Researching Art Markets brings together a scholars from several, various disciplinary perspectives. In doing so, this collection offers a unique multi-disciplinary contribution that disentangles some of the key aspects and trends in art market practices from the past to nowadays, namely art collectors, the artist as an entrepreneur and career paths, and the formation and development of new markets.
In understanding the global art market as an ecosystem, the book also examines how research and perceptions have evolved over time. Within the frameworks of contemporary social, economic and political contexts, issues such as business practices, the roles of market participants and the importance of networks are analysed by scholars of different disciplines. With insights from across the humanities and social sciences, the book explores how different methods can coexist to create an interdisciplinary international community of knowledge and research on art markets. Moreover, by providing historical as well as contemporary examples, this book explores the continuum and diversity of the art market.
Overall, this book provides a valuable tool for understanding art markets within their wider context. The volume is of interest to scholars researching into the cultural and creative industries from a wider perspective.
The artist collectorâa dual actor in the artistic scene
The example of Bernar Venetâs collection
Gwendoline Corthier-Hardoin
Introduction
A double actor in the artistic scene, the artist collector is a figure too little known in academic studies (Collection Lambert en Avignon, 2001; Dexter, Barbican art gallery & Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, 2015; Robbins, 2016). His dual position, between the production of works and the practice of collecting, gives him a singular status within the art world. The research carried out in recent years on contemporary art collectors (Thomas, 1997; Benhamou-Huet, 2008; Guiot, 2008; Blom, 2010; Moureau, Sagot-Duvauroux & Vidal, 2015) has helped to lift the veil on a field that is difficult to embrace in its entirety and in which artist collections play an important role (Schnapper, 1976). If the collectorâs usual practices are now being identified, what about the artist who has collected works throughout his/her career? How do we understand the formation of their collection in terms of motivations, acquisitions and networks, given their dual position as artist and collector? Our chapter proposes to analyse the collection of Bernar Venet as a case study, considering his intentions (artistic, social, economic), transactions (purchases, exchanges), as well as his networks, thus highlighting the relationships he maintained with his colleagues and trying to understand the specificity of an artistâcollector. Bernar Venet is a French sculptor born in 1941 and an emblematic figure of the Conceptual Art Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. His collection of more than a hundred works by international artists is brought together in the Venet Foundation, created in 2014 in Le Muy in the south of France. Part of the collection has been shown in two main exhibitions: Vivre lâart: collection Venet, at the Espace de lâArt Concret in 2009; and Le Monde de Bernar Venet: Venet in context, at the Abattoirs de Toulouse in 2010.
It thus appears that there was a correlation between his artistic practice and that of a collector. Bernar Venet was in contact with artists with whom he felt close both formally and personally. The choice of works in the collection was oriented to correspond with his own searches. In the 1980s, for example, he exchanged one of his works with art dealer Hans Mayer for a Campbell Soup by Andy Warhol. Venet then sold this work to Daniel Templon in exchange for a work by Ellsworth Kelly and a sculpture by Tony Smith. Although he was aware of Warholâs importance on the art scene, the work he owned did not correspond to the spirit of his collection.