Japan awakens for the global art market

A large painting of a three-armed girl was prominently featured at Hillside Gallery’s stand at the art fair Tokyo Gendai in early July. The girl was pointing at a red ball with the No. 2 on it. 

The title of the painting is “Two O’Clock.”

“I think he is trying to compress a period of time,” said Shengyu Tang, Hillside’s owner, explaining the piece by Masaru Shichinohe, one of three Japanese artists represented by the gallery he opened in Tokyo in 2017. 

Tang was actually born in China and he believes his international experience gives him an advantage in the art market, because he doesn’t think he could only sell domestically. 

“We realized, if we could try to find artists that we think could do well outside of Japan as well, we might have a chance,” he said.

A few feet away from him, a major American gallery was making its debut at Tokyo Gendai.

Pace Gallery, which has offices in several cities including Beijing, Seoul and Hong Kong, is just opening its Tokyo branch in September — something it has been planning for decades.

“We are really among a very few number of international galleries with a presence here in Tokyo, you might be able to count them on both your hands,” saidJoseph Baptista, a partner at Pace.

Pace’s arrival and the beginning of Tokyo Gendai last year — the country’s first major international art fair — are both happening as Japan has changed some tax laws, making it easier for international companies to operate, and allowing Japanese dealers to take a bigger bite of a market that moves $65 billion a year. 

Many believe it’s about time. Even though it’s the third-largest economy in the world, Japan’s share of the global art market is just 1%, much smaller than China’s 19%. 

“Japan is quite rapidly accelerating towards the position that it should hold, which is one of the major art hubs anywhere,” saidMagnus Renfrew, co-founder of Tokyo Gendai, which took place in Yokohama, about one hour by train from Tokyo.

To be able to launch the fair, organizers negotiated a tax incentive for exhibitors. Normally, international art galleries would have to pay a 10% tax up front.

“Which, of course, made it prohibitive,” Renfew said. “If they brought $10 million worth of art into the country, they would have to put down $1 million in cash.”

The 38 international galleries that attended Tokyo Gendai this year — out of a total of 69 — were able to pay the tax after their sales. 

Renfrew said that was a game changer, and it will help catapult art sales.

“The market in Asia is in the very early stage of development, and there is huge room to grow,” he said. 

Japan’s art profile is rising as sales from other Asian countries are suffering. 

The US government has increased tax imports on goods from China. And Hong Kong, a major arts hub, is dealing with stronger Chinese control that is limiting artistic expression.

The increase of interest in Japanese art is also related to the popularity of anime and manga — Japanese cartoons and comics — and the success of artists like Yayoi Kusama, known for her pumpkins with polka dots, and Takashi Murakami, who did the art for Kanye West’s “Graduation” album. 