The Collecting Impetus - What Resonates with Collectors Now? With Emily Tsingou
Emily Tsingou has an established reputation as a leading contemporary fine art dealer and advisor. She is the founder of Emily Tsingou Fine Art and over the last twenty-five years has been an active participant in the art world, as a curator, writer, gallerist, and Trustee of the Showroom and Development Committee SLG.
Emily’s first point was that collecting is not homogenous. It is really hard to generalise, and something useful to keep in mind is that collectors are a spectrum of market participants and they vary in purpose and activity, and they can come in and out of collecting in waves.
What they do share right now, in this particular moment, along with the galleries, museums who are closed, is that they are now collecting from home. And this isolation is the basis of a shared experience. Constantly working with and speaking with collectors, Emily says
We are a community, and from what I've seen people are interested in asserting the value of culture, and prioritising the value of visual art. The significance of art has not been diminished but actually enhanced and become a lot more important to all of us. To me this is not a slogan but a really important thing.’
What she has seen is that artists are marking a moment and collectors are responding to that. There is art being made about lockdown or artists just making work anyway, as artists in the past have for example Guernica, (1937) by Picasso, Dali’s “The Face of War’, (1940) or Philip Guston responding to Richard Nixon's impeachment.
There is a great appetite by collectors to capture this moment, to buy work from artists responding to this time.
Some current examples are Sadie Coles ‘Homework’ show, which consisted of work made right now by artists in isolation from their studios. Rashid Johnson has made a body of work which sold quickly and George Condo among others.
Another thing she has seen is that collectors are using this time to broaden their scope, that this is a time to expand horizons and is a special opportunity to research artists, art movements and trends. It is also a time for what people in finance call value investment, buying the overlooked, trying to buy the good solid artists who are trading below value or not trading at all. This is basic good practice in collecting and despite the fact that prices are fluctuating it is a good opportunity for value investing.
But Emily highlighted that she is also wrestling with some fundamentals.
'Art is tactile, is visceral, there is a connection you can't put into words. Looking at a jpeg can’t help you shape a vision or make an informed decision and we need to accept there are limitations in the current proliferation of digital platforms. Our relationship to the physical piece is basic, and by shifting that, the core of our practises are being shattered. It’s important to bring this up, as this crucial component creates a funny ripple in the way that we look.'
The other fundamental Emily highlighted is art is event driven, through exhibitions, art fairs, biennials and these being halted is difficult and problematic and will effect the market. Galleries rosters will be shaken up, museums will not being able to support artists through acquisitions. Globally museums have a very different way of building finances within their institutions - American museums rely on private financing, Europeans look to the state - but collecting interest is not going to disappear. '
Collectors may not be able to support exhibitions in the way they did in the past for a little while and museums will have to adapt.
Buying trends within institutions are also likely to contract for the short to medium term. If museums stop buying for a few years, private collectors will see that as a buying opportunity.
A lot of artists right now, you can’t buy - because there is a long list of museums, and really great collectors can't get offered work, and that will be a relief to galleries as well as collectors, as galleries find it very difficult when an artist is in high demand and they can't cater to that sector at all.
Her point is that it makes the market very uneven and the long term market for that artist very difficult.Emily questioned aloud what is tomorrow going to be like for the artists she supports, and the galleries she has supported?
A concern for her now thing is this thing which is trending - Covid prices -.
There is a lot to be said about ambulance chasers, who ask is there a chance to pick up a bargain?. There is a danger in that because people forget the basics. Is this work a great piece? Great artworks don't really lose value. There may be fluctuations but they come back, and let's be very clear ambulance chasers are not good for our system.
The final point Emily left us on was we need to accept things are going to be changed on the other side of this tunnel, and her mantra is something Gerhard Richter said “ Art is the highest form of hope” and while me now may be inside a type of tsunami, 'there is always respite in art'.