Yet, the contemporary art market depends on the affective contours of face-to-face interaction and direct engagement with consecrated artworks. Every market has been dramatically affected by the COVID-19 crisis and related lockdowns. Our puzzle is to explain how art market participants navigate the disruptions of the crisis in the absence of face-to-face encounters while maintaining the emotional satisfactions of the community in light of these new practices and relations. The COVID-19 crisis led to stay-at-home orders and the closure of physical spaces in which interactions flower. We find a transition to distant online communication, but the likelihood of this continuing after the lockdowns end and the virus dissipates varies according to the subcultures of these market segments. These challenges especially impact the primary gallery market, where participants emphasize a communal commitment to art above instrumental speculation, which is more accepted in the secondary auction market. In the absence of physical co-presence with the artworks and art world actors, participants struggle to evaluate and appreciate artworks, make new social ties, develop trust, and experience a shared sense of pleasure and collective effervescence.
Based on interviews with artists, collectors, a dealer, and an auction house executive, we argue that the decline of face-to-face interaction, previously essential to art market transactions, has placed strain on each corner of the community.
We examine how the contemporary art market has changed as a result of the disruptions caused by the novel coronavirus.
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