By IPS Correspondents
BUENOS AIRES, Jul 29 2003 (IPS)

The fine arts market is an increasingly attractive option for the portion of the Argentine middle class that has maintained its savings and investment capacity. These art lovers are opting to purchase a painting instead of trusting their cash to a bank or risking it on the stock market.

This new wave of investment is a boon for new artists and for smaller art galleries, as well as dealers who work in the less conventional arts circles.

One indication of this phenomenon is the latest edition of ArteBA, an art galleries fair held in Buenos Aires showing the works of artists from Argentina as well as a handful from Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Switzerland, United States and Uruguay.

Half of the artworks sold at ArteBA 2003 were by well-known artists, but 40 percent were the work of “emerging” artists, and just 10 percent were by Argentina’s established “masters”, such as Antonio Berni, Carlos Alonso, Rómulo Macció, Libero Badii and Jorge Eneas Spilimbergo.

ArteBA 2003, with the theme “artists anticipate the future”, marked a turning point between the predominant artistic manifestation of the 1990s, characterised by individualism, and new currents that recover the objective of reflection and of expressing social conflict and change.

The economic crisis that spiralled out of control in late 2001 not only led to the resignation that year of president Fernando de la Rúa, it also generated unanimous rejection of the symbols of power of the 1990s: banks, big business and corrupt politicians.

The crisis proved to be a violent shake-up for Argentine society, but it helped tear down “old walls” and create new spaces, which in the world of art has been manifest in greater acceptance of diversity.

As such, at ArteBA 2003, disparate works coexisted, like “Inauguración”, a monumental painting by Alonso, with a portrait in glass of Prince Felipe of Spain, ordered by the royal family and produced by the group “Mondongo”, which normally works with cereals, dog food and other unconventional media.

The art fair’s organisers said their goal was to help artists make a living from their work and to disseminate new ideas, themes and images that are emerging in the Argentine world of fine arts.

ArteBA, held annually since 1991, drew the participation of 50 galleries to show art in a space of 8,000 square metres at the Sociedad Rural Argentina exposition centre. More than 100,000 people visited the expo, and a thousand works of art were purchased – over half what was on display.

No official figures about the ArteBA 2002 deals were released, but overall transactions were reportedly lower than in previous years. This is seen as the result of the currency devaluation of January 2002, which put an end to a decade of one-to-one parity of the Argentine peso and the dollar, taking a big bite out of Argentines’ purchasing power.

Furthermore, sources related to the art fair said prices on the artwork had to be slashed in order to sell it.

In economic terms, ArteBA 1999 was the most successful, with sales topping five million dollars, though more than 20 percent of that sum involved two paintings: “La Nigromante”, by Jorge de la Vega, fetching 600,000 dollars, and “La Difunta Correa”, by Berni, which sold for 500,000 dollars.

Last year, the fair took place under the slogan “cultural resistance for national pride”, drawing 100,000 art lovers who bought 800 of the 1,500 works on exhibit.

The organisers report that most of the buyers were middle-class professionals who were interested in investing their money in something that appreciates in value over time, but can also be enjoyed at a personal level.

According to the art distributors, the big favourite at ArteBA 2003 were the paintings, just as occurred in previous years and is generally the trend at European art fairs.

The prices varied greatly. Five works by Macció, for example, sold at 250,000 dollars, while a painter from the “Boca school” sold 21 paintings for 1,500 to 3,000 dollars each.

Sales transactions also took place in the local currency. Argentina’s Vice-President Daniel Scioli purchased “Un grito del corazón” (A cry of the heart), for 3,000 pesos, or a little more than 1,000 dollars.

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