Source: The Art Newspaper.
Digital players focus on transparent, algorithmically driven analytics to appeal to a younger base for whom the medium is cool. But that data still needs informed interpretation.
Art market reports released in recent months have highlighted how the prints and multiples sector is drawing a growing number of younger collectors, a cadre that particularly demands transparency around transactions and full market analysis on the works they buy. For a decade and more, established galleries have seen developing print-selling arms as a way of attracting younger buyers—with the format generally offering a lower barrier to entry—while digital-first marketplaces launched in the same period, including Avant Arte and MyArtBroker, have promoted activity by offering algorithmically driven data breakdowns to answer customer demand for full-package analytics.
Last November Art Basel and USB’s 2023 Survey of Global Collecting revealed that Gen Z (at present capped at 27 years old) spent more on prints than any other age range last year; while Deloitte’s 2023 Art & Finance Report (also released in November) found that 95% of collectors under 35 prioritised “art market information and research” when buying art.
In March, the Amsterdam-based Avant Arte, which works with contemporary artists to produce affordable editioned prints—with an average price this year of around €2,000—published a report examining the collecting behaviour of its community, Who Are the New Generation of Art Collectors? Almost half are aged 18-39, while 80% are younger than 50—and the report finds that 75% are looking for prints. “The new generation [of collectors], which forms the majority of our community, care deeply about transparency, about being able to make well-informed decisions through data and insights, and also about accessibility,” says Mazdak Sanii, founder and chief executive of Avant Arte. “We’ve always had transparent pricing for every work we sell, as well as for shipping, duties and everything else involved in getting a work delivered to your home. But we recently published a much more granular overview of how we allocate particularly in-demand works, where there are many more potential buyers than works to sell.”
Avant Arte has also started giving collectors more insight into the art production process. “This approach to transparency and accessibility has resonated and allowed us to build a community of 3.3 million enthusiasts and collectors online,” Sanii explains. “But we know that’s not enough—of nearly 1,500 collectors we surveyed, 90% don’t find the art world welcoming to them—so there’s lots to do.”
MyArtBroker, an online platform for trading blue-chip prints and multiples on the secondary market,also seeks to capitalise on this demand for transparency. At the end of last year, the company launched an algorithm called SingularityX. It scours data from 300 auction houses and MyArtBroker’s private sales over the past seven years, including bids and offers.
“SingularityX tracks the value of prints in a much more coherent way compared to the rest of the art market,” says Charlotte Stewart, MyArtBroker’s managing director. “There is transparency in knowing the market demand and supply for an artwork before investing. Auction results only show you so much, about 30% of what is traded. Our algorithm goes one step further by looking at private sales trading through us, and valuations made via our platform, as well as relationships within the data between similar works in a particular portfolio.”
Stewart adds that “in 2074—50 years from now—the boomers and ageing millennials who make up the vast majority of big collectors will be dead. Gen Z will be the prime collecting generation, so the race to build a marketplace truly fit for this generation, and the next, is on.”
After surveying Gen Z print collectors earlier this year, MyArtBroker noted that the results suggested that “this digitally native generation is steering away from the conventional alleys of art acquisition, favouring a model built on transparency, direct artist support and digital platforms”. A total of 78% of respondents stated that they would never buy prints from an auction house, and 89% said they are drawn to prints by emerging artists. “The reality revealed by our survey is that the traditional art world and market, to the younger eye, seems fundamentally out of touch and near impossible to participate in,” MyArtBroker’s report notes.
The prints and multiples sector is subsequently positioning itself as an antidote to the opacity and exclusiveness of other corners of the art market, such as the Old Master trade. The fossilisation of the latter’s middle and lower end—partly because of the segment’s inability to attract new, younger buyers—is no secret. As Scott Reyburn wrote in The Art Newspaper in January, Old Masters “just aren’t cool”.
Mazdak Sanii of Avante Arte, which serves a community of 3.3 millionVivek Vadoliya
The digital nature of platforms like Avant Arte and MyArtBroker enables them to more easily adopt technology to appeal to younger, tech-savvy collectors. “Avant Arte is an internet-born company connecting artists, enthusiasts and collectors through a range of different technologies—so that ethos is infused into everything we do,” Sanii says. “We’ve grown a communityacross established and emerging platforms, from Instagram and Discord to TikTok and Threads, but continue to trial new ways of using these technologies to increase access and engagement with art and artists.”
‘New-gen’ print buyers
Bricks-and-mortar print galleries, despite having an online presence, rely on traditional face-to-face interaction with collectors, so it is perhaps expected that some are wary of an over-reliance on technology. “If you don’t know how to interpret and use the data provided by tech like art index algorithms, it can be misleading regarding the true value of a print,” Tanya Grigoroglou, director of Raw Editions in London, says. “There is no substitute for specialist human knowledge because the markets move and collectors might not always understand these fluctuations, the reality of a particular work or how prices change.”
Charlotte Stewart of MyArtBroker says that its algorithm offers a new level of transparencyCallum@WickermanPhotography2021
Oliver Munts, the founder of Mustard Contemporary, a London gallery specialising in prints, is sceptical about the potential of technology to provide more transparency. “There is no real accuracy in the art market because it often comes down to what someone is prepared to pay for a particular print, or what someone is prepared to sell it for,” he tells The Art Newspaper. “However, it makes a lot of sense for platforms like MyArtBroker to try and give more access to information and insight because it’s certainly what the market needs, so you need to give them credit.”
Sanii hopes that Who Are the New Generation of Art Collectors? will change the perception of “new-gen” print buyers. “The paucity of data and insight around this new generation leads to misplaced assumptions and lazy typecasting, which can impact the opportunity they represent,” he says. “The findings will be surprising for many to read—that the new generation is growing fast and more able to spend meaningfully on art than much of the commentary today would suggest.”