Middle-Eastern artists

Our Friday TOP! Every other Friday Artprice posts a theme-based auction ranking. This week we present the Top 10 auction results for works by Contemporary Middle-Eastern artists.

Dynamic Middle-East art market

On the back of strong growth in the Contemporary art segment (which saw its global annual auction revenue multiplied by ten over the last decade)

Photography fair in Paris

From 19 to 22 November 2009, the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris will host 89 galleries at Paris Photo. This year the fair’s spotlight is on Arab and Iranian photography after a particularly dynamic 2009 for contemporary art from the Middle East: New Art from the Middle East at the Saatchi Gallery in London (30 Jan-uary - 9 May 2009)

Venice Biennial Art Fair: the Golden Lion prize

The 53rd Venice Biennial Art Fair opens to the public on 7 June 2009. For six months it presents a panorama of global contemporary art in pavilions representing the artists and countries invited. Launched in 1895, the Venice biennial has a long tradition of selecting a handful of artists to receive its prestigious prizes. Do the Golden Lions - awarded parsimoniously over the years - constitute an accelerator for the price indices of the artists that receive them?

Iranian art boom - 2006-2008: "progress report"

In two years, Dubai has clearly affirmed itself on the global art market with the first edition of Art Dubai in 2007 - inviting some 30 galleries from around the globe - and with the establishment of both Christie’s (2006) and Bonhams (2008) in the city. Since their arrival, the two action houses have been selling works by modern and contemporary artists from Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon and Iran and they have succeeded in fostering growing demand as well as significant price inflation. The Dubai prices represented his record.

Contemporary art - New arrivals to the world of public auctions

Every year, nearly 3,000 artists have their first work(s) sold at auction. This first sale is a significant step because for most people the prices they command represent a sort of benchmark which follows them throughout their career. Galleries find it less easy to support their favourite artists if the latter have not shown the capacity to generate sufficiently strong performances in the public auction arena. Likewise, a strong auction performance is an ideal trampoline for guaranteeing the success of future exhibitions on the primary market. So who got started in 2007? Artprice looks at the top 50 new entrants.

How does the French contemporary art market measure up today?

Since it reformed its auctioneers, France has increased its share of the auction market from 7% of worldwide turnover in 2001, to 8.6% in 2002. Yet growth in the wider sector has done little for the contemporary art market. France only generated 4.5% of the proceeds from contemporary artworks in 2002.