The interviews of ProfessioneARTE.it

She is Georgina Adam, Contributor to the Financial Times and The Art Newspaper.

Five questions to get an insight of the great art professionals, the daily challenges to face, the choices that have determined their path in the system and in the art market, the changes under the banner of digital and the advices for those who want to undertake the same career, in collaboration with ProfessioneARTE.it.

Being an insider of art and its market is a role that fits her perfectly.

Georgina Adam, expert market analyst, is a contributor for “Financial Times” and “The Art Newspaper“, where her investigations about fake works, speculative bubbles, art flipping, black art market with names and surnames are able to go beyond that day veil of opacity that characterizes the art market.

Adam investigates to discover the “dark side” of this market. The British analyst knows this well and she tells it in her book “The Dark Side of the Boom”, where the glittering world of contemporary art, but not only, reveal its shadows and the market is uneven.

With her investigations she was able to improve the sale of works of art for money laundering, overproduction, fakes and their sale.

In this interview she talks about her profession as an investigative journalist, in a sector such as that of art made of lights and many shadows, where in order to survive it is necessary to “change skin”, raise the voice, to be present and to get to know perfectly the world of art, its secrets and its protagonists.

Georgina Adam, art market expert, is a contributor  to the Financial Times and The Art Newspaper. She is a professor at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London and an author of Big Bucks. The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century (2014).

In Italy she was published in 2019 by Johan & Levi with the translation of the book “DARK SIDE OF THE BOOM. Disputes, intrigues, scandals in the art market”.

1.How did your journey in the world of art begin?”

It began many years ago, indeed from a young age I always visited museums. But the defining moment came when my sister, who edited a small arts magazine in London, asked for contributions about the Paris cultural scene – I was living there at the time. So I started writing articles about art in Paris.

And then another publication asked for articles….and another. Nothing was planned, it just happened.

Gradually I came to specialise in the art market and wrote about it for many years.

One day I felt that all this experience should be recorded, so I wrote and first book. Then the second book, Dark Side.

2.How would you describe your profession today?

I am not an art critic, but a journalist and writer, and my role is to be a witness of my time, to watch what is happening and analyse and record it.

Today the job of art critic has lost much of its status, and the job of a print journalist, in all domains, is under threat.

How much longer can print publications survive, and when information all migrates online, how can publications make it pay enough to support proper investigative journalism?

3.How has your profession changed over time?

The internet has changed everything.

In the past, before the internet, a journalist could have a “scoop” or do an investigation, and it would appear in the paper – if no-one else had it by the evening, then it would truly be breaking news, it would “hold” until the morning.

Now everything is instantly on the internet! So the journalist has to do something different, offer analysis and commentary.

The facts are there for everyone to see, immediately.

4.What impact is digital having on your sector?

See above: enormous impact.

Information is circulating instantaneously everywhere, this means that the journalist has to offer something else – a distinct “voice”, an opinion, become an “influencer”.

The competition is ferocious….

5.What would you recommend to a young person who wants to pursue your profession?”

I would say try to have an alternative because I think it is a hard way to make a living.

There is demand for content – the number of sites which want content are manifold – but the problem is getting enough financial reward for this.

Newspapers are shedding staff very fast. Certainly do not try to make a living as an art critic; there is more possibility as a journalist.

Writing books  as I do is also not very rewarding financially, although the other aspects – recognition, satisfaction of a job well done – are certainly very rewarding indeed, which is why I do it!

Also Georgina Adam is on ProfessioneARTE

THE FIRST GUIDE FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO TURN ART INTO A PROFESSION

This interview was conducted in collaboration with ProfessioneARTE.it, the first community dedicated to training, updating and orientation towards the professions of art.