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Where Is The Nash Equilibrium?

Finding The Equilibria Between Fine Art And Economics.
By Clarissa Lee Ai Ling

First Published in Faces Magazine, 28th August 2002, Malaysia. Submitted here with minor editing

1. Artist To Gallery

Most artists in Malaysia today still look to galleries to make money from their work. Fortunately, the market corresponds with its majority comprised by South East Asia works. Valentine Willie Fine Art based in Bangsar (an upper-income suburb in Kuala Lumpur) and Bali for example, specialises in South East Asian paintings, in particular contemporary rather than traditional folk art, according to gallery manager Rachel Ng. Installations also seem to be all the vogue now, judging from the number of exhibitions devoted to them.

Comparable to the musician and his or her record label, “artists need the gallery or agent to help promote their works to the collectors, and these agents are responsible in helping the artists build an image that allows them to command a good price for their work,” relates Chang Fee Ming, a senior Malaysian artist.

“We also check on the progress and development of the artist, prices that our clients are willing to pay… and provide the necessary information before purchase to clients,” adds Rachel.

In return, galleries often take a commission ranging from between 30% to 40%, though ironically that sometimes decreases for works of higher price. According to Rachel, this is because these works are usually more difficult to execute and therefore require a lot more planning, time and energy. Hence it would be unfair to the artists to for the galleries to take a huge cut from the work sold.

Several artists spoken to feel that this rate is acceptable, considering the amount of promotion that was invested towards promoting the art works. “But there was one gallery that changed ownership with the new owner wanting to charge a commission of 50%,” reveals Ng Foo Cheong, a young artist. “I felt that it was not on par with the services rendered, so I took out all my works and left. If I could help create a market for that gallery, I could very well do the same for myself elsewhere.”

On the promotion of Malaysian works overseas, young artist, Yeoh Kean Thai has this to say, “As the economy is still in the doldrums, galleries do not have the requisite funds to try and promote to an overseas market. They might when times are better.” Angeline Chong of the Art Gallery KL concurs adding that they may also be lacking the technical know-how.

And out of the thousands who profess art to be their calling, only a small fraction get represented. Angeline expresses that many non-commercial galleries do not provide much encouragement to young artists. And that includes the National Art Gallery.

Zanita of the National Art Gallery refutes the fact: “Art schools produce hundreds of art graduates annually, but not all of them go on to become artists; being an art graduate does not make an artist out of you. It comes from talent, hard work and dedication to your craft. We also find collecting young artists high-risk, as a majority of them are not quite stable. We are not too sure if they would continue producing works, especially works of high quality or if they are fly-by-night types. Where else, senior artists already have a tradition they adhere to, not to mention a documented history of quality works.”

“We are required to collect according to the mission of the gallery, which is to gather under one roof the historical development of our local art, sometimes collecting them by the major events that took place in this country… Tuanku Abdul Rahman (first Malaysian Prime Minister) had this vision of setting up a center to preserve our artistic heritage… hence we also collect works featuring political figures.”

“But we are always on the look out for fresh ideas, reworking of old, familiar themes from a different angle. We provide support to many young women artists, for example, by having had some of their installation exhibited within the gallery. There was this installation work, Kedai Ubat Jenuh, showcasing various bins containing a wide variety of medicinal and pseudo-medicinal herbs and drugs, by a young woman artist Susilawati Sulaiman. We also had another exhibit by Bibi Chew of her installation work Fragile- Handle with Care, a stack of Perspex boxes where she stored a variety of sand collected from the different states of Malaysia.

“The bulk of the early collections were by donation. But fewer artists are now willing to donate their pieces, what with the market for their works opening up due to the earlier economic boom, so we are now more into buying works. Every year, we prepare a budget proposal to present to the government for acquisition of new works. To justify our funding needs, we prepare well-researched proposals with all the necessary documentation. For this year, we have been given around RM2 million, with around RM800, 000 going towards conservation. We are currently working with a team of conservation specialists from Australia to train our own people to eventually take over. We use the rest for art education, acquisition and administration, with usually only RM300, 000 left for acquisition!”

