While the arts industry is struggling to cope with the post-pandemic rules of public engagement, there are also examples of institutions adapting well and even thriving under the New Normal. Throughout 2020 my reporting highlighted the rise in demand for video art and transition to virtual reality formats as well as establishment of curators as arbiters of culture at large. Recently, I came across a story that at first seemed counterintuitive: a network of contemporary art galleries specialized in physical pieces expanding into new markets despite international movement restrictions and volatility of global financial markets. How does one secure a creative business in our turbulent times? Since 2007, Boccara Art Galleries has been fostering a type of organizational model previously reserved for larger iconic institutions like Louvre Abu Dhabi or Guggenheim Bilbao: several branded locations co-managing multiple agendas. With presence in eight major cities on three continents, Boccara is becoming a known force of intercultural diplomacy. I reached out to the Boccara Art Galleries founder Liubov Belousova and Julia Bogichevich, co-founder of the Boccara Moscow outpost, to see how current cross-industry conditions are impacting their vision, strategy and daily operations.
Many art institutes are closing. You are opening new locations. Tell me, what kind of magic do you practice?
Liubov Belousova, Boccara Art Galleries founder (LB): There is no magic. I’ve never done anything but sell art since I was 18. You just get better at your job with time. It’s the only thing I know how to do and the only thing I want to do.
How does an 18-years old start to sell fine art?
LB: It was destined, I think. [Laughs] In 2001, in my second year at the university, I had to create a website to pass my computer science exam. Most people made personal pages but decided to use photos of art works from several artist friends. Out of the blue, I received a phone call from an international development company with a huge office in the heart of Moscow. They wanted to buy four featured works! My student project, in fact, became one of the first fully digital gallery in Russia. Now everyone wants to take art business online, but we’ve been doing this for twenty years already.
Art on display at Boccara Art Gallery in Miami
Courtesy of Boccara Art
Is the art market embracing e-commerce as readily as the fashion or music industries?
LB: Sure, it’s possible to buy art which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars from your sofa. The Internet has reduced the distance between the artist and the collector. People don’t need galleries, because they can find whatever they want. However, art collecting is not about transactions. In today’s world “trust” is the most precious commodity. Most people need to understand what they are buying and why before they make their decisions. People need emotional connections, so physical galleries become important in a different way. We don’t expect all who come in to buy something immediately. Most people follow their curiosity first. They may discover an artist and buy their works online later.
Did multi-space approach prove to be a liability or strength during the pandemic?
LB: Since our first place opened in 2007, we invested significantly in following the collectors and engaging local art scenes in popular destinations. I said early on, “We want to be everywhere!” It is our strength that you can look up a Boccara gallery in most major art cities and find one. Every gallery of the group shares their local talent with the other branches. It helps to give a better visibility to our artists who can be seen literally around the world. We also participate in a dozen international art fairs each year. Having our own space in some of those host cities is another plus! I think that’s part of a much deeper question. How do we see the future of the art business? In this new reality is there a reason for physical shops? For us, so far, the answer is absolutely yes!
Art on display at Boccara Art Gallery in Moscow
Courtesy of Boccara Art
How do you see the global art scene changing post-pandemic?
LB: I have spoken with many colleagues over the last months and the only thing everyone agrees on is that there are more buyers today than ever before. We have a lot of new buyers who have never bought art online before. Buyers today have much more freedom to choose and they are much less influenced by trends and headlines. It doesn’t matter if you are dealing with works for under $5.000 or competing in the $500.000+ niche. Overall, the market has become much more affordable and transparent.
Is art still considered a risky investment?
Julia Bogichevich, co-founder of the Boccara Moscow outpost (JB): Quite the opposite! There is a growing recognition of art as an investment asset class by investors as well as people becoming more educated and sophisticated in their estate planning. Not so long ago, there was a perception that fine art was reserved for the rich and the very rich. Now a much larger and more diverse community has started to be interested in collecting. The art market is not as sensitive to collective panic cycles. During the 2008 financial crisis, for example, art indexes fell by 4.5% while those of the S&P 500 plummeted by 37.5%. The current socio-economic climate also creates a demand for ‘real assets’ because many see the ups and downs of tech industries or bitcoin as unreliable.
How do you choose the artists to represent?
JB: It is a matter of personal taste and understanding global trends. We are working a lot with Korean artists right now. Traditionally, Korean art was about harmonizing with nature and refraining from expressing extremes. The new fusion wave from the Gangnam Style hit to last year’s Oscar winning Parasite is consistently challenging the conventional boundaries. We introduced Hyun AE Kang to American audiences with an exhibition at Muzeo Museum in Anaheim, California and now bringing the show to Russia in March. Kim Seungwoo’s work with coins and buttons is a fascinating critique of monetary relations within the arts. We love the dreamlike installations by Kim Jeong Yeon, too! The fantastic mother- daughter Cha Yun Sook & Hayeon create beautiful textile and paper-based pieces. Meanwhile, Krista Kim is a founder of a revolutionary new art movement called ‘Techism’… There is so much to explore there!
Exhibition opening at Boccara Art Gallery in Miami
Courtesy of Boccara Art
Any advice for emerging artists trying to succeed commercially?
JB: Concentrate on growing your name and becoming better and better in what you do! Find your unique vision, your own techniques and cultivate them to perfection. Important to have an international way of thinking because in our days there are no borders for art and collectors are able to find you everywhere in the world. The attention will come.
LB: Remember, there are no more rules! [Laughs]. There is absolute freedom for creating and finding new ways to connect with audiences. Don’t be afraid to reach out directly to different galleries to ask their opinion. Keep on re-inventing yourself. It is our business motto, too!
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
