What I’ve Learned – Lily Fenwicke
What I’ve Learned Having joined the Berlin gallery full-time in 2020, Lily Fenwicke reveals her first thoughts on the art
What I’ve Learned – Tom Austin
What I've Learned
Michael Reid’s Berlin Gallery Manager, Tom Austin, grew up with London’s Tate Modern at his doorstep — inspired by Louise Bourgeois, Henri Matisse, and Mark Rothko. But he reveals a special collection of Australian art has taken his career to where it is now.
Editing by Emma-Kate Wilson
My parents both imparted a lot of love and passion for art. I was dragged to galleries constantly when I was a kid, and I am so grateful for it. At first, they were phenomenal hide and seek places — locations for general trouble — but over time, I became more fascinated with the works on the walls, the sculptures around me. The mischief dropped away, and I started enjoying it for what it was.
I remember going to Tate Modern when it opened. I was transfixed by Louise Bourgeois’ monumental sculpture, Maman (1999). You could walk around and between its towering legs, sit under it, or get up on the mezzanines and look over it. You can imagine, a twenty-foot spider was utterly absorbing for 10-year-old me.
Similarly, there were a few of my Australian grandfather’s paintings at home that were extremely evocative of this mysterious, red land, that I knew from holidays and the stories my mother told me of her life before the me. I daydreamed often of these works, and I wonder if that was more a feeling of longing for roots or heritage in some way.
One of my first art jobs was a summer gig when I was 14 or 15. I went to a local gallery and antique shop, and after a lot of stubborn pestering, they finally gave me a job. I arrived in my Sunday nines, and they said ‘You’re completely overdressed. Did you think you’d be working in the actual gallery? You’ll be renovating the gallery owner’s flats, laying floorboards!’
Different to what I had anticipated, but equally it was great to get involved in the art world, no matter what level.
When I left school, I was sure that I loved art history, but I was also considering law or something more practical. My dad said that if I was going to study, I should study what I loved. At the same time, he didn’t pressure me to go to university at all, which was refreshing coming from a university professor. I went on to study Art History and cherish my time at university.
I wasn’t necessarily looking down the barrel of a career in art afterwards. I thought about a few different avenues, and even spent some time as a cook, but I was invited to apply for a role at Sotheby’s London, which later took me to Sotheby’s Australia.
It is difficult to see where the art market is going to go, but an element that people often forget is that a large part of the industry isn’t actually the sale of art.
Aboriginal art has always fascinated me. My mum has one or two pieces that were her father’s that always intrigued me. Later when I was working in London, auctions of Aboriginal and Indigenous art were reintroduced to the capital, and I remember seeing Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s Summer Celebration (1991) and sitting in front of it for an hour, completely spellbound, it remains an extremely important work to me.
Managing the Berlin Gallery – a role I took up mid 2021 – involves coordinating exhibitions while also growing the audience for Australian contemporary art, especially that by Indigenous artists, our primary focus. It is an honour to work with communities we represent at Michael Reid, and I look forward to learning more in the coming years.
A moment in the art world I’ll never forget was seeing Bansky’s artwork, Girl with Balloon / Love is in the Bin, unexpectedly shredded at auction in 2018.
There was a wonderful sense of theatre behind the event. The hammer falls, a new owner has just paid £1.4 million for the honour of taking Girl with Balloon home and, out of nowhere, the work slides down from the frame and emerges shredded from the bottom. Whether it was a prank, a marketing ploy or a sincere criticism of the art world, it captured everyone’s attention.
It followed years of tension between the auction house and Banksy and, as a moment, encapsulated the insatiability of the top end of the international market, the hypocrisy of certain players, and the high drama of an auction. Last year the shredded work, now called Love is in the Bin, returned to auction and sold for £18.5 million, judge that as you may.
It is difficult to see where the art market is going to go, but an element that people often forget is that a large part of the industry isn’t actually the sale of art.
Analysis, journalism, insurance and investment advice play large roles and, as the market expands or contracts, these sectors react accordingly. For decades, art has shown stability far outshining other, non-material asset classes, as a result this secondary economy surrounding gallery and auction sales has grown too. It is so nuanced and far-reaching that it is difficult to get a holistic picture and impossible to predict where it is going to go, but whichever direction the market leads, its entourage will follow.
Gallery employees pose with ‘Love is in the Bin’ by Banksy. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA via The Guardian.
Traditionally the value of an artwork is set with an expectancy of it being valid and tradable for years to come. Does an artwork that relies on a digital future show hope for stability in the long term?
One thing that stands out, is that NFTs aren’t going away. After the initial hype of the year, there are now world records being set around the world – from New York to Beijing.
Essentially a digital, non-duplicatable certificate for an artwork or idea, once you accept that NFTs are limited to digital form, there are very few limits to what they can be. Traditionally the value of an artwork is set with an expectancy of it being valid and tradable for years to come. Does an artwork that relies on a digital future show hope for stability in the long term? What will it look like in 1,000 years? Will it still exist in its original, now archaic form in CE 3000? There are so many ways in which the medium can grow, I can’t see that cat going back into the bag.
Virtual reality is a matter of time. It is not yet affordable for everyone, but that will soon change. The price of headsets has dropped exponentially over the last few years, and I have no doubt that it will be a game-changer; we will have entire museums with digital versions of famous works hanging alongside NFTs.
I have a friend in Canada in his mid-70s, he bought a VR headset and now attends tours of all the institutions he loves. When I would ask what he was doing tomorrow, he’d respond ‘Well Tom, at 11 o’clock I’ve got a tour of the Louvre, and at noon I’m off to MOMA’. How specialists begin to plan curation and presentation of art specifically within a digital environment will be very interesting.
Saying that, I do not think traditional mediums are going to diminish. An influential series of works in my life that can only be fully enjoyed in person, is Mark Rothko’s Seagram murals at Tate Modern. They are the most expansive, extraordinary canvases; monumental in scale and painted in a deep, terrifying crimson that shocks you.
Exhibitions can fill you with a state of joy. In the exhibition of Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs, every visitor left with an enormous smile on their face, grinning from ear to ear. There was a sense of joy, irreverence and love in everything that Matisse did in the later years of his life and the curators made it clear for all to see. Experiences like this inform people of all backgrounds, whether they collect art or not, and I look forward to seeing more and more as the world opens back up.
Try and leave it better than when you started was the greatest advice imparted to me when I began my career. The art world, especially the auction sector, can be a relaxed, charming and a welcoming industry to be a part of. Equally, it can be shockingly demanding, high-intensity and ruthless. As with any industry, when beginning you are highly impressionable, staying calm and doing your best to improve what you see around you is a driving factor and still informs how I work.
