The booming global market of contemporary art

Author(s)

Thomas Fillitz

Abstract

The present economic and financial crises do not seem to particularly influence the global art market of contemporary art. In an attempt to understand this apparent opposition, I adopt a macro perspective, combining my own research ventures in Dakar and Vienna with general art market studies. I argue that this market is a special representation of millennial capitalism (Comaroff and Comaroff 2001). The global art market puts in place an organization of diversity that allows a high flexibility in including specific centers and marginalizing others, as well as a special focus on a globally acting group of "ultra high net worth" individuals. Striking features are the concentration of capital flows to a few major centers, the constitution of complex, transnational networks, the dominant logics for each market field (gambling, glamour, moral economy), and the diversification of the commodity character of the work of art.

Organisation(s)

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Journal

Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology

Volume

69

Pages

84-96

No. of pages

12

ISSN

0920-1297

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3167/fcl.2014.690106

Publication date

2014

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

504017 Cultural anthropology

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Anthropology

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/15444658-ff9d-4ba7-8cc5-603c8bc1ae37