Art Market Studies: Art History's Salvation or Doom

Call for Papers

Deadline: December 1, 2014

Event Information:
- Date: Saturday, April 18, 2015
- Location: Christie's New York, 20 Rockefeller Center, the boardroom
- Hosted by: Christie's Education and AIG Private Client Group

With record sales at auction, the rise of the mega-dealer, and the proliferation of global art fairs, the art market has become a validating force in the modern and contemporary art world. Therefore, the art market should be an integral part of the art historical dialogue today, not a mere external factor. With the explosive growth of new collectors and increasingly larger sums being spent in the contemporary and modern market in recent years, the discipline of economics has entered into the study of the art market to provide quantifiable data for business and market purposes. Yet, art history as a field is falling behind by not considering the market seriously within the context of its own discipline.
Do we as art historians need to reframe our field of research? How can art history deal with the economic interactions between artist, patrons and institutions? Do the art historians lack tools to understand the new commodification of contemporary art? How can we reintegrate a discussion of the object into an exploration of the art market, as the value is dependent on the physicality and formal qualities? Art historians need to be able to account for these structural changes in the art world.
The aim of this conference is to redefine the role of the market in the critical approach to art history. We encourage art historians and those of other humanities disciplines to analyze the art market manifestations in approaches other than solely numerical. Crossing-over different fields of expertise and methodologies can inform the way art historians engage with art and the markets.
Suggested topics include the following:
- Do markets function as a lens through which to examine issues of gender, race, globalization and class?
- The role of connoisseurship in a market-driven art world
- Do art markets in emerging countries reflect regional or global values on aesthetics, culture or capital?

In addition to these suggested topics, we invite any new approaches or methodological proposition to frame discussions of the market and the practice of art history as a discipline. This symposium encourages submissions that consider a wide range of topics, all of which privilege the interaction between art, institutions, patrons and collectors with the market.
Papers should be approximately 20 minutes in length. Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to Veronique Chagnon-Burke at vchagnon-burkechristies.edu.