MARKET FILE - INVESTMENT
MARKET FILE - INVESTMENT
A lot of people we put in are good and have been around for a long time. It is just that we may not have come across them. It is difficult because there are not enough galleries showing them. I have learned so much in the last years that yes, I would like to use my skills in other African countries. I wish we can get the whole of Africa with one voice, saying, “This is Africa”. Of course, Arthouse will always specialize in West African art because this is where we are based. It will be interesting to bring others across to Nigeria and make them more aware of what we are doing as well as to get Nigerians familiar with what is happening in countries like Ghana, the Congo, Senegal, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa. There are not enough exhibitions for artists in other parts of Africa. I think Nigeria, being an oil producing country where people have so much money, should try to help other African countries. OM: Briefly explain how you source your works and the process involved in selecting for your auction? When we finish an auction, we start working on the next by looking around, going to artists’ studios to see what they have done and asking them to submit work. We also get works from collectors and dealers by putting in calls to consign. Normally, anywhere else in the world, the older, established artists have their contemporary works in a separate kind of bracket, but we are not mature enough to do that. There is a need to blend the two. This way, people can see the different works of different periods. I think it is a bit of a history lesson, people will be aware of what we have. Unfortunately, in schools there are not many lessons on art history and there is very little contemporary art shown in museums. I had a few lessons to learn - there was nowhere to learn about the business of art or see examples of work by Ben Enwonwu or Yusuf Grillo. I had to learn by looking
and talking to people like Oliver Enwonwu and Olasehinde Odimayo, who has been a source of inspiration and help to me in learning about African art. Of course, Nike has also been amazing in teaching me about Osogbo. She has done relentless work in promoting art in every way; fabric making, printing, tie-and-dye and all those wonderful things. I have been present at her courses on how to do tie-and-dye and all that. It is amazing — everybody along the way being a source of inspiration. It has been incredible. OM: Do you consider it a risk including work by young artists who may not have sustained practices? I think for them it is incredible to be put into a show with masters; they get so excited. People come in to buy at the auction, so it is not a question of a person being a younger or older artist. Genuinely people walk in and say, “I love this painting, I think it is amazing and I am going to buy it”. Every time we put in someone new, I would say 8 or 9 times out of ten, we succeed in selling his works and have people come back saying “Oh! We love this artist, can you source me some more of his works.” This gives the artist the confidence to say “I was good enough to be put into Arthouse. Well I can do it, paint again, come back to show works. A lot of artists come in; everyone has credentials and been to art school. There are a few young artists who walk in and have not had a show. Sometimes we go to shows by young artists who may not be able to approach us. For example, I saw Victor Ehikhamenor at a show at Bisi Silva’s. I also saw Victor Ekpuk, Ndidi Dike and George Osodi. A lot of people we put in are good and have been around for a long time. It is just that we may not have come across them. It is difficult because there are not enough galleries showing them. People have shows
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that are for only a week. If you happen not to be here that week, you kind of lose out on the artist. I think in last 5 or 6 years there have been many art shows compared with 35 years ago. In fact, artists are showing at least once a year, having salons and being supported by galleries. One of our main ways is going to the galleries to see what they have. Most of the galleries only have artists who are already established. They do not just wake up and put somebody new. For example, we wanted to have a show with Jerry Buhari last year. If you think about it, Lagos has not been exposed to Buhari in many years. I do not know when his last exhibition was. Our auction is also a way of bringing artists that are established but do not have a way of showing their works in Lagos. I think about 80% to 90% of the artists we auction are established, but we also go to universities to find others. For example Eva Obodo was given to us by El Anatsui. I call people to ask, “Tell us who their professors are because they have not had a show in Lagos.” It is difficult to find artists, we get names from senior professors and artists in universities to help us in our selection. OM: From records, photography seems the least represented genre of visual art on your auctions. Is there a reason for that? I think there is. Nigerians are still not completely sold to it, but they are getting there. In my last auction, we had lots of photography. I think 70% to 80% of them did not sell, so we reduced them and kept 3 or 4 we knew would sell. They did and are; George Osodi, Adekola Adeleke, Yetunde Babaeko and Victor Ehikamenor. We have also tried artists who are quite famous abroad but I think Nigerians are not aware that photography is art and have not got to that stage of collecting it. The young people that come to the auction, like photography. It took America and Europe a long time to get photography at the same level as art but what we are trying to do is put everything all at one time, so it is not going to be that easy. When we do every auction, we slip in a new artist that we think is good. We started off with Ojeikere and sold two of his works. I think we are going back to works of the old photographers like Don Barber. We will bring in a couple of old and a few new names. I think photography is an incredible medium of art and we definitely want to do
as much as we can. OM: George Osodi recorded N1m for one of his works, does this in essence signal the beginning of a new trend in the sale of photography in Nigeria, or do you think the breakthrough owed more to the pedigree of George Osodi himself or is this just a one-off sale, which is not likely to be sustained as long as one would expect? George Osodi is world-acclaimed, but I feel we are still not used to the idea of collecting photography. I think people are becoming aware of what is going on with all the TV and internet. There is so much information. I am sure Nigerian photography has to be one of the best in the world. OM: How do you obtain provenance or manage issues arising from its inaccessibility? We had a couple of issues I think everybody has, but when work comes in, we first find out from whom it has come; if there is a dispute on it or if it has been stolen. So many works here are stolen. So if somebody says buy this, we show it to our specialists. If they say no, there is a dispute on the work, we do not put it in auction. All the works we get
come from the collectors who say they have bought it directly from artists. Most of the works we get come from the person who first bought them. It is the first time work has been sold here generally. Normally it is from the artist to the collector, who comes himself to us. Sometimes of course, the work goes back to the dealers who brings it in then says I bought it from the collector. We can always verify from the collector who bought from the artist or perhaps a dealer. I think we are lucky here in Nigeria because we are not talking about a hundred years just 50 or 60years. It is only in the last 10 or 20 years people started reselling works. OM: How do you deal with issues of authentication? If an Enwonwu comes in for instance, I will call two or three people I know who dealt with him and knew him. So for each work that comes to our door, we have to call on specialists that know the artist. We talk to the artist’s families or contemporaries. So for example with Gani Odutokun, Simon Okeke or Okhai Ojeikere, we identify their contemporaries. Basically families come into this in a big way because children grew up with the art, they know the art. For example, Isaac Emokpae grew up with two
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works that I have here, because they were in the house all the time and then got sold. So we are very lucky that it’s not the 16th or 17th century. OM: Art is fast emerging as an alternative investment globally; how do you think Nigerian and African art has fared in this context; and is there any room for improvement? I think it has fared quite well, today people buy art. They are spending large amounts of money, which they never did before, because they realize there is value in the works. If I go out to buy 5 Ben Enwonwus for N6m, I know there is a resale value in them. May be in 2 years, I’ll be able to sell them for more. We have had works that we resold at auction. Being our 10th auction, works normally come back. They say it takes between 3-5 years for them to resurface in the market. A lot of works we sold at first, doubled or tripled in value in later auctions. So where we sold an Enwonwu in the first auction, a torso for N1.5m, I will value that today for at least N6 or N7m. That is an appreciation of 3 to 4 times. We have brought in quite a few works we resold in this auction. People realize that in our archives, they would see