Art: State of the Market

Last year's drop in the stock market and the long New York City newspaper strike both hurt Manhattan's long-booming art galleries, and as dealers began sizing up their season's-end experiences last week, it was obvious that the slump had one particular victim: the abstract painting that after the war made Manhattan the center of the art world. "There has been a cresting of the abstract-art market," says Phillip Bruno of the Staempfli Gallery. "Those painters in the $5,000 to $15,000 range have been hit hard. Prices have been too high and a re-evaluation was necessary." The art boom has not collapsed, but it has drastically shifted.

Most dealers agree that the giants of abstractionism will go on selling forever, even though their prices are already beyond the reach of all but the rich. But, says Bruno, "two years ago you could sell a $100,000 Pollock by writing four letters. Today it would take 50 letters." Manhattan's galleries are still flooded with second-grade abstraction, but it is no longer considered much of an investment. Today the investors buy pop art, which is a good deal cheaper and also gets most of the publicity. Says Dealer Lee Nordness, whose own semi abstract and representational artists made 30% more money than last year: "I know several dealers of abstract expressionism, especially second-generation abstractionism, who have had a great deal of trouble. There are even dealers who have urged their abstractionists to switch to pop art."

Wait & See. The avant-garde Green Gallery did three times as much business as last year (which means that it just broke even). But its five abstractionist shows sold only three paintings, while its pop artists accounted for 80% of its sales. "It is generally true," says the Green Gallery's Richard Bellamy, "that there has been so much inferior abstract art in the past six years that the public has reacted to it. Those collectors who can't swallow pop art have adopted a wait-and-see attitude."

Grace Borgenicht, whose excellent gallery took a steep 50% dive, blames the drop on "the carefully publicized vogue for pop art, on the one hand, and the confusion in the minds of others as to the direction of the art scene. The decline in prices of some artificially raised 'name artists' has to a great extent frightened those who are unsure of their tastes." Dealer Catherine Viviano, who found the season "pretty bad," flatly denies that the slump had anything to do with economics. "Trends are changing," says she. "Pop art has helped to make people feel insecure. No one seems to be sure any more what a work of art is."