Prof. Olav Velthuis

LECTURE ON MONDAY, 20/06/2016

Prof. Dr. Olav Velthuis, Amsterdam, talks about:

The Market Carousel. How Markets for Modern and Contemporary Art Emerge in Brazil, Russia, India and China

Date: 20/06/2016, 6:15 pm
Venue: Room A 111, Architecture Building of the TU, Straße des 17. Juni 150/152, 10623 Berlin

Links | left: Creativity Art Gallery in Hauz Khas village, a cultural district in New Delhi. Rechts | right: Sunshine International Art Museum, a private art museum in Songzhuang Artist Village, on the outskirts of Beijing. Both Photos: Olav Velthuis.

Left : Creativity Art Gallery in Hauz Khas village, a cultural district in New Delhi. Right: Sunshine International Art Museum, a private art museum in Songzhuang Artist Village, on the outskirts of Beijing. Both Photos: Olav Velthuis.

++Title, abstract and CV are always written in the respective language of presentation.++

Abstract: Using the metaphor of a carousel, this talk will focus on the emergence of markets for modern and contemporary art in regions which hitherto where off the map of global art. Only 25 years ago, China, which now ranks among the three largest art markets of the world, had no market to speak of. How could this market emerge so rapidly? Four rounds of the carousel are distinguished in the process of market emergence. Each round is characterized by its own set of actors, who make distinct contributions to the creation of the formal and informal institutions which enable markets to function. Empirically, I will draw on both qualitative and quantitative data collected in a five-year, cross-comparative research project on the emergence of art markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Olav Velthuis is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology of the University of Amsterdam, specializing in economic and cultural sociology. At the department, he is director of the program group Cultural Sociology. In a cross-comparative fashion, he has studied the emergence and development of art markets in the BRIC-countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The project is financed by a VIDI-grant from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO). Before moving to the University of Amsterdam, he worked as a Staff Reporter Globalization for the Dutch daily de Volkskrant. Velthuis is the author of Talking Prices. Symbolic Meanings of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art (Princeton University Press, 2005). Together with Maria Lind of Tensta Konsthall (Stockholm), he edited the book Contemporary Art and Its Commercial Markets. A Report on Current Conditions and Future Scenarios (Sternberg Press, 2012) and with Stefano Baia Curioni the book Cosmopolitan Canvases. The Globalization of Markets for Contemporary Art (Oxford University Press, 2015). Velthuis’ academic work has appeared in leading social science journals including Theory & Society, Socio-Economic Review, Economy & Society, Journal of Consumer Culture, and the Journal of Cultural Economics.

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