Why we need to stop glorifying 2021
By: Huma Kabakci
Tags: 2020, Commentary, Contemporary Art, Art Market, Museums

With all of its uncertainties and tragic events 2020 was by far one of the most difficult years in history — but we shouldn’t expect everything to go back to normal in 2021 either.

Photo credit Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images.

With a global pandemic followed by many redundancies and economic volatility, climate change issues, nationwide and international protests over racial injustice, a contentious presidential election in the US dominated the news this year. Just when we thought there was a glimpse of hope with Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines being circulated to NHS, London and many surrounding areas were forced into Tier 4 as a new fast-spreading variant of Covid-19 was blamed for an increase in cases. All of us are thinking “I can’t wait for 2020 to be over, so we can get back to normal.” But is that the case? Will things change that rapidly?

The new year brings a lot of opportunities, but we can’t pin all of our hopes on instant normality. As an independent curator and founding director of a young art organisation who had to put most of our physical projects on hold, I have been demotivated and felt somewhat lost this year. I am sure I am not the only one — especially given the fact that I work in the creative sector. Along with tourism sector, cultural and creative sectors (CCS) are among the most affected by the current crisis, with jobs at risk of up to 5.5% of employment across OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) regions. Despite the fact that the Arts Council and a few other art institutions released emergency fundings in the UK and new job opportunities are still available, there is way too much demand in comparison. So how do we keep sane and move forward? What can we learn from what happened in our creative industry and stay calm?

The impact of the crisis on distribution channels and the drop in investment by the sector will affect the production of cultural goods and services and their diversity in the months, if not years, to come. Unfortunately, in the absence of responsive public support and recovery strategies, the downsizing of cultural and creative sectors will have a negative impact on cities and regions in terms of jobs and revenues, levels of innovation, mental health and the vibrancy and diversity of communities. Cultural and creative sectors are largely composed of micro-firms, non-profit organisations and creative professionals, often operating on the margins of financial sustainability. Both public and private cultural institutions and bussinesses depend on this dynamic cultural ecosystem for the arts to survive.

One of the benefits of the pandemic in the art market has certainly been transparency. In comparison to recent years the online art market has completely shifted as the global pandemic forced all the market players to move their entire businesses into the digital space. The digital space has always been seen as complementary to the offline art market, constructed by private viewings, VIP dinners, collectors’ house and artist studio visits which made the artworld somewhat more exclusive. However, due to the absence of the physical art world induced by the pandemic, the online world is currently the predominant one. Without a doubt the COVID-19 outbreak provoked a forceful boost in the development of online platforms and having a strong e-commerce has become the focal point to keep the sales on an economically sustainable level. Up until this year when Art Basel Hong Kong online viewing rooms appeared at the end of March being the first fair to shift from physical to the virtual world, price transparency wasn’t something usual in the context of an art fair.

The caginess of pricing, the decline of amounts or price ranges by gallerists were something that was common before 2020. In an interview on Artsy, Art Basel Global Director Marc Spiegler stated that the decision of including prices has been made after careful consideration of whether this could have been a winning strategy to encourage and speed up the acquisition process. Shortly after Frieze New York Viewing Rooms followed the same strategy in persuading its gallerists to make prices publicly available. In an interview with Frieze New York’s Director Loring Randolph on Hyperallergic, Randolph stated that the reason why they strongly encouraged galleries to post pricing in the online fair is because it’s one less barrier to entry for communication for collectors and viewers.

© Illustration by Katherine Hardy

Another significant impact that the pandemic has brought to the surface has been transparency in gender and race equality. Anti-racism protests in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis inspired a stream of statements of solidarity from Western museums, pledging to fight injustice and advance diversity in their institutions. The Black Lives Movement (BLM) in particular forced public museums and institutions to justify their redundancies and strategic plans in the long run. There were public backlash from social media in particular towards museums that didn’t react to the BLM movement in time and in the postponement of Philip Guston’s touring exhibition. One of the reasons stated for the postponement was because of Guston’s paintings and drawings from the 1960s and ’70s, which feature hooded figures evoking the Ku Klux Klan. The museum leaders indicated that exhibiting these works so soon might be misinterpreted as glorifying white supremacy rather than calling attention to the pervasiveness of racism and white supremacy, as Guston intended. Following the announcement, there were many reactions and resentments as 2,600 artists, curators, and critics signed an open letter published by the Brooklyn Rail calling on the four museums to reverse their decision.

Another issue raised during the lockdown, when most artists were forced to work from their homes, change or scale down their studios, was artists who were mothers that couldn’t find time or the finances to work. Freelands Foundation released its 5th consecutive year of data on the representation of female artists in the UK carried out by Dr Kate McMillan with essays by art historian Jennifer Higgie and curator Hettie Judah. This year’s report includes 36 additional evidences that help to further understand the role that gender plays in the career outcomes for artists. Another exciting prize and exhibition to see was Procreate Project’s 3rd Mother Art Prize that took place at Cromwell Place in October 2020. The prize that aims to promote and support artists who are mothers/parents as well as drive the attention of the wider public to a broad-spectrum of themes that would otherwise be overlooked and devalue.

With more and more optimistic collaborations, initiations and discussions created around gender and race equality publicly through online Zoom events or Instagram lives this year, there certainly has been a clear sense of empathy and awareness all around. This certainly doesn’t mean that everything will get better suddenly within a week, but as long as there is more transparency, collaboration and discussion, we can move forward for a better, new normal.