Abstract
In the postwar years the Parisian art market went through a remarkable boom, that reinforced the city’s role as the leading centre for innovation and supplier of artworks to the international community. This took place in a context of inflation leading to a financial crisis and an official devaluation of the franc. The German art market also went through a short boom period immediately after the war but the total collapse of the mark in 1923-1924 had a highly destructive impact on art sales. Following the introduction of the new Reichsmark conditions gradually improved and some centres, Berlin in particular, re-established an infrastructure for the support of art production quite successfully. This essay analyses specific features of these phenomena in a comparative perspective addressing the following key issues:
• How did fluctuating financial conditions affect the structural features of the contemporary art market in France and Germany 1918-1928?
• What was the experience, and response, of artists to these conditions?
• What impact did these commercial factors have on the understanding and interpretation of contemporary art in the two countries?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Challenge of the Object/Die Herausforderung des Objekts: 33rd Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art Congress proceedings |
| Place of Publication | Nurenberg |
| Publisher | German National Museum |
| Pages | 712-713 |
| Volume | 2 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9783936688658 |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |