The art market, like real estate, tends to respond relatively slowly to economic changes. People with money will always have money, but there is a psychological factor involved. Even if people have only lost money on paper, at the moment they don't feel so rich. Personally, my business is affected less by the stock market than by the high dollar, which makes sales to Europeans more difficult. One area in which we are doing well is Outsider Art.
People seem to see that field as offering good value for the money.
It is possible that cutting-edge art will suffer, but a recession might actually be good for lower priced contemporary work. At any rate, we all need more time to figure out what is really going on. I think the consultancy business could also be hit by the recession, as well as the hundreds of new galleries that have opened in the last three to four years in Manhattan, many of which did not really have specific programmes. Photography has also seen a boom and I think that could be affected because people perhaps will not want to buy multiples so much. So I think the emerging artists' market will be hit.