Andy Warhol’s 1964 ‘Shot Sage Blue Marilyn’ displayed during a press preview in March at Christie's in New York. The Big Apple is home to one of the world’s largest concentration of high-net worth and ultra-high-net worth individuals, and by extension collectors. Photo: AFP
Few metropolises are as vibrant on the cultural scene as New York.
Such is the conclusion of the latest report by UBS and Arts Economics on the role of cities in the US art ecosystem.
Indeed, the Big Apple is a hotbed of artists, but also of museums and art galleries.
The figures speak for themselves: the United States is the powerhouse of the world's art market. Some 43% of all global auctions took place there in 2021, according to the report "The Role of Cities in the US Art Ecosystem."
If several American cities contribute to this effervescence, New York plays a significant role in contributing to this effect. It is home to more than a quarter of the country's art institutions (26%), unlike its rival, Los Angeles, which hosts only 7%. New York is also particularly vibrant when it comes to art exhibitions. The city's cultural institutions staged 36% of all exhibitions held in the United States between 2017 and 2021. That's nine times more than San Francisco, Miami or even Chicago.
Plus, the UBS and Arts Economics study reveals that the Big Apple is particularly attractive to American and international art collectors. They rank it as the third most popular city to visit for art exhibitions and fairs, behind London and Paris. Two other American cities also make the grade: Los Angeles (sixth place) and Miami (eighth place).
If New York is the US capital of the arts, its supremacy is increasingly challenged by Los Angeles. The cultural scene in the City of Angels has developed a lot in the last decade, both in terms of art fairs, and museums and galleries. However, the city's galleries take few risks with regard to the artists they showcase. Some 23% of Los Angeles galleries featured "emerging" talent between 2017 and 2021, compared to 39% of Chicago galleries. And while Los Angeles museums proved similarly risk-averse, they were notably less so than museums in San Francisco or New York.
Miami and Chicago stand out on the representation of women in the arts, a subject that has become particularly important in recent years. Miami is the only US city where emerging female artists are more likely than their male counterparts to get their work exhibited for the first time. They are also particularly visible in Chicago's art galleries, where 43% of the artists exhibited are women. – AFP
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