Christie’s Malaysia markets South East Asian and Malaysian works and also classical Chinese paintings and modern contemporaries and Western paintings. “We deal with several overseas collectors,” says its Malaysian representative Lim Meng Hong. “They will get Christie’s to help them appraise the value of the work, especially in terms of saleability.”

The setting of base prices in auctions, according to Christie’s Brandon Thomas, is based on market trends in comparison with the prices of the artist’s other works. Christie would usually enlist the help of in-house specialists. “Specialists will usually look for pioneering works based on the track records of the work and what the collectors already own, but not all of the artists’ works are of auctionable quality.”

“We also deal with institutions and art dealers. Chinese paintings have a certain investment value to them where else the works from Indonesia do not fare as well in an international market. However in the latest auction in Hong Kong, the Indonesian artists created ground-breaking sales valued to a few Hong Kong millions, the best ever within the South East Asian region.”

Yet, not all are rosy within the confines of middlemen dealing. Sei Hon of Spacekraft expounds.

“There exists certain biases and limitations when artists depend on other people to manage their work. There is a preference for safe or decorative and accessible works of art. People tend to make unfaircomparisons betweenworks of different artists (both local and foreign). Purchases made are prone to racial biases, with a skewed inclination towards the Orient or exotic images. There is a lack of networking between artists themselves, with little initiative in crossing disciplines when producing work. Finally, there is a lack of alternative spaces and independent funding (with none of the corporate PR image building).”

2. Buyer To Buyer

After the initial transaction, transactions between collectors with the gallery or auction house as intermediary is called provenance. “We sometimes work on provenance,” reveals the artist Kean Thai. “Knowing how our works fare in a secondary market helps us in future valuation of our prices.”

“The gallery will document all transactions that take place so that the collectors who wish to get another work from the same artist would know whom to contact,” discloses Angeline. “But many of the younger artists do not have a secondary market for their works.”

3. Artist To Buyer

As in art markets throughout the world, galleries possess an inordinate power, if only as middlemen to true buyers and sellers. The Internet again provides salvation in the form of online art markets that have no submissions criteria but merely categorize works for easier selection. Artists could set up websites featuring their work to a global market transcending physical space and boundaries, or local industry biases. It also accords them with more personal control over their artistic creations by having direct contact with potential buyers and through self-documentation of transactions.

Alternatively, if galleries are somewhat slow on the uptake, the only recourse artists may have is marketing their work themselves. Sometimes, that boils down to the eventually finite strategy of selling to his or her friends. Some artists aim to cut galleries’ control out however by promoting themselves, and inviting others to join in collaborative exhibitions. Artists are invited to share in the costs of an exhibition and its marketing implicitly with less demanding submissions criteria.

Two artists-run outfit, Spacekraft and clickproject, offer a refreshing change to the more traditionalist galleries. Spacekraft believes in promoting and encouraging more independently diverse or alternative and also interdisciplinaryart practices for the benefitof the general public and theart scene itself. Hopefully, this process will accelerate and broaden the discourse on the roles or functions ofnew Malaysian art in addressing the challenges of the new millennium.

“Artists have always work under the service and the patronage of royalties, institutions, political and religiousestablisments. But it wasn’t until the Reformation and the Romantic movements (during industrial revolution in Europe) that artists decided to be financially independent, politically reactionary and fiercely individualistic. The idea of middlemen and galleries are the effects of art becoming a commodity-subjected tomarket demands,” explains Sei Hon. “Yet, I believe that artists should only strive for self-autonomy if they want to ensure that their artistic freedom is not compromised. Why? Galleriesand middlemen will only sell worksthatare accessible, safe, and decorative.An artist is not encouraged to change his or her style if the current styleis sellingvery well. This will stifle creativity andthe artists' integrity in the long run. For one's artistic expression to be dictated by market demandsbetrays a lack of it in the first place. Self autonomy will be the most logical, responsible and fulfilling path to embark on only if the artists themselves are willing to do the 'dirty' job of making, managingand marketing their works,without being exploited by ignorant but greedy bussinessmen, politicians andtheir wives with too much time and money in their hands.”

