In Boston, where art_works is based, the closing of many of our universities a few weeks ago was the first serious indicator that COVID-19 was about to have a huge impact on the city. Then came the dispatches from Boston-based doctors, some ominous and some optimistic. 

Education and healthcare. Two of Boston’s major industries, both shaping the narrative of the pandemic. It’s difficult to think of an industry that hasn’t been affected by the spread of COVID-19, and though at times it has felt irrelevant or frivolous, I can’t not think about the impact the pandemic has already had, and will continue to have, on the art world. Jerry Saltz’s new essay in New York Magazine outlines several possible outcomes, worth recounting here: 

• Further market constriction: “And in the art world, things were already rocky for those not at the top of the food chain. Numerous galleries were reporting being financially strapped by skyrocketing costs and paying to participate in (keep up with?) endless art fairs, always flying to biennials and exhibitions around the world. Artists were leaving smaller galleries in droves for megagalleries. COVID-19 has multiplied this a hundredfold. Most galleries don’t have cash reserves to go through a lockdown of six months. Or to open and then go through it again in the fall and winter should the virus return. “

• Fewer opportunities for artists in a business context: “Although, just months before the coming of COVID-19, the great painter Peter Saul seemed to glean something in the tea leaves, saying: “There are just too many artists. Too many artists, period.” When there are so many artists competing for opportunities, the system favors those already in a position of privilege, with the ability to build strategic relationships and gain access to opportunities. There are more artists than opportunities. In the US in 2017, a full three quarters of working artists made $10,000 or less per year from their art.

• Less peacocking: “Unfortunately, auctions may be the cockroach in the art-world coal mine. They don’t require much of a physical footprint; much of what they do is done digitally and online. I wonder, however, if the regular dick-waving rituals of establishing hierarchy and financial clout will be performed if they aren’t performed in public.”

• More creativity: “And so, in that spirit, I want to speak loudly for what art has always been — something done against the rules of advanced capitalism. Art isn’t about professionalism, efficiency, insurance, and safety; it’s about eccentricity, risk, resistance, and adaptation… Creativity was with us in the caves; it’s in every bone in our bodies. Viruses don’t kill art. But even successful artists will be pushed to the limits, let alone the 99% of artists who always live close to the edge.”

• Innovation - Over the last decade or so, the art world in peril has seemed to lose the ability to adapt. Or, rather, it now seems able to adapt only in one way, no matter the circumstances: by growing larger and busier. Expansion and more were the answers to everything… Things are bleak, but batons will be and are already being passed to generations who will emerge on the other side of this who will have the brilliant chance to build a whole new art world.”

This last point gives me so much hope. Over the past decade, art itself has been democratized, but the art world has remained opaque and unchanged. Art has become accessible in some ways, but the velvet rope has stayed up. I’ve written about conflict between the values of Millennials and Gen Z and the values that uphold the art world. At some point, and perhaps that point is forthcoming, the clash of those values will force innovation. 

And that innovation doesn’t feel that abstract to me - we have seen companies that engage with visual art shift toward giving access to artists that don’t otherwise get it, we have seen them shift toward transparency, broader art narratives, and rebuke traditional corporate art partnerships. And those companies (our clients) are doing this because it’s what their employees are asking for, and it’s what the data supports. 

I’ll add one final prediction to the list - traditional prestige art/brand partnerships will continue to decline. Companies and brands will need to further innovate to capture the audience that they previously captured by partnering with blue chip artists like Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami. They can do this by partnering with unknown, underrepresented, innovative artists, and by looking closely at the narratives that surround these partnerships. Who is benefiting? Whose voice is heard? Is there a social return on investment? 

For now, I’m hanging onto this sentence: “Things are bleak, but batons will be and are already being passed to generations who will emerge on the other side of this who will have the brilliant chance to build a whole new art world.” Onward.