Wise to Art

One might imagine that it’s thanks to a highly active marketing strategy that artprice has gained its position as one of the top art market references on the web. Artprice develops consciously an international profile and has become the site that is most visited globally, be it that it still lags behind artnet in total audience figures. Thanks to mirror sites in Spanish, Italian and French, artnet does even better than artnet in Europe, who limits itself to English and German versions of its site. As with artnet, which was born in Germany before partly migrating to the States, artprice is of European origin, and more precisely of French. Auxiliary to the world of fine art, artprice’s services touch design and antiques. For a brief history of artprice, see Wikipedia’s article.

As to services there is very little formal difference in functionality between the two mentioned platforms. The difference lies foremost in the aspect and in the contents. Artprice clearly lists a greater number of lesser known artists - with few auction records - and is therefore maybe a more comprehensive tool than artnet. As does artnet, artprice brings breaking and in-depth news about the international art market while offering online subscription services to past and present auction prices in venues across the world. The website provides summary international gallery listings with sales opportunities under the formula ‘artprice stores’, artists’ biographies and their various market indices, auction-house news and special reports on art market events and tendencies. It distinguishes itself from its rival in proposing a general art market index and an art pricing valuation service, but lacks in turn artnet’s new on-line auction feature, auction house listings, artists monographs and the latter’s magazine feature.

It’s above all in the interface that the difference is marked. The French design is full of clutter and complication whereas the German/American site is sleek and sober. Of course this is a matter of personal taste. The juxtaposition of artprice’s essentially artistic management team versus the clear no-nonsense business management model of artnet will probably account for this difference.

Home page

Artprice’s choice of contrasting black and whites gives the site an unnecessarily hard edge and is not pleasing for the eye. Brash and complicated design completes the non-inspiring picture of an aggressively commercial site. Beyond the first impression the site is functional and contains an impressive amount of useful data.

Top bar position from left to right ‘home’, ‘My Artprice’, ‘Artprice images’, ‘My store’, ’Ads’, ‘Products’, ‘Contact, ‘Language choice’. Drop-down menus direct you to a humdrum choice of other services presented rather pell-mell.

The price database

The price database is of course not unique to artprice but represents its core feature. As said, the great advantage with artprice is the sheer number of artists listed. Artprice’s reactivity to the art market is excellent and the featuring of illustrated catalogues a very useful feature.

The stores

Artprice offers art professionals and collectors alike to feature an unlimited number of items under this unique annual subscription service. The modest fee allows for second and third tier professionals to get their art to the collectors in a simple and highly cost-effective fashion.

The editorial services

Artprice newsletters
Artprice offers a subscription service to a free periodic e-newsletter.

Conclusion:

Complimentary to artnet for top tier collectors, artprice becomes indispensable for those collecting affordable art and less pricy items. Artprice has an excellent presence on the art market but suffers from lack of style, what becomes evident in the rather crude web design.

It’s now almost a century ago that the Dadaist movement introduced absurdity into the art world and it’s only logical that the ultimate consecration of nonsense, pecuniary compensation, is now gaining widespread acceptance. Damien Hirst is the emblematic figure of our times. Mr Hirst is certainly a genius of some kind. With Hirst the fusion between art and non-art is complete and the new art metaphor is a stuffed calf in gold sheathing. Let’s call this new art ‘Tart’ and accept that tart is money, money is art and art=tart. The desire of ‘buying the price” has become the ultimate drive for the new tart-collectors.

Now that art definitely is becoming tart, what with that old museum inventory? Well, even if not yet treated as tart, the old art is efficiently monetized by our tart-loving market forces. In this respect it is very instructive to read eminent art critic Souren Melikian’s article on ‘the divergent fates of works that benefit from celebrity and masterpieces that have only their quality in their favor.’ The art market has become very much like the real estate market, the commodities market or the stock exchange; pure pecuniary speculation detached from any artistic merit. And it works to an astonishing degree.

