Maringka Tunkin, Ken sisters collaboration, Tjala Arts: Photo Jon Montesi 2015, supplied Tarnanthi Art Festival.
‘Who sells it? Who buys it? Who benefits and who doesn’t?’ These were the questions proposed at a recent forum in Sydney, Starting the Conversation: Ethical Trade in Indigenous Art.
The Indigenous art market has diversified greatly since its modern blossoming some fifty years ago – what has been described as dealer and author Adrian Newstead as ‘The Golden Age’ within the sector.
Over those ensuing years, art centres and art fairs have boomed and become integral the business of Aboriginal art.
Today that industry encompasses a wide range of ‘products’ from very expensive fine art to low-priced merchandise using designs from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
Only this week the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) proudly announced a partnership with Indigenous design studio Balarinji, to intertwine Indigenous artwork into the competition wear of the 2016 Australian Paralympic Team.
As this landscape becomes more dense, the market fluctuates responsive to tastes, and shady reputations have emerged in corners of this sector, it has become increasingly difficult for a person to buy an Indigenous artwork.
Knowledge, as with all things, is key to transparent ethical practice, and asking questions and knowing where to turn helps.
An annual report, The Economy Chain: A value study of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art sector (Ninti One Limited) was recently published for 2015. It has been co-authored by Tim Acker (Curtin University, WA) and Dr. Alice Woodhead (Southern Cross University Lismore, NSW) since 2008. Their most recent findings were:
- The main purchasers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art are Australian private buyers from New South Wales or Victoria.
- Most sales are of fine art products, and art merchandise made up 9% of total sales.
- In the period 2011–13, modest growth in sales occurred in some art regions. The increase in sales to private buyers has been attributed by some businesses to successful exhibitions and art fairs that increase knowledge of and exposure to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art.
- An ongoing problem is that provenance and certification are inconsistent and undermine the ‘brand’. Quality provenance is a key selling point for most buyers.
- There are about 13,000 artists working for Art Centres and about 875 artists working Freelance.
- At present, almost all Art Centres are dependent on government funding. Income from grants exceeds income from sales in 60% of Centres.
- In the last 10 years there has been a 126% fall in the retained earnings of an average Art Centre, yet a 44% increase in production.
- Most people purchased art products from Art Centres, but 37% of artworks were purchased direct from artists.
- Nearly two-thirds of all art products made by Art Centres were in the under $250 price range – and almost 90% were under $1,000. Art products over $5,000 in price made up only 1.1% of all products, though they generated over 20% of Art Centre sales.
To read the full report. The Art Economies Value Chain (AEVC) project was commissioned by the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) and supported by Southern Cross University and Curtin University.
VOICES FOR ETHICAL PRACTICE
Last week’s panel talk on Ethical Trade within this sector concluded with less talk and more tips. Its esteemed stakeholders offered audiences their key thoughts on where, and how, to ethically purchase Indigenous art
Elizabeth “Lizzy” Marrkilyi Ellis, an Ngaanyatjarra educator, interpreter, and linguist of Western Desert region – and an arts worker for Tjairlirli Art who paints herself, said: ‘I would say to go to the Indigenous controlled and managed art centres and buy your art there.’
Dealer and Director of Utopia Art Sydney, Christopher Hodges, who has worked with leading members of Papunya Tula Artists since its origins, advised: ‘Go to the best public galleries in the country and look at what is there. Decide what you like – they usually have the best stuff, and if you can, talk to the curators to get their recommendations about where you should go.
‘I suggest that everyone should learn about the artist they are going to purchase. If you are going to buy stocks and shares you go to a stockbroker and seek advice, so I recommend see what public institutions collect…’
Christopher Hodges
‘I suggest that everyone should learn about the artist they are going to purchase. If you are going to buy stocks and shares you go to a stockbroker and seek advice, so I recommend see what public institutions collect, understand the volume of the artist’s work and if the work you are looking at doesn’t fall into the top 10% of that artists body of work – then you do not want to buy. Simply, do your research.’
He concluded: ‘I would advise to go to the closest thing to the artist – that is the artist representative – and, most importantly, see the artist’s solo exhibitions. They are the best way that you can judge the range of their work, and then pick the best one you can afford.’
Hodges added that if you were buying from an art shop in Alice Springs, for example, there is one question you can ask the shop owner: “Who owns this picture, now?’ That is the closest you can come to actually knowing you are buying from the artist (in that environment),’ he said.
For Franchesca Cubillo, Senior Advisor, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, National Gallery of Australia and Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Chair, she said going to the source was most important. A Larrakia, Bardi, Wardaman and Yanuwa woman from the ‘Top End’ of the Northern Territory, Cubillo recommended:.
‘I would be buy directly from the artist or through the art centres and art fairs where the centres are selling directly to the public. You have so much to gain – not just a beautiful work of art – you will establish a relationship with an Indigenous person and they will take you places you never thought you’d find yourself at.’
‘I’d go straight to the source myself,’ she continued.
While all these stakeholders arguably have a bias given their personal positions, it was collector Geoff Hassall and Ethic Fellow, Christian Barry who a differing perspective.
Hassall, who has been collecting Indigenous art since 1996, and received an OAM in 2014 for services to the arts, said that most of the work he had purchased had come through commercial galleries.
‘I feel there’s a safety in commercial gallery in that keep an eye out for work – they are doing a lot of the work for me. I don’t buy directly form remote communities.
‘A good idea would be if there was something (like a checklist) posted around properties in Alice Springs, hotels or bus stations so that people can follow (ethical) procedures, so they know what they should be looking for.’
Barry said: ‘The most important thing is for those questions to be easier to ask, that is to know what to ask and the clues to look for. What are the conditions under which it was created… What is its value?’
Barry is Head of the School of Philosophy at the Australian National University and recently began an Australian Research Council Fellowship on The Ethical Responsibilities of Consumers.
The voice that sat across the field – both as an invested dealer in the Indigenous sector but also author of the recently released book The Dealer is the Devil – An Insider’s History of the Aboriginal Art Trade (2014), was Adrian Newstead.
He felt that, ‘It depends on what you are looking to buy. You can go to an art fair but don’t expect to buy the best paintings that an artist has produced during that year – those paintings are reserved for the best galleries, the best exhibitions and through the representative model.
‘It is such a big question and I think that buying from good galleries, from someone who knows and not that a nest of thieves. There are hundreds, thousands, of Aboriginal paintings produced and if you are interested in the greatest artists then you have to buy from somebody who knows about those artists and can tell you what is a great painting and will you what is good provenance, and what isn’t.’
He concluded, ‘As a rule, never buy a painting that is accompanied by a minimal level of documentation.’
Newstead established Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery in 1981, and was a former President of the Indigenous Art Trade Association and Director of Aboriginal Tourism Australia he became Head of Aboriginal Art for Lawsons-Menzies in 2003, and Managing Director of Menzies Art Brands until 2008.
The conclusion:
Clearly the jury is split. What is assured is that as purchasers we need to do our homework and ask questions.
The next Indigenous art fair to be held in Australia is Tarnanthi, from 9-10 October at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide. More than 40 artists and art centres will present their work for sale to the general public. For more
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