The Emergence of a Market for Contemporary Art in Brazil

• In Event: 263 - Regular Session. Cultural Studies 3: Cultural Fields and Markets: Formation and Transformation

Abstract

In recent years, attention has been drawn to the emergence of a market for contemporary art in Brazil. While recent sale figures show the country represents only 1% of the global trade in art, its potential for further expansion is recognized in the growth of a wealthy local consumer base (McAndrew 2013). This paper traces the development of art market in Brazil over recent decades, zooming into the clustering of galleries, artists and public and private cultural institutions in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and the concomitant consolidation of the primary art market. Using extensive primary and secondary data, including interviews, field observations and archival material, the paper delineates the contours of a local art market, comparing and contrasting to hitherto primarily Western case studies (for instance, Moulin 1967; Becker, 1982; Velthuis 2005). The trajectory of the Brazilian contemporary art market displays different institutional isomorphic mechanisms (Di Maggio and Powell 1983) at work through time: from the mimicry of practices and import of expertise from Europe in the early phases, to the adoption of global conventions and ways of doing through the normative pressures which come with globalisation of the art market. Within this art world, the gradual reflexivity and professionalization of a market are highlighted, emulating developments in the global art market, against the backdrop of increasingly neo-liberal policies towards the arts.

Author

• Amanda Brandellero, University of Amsterdam