But who are all these people buying those massive amounts of tart? Well, people interested in making money on the short term. As the whole interest of buying tart is in the subsequent selling, stimulating the fable that tart is art is necessary for healthy resale profits. At the moment there are buyers everywhere thanks to the buoyant economies of emerging nations with cheap labour cashing in on the ongoing globalisation. It is perfectly clear to everyone that this golden period will come to an end and that the herds of ‘newly rich’ one day will discover that their so called art is…simple tart. But who cares? It’s only the very last in the chain of suckers that will be ripped off… The crash is inevitable but not yet in sight, not by far, and this explains the frenetic activity these days at Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

Is tart-collecting worth our contempt? Not really, today everything is equal and money-making is the corner-stone of our society. But please, give us a break with the word ‘art’, name a tart a tart and art art.

According to Alexa, artnet is Internet’s most visited art portal. Confirming its role as a global player, artnet brings both breaking and in-depth news about the international art market while offering online subscription services to past and present auction prices in venues across the world. The website provides extensive international gallery listings, artist monographs, auction-house news and special reports on art market events and trends.

Although artnet may appear as a universal forum dedicated to art, its emphasis is clearly on providing an art exchange platform. Thanks to intelligent and up to date cross-referencing between past and upcoming auctions and current gallery offers, the collector is given a formidable tool to be kept up to date with his collection’s market position and to be alerted to works coming up for sale. The vendors, for their part, are served with permanent and global visibility for their merchandise. Recently artnet added an in-house on-line auction facility to its already impressive gamut of broker services. Auxiliary to the world of fine art, artnet’s occupations touch as well design, antiques and the decorative arts. For a brief history of artnet, see Wikipedia’s article.

On a market with global reach, the duple transatlantic quarters of artnet’s working structure gives the company its competitive edge. It’s noticeable that the site is offered in English (most visited) and German (original) versions only, leaving, in particular, the world’s traditionally third (now fourth after the UK, the US and China) ‘art market power’, France, in the cold.

Quality in website design, graphics and functionality is artnet’s key solution for handling the wealth of information proposed. Artnet’s rational and artful solutions contribute greatly to the platform’s upscale image.

Home page

Artnet’s choice of subdued reds and greys gives the site its choice appearance and the lay-out couldn’t be more classical. Far from the brash and complicated design of some competitors, clarity reigns on this model-book home page, boasting an impressive Google page rank 7. The top bar divisions, announcing the crucial databases as well as the more peripheral editorial services, are reiterated on the home page as separate headings with brief and often illustrated introductions. Decorative arts and design do not have top bar positions but are introduced on the page itself.

If top bar position can be judged important, the present ordinal sequence reads: ‘artists/artworks past auction prices database’ – ‘galleries’/dealer’s works for sale database’ – ‘auction houses upcoming auctions database’; after which are placed the informative section: ‘subscription conditions for the price database’ and finally the editorial services ‘market trends’ – ‘market events’ – ‘ artnet magazine’. Remarkable is that the recent ‘artnet online auction’ facility has gotten the primary position at the left on the top bar, what might be an indication of artnet’s own idea of the potential of this feature.

The price database

At the origin of the artnet concept, the price database is not unique to artnet and features roughly the same set of options that is found in all similar sites today. Our impression of artnet’s artist database is that lesser known (less traded) artists are unlikely to be listed; what seems normal for a site dedicated to the top-tier market. The cross-indexing of the price database with works currently selling in galleries and auction houses is the prime feature.

The gallery and auction house listings

Artnet offers select art professionals the choice between a free basic listing or a paying member presentation, the latter with mentioned specialization, company detail and hyperlinks. The rather pricy periodical fee for member status is another sifting mechanism that helps attracting only high-end user profiles.

The editorial services

Commissioned:
Artnet offers paying tailor-made analyses of high-profile artists under the denomination ‘market trends’. Under ‘events’, member galleries and auction houses have the opportunity to market their upcoming exhibitions or sales events.

Artnet magazine and newsletter
Artnet publishes its own online magazine with traditional magazine-style content and offers a subscription service to a free periodic e-newsletter.

Conclusion:

Judged premier site among those reviewed with similar content (artnet, artprice, findartinfo, artfact, akoun), artnet is remarkable for its aesthetics, ease of use and quality content. In our opinion it’s an indispensable portal for art professionals and collectors acting in the upper regions of the art market.