THE CREATIVE ASSEMBLAGE

This paper contributes to theorizing contemporary art collaborations in the context of the mediatory labour required of artists, and the complexity of the collaborative contexts in which aesthetic production is now enmeshed. In order to account for this complexity without reducing its analysis to ‘structured fields’ or ‘systems’, we use elements of assemblage theory in a quite specific way: drawing on DeLanda's work on social and organizational forms; and Law's ‘method assemblage’ to analyse the specificity of working interfaces that craft new boundaries and working relations. We develop a case study of C3West, an Australian initiative encompassing arts institutions, businesses, and communities. The analysis traces assemblage processes that generate dispersed working arrangements (partnerships, intersectoral, and interdisciplinary working interfaces) across apparently incommensurable domains, yet without forming overarching structures or requiring common rationales for cooperation. To demonstrate the work of assemblage, we discuss the practices of French artist Sylvie Blocher and the multidisciplinary collective, Campement Urbain, who employ aesthetic and performative means to forge new institutional practices and alliances for intervening in urban planning processes in regional Sydney.     

Creativity and Life Cycles of Artists

Age curves, which relate age to creativity or exceptional achievements, seem to take two forms: some artists bloom early (Picasso), others later in life (Cézanne). We argue that this objective fact is not related to their mode of creation according to which some artists proceed by drawings made prior to the painting's execution, while others are more likely to imitate and achieve this through color and the process of painting itself. JEL numbers:Z10,Z11A very preliminary version of this paper was presented as a discussion at the conference Measuring Art: A Scientific Revolution in Art History, University of Chicago and American University of Paris, June 2003.     

郁曼陀与郁风苗子艺术馆

粉墙黛瓦,两层楼的民宅。这座总面积400多平方米的郁家老屋静静地坐落在富舂江畔,如今成为郁风苗子艺术馆。馆内收藏有郁风、黄苗子编著书籍30余种,书画作品40余幅,不同时期影像照片200多张,往来书信100多封。前不久,艺术馆正式免费对社会开放。     

A Note on Financial Risk, Return and Asset Pricing in Australian Modern and Contemporary Art

In this note, 30,227 paintings by fifty well-known modern and contemporary Australian artists sold at auction over the period 1973–2003 are used to construct a hedonic price index. The attributes included in the hedonic regression model include the name, age and living status of the artist, the number of works sold, the size and medium of the painting, and the auction house, month and year in which the painting was sold. The results indicate that returns on Australian modern and contemporary art averaged nearly five percent over the period with a standard deviation of sixteen percent. The results also show that a ten percent increase in the Australian stock market is associated with a 3.4 percent increase in the art market. Generally, artworks by artists deceased at the time of auction, larger works, works executed in oils, and those auctioned by Sotheby's or Christies in July or August are associated with higher prices.     

The ``Death-Effect' in Art Prices: A Demand-Side Exploration

Many factors affect the supply and demand characteristics of artists' output.This exploratory study focuses on a ``supply-induced' demand effect –the death of the artist and the assurance that, from the perspective of thedurable goods monopolist, the output of the artist ends. While not purportingto be a formal test of that proposition, we observe, using U.S. auction data,a clustered rise in artists' values immediately around the time of death andsuggest some possible demand-side explanations using a sample of LatinAmerican artists between 1977 and 1996.     

传世瑰宝 盛秀艺林——“十年”“百龄”访浙昆

今年,正值昆曲表演艺术大师周传瑛诞辰100周年,也是昆曲被列入世界非物质文化遗产名录10周年,杭州举办名家折子戏专场演出及周传瑛学术研究会等纪念活动。在＂十年＂＂百龄＂时节,笔者走访了浙江昆剧团,采写了薪火永续,浙昆＂传、世、盛、秀＂四代同堂的兴旺局面。     

The case study of an Italian contemporary art object: Materials and state of conservation of the painting “Ragazzo seduto” by Remo Brindisi

This paper deals with the scientific survey of Remo Brindisi's painting “Ragazzo seduto” (Seated boy), made at the end of the 1950s, that is a symbolic figure of both his personal artistic solitude and the crisis of values determined by the economic boom in the post-war period. In a period of great changes and economic regrowth, the need to find a new style that could be the most authentic and personal as possible pressed the artist to experiment innovative products, including non-conventional support. Photographic and analytical techniques demonstrated the use of innovative products as an experimentation tendency, that pressed the artist to use non-conventional support, industrially treated with plasticized PVC and primed with acrylate polymers and to paint with traditional and industrial pigments mixed with an oil-modified alkyd resin. In the span of a few years, an unexpected and extended degradation on the whole surface of the painting took place, with the consequent formation of lifting and detachment of the paint film. The detected alteration is mainly due to the fast ageing of the employed polymeric materials, actually responsible of the impermanence of many contemporary works of arts. Clarifying the unknown aspects of the Remo Brindisi's stylistic choices together with the deterioration processes of the employed painting materials, this paper highlights the general problems related to the conservation of contemporary art, a neglected area of research in Italy, where more efforts are committed to the enormous and more ancient cultural heritage.     

Royalties for Artists versus Royalties for Authors and Composers

Legislation creating or reinforcing resale royalties for visual artists retains substantial political popularity – particularly in the European Union – despite the often skeptical attitude toward those rights in the economics literature. In this essay, we probe more deeply the affirmative arguments that can be made for a resale royalty right, in either a mandatory or a discretionary form. We also compare the rationale for visual artists' resale royalties with the potential rationales for the now-well-established systems of royalty rights for authors and composers. This comparison has particular interest both because some of the principal arguments made against visual artists' resale royalties also apply to authors' royalties, and because the economic rationale for compensating authors with royalties has itself not been well explored. We also discuss briefly the related subject of display rights for visual artists. We conclude with some general implications for policy.     

