Filip Vermeylen

THE END OF THE ART CONNOISSEUR? EXPERTS AND KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION IN THE VISUAL ARTS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

In this digital age, declarations surface of the death of the expert and the democratization of information. Crowd wisdom is seen as the new guide in constructing and evaluating knowledge. In the context of the art world, this tension between the amateurs and the experts becomes particularly pronounced as popular meets high culture. Questions arise such as: what is the role of the expert in the evaluation of art in contemporary times? Do social media dismantle age-old hierarchies and established priesthoods in the art world? And can we assume that mass participation in valuation results in better judgments? This article addresses such popular notions of participation and expertise concerning social media in the art world through a historical lens by re-examining and positioning art experts from past to present. Particularly, characteristics of intermediaries in the art market are examined closely regarding their strategies in knowledge production and the establishment of expertise. This historical situatedness enables us to move beyond the hype of new media expectations, generating more appropriate avenues of investigation to better grasp possible changes amongst actors within the contemporary art world. This examination is not just theoretically relevant but practically so, given current pressures on art institutions to embrace and reach out to new audiences online.

The test of time. Art encyclopedia and the formation of the canon of seventeenth-century painters in the Low Countries

This article deals with the process of canon formation for Flemish and Dutch painters from the 17th century onwards. We examine how the essential art-historical treatises and art encyclopedias since Houbrakens Grote Schouburgh der Nederlandsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen ranked and evaluated the leading painters, based on the attention given to them in these volumes. Using standardized z-scores, we map the relative importance the selected artists received in these publications over the 3 centuries. In doing so, we emphasize the path-dependency and the dimension of time in explaining the endurance of certain artists in the long run. From our research it emanates that the canon of Netherlandish painters is much more volatile than previously assumed.

Has the art market become truly global? Evidence from China and India

New ICTs are credited as being one of the major driving forces behind the globalization of the art world. They facilitate the creation and expansion of international networks and make it easier for artists, museums, galleries, collectors and other art world actors to connect and interact on a global level. Museums bring their collection to the public online and develop apps to enhance the museum experience. Online auction platforms and gallery websites are enabling a growing virtual marketplace that is not dependent on location and tangibility. However, despite the ubiquitous nature of these new technologies, real live events featuring actual artworks and personal contact between artists, distributors and consumers are likely to remain one of the pillars of the art world. Initiatives such as virtual art fairs have notoriously failed to gain traction, and the volume of e-commerce is still dwarfed by sales at brick and mortar galleries and live auctions. New ICTs may support interconnectivity and pave the way to a borderless art world, but they have not, so far, been able to substitute the physical art event. The art community has remained staunchly wary of the Internet, fearing that it may lead to a loss of aura for art and a market devoid of personal relationships (Velthuis 2014).