ArtTactic, the London-based market research and advice company, has added the world of Contemporary Design to its portfolio. This week, it published a report reviewing the market, including a list of “its important players and the most important Contemporary Designers of today.” It also launched the “ArtTactic Contemporary Design Index, which will track the performance in the Contemporary Design market going forward.”
Most of this is behind a paywall. The report, just 13 pages, costs £75.00.
But I’ve procured some highlights for RCA readers that go beyond the press release, which itself had some interesting items (quoting):
- The ArtTactic Contemporary Design Market Price Index has experienced a recovery of 17.6% in 2010.
- Total value of Contemporary Design is down 18% for the first half of 2010, compared to the same period last year. This is largely a result of Christie’s focus on early 20th century design, with no significant contemporary design material sold in 2010.
- Phillips de Pury becomes the leading house for Contemporary Design, with 68% market share for the first half of 2010.
- The top 10 designers account for 67.6% of the total auction turnover of contemporary design. The rest is shared among approximately 270 designers that have come to auction since 2006.
- Marc Newson defines the top end of the Contemporary Design auction market, with a 24% share of the total contemporary design value. One of his ‘Lockheed Lounge’ chairs sold for a record $1.8 million in May 2010.
Now for the exclusive part: Totalling auction sales by Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips de Pury between 2006-10 (to date), the top ten designers and their market share, with the dollar value of their sales, are:
1) Marc Newson: $7,652,490 (23.9% market share)
2) George Nakashima: $3,321,721 (10.4% market share) (that’s his bench, below)
3) Ron Arad: $3,148,899 (9.8% market share)
4) Claude Lalanne: $2,119,493 (6.6% market share)
5) Francois-Xavier Lalanne: $1,433,157 (4.5% market share)
6) Campana Brothers: $1,182,940 (3.7% market share)
7) Zaha Hadid: $789,181 (2.5% market share)
8) Shiro Kuramata: $660,507 (2.1% market share)
9) Shigeru Ban: $500,000 (1.6% market share)
10) Gaetano Pesce: %336,930 (1.1% market share)
These numbers are limited, obviously — they can’t tell what’s happening in galleries, the same way we can’t know what’s happening in the gallery sector of the art markets. But they’re interesting as a guideline.
And for other reasons.
Contemporary design, I’m told, is of growing interest to museums — partly because they can afford it, while much contemporary art is out of their reach, price-wise. If so few designers are truly in demand, it suggests that the big collectors are behaving in a herd manner — just as they are in contemporary art. Only a few artists dominate the market, creating a virtuous circle for their work and ever-higher prices.
That’s not usually good in contemporary works, where to borrow from Mao, we should let a hundred — or more — designers bloom. Then, over time, history can settle its judgment.