浙昆、台昆共演《范蠡与西施》

4月1日、2日晚,由浙江昆剧团与台湾昆剧团合作创排的新编昆剧《范蠡与西施》在杭州胜利剧院首演。新编昆剧《范蠡与西施》是根据明代戏剧家梁辰鱼所著的《浣纱记》改编而成。此次,台湾昆剧团团长洪惟助教授亲自执笔编剧。与原著相比,《范蠡与西施》以更人性化的视角表现范蠡与西施在面对爱情和救国难以两全时内心的无奈、痛苦和挣扎。两岸昆剧各具特点。台湾版注重原汁原味文化韵味,而大陆版则在舞台表演上有诸多创新。浙昆     

Hope for the Future? Early Exposure to the Arts and Adult Visits to Art Museums

This paper employs logistic regression to explore the relationship between art lessons and art history and appreciation classes as a child with adult visits to art museums. The regression-based technique allows for control of other influences such as demographic indicators of tastes and preferences. The results are generally consistent with the hypothesis that early exposure results in later participation, although exposure seems to have strongest influence in the pre- and post-teen years.     

Estimates, Bias and “No Sales” in Latin-American Art Auctions, 1977–1996

Estimate bias and no-sales are investigated in the context of Latin American Art auctions conducted in New York between 1977 and 1996. We find that, using a new method for calculating bias, both Sotheby's and Christie's overestimated art (oil-on-canvas pieces) by 2.7 percent. The inclusion of no-sales raises that proportion to a full one-third of the art traded. Utilizing a binomial probit analysis, moreover, we find that the estimate window is negatively and significantly related to the likelihood of a no sale at auction.     

Assessing Quality in Cultural Goods: The Hedonic Value of Originality in Rembrandt's Prints

The definition of quality, and its consistent assessment, is a fundamental issue when dealing with collectibles. We analyze how originality is priced by the market. The market for prints by Rembrandt is considered. An original database has been built including almost 5,000 transactions in the international auction market during the period 1985–1998. The data allow us to control for many different characteristics (market, aesthetic, originality, authenticity, rarity, art history, techniques, conservation, etc.). The concept of “state” is used to measure originality. In printmaking a state is defined as the artist's creative phase, which occurs on the plate before inking and printing. We test whether (non-original) posthumous states are sold at prices lower than Rembrandt's own (original) states. The implicit price associated with the state has been found to significantly decrease if the state was later printed by someone else when it was no longer the master's intervention on the plate. Furthermore, a decreasing value among subsequent original states has proved to positively account for Rembrandt's direct invention. JEL classification: Z11, D46, C52     

The Impact of the National Endowment for the Arts in the United States: Institutional and Sectoral Effects on Private Funding

This paper examines the impact of the National Endowment for the Arts on private donations to the arts. The aim of the analysis is to assess whether public funding generates a crowding effect on private giving. We distinguish between institutional and sectoral crowding phenomena and discuss their possible implications.We used both a qualitative approach and an econometric model to estimate the effect of NEA introduction and appropriations on donations. Our results suggest that at the institutional level NEA grants do not generally induce donations to recipients while at the sectoral level appropriations and private giving are independent. The introduction of the agency appears to have caused a decrease in donations.     

Optimal Pricing of Museum Admission

This paper examines the impact of free admission on museum revenue and evaluates the desirability, from an income maximizing perspective, of an additional free day. The model capitalizes on diverse audience composition. Regression analysis is used to estimate marginal shop and restaurant revenue for both art patrons and marginal consumers. Empirical estimation shows that an additional free day would not be profitable. A theoretical model which specifies crowding and museum recognition effects is provided as an appendix.     

Determinants of Prices for Contemporary Art in Dutch Galleries, 1992–1998

We analyse determinants of prices for contemporary art with the help of quantitative data. The focus is on gallery rather than auction prices in the Netherlands. We model the determinants of prices on three different levels: the work of art (size, material), the artist (age, sex, place of residence, institutional recognition), and the gallery (location, institutional affiliation, age). Our main findings are that the size and material of works of art, and the age and place of residence of the artist are strong predictors of price; that differences in size and materials partly ``mask' price differences between artists; and that the variance in prices across galleries is largely explained by characteristics of the artists they represent.     

Long- and Short-Term Portfolio Choices of Paintings

In their paper on price comovements of paintings, Ginsburgh and Jeanfils show that in three important markets (London, Paris and New York), prices of well-known and lesser known painters 'move together' (are cointegrated). They conclude that therefore, an investor may be indifferent between the two groups of painters. We show that this is not the case, since well-known painters are less risky, and that though returns may be comparable, the share of well-known painters in a portfolio of paintings might be as high as 90%. We also construct long-run and short-run portfolios and show that these may be very different. These short-term portfolios give interesting insights which help in characterizing each of the three markets.     

The Willingness-to-Pay for the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen as a Public Good

In this paper some of the results of a Contingent Valuation (CV)-Study of the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, are presented. The estimated aggregated willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the Royal Theatre through taxes shows that the Danish population wants to pay at least as much as the theatre receives in public subsidies. The visitors comprise only about 7 per cent of the total population, but the non-users' WTP is quite substantial which is the interesting point. It means that the non-users are willing to pay an option price and that the Royal Theatre has non-use value. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.