“Exorbitant Prices for Ordinary Artworks Prevail in Today’s Art Market”

If there is someone who knows about art today, it is the British Will Gompertz. For seven years he was the communication director of the Tate Gallery and for eleven years the art critic for the BBC. He is now the director of the Barbican Center, but he continues to show his extraordinary communicative work with books like the recent Look what you’re missing. The world seen through art (Taurus) in which he analyzes 31 artists – from classics like Fra Angelico and Rubens to contemporaries like Paula Rego and Yayoi Kusama– to show us how they have looked at the world through their works. And what is discovered is that we are all half blind between so much mobile and notification on social networks.

David Hockney has been able to see pink trees -because they are pink-, Frida Kahlo He showed us pain like few others, Kandinsky reflected music on his canvases while Jean Dubuffet made the ugly the most beautiful in the world. All this Gompertz explains to you as if he put a lamp on a painting and was showing all his characteristics before an enthralled audience.

But what’s more, talking to Gompertz doesn’t just mean focusing on the paintings and their meanings. He knows like few others the “crazy” art market, current trends, the blow of inflation or that race into which some countries like those of the Persian Gulf have launched to build new and unique museums. And he talks about all that in this interview conducted via email.

QUESTION: With all the stimuli we have now (social networks, mobile phone notifications), do we see less and less?

ANSWER: Yes. We have stopped looking at the real world through our eyes and have started looking at it through the lens of a camera. This greatly reduces what we see and how we appreciate the beauty that surrounds us on a daily basis. It makes us less sensitive and less aware of being alive. Furthermore, the camera only has one lens, while we have two – we have binocular vision – so we have the ability to see much more than a camera. It is much better to look through our eyes and feel the world and see it than to have a mediated experience through mechanical lenses.

“We have stopped looking at the real world through our eyes and have started looking at it through a camera lens that is worse than eyes”

Q: How have artists avoided these stimuli? How can we do it?

A: We can learn a lot from the impressionists of the 19th century, when photography came. They discussed what they could learn from photography, such as framing and close-ups, but it was also a challenge to see the world as it is, now that the camera could quickly capture an illusion of reality. Artists like Cezanne or Monet realized that before the camera, artists had not been painting what they really saw but an idealized version of the landscape or the person. These two pioneers realized that when we look, we don’t see how a photo does, but rather a concoction of geometric shapes and colors. They began to extract visual information from their paintings and to simplify the design to truly reflect how we see the world. Thus arose the modernist aesthetic that has dominated visual culture ever since.

Q: Of the artists analyzed in your book, who has surprised you the most and made you look at the world in a different way?

A: The artist who has given me the most food for thought and whom I have had to look at again is Agnes Martin, the American abstract painter. She would spend hours sitting silently in a chair in the corner of her study waiting for a visualization of an inner sensation. Her objective was to paint something that we cannot see, such as feelings. your painting Amistad (1963) is an early example of the precious work he did to describe his own sensations, capturing a universal truth that changed the way I perceived the world and myself.

Q: I want to ask you a few questions about the art market. We live in an inflationary moment. How is it affecting this market?

A: The art market is crazy. People are paying huge amounts for very, very mediocre works. It is something that cannot and should not last. My advice to anyone looking to buy art now is to avoid this fizzy market and support the work of artists from your region.

Q: There are countries that are investing huge amounts of money in contemporary art in recent years. Is this a good trend for art or is it just a speculative activity that is increasing prices?

A: The interest that there is right now for contemporary art is totally different from what there has ever been in history. Art is in the same sphere as movies or novels, that is, as a very popular way of understanding our current life. I think it’s something good, exciting and also helps the conversation between nations and cultures. I think it’s something fantastic.

“The interest that there is right now in contemporary art is totally different from what there has ever been in history and it’s something fantastic”

Q: In recent years there has also been an increase in diplomacy through art with exhibitions in other countries, for example, to improve the image of a country. What is called soft power or soft power. To what extent does it also influence the market and creation?

A: Art has always been used as soft power. In the book I write about the Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens and how he was both a painter and a diplomat. He was sent to England by the Spanish to try to persuade the British monarchy to stop fighting and build an alliance. And it worked! Art is part of life, art is a powerful way to communicate and politicians have always known this and used it to further their values ​​and goals. The same can be applied today.

Q: In the same vein, there are countries that are investing heavily in spectacular and unique museums. The buildings, signed by architects such as Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhas, Tadao Andao or Alejandro Aravena, for example, are fantastic in themselves, but is there content or is it just the packaging?

A: It is true that so many museums have never been built as in these times and it is also clear that in order to establish these new spaces it is necessary to collaborate with museums that already exist and that have vast collections, some of which cannot always be shown to the public. public. There you have examples like the Guggenheim brand or the Louvre in Abu Dhabi that try to use their famous collections to establish a museum culture in cities around the world. Again, I think that’s a pretty good thing, but there has to be long-term planning and commitment for these museums to develop collections as they speak to their own time and place. This will require a large investment beyond the simple construction of a museum.

Q: Let’s talk about colonialism, which is now the hot topic in the art world. Is it time to return the pieces to their place of origin? How to do it?

A: We are living in a time when the colonial history of many countries is being re-examined, which is entirely appropriate. As a consequence of this review, it is quite clear that there are some works in Western collections that were looted while the country was the colonial ruler of a foreign culture. In this sense, and I would include the Benin bronzes, these pieces must be returned to the country and culture from which they originally came. But this does not mean supplementing a matter that is very complex and in which each case must be considered individually and with great tact.

“Art has always been used as soft power. Peter Paul Rubens already did it, who negotiated the alliance between England and Spain with his works and it worked”

Q: Another peremptory theme: Picasso. How do you see planning this anniversary? There are many Picasso exhibitions around the world. Are there enough paintings for so much exposure?

A: Picasso was very prolific! The other day I was talking with his daughter Paloma, who told me how hard her father worked and what she liked to create for different formats, from painting to sculpture or ceramics. Therefore, there are a lot of works by Picasso of very different types and qualities all over the world. He was an extraordinary artist with an extraordinary mind and extraordinary talent and it’s amazing that there are so many different exhibitions looking at the life and work of this brilliant artist and complex man.

“The pieces must be returned to the country and culture from which they originally came, but each case must be reviewed individually”

Q: To finish: you have known the world of art for decades. How has it changed since then? What has disappeared and what exists now that did not exist before?

A: The art world always thinks that it is changing radically but, in reality, it is always the same, although there are more people involved now than twenty years ago. What we see over and over again is that fashion comes and goes. One day everyone loves Victorian art and the next day everyone hates it. There is nothing wrong with this: art is like fashion, it is the sign of our times. I applaud the fact that many people are more committed to art and enjoy it. Artists are unique in achieving a single powerful image that helps us see the world in a fresh way, enlightens us, liberates us, and how many more people can enjoy this, whether they are in the art world or not. no, much better.