Modern and Contemporary French and German Artists: Quality – Value – Ranking

KEYNOTE LECTURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
GERMANY AND FRANCE: ART AND ART COLLECTING 1900-1945 

Marek Claassen, Berlin, talks about:

Modern and Contemporary French and German Artists: Quality – Value – Ranking

Date: 9/11/2018, 6:00 p.m.
Venue:  TU Berlin, Main Building, Senate Room H 1035/1036, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin

Édouard Baldus – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Palais de l’Industrie Medium: Albumen silver print Dimensions: 21.6 x 27.9 cm. (8 1/2 x 11 in.)

Abstract: The presentation deals with a different perspective on historical developments in the art world. Instead of following the traditional approach to understand art through the observation of an existing object, our goal is to raise awarness of the fact that art history is made up of exhibitions. The ArtFacts.Net approach to understand the mechanisms underlying the ‘operating system’ of the art world is to accumulate exhibitions and translate this data into a ranked algorithm that creates a comparative model. This gives users a new perspective on ermerging trends as well as art history. I will share with you the aesthetics that dominate today’s art world and, how French and German art are perceived nationally and internationally. How can we overcome the problem of always focussing on the very few artists that fetch the highest prices in auction? During my presentation I aim to show a varied response to these questions through analysis of both primary and secondary art markets.

Marek Claassen serves as the Managing Director of ArtFacts.Net, an international online gallery and museum guide for modern, contemporary and emerging art. ArtFacts.Net is one of the world‘s leading databases for artists, collectors, gallerists and historians, which he co-founded in 2001. By tracing the career of more than 600,000 artists and 800,000 exhibitions, ArtFacts.Net offers a transparent look into the fast-changing contemporary art world. He is responsible for strategic expansion and oversees product development. With a background in Business Administration and many years of experience working with various galleries, software companies and as an associate of the Technical University Berlin, Claassen has been actively producing database enhanced websites for the art world since 1995. He has won many prizes for his Internet activities and in 1998 was nominated as one of Europe’s foremost multimedia entrepreneurs by the EU Commission. In 2004, Claassen developed the ‘Artist Ranking‘ on ArtFacts.Net that allows you to measure and compare different artists productivity and success within the art world.