SA Rides the Art Boom

The local art market is buoyant, say experts.
Mary Corrigall takes a look at what factors are precipitating the trend.
It’s a first for South Africa’s art fraternity. Unlike all other spheres of business which have at one time or another experienced a sharp rise in trading; the art world in this country has never enjoyed a sustained period of expansion accompanied by a sizeable boost in sales. Until now that is.
And one doesn’t necessarily need to be an insider to have noticed the trend. All the indicators are in plain view; art prices are soaring and a plethora of new galleries have mushroomed across the country.
Ruarc Peffers, director at auction house, Stephen Welz & Co, not only believes that the South African art market is experiencing a boom but foresees a continued upsurge.
“It will balance out in time but not any time soon,” asserts Peffers.
While art markets tend to function independently, he suggests that they are affected by economic recessions and political and social factors. However, he attributes the current increase in activity and price hikes in the South African art market to a trend that is sweeping through international art markets.
“International markets have been booming. In Russia and Chine there has been a huge explosion. There seems to be a lot of disposable money around. People aren’t just buying art for its aesthetic value but are aware of its intrinsic investment value.”
As South African Art Times (itals) reported in last month’s issue it was at an auction staged by Stephen Welz & Co in association with Sothebys that Irma Stern’s Indian Woman (itals) fetched an astonishing R7.2-million.
The sale made headlines but Peffers believes that prices for valuable artworks being sold in this country have yet to catch-up with prices overseas.
“The Irma Stern sold for small change in comparison to what works of that ilk would fetch internationally. R7.2-million is a drop in the ocean compared to what valuable works are fetching abroad.”
Linda Givon, owner of the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg and Cape Town, concurs with Peffer. She suggests the South Africa is just “a baby player in the international art market,” and as such is a slave to global trends.
Givon infers that the high prices that international auction houses such as Bonhams in London has been fetching for South African works – a Gerard Sekoto Self Portrait sold for £123,450 in December 2006 - has directly contributed towards price increases in art in this country. Givon is astonished by the phenomenal prices South African art has been fetching overseas and thinks that it is South African corporations who are looking to festoon their international offices with art from their country of origin who are driving up prices of South African art in foreign markets. Although Rose Korber of Rose Korber Art says that it is too early to gage what impact the Irma Stern sale will have on smaller art dealers such as herself, she agrees with Marilyn Martin’s, director of art collections at Iziko Museums, public assertion that blue chip artists of that calibre should have been fetching high prices long ago.
According to Korber’s research, paintings that would usually garner R30 000 now command as much as R45 000. Peffers substantiates Korber’s observations; he says that over the last five years art prices have increased by about 300 percent. Like Givon and Peffers, Korber is in no doubt that the South African art market is buoyant. Heightened activity in the art market, however, has meant that there is not enough quality art to meet the demand.
“Dealers are scrambling. Everyone wants to be representing the best artists and artists are becoming more independent, recycling works where they can. That was not the case a few years ago or even a decade ago,” observes Korber.
While there might not be enough desirable art around, there certainly is an excess of galleries. Johannesburg has seen a few new exhibition spaces open this year; the Seippel Gallery in the inner city and David Krut will be expanding to include a larger exhibition venue. Cape Town appears to be challenging Johannesburg’s more established art scene with a host of new galleries opening in recent times. Aside from Givon’s Cape Town Goodman Gallery, exhibition spaces have opened up at the Old Biscuit Mill and a mass of galleries have sprouted in Stellenbosch and the surrounding winelands. Art is on exhibit at Glen Carlou and Tokara, and Gallery at Grande Provance and SMAC (Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary art gallery) are drawing art fundis to the area. Bell Roberts are also expected to be setting up a satellite space on a Somerset West wine farm.
Korber suggests that the spate of new galleries being established in the winelands are specifically designed to cater for international tourists, who she believes have bolstered the art market in Cape Town.
“Without overseas visitors the art boom could never have happened. Capetonians are not great buyers and, with a limited number of really serious corporate clients over here, galleries have come to rely on tourists to make sales. And the current rate of exchange certainly makes local art more attractive for international buyers.”
Establishing art spaces in the Winelands is ideal in terms of capturing tourists’ interest; the winelands is a tourist attraction much like Table Mountain and Robben Island.
Givon denies that she established a Goodman gallery in the Mother City to cash in on foreign visitors’ piqued interest in South African art but suggests that the this country’s art market is heavily reliant on international buyers – in Johannesburg too. She estimates that 90 percent of the Goodman Galleries’ clientele are foreign.
Although Peffers could not reveal the identity of his clientele he was willing to reveal that the majority of patrons who frequently purchase art at auction are predominantly South Africa.
“Just as Americans have more of a vested interest in American art; it is South Africans who mostly buy South African art.”
Peffers is confident that there is no chance of the art boom in South Africa petering out anytime soon and suggests that it is artists who will benefit in the long run.
“The upsurge is a reflection of the market’s appreciation of local talent.”