For clickproject, the partners, Dzurina Dzulkhaini and Ifzan Ibrahim, both graduates from central St. Martins College of Art in London and Yati Dzulkhaini, a business graduate from University Malaya, share the same vision and interest in promoting art and design in this country, and thus started the graphic design bureau, which expanded its premise about a year later to incorporate an art gallery called +clickgallery. +clickgallery was created especially to showcase fresh and contemporary talents whose urge to create goes beyond the boundaries of style and tradition.

“The clickproject is young and vibrant. We see no boundaries in creativity, in conceptions beyond normal senses. Our main objectives are to inform, innovate, inspire and intrigue. We would like to share our conception of what is possible in visual communications in search of a language appropriate to changing times. Be it in graphic design, promoting new art, fun photography or making handmade milky goods, we celebrate the simple wonders of life... the clickproject is an art and design collective that was incorporated in late November 1999,” says Dzurina.

“We serve as a platform for experimentation for these young artists, and we as individuals, feel a strong need to be proactive. As avid lomographers, we also wanted to share the strange and exciting world of lomography. Hence simultaneously, the Lomographic Society Malaysia was born. Lomography is a form of photography that has gained cult status all around the world and it emphasizes more on fun rather than the technical aspects of it. Now, the clickproject has grown and has recruited new blood, Jiji Ishak and Nurul Hanis Sakinah,” she further adds.

Prime retail space is also sometimes offered at reduced rates by art-friendly venues, such as Central Market or The Bukit Bintang Free Market.

The holy grail of income however is the residency, which of course is the contemporary version of patronage that was often the only way art survived in earlier times. One such is at architect Hijjas Kasturi and his wife Angela’s palatial estate, Rimbun Dahan, in Sungai Buloh, where each year an artist-in-residence is provided a studio and stipend in return for first dibs for the patron at his or her end-of-contract exhibition at the estate itself.

4. Who Buys Art?

From a survey of the clientele at galleries and an auction house, art collectors range from yuppies (including those just started out on their jobs) to business owners (including restaurants and cafes) to CEOs and directors of companies or institutions, while ages range from the early twenties to the elderly. Foreign institutions, museums and galleries also look to Malaysia while sourcing for Asian art.

Brandon of Christie’s views the collector as someone who grows organically. “One can always differentiate a young collection from a more mature one. Usually a collector of a certain kind of art would keep to collecting that kind of art. There is a parallel between the creator and collector, and they complement each other.”

Says one new collector, U-Ming, a Malaysian systems analyst at a bank in London:

“I started while surfing on the Internet, looking for a present for a friend. While doing that, I stumbled upon some interesting sites. Looking at one’s ‘fine art and antiquities’ section, I bought myself a 19th century bible (with lovely binding) and got hooked ever since. So I started buying cheap little pieces found in antique shops, all while a student at university in UK. I started spending a lot of my time collecting 19th century metalwork (silver and brass). Availability meant that I could not exactly find much from outside Europe, but I am interested in seeing Asian and African metalwork. The highest I’ve ever paid for a piece of artwork is £200. It's a chance to have something nice and painstakingly collected at home to appreciate whenever and wherever without having to go to a museum. I think I take a bit of an intellectual interest in it rather than just for pure aesthetics reason, and sometimes it is interesting to think about the influences that culture and various other factors may have contributed into the design and forms -- whether as a religious motif, or just to challenge the norms.”

Others aren’t so fortunate. Kate Ng who lives in Malaysia carps: “I haven't started collecting, even though I am an avid art fan, as the prices are somewhat prohibitive, I get to the art exhibit way after the good and cheaper pieces (RM500 price range) are sold, and there is little public information on local artists and the valuation of their works.”

A majority of auctions for example, are beyond the pockets of most middle-class Malaysians. How can they pursue this interest that seems an exclusive domain of the society’s elite? “To make art more accessible to the public in general, we have certain exhibitions like the annual Art Under RM1000,” relates Valentine Willie’s Rachel. “We will get big names to contribute artwork that is below RM1000. Even though it might be a small work compared to their usual works, it allows a person to own a work by a big-name artist. Younger artists can also join the fray and get their works recognised and appreciated by a bigger crowd. They can use it as a platform to gauge responses to their work. In fact, there is one coming up in December this year.”

5. Investment Advice

“The important issues would be that of artistic quality in relation to provenance (secondary market), condition and rarity, the artist's representation — i.e. gallery and the artist's position in art history,” advises an art specialist of Christie’s Malaysia.

“Before getting yourself with auctions, one should always read as much as possible, read the catalogues, books or trade magazines. Also speaking to specialist in the field that interests you helps. The specialists are passionate in their area and if you are willing to learn, they are willing to divulge substantial information to you… Start first from medium range artworks before moving on to bigger works. Go to as many auctions as you can beforehand so that you can make informed and educated decisions. All auctions are open to the public so you can just walk in and check them out,” advise Brandon as well as Meng Hong.

“We always do our best to ensure that no forgeries pass through. But as we have around 1200 auctions a year, with items sold to millions of dollars, sometimes a fake might pass through erroneously. But we will always refund our buyer with no question asked,” claims Brandon. “It would be easier to get a refund from us than from some galleries,” quips Meng Hong.

6. Artists On Valuation

“Of course, to have an empty image without substance is pointless,” expresses artist Fee Ming. “And to create a work just to fit the market is also shallow. For myself, I do not work on specially consigned works since they take away the artistic control, unless the consignment is based on what I am already working on.”

“Commercial paintings abound but the kind of paintings I do is not done to please the crowd. I definitely can’t sell to everybody, as not everybody would like my paintings related to society and life, like my recent Mekong River series. Half-figure paintings and watercolour are my forte. There is of course a message inside the painting but not every collector sees it, nor would they buy it for the message. But as a full time artist, selling my paintings is important, as I need to earn a living. To make a living as an artist, one definitely has to work hard and be talented,” he continues.

“One has to exercise give-and-take in this situation,” opines artist Foo Cheong. “Instead of always painting works that contain frightening or intimidating messages, we also try to paint works that are pleasant visually. Not all of our artworks are injected with profound social commentary.”

Fine art, as defined by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, is art produced or intended primarily for beauty rather than utility.

Even if Malaysia still lags behind developed and some other Asian countries when it comes to art awareness, there is more appreciation for fine art today than there has ever been decades preceding. To quote Fee Ming, “Prices of work have increased and the newer generation artists are luckier in the sense that they are also able to sell more of their work. In Malaysia, you are lucky that if you ever have problems making a living full time as an artist, you can still take up other kind of jobs to support yourself, like teaching art in schools or colleges. There are more young people interested to learn art nowadays.” Sei Hon feels that there is a lack of intellectually stimulating discourses in art, as most ‘art critics’ in Malaysia are not qualified; do not have the tools or the sincerity to engage art in a meaningful and comprehensive manner.

“One art review inthe local papers was even surprised to find out that photographycan be 'fine' art. It was elevated to that status more than 100 years ago!” he exclaims.

What is important now is for the Tourism Board to promote our contemporary works of art vis-à-vis traditional crafts to the global market, as another avenue of income for the artists and country, as well as injecting vital cash flow to reeve up the art scene and to encourage budding talents to develop to full maturity. Art in Malaysia definitely lacks a web presence and what would be better than to build an active directory of, featuring works and biographical notes of the artists, information on galleries and dealers, that are constantly updated and easily accessible worldwide through search engines. Meanwhile, education on art has to be an ongoing process and Malaysians need to be taught that art is not just something that ‘amateurs’, with artistic pretensions, engage in. A dialogue has to take place between the fine art practitioners and the art economists to achieve mutual understanding for the advancement of art.

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