By Ernest Britton
Before giving up on the slow pace of this online art fair experience, I did however spy a handful of works worth revisiting later. They included Untitled (Slit) 2009 by Adam Putnam, a mixed media work on paper at the Taxter and Spengemann gallery. There was also Matthew Chamber's He Refers to Soldiers and Kings, 2000 an oil and acrylic on canvas at NY Untitled gallery; and Matthew Darbyshire's Stool Series (Magis Tam Tam Stool and Carved Ashanti Stool), 2010 at London's Herald Street gallery, but I'm not sure I'll go back to learn more because the page is still loading.
Organized by NYC art dealers James and Jane Cohan, and internet moguls Jonas and Alessandra Almgren VIP Art Fair runs through January 30th. It’s certainly an idea that fits the market trend of increased luxury purchases being made online including those at online art auctions.The first step was to assemble an impressive group of founding dealers, who include Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner. The art fair opened online yesterday with 137 booths; 2,349 artists and an inventory of 8,901 works including 699 multimedia pieces, 2,376 paintings, and 492 prints. It’s a high mountain to climb to turn this into a pleasurable shopping experience and it’s not there yet.
Even with all the bells and whistles of interactive capability, which allows collectors theopportunity to view artwork online as never before including viewing artworks in relation to other works of art and in relative scale to the human figure. You can even zoom in to examine details of a painting’s surface, get multiple views of a three-dimensional work, and watch videos of a multimedia piece. Visitors can also interact with the gallery dealer via instantmessaging, Skype, and telephone to discuss works on offer in the virtual booth. It’s also far cheaper for art dealers to participant because they can have a virtual booth for $15,000 versus the $50,000 they might spend at the Art Basel Miami Beach.
Sadly however it doesn’t deliver the passion and even hysteria of being there live. I did appreciate the post on their website, "" but after two hours of ponderous viewing online I stopped trying, and had not even seen 30% of the work available. Since it doesn't end until January 30th, I’ll likely be back but even if I do, I'm convinced that this online experiment is not yet the vehicle for an online art fair.
Other online art world initiatives to watch include:
- 1stdibs.com,and online design and home décor powerhouse for galleries to post works forsale.
- Art.sy.com, a new service set to launch this spring. The site is designed much the way the music site Pandora guides music lovers to new bands. Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy is advising the company, as is Mr. Gagosian.
- Christie's offers real-time, online bidding at nearly all of its auctions. A Shang Dynasty wine vessel fetched $3.3 million in September, breaking the house record for an item purchased with an online bid.
- Saffronart.com, an online auction house dedicated to Indian art, sold a $2.2 million oil painting last month by Arpita Singh entitled "Wish Dream."
- Sotheby's re-entered the online auction market last year after the failure of its 2000 launch when it sold an original copy of the Declaration of Independence to sitcom legend Norman Lear for $8.1 million, but ultimately ended online sales in 2003 after a loss of $100 million. Sotheby's video library is effective at both educating and driving interest.
- Artnet.com, which provides a price database and research material on the art market, restarted its online auctions two years ago following a loss of $11 million but even though they sold more than $12 million in art last year, that venture has yet to turn a profit.
- Oneartworld.com was created by Internet entrepreneur Jonas Almgren and his wife, Alessandra.
- 20x200.com, Jen Beckman's virtual gallery complement to her lower-east side NYC gallery which sells limited-edition prints ranging inprice from $20 to $5,000.
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