Japan art market boosted by Abenomics after years in the doldrums
30/09/2014 13:33
* Recovery in Japan art market good for sellers, expert says
* Avant-garde "Gutai" works among most popular
By Megumi Lim
TOKYO, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Just a decade ago, a lithograph
by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama sold for several hundred dollars
at best. But now her pieces, some just the size of a magazine,
can fetch as much as $74,000.
Japan's long dormant art market has been turbo-charged by
economic policies that have dragged the nation from decades of
deflation, as well as by the weakening of the yen, spurring
demand for post-World War Two and contemporary works both at
home and abroad.
Japan's art collectors were once known for their aggressive
bidding during the booming 1980s even before a domestic art
auction market was formally established. Collectors bought works
directly from museums and galleries, paying sky-high prices set
by sellers without complaint.
Overseas, they were famed for paying record-breaking prices
for noted works, such as Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers,"
purchased by an insurance company.
But the bursting of the asset-inflated bubble the following
decade sent art prices in Japan plunging by more than 80 to 90
percent, leaving collectors traumatised for decades. Further
pain came with the 2008 global financial crisis.
Now, with signs of economic recovery under Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe's policies, known as "Abenomics," the art market is
reviving as well as the Nikkei stock index pushes to multi-year
highs - and the yen falls to multi-year lows.
"Abenomics has had a positive impact on the art market,
surprisingly rather more on the seller side due to the weakening
yen," Yasuaki Ishizaka, the president and managing director of
Sotheby's Japan, founded in 1979, told Reuters recently.
A weaker yen usually helps bolster business and investor
sentiment because it boosts the exports that are a key driver in
Japan's economy. It also encourages collectors to sell their art
to foreign buyers since buyers are willing to pay more because
their money goes further.
Turnover in Japan's art market for the first half of 2014
hit $30.7 million. That puts it on course to top last year's $54
million and possibly challenge 2012's $76 million, the highest
since 2009.
"Buying is increasing in Japan, but because of the long
period of stagnation, the market is still in the midst of
regaining momentum," Ishizaka said.
UNCONVENTIONAL MATERIALS
Especially popular at present are works by "Gutai," Japan's
most influential avant-garde group, whose name means
"Concreteness" and was founded in the western Japanese city of
Ashiya in 1954, when memories of wartime totalitarianism were
still fresh.
Its members used unconventional materials such as smoke,
light and sound due to their belief that art should "impart life
to matter" by "merging human qualities and material properties,"
as they wrote in their manifesto.
Many "Gutai" works appear to be chaotic splashes of paint on
a canvas, some in just one colour, such as black or red. Jiro
Yoshiara's "Work" consists only of a black circle on a brown
background. Others incorporate objects as "found" art.
The group only had about two collectors until a few years
ago, gaining popularity after a ground-breaking exhibit at New
York's Guggenheim Museum in May 2013 and growing interest among
foreign collectors.
A fiery red 183 by 229 cm (72 by 90 inch) abstract work
called "Gekidou Suru Aka" - "Dynamic of Red" - by Kazuo Shiraga,
who was known to paint with his feet, set a world record for a
Gutai work with a hammer price of 3.9 million euros ($4.95
million) at Sotheby's Paris auction in June 2014.
"Gutai's works are especially popular among European and
American collectors," said Tomoaki Takahashi, spokesman at art
house Mallet Japan.
"Unlike figurative art, which is very popular here, foreign
buyers are able to appreciate abstract works more because of
their universality."
Japanese auction houses, which deal with mostly domestic
clients, are also seeing better times.
"There is an increase in purchases, definitely a sign of
recovery from when the art market hit rock bottom during the
economic crisis in 2008," said Hirotarou Ando, a spokesman for
Japan's largest domestic auction house, Mainichi Auction.
Particularly in demand are works by Yayoi Kusama, who is
known for her obsessive, dot-covered art and pumpkin motifs.
Ten years ago, a Kusama pumpkin motif lithograph titled
"Kabocha" sold for roughly 60,000 yen ($550). Now, a Kusama
painting as small as 33 by 24 centimetres goes for as much as
8,000,000 yen, said Rie Nakayama, spokeswoman of Japanese
auction house iArt.
But Japan has a long way to go.
Among the top 15 countries in terms of auction turnover,
Japan ranked 11th last year, generating about $53.7 million in
sales, according to leading art market database company
Artprice. That's a mere 0.44 percent of the global market.
By comparison, top-ranking China accounted for around $4.2
billion while the United States followed with $4.0 billion.
"We are feeling the impact of the recovering economy, but
it's not as if the prices are rising for everything," said
iArt's Nakayama. "Gains are limited to specific artists and
specific works."
An additional problem is that art has yet to register on the
radar of the country's wealthy.
"One of the reasons why Japan's art market is still very
small is perhaps there is not enough opportunity to encounter
art," Ishizaka said. "There are many wealthy people in Japan,
but they are not going to buy art if they have not seen it."
(1 US dollar = 0.7885 euro, 109.27 Japanese yen)
(Editing by Elaine Lies, Michael Roddy and Neil Fullick)
((MEGUMI.LIM@thomsonreuters.com;))
Keywords: ART JAPAN/