Art Banking - Street Art
Originating in the 1960s, urban art encompasses a wide range of trends and practices. Master Arnaud Oliveux, Director of the Urban Art department at Artcurial, sheds light on this movement.
Interview conducted by Laurent Issaurat, Head of Art Wealth Management at Societe Generale Private Banking.
What is exactly urban art?
Arnaud Oliveux: Urban art covers very different realities, ranging from graffiti to the most contemporary urban practices. It was born in the United States in the 1960s with the culture of writing, that is to say, the practice of tagging and graffiti. This art of writing developed in the subway, on city walls in New York, then in Paris and more broadly in Europe.
This movement then evolved towards "post-graffiti," marking a transition to new media such as canvas, paper, and wooden panels, and is now exhibited outside the street in galleries and art centers.
Alongside writing, other practices have developed, which today are more often grouped under the term "street art," such as stencil or collage. In France, stencil art developed from the early 1980s with artists like Blek le Rat and his rat stencils found along the banks of the Seine, Miss.Tic and her self-portraits and then portraits of women accompanied by aphorisms that made her famous, as well as direct acrylic work. There was then the white silhouettes of Jérôme Mesnager. Gérard Zlotykamien is also considered a true pioneer of this scene; in 1963, he exhibited at the Paris Biennale but ended up removing his work as a protest against the censorship of the event and decided that the street would be his new field of expression. He created the "Ephemerals" on large urban construction sites, on hoardings, etc. Ernest Pignon-Ernest, for his part, wanted to reach a broad audience and chose collage of embodied subjects across cities in dilapidated places, such as Naples.
Does the development of urban art in Europe have the same roots as in the United States?
A.O.: In the United States, this movement is motivated by social, almost sociological or societal, claims. Graffiti artists mostly come from social minorities who, to emerge from society and simply exist, put their names on walls in an increasingly visible and viral way throughout the city. The pioneer of graffiti in the United States in New York (preceded in Philadelphia as early as 1967 by Cornbread) is probably Taki 183, of Greek origin, who, taking advantage of his status as a courier and to get noticed, covered entire neighborhoods with his name (an abbreviation of the first name Demetraki) and his address, 183rd Street.
In contrast, in Europe, particularly in France, stencil art was carried by artists with a classical background who chose the street as their field of expression. Their goal was to conquer a different kind of audience and to break away from the institutional world. Today, the phenomenon is reversing and some artists wish, on the contrary, to return to museums.
You mentioned the institutionalization of urban art. When did it enter galleries?
A.O.: One might think this is a relatively recent phenomenon, but it is actually almost simultaneous with the birth of this art. As soon as "post-graffiti" took its place on canvas, it was ultimately with the aim of being exhibited. Very specialized galleries were already showcasing these works from the mid-1970s in New York. This trend intensified in the 1980s with galleries such as Sidney Janis or FUN Gallery and alternative venues like Fashion Moda, which organized exhibitions and real festive evenings around graffiti artists who are now in the spotlight: Dondi White, Futura 2000, or Rammellzee, echoing artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, who were never strictly graffiti artists (except for the early SAMO tags) and who almost immediately turned to studio practice.
Europe was also quickly affected by this phenomenon. While the subways and some neighborhoods of New York were saturated with tags and graffiti, the city undertook significant cleaning, banning, and prosecutions in the 1980s, pushing graffiti artists to move to Europe to settle or exhibit. A real market developed in France as well as in Belgium, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. It was during this period that museums such as the Groningen City Museum or important collectors like the German Peter Ludwig in Cologne (foreshadowing the Ludwig Collection) built their historic graffiti collections. In France, agnès b. collected and exhibited these artists from 1984 in the Galerie du Jour.
How is the urban art market currently doing and which artists stand out?
A.O.: The urban art market, as I mentioned earlier, emerged in the 1980s but came to a halt in the early 1990s, a period of a general downturn in the art market. A new generation of artists then appeared in the second half of that decade who are today the big names in current sales. This includes Banksy (stencil), Invader (mosaic collage), and a little later JR (with his photographic collage work).
In 2005, Banksy's first works were auctioned in London. The following year, Artcurial organized a contemporary art sale in October with a special chapter dedicated to graffiti and post-graffiti art; it was very successful (sales 10 times higher than estimates) and launched a phenomenon that grew with each sale. The next five years marked the maturation of this market with the gradual integration of new artists and a steady increase in prices. These sales often preceded the opening of galleries that later took an interest in this market.
Today, we are entering a stage of institutionalization. The market has become increasingly selective, and the challenge for collectors is to identify those who can stand out and become future leaders. On the institutional side, several artists are honored this year in France with an exhibition of Rammellzee at the Palais de Tokyo or a retrospective of Futura 2000 at the Fab venue opened by agnès b. Moreover, the Pompidou Center (National Museum of Modern Art) is finally starting its collection, focusing on the Parisian scene (Miss.Tic, Zlotykamien, the VLP...) and how it was built on the margins of official contemporary art.
I would like to add an anecdote that illustrates the importance some artists have gained in the broader art world. In 2001, during a sale of very contemporary artists' works, the artist Invader was marginally represented (an unsold work at €500). Today, he is the only artist from that sale to have made a name for himself on the market!
What is the profile of collectors?
A.O.: Buyers can be anywhere from 25 to 80 years old. There are no longer generational limits today. Some prefer to focus on more classic supports such as paintings, while others turn to less expensive derivative objects as an easy entry into collecting: lithographs, "collectible" objects (sneakers, toys...). Finally, this art remains mostly Western, while developing in less expected regions or territories less inclined to freedom of expression (Africa, South America...). At the first sales, buyers belonged to a community interested only in this scene and were well acquainted with it. Today, there is no longer a particular profile of collector; profiles are very varied. The urban art audience is much broader, open to dialogue between different artistic scenes. On the professional side, we are also committed to facilitating these bridges, favoring sales more broadly dedicated to contemporary art, of which urban art is an integral part.
What advice would you give to those who wish to acquire urban art?
A.O.: This question applies to the contemporary art market more broadly. In an emerging market, one must accept taking risks or otherwise focus on already established artists, but at higher prices. The primary criterion remains to love what you are going to buy, to buy out of passion.
It is also necessary to document oneself, read, and listen to the informed advice that professionals and specialists can provide.
Arnaud Oliveux
Profile of Arnaud Oliveux, Associate Director and auctioneer urban & Contemporary Art at Artcurial.
Arnaud Oliveux, who holds a degree in civil law, developed a passion for contemporary art during his studies at the École du Louvre between 1996 and 2000, where he studied under Bernard Blistène, Christine Macel and Laurent Le Bon. In 2003 he joined Artcurial’s contemporary art department and obtained his auctioneer qualification. In 2005 he became one of the company’s experts and in September 2008 he was appointed to oversee voluntary sales.
His interest in contemporary creation has led him to maintain close personal ties with artists. He was formerly Xavier Veilhan’s assistant for several years and contributed to the artist’s retrospective at Le Magasin in Grenoble in 2000.
Since 2006, he has been a pioneer in France in developing graffiti and urban art auctions.
His close relationships with artists have allowed him to organise auctions that take the shape of authentic events highlighting urban cultures through performances and gatherings with actors in the sector.
Today, Artcurial has become the leader in this niche market, which is now gaining international recognition, regularly setting records such as with Invader, Shepard Fairey, Vhils and Jose Parla.
In 2019, Arnaud Oliveux became associate director of the auction house and continues to develop this speciality under the name Urban & Pop Contemporary, with curated projects such as Outsider(s), A History of Beautiful Losers, Don’t Believe the Hype and Search & Stop. From 2022 onwards, new projects have led him towards the very contemporary new trends of the market with the Twenty One Contemporary projects and the highlighting of a whole new generation of visual artists, from Guillaume Bresson to Claire Tabouret.
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