Convergences: On the Realization of the Market Value of Avant-garde Art

written by Velimir Šonje

 

This year will mark thirty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the past thirty years, the market integration of East and West Europe has shown its power. Economists call such development processes convergences

 

We would have expected a similar development in art. Thirty years should be enough for exposing local art values and presenting them to the world's public. Thirty years should be enough for adjusting the channels of art distribution and what the economists are most interested in – market values, that is, prices. 

 

However, exposing the aesthetic and deeper social values of an art movement or period requires a lot of time. The slower processes of market integration and price convergence in art are not unexpected compared to the market integration and convergence of Eastern and Western Europe in other areas.

 

This text starts with the assumption that in front of us there is a segment of contemporary artistic creation in which the final act of revealing the value is yet to come.