Old Masters vs Instagram

The art market has shifted from old paintings to contemporary works by living artists with a strong Instagram presence.

A sale of old masters at Christie’s in London in December.Credit. Christie's

In December, Christie’s annual evening auction of master paintings in London saw a shift in taste from the old to the new, with a semi-abstract canvas by British artist Flora Yukhnovich selling for the same price as Jean-François de Troy’s “The Reading Party,” which is a museum-worthy masterwork. While European pictures dating from before 1850 are not as fashionable as they once were, Sotheby’s and Christie’s are hoping to attract buyers for old masters paintings worth over $175m in New York this month. The fixation with “the Now” reflects the fast-forward cultural preoccupations of our society. Sociologists see the changes in the art market as one of the many elements reflecting how the pace and preoccupations of culture have altered.

The price for the Flora Yukhnovich painting "Warm, Wet 'N' Wild" sold for $3.6 million in March, which was the same price as the newly sold Nicolas de Stael painting. Flora Yukhnovich is a British artist known for her semi-abstract canvas works inspired by 18th-century French paintings, and her paintings have soared to seven figures at auction in recent years. The article also notes that European pictures dating from before 1850 are not as popular with collectors as they once were, but Sotheby's and Christie's later offered a collection of old masters paintings in New York with an estimated value of more than $175 million.

Traders of old masters note that paintings depicting violent scenes, such as Rubens' portrayal of a maidservant presenting St. John the Baptist's severed head on a platter to Salome while grinning and pulling out the tongue, are popular among contemporary-minded clients. Eric Turquin, a painting expert based in Paris, says that some individuals from the contemporary art world have been purchasing old masters in recent years, with a preference for strong and violent images from the Baroque period. However, he notes that their buyers tend to be fewer but richer.

“Salome Presented With the Head of St. John the Baptist” by Rubens (1609). Credit Sotheby's

Old masters used to be the dominant sales category, as evidenced by the record-breaking $5.5 million sale of Velázquez’s “Portrait of Juan de Pareja” by the Metropolitan Museum at Christie's in London 50 years ago. Today, they only account for 4 percent of auction and private sales at Sotheby's and Christie's, reflecting the preference for contemporary art that mirrors the cultural preoccupations of our fast-forward society.

Younger collectors often view art from the distant past as remote and irrelevant, with the technical aspects of a sale being off-putting. According to Turquin, old masters are difficult to approach due to issues of condition and attribution. Instead, today's buyers are more interested in paintings by artists under 45 years old rather than over 400 years old.