Seeing Japan Art Martket Now
Yuzo Ueda -Art critic

“Art Fair Tokyo 2008” third ART FAIR TOKYO, following on from 2005 and 2007,it was held during April 4-6 (Friday-Sunday)with a preview on Thursday April 3, at the Tokyo International Forum in Marunouchi, a business district in central Tokyo, with success.
A total of 108 galleries 21 dealing in antiques or craftwork, 43 specializing in modern paintings or Japanese-style painting, nihonga, and 44 (including 7 galleries from 6 cities outside Japan) focusing on contemporary art. A total of 43,000 people visited the fair during the four-day period including a preview day, up 11,000 from last year. The total sales as of the end of the fair amounted to $10 million, equaling last year’s record. Each of the galleries presented many high quality works of art for a total of 2,500 exhibits. The record number of visitors set by ART FAIR TOKYO 2008 indicates that the general public is willing to experiment with new ways and forums for the enjoyment of art. ART FAIR TOKYO's message shows – that art is something not just to look at, but something to buy and thus make part of your life – has struck a chord with the public. Though there is some spare to improve. As 60 percent of the exhibitors are galleries dealing in antiques and so on, the sales of the rest, or contemporary art galleries, will be $4 million.
While in the Armory Show (New York), Asian Contemporary Art Fair (N.Y.) and Art Basel (Basel) expensive works are first to sell, in a Japanese art fair small-size works account for the better part of the sales. It shows that in Japan traditional Japanese-style paintings, craftwork, hanging scrolls and teacups have a steadier market than contemporary art does. In order to attract more foreign galleries from next year on, it is desired that collectors loving traditional art shift their interest toward newer art and start collecting it, so that the sales of contemporary artwork be boosted. ART FAIR TOKYO 2009 will take place at Tokyo International Forum from Friday, April 3 to Sunday, April 5, 2009 (Preview: Thursday April 2). Our objective is to produce a Japanese art fair that conveys the attraction of art to a wider range of people, becoming an international cultural event that increasingly reaches out to the rest of Asia and the world.

101 TOKYO Contemporary Art Fair 2008 took place in the building of former Rensei Junior High School near Akihabara from Thursday, April 3 to Sunday, April 6. It received a total of 5,000 visitors. Fourteen galleries from Japan and another 14 from abroad took part in the fair. The total sales reached $1 million, which were divided fifty-fifty between domestic and international galleries. While most of the exhibitors at Art Fair Tokyo were Japanese, the staff of 101 TOKYO was composed mostly of foreign gallerists and coordinators living in Japan. Young foreign galleries gathered at the fair and rendered it international.
Johnnie Walker, an adviser to the fair, has lived in Japan for nearly 30 years. He has been concerned about the Japanese art scene and made efforts to boost Japanese art to the international market.
Walker established the Bacon Prize (named after his dog Francis Bacon). A work titled “Enough Rope” by Jo Coupe, an artist represented by Workplace Gallery from England, won the prize. Money donated by some 100 guests at the awarding ceremony ($1,300) and a bronze model of the dog were handed to the artist by the world-famous artist Joseph Kosuth.
Prize money aside, expressing gratitude and a warm welcome to young galleries and artists, and giving a prize mean an attitude attaching importance to communication with people, rather than measuring art by money. Such ideals of Walker and Kosuth to “live with art” should be praised. This newborn fair is Japan’s only international art fair. I would like to expect 101 TOKYO Contemporary Art Fair, together with its foreign staffers who are well aware of Japan’s situation, to serve as a trigger to change Japan’s art market.
Concurrently with the two art fairs, Shinwa Art Auction, the largest of the kind in Japan, also took place. Works of contemporary art worth $3 million were sold. In the meantime, at Est-Ouest Auctions, the sales totaled to $6.4 million in the “Post War” section.
More investors and collectors from overseas visited the two auctions than last year. Especially, rich collectors from Korea, China and Taiwan came to Japan to buy Japanese contemporary artwork, exerting great influence on the Japanese art market. During the past few years the sales at contemporary art auctions in Japan have doubled and been active. But, compared to the skyrocketing prices of works by artists from China and other Asian countries, the prices of Japanese young artists’ works are still low. The quality of each work by Japanese artists is high, and the works feature minute and precise technique and variation in materials and contents. Therefore, it is expected that works by young Japanese artists will attract more attention from now and fetch higher prices.

From Friday, Aug. 29 through Sunday, Aug. 31, 2008, in a project led by a Korean gallery and called “Asia Top Gallery Hotel Art Fair 2008,” 80 top galleries from Korea, Japan and China will exhibit in Hotel New Otani in Tokyo. Young Japanese artists will find themselves at a focus of attention there, and afterward.