists to maintain creativity.
• Industrialization is based on increased productivity, division of labor, and market development, but market formation for cultural arts industrialization requires an approach from a different perspective. It is a property of market change based on popular response. The art market exchanges not only goods and services, but also cultural values.
• The key players in the art market are artists who are creators, intermediaries such as galleries, auctions, and art fairs, and consumers such as audiences and collectors.
• Even in the art market, the performance market and the art market have slightly different characteristics. In the performance market, audiences view artists' creations in a performance hall, and performances and viewings take place within the performance hall. In the case of the art market, artists' creations are exchanged with audiences and collectors not only through appreciation but also through sale.

A work of art as a product

A work of art is a creation created by an artist through time and effort, providing an aesthetic experience, and in terms of aesthetic utility, it also serves as an economic consumer good. As a commodity, a work of art has the following characteristics: 

• Works of art can be tangible products, such as paintings, but they mainly provide intangible services. The intangible nature of a work of art makes its reality uncertain. You can test drive products such as cars, and you can sample beverage products, but it is difficult to examine works of art before purchasing, and there are limits to finding out in advance whether they suit your taste or level. However, this intangibility of a work of art also has the potential to develop infinite derivative products.
• Works of art have heterogeneity, and even the same performance has different feelings and characteristics each time depending on the producer and performer. Even an exhibition by the same artist can have different characteristics depending on the planning intention, and you can enjoy a classical performance with a different atmosphere and feeling depending on the conductor. As it is a work of art that can be consumed differently depending on the viewer, the space, and the curator's planning intention, it is reborn through the process of re-creation at each exhibition, and in the case of performing arts, in this sense, every performance becomes a different original work.
• As a product, a work of art has the characteristic that production and consumption occur simultaneously and cannot be separated. Unlike general products, works of art are inseparable in that production and consumption occur simultaneously, such as in a performance appreciation situation where an artist performs and an audience watches. Appreciation of visual art works displayed in museums and art galleries is also subject to certain spatial and temporal constraints and is a special, on-the-spot appreciation. 
• In particular, performing arts have a one-time nature, and as such, works of art have the characteristic of disappearing. Although works of art can be owned, they cannot be stored or stored after viewing an exhibition.

Embun.