Fri May 18, 2012
Alexander Gilkes, Global Marketing Director Phillips de Pury
The New Art “Brand”
By Victoria Morphy, New York – August 2010
It might be difficult to appreciate how a luxury champagne brand could have anything in common with art, but according to Alexander Gilkes, Director of Phillips de Pury, “The artist is the ultimate brand.”
After transforming the Krug champagne brand “by kilometers,” Gilkes found his latest entrepreneurial challenge in just that – branding artists. Though the auction house is considered a secondary market – galleries and art fairs being the primary market – Gilkes understands the power of good branding and the importance of being able to capitalize on the commercialization of art.
“[Artists today] must have a formidable product and an original message that has a certain pertinence to the time and age [in which we live],” Gilkes said. “They have to have great distribution – in galleries – and they have to have the endorsements of tastemakers. And once all those ingredients are in place, then it is the time when you can see an artist going stratospheric.”
Gilkes spends his time scouting art fairs and galleries, interacting with collectors and visiting artists’ studios to maintain the pulse of the art world – where it’s been, where it is presently, and where it’s headed. He acknowledges, “There’s always a very fine and complicated line between art and commerce. The art world seems to despise and deride commerce, but yet the art world thrives off commerce.” In point of fact, he believes that commercial forces are crucial for making “mega-stars.”
What is exciting today in the art world is all the new avenues available to engage a broader audience. Artists like Banksy, who got their start with Graffiti Street art have inspired a new generation of collectors. “Their message is new and fresh,” Gilkes said, “and it has empowered people with a few nuggets of knowledge so they could then take an interest in art and not feel so intimidated.”
Another new avenue available for art branding is emerging on the internet. Gilkes concedes that the internet also allows a whole new generation of collectors, who may know relatively little about the art world, to feel more comfortable with this kind of access without judgment –unbridled curiosity at its finest.
While Gilkes also believes that the internet will never transplant the physical and emotional experience of acquiring art, art on the internet will provide what he refers to as a different form of engagement – “an entirely different way of becoming informed about the art world with just as many positives as the physical experience.”
The ultimate goal in utilizing any of these avenues, however, is to create enhanced visibility for artists so that more people can appreciate and understand art. “The art world needs to cease preaching in an academic manor and needs to look at ways that it can be more simple more matter of fact and learn to choose a new vocabulary that engages with people that don’t have the privilege of art world academia.”
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