French Art Collector, François Blanc, On The Future Of Art Fairs

Founder of Communic’Art Agency and French art collector, François Blanc, whose collection includes works by Gérard Garouste, Walead Beshty, Hannah Whitaker, Gilbert & George, Ulrich Lamsfuss, Louise Lawler, Iván Argote and Jean-Michel Alberola, shares his thoughts on art fairs in the COVID-19 era.

What are your thoughts on digital art fairs? 

A fair’s digital platform, like a gallery’s online viewing room, aims to increase awareness and visibility; it is not a privileged direct sales channel. Art Paris Digital, mounted in the emergency of the pandemic, chose a partnership with Artsy. This was clever because this website has a much larger audience than Art Paris. But in practice, I have the impression that the Parisian fair was drowned on Artsy’s communication channels, within the mass of the numerous partnerships forged with all the other canceled fairs. Hence the possible disappointment.

Since long-distance international travel is not possible at the moment, is a digital substitute better than not seeing the artwork at all? In the era of COVID-19, do you think we’ll see more online art fairs around the world in the future?

This crisis demonstrates the essential complementarity between digital and physical, in terms of communication and information. Actors who had taken the lead and swept aside the somewhat snobbish preconceptions denigrating the digitization of professions have shown that Instagram, a newsletter or a viewing room, well mastered by professionals, express an identity just as well as a window display, a place or a catalog. The viewing room of Templon Gallery, generated by Arteïa, is a superb example. To put it another way: it’s clear that online fairs will not replace physical fairs, but today, nothing can replace… an online fair! The same goes for online auctions.

During the first lockdown, did you purchase art online at digital art fairs? Before the pandemic started, did you previously buy artwork online without seeing it in person?

To buy online the work of an artist whom I am discovering, at a very reasonable price, why not? To decide on a more important purchase because I know the artist and possibly the work, I have done it. Beyond that, buying a name or a work like buying stock on the Nasdaq is not my practice. I can do without the proposed experience provided that I have previously had an experience in real life of the artist’s work. I acquired a wonderful little painting by Gérard Garouste coming out of lockdown after seeing it again and again on the screen. Without that, I would have missed it.

How has your vision of the future of the art world changed? Do you think massive art fairs will be able to survive and remain relevant, or will we see fewer or more local/regional art fairs in the future?

The art market is bending to health imperatives and to the desires of collectors within the context of a major global economic crisis. The desire to acquire works is there. Mega-fairs are no longer in a position to impose their commercial plan in the coming period of scarce money and limited transportation. The market has the opportunity to return to the low level of what is really needed in terms of artistic creation. Likewise, the galleries that will survive are those that will be able to make themselves economically indispensable to artists and relevant to collectors. When large fairs are possible again through international exchanges, we will see that they will have been partly disrupted by electronic means, of course, but also by more local fairs close to artists and collectors. For galleries in France and elsewhere, this is the opportunity to regain control of their market: to interact with collectors, understand their expectations, identify artists and promote them. From this point of view, a fair like Galeristes founded by Stéphane Corréard and thematic fairs (African art, outsider art, tribal art, etc.) are relevant in their fields. For operators of international formats, such as we know them, it’s not a question of refraining from shining worldwide or conquering markets from their strongholds, but the time has simply come to dispel the illusions of a speculative market! Be local and stay local to shine abroad.

In general, will you continue to buy at physical art fairs, or will you travel less and buy more at online art fairs?

The success of a fair is the successful combination between sociability and the quality of works. Long before the pandemic, the art world was already tired of the faltering of certain parties or unimaginative exhibitions, duplicated on the successes of previous years. Concerning the future, a collector remains a collector: he will never stop buying. I look forward to a renewed range of fairs, both physical and virtual. For the intermingling and discovery, the pleasure of meeting people, I’m ready to turn on my screen or to buy my plane ticket again, as soon as tomorrow morning!