April 16, 17:30
LLC Commons Room
 

This presentation by Dr. Julianna Sandholm-Bark as part of the WCCI Lecture Series is free and open to all.

Please Register here.
 

Summary:
 

There is something unhinged about how the art market currently operates. It is opaque and unregulated. It uses art storage facilities, called freeports, which lie outside the jurisdiction of regular business and trade laws, making them "ideal" locations for concealing artworks with dubious provenances. While much art is sold at public auction, some 60% of it is sold privately and through undisclosed exchanges. The art market also seems like an ideal playing ground for money laundering, tax evasion, and the circulation of forged artworks. It is jammed with speculators whose sole interest in art lies in ensuring a good return on their investment; in other words, the art market seems like it is in need of a big-time ethical makeover. And yet, with record sales, the rise of the mega-dealer, and the proliferation of global art fairs, the art market has become a undeniably strong - some would even say stifling - validating force in the contemporary art world - a position traditionally and exclusively occupied by art experts. This talk will first address the recent exponential growth of the global contemporary art market, and will explore some of the ways in which artists position themselves vis-à-vis the market in order to sustain themselves as the makers of meaningful art.


Julianna Sandholm-Bark is the Head of Webster University’s Global Citizenship Program. She has a PhD in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and certificates in art business from the Sotheby's Institute of Art and Skate's Online Art Business Education. Her research interests include historical and contemporary discourses on art and its value, the impact of digitization on the art market, and the emergent art scene in the Geneva area. She just launched "Meet the Artist", a public lecture series at Webster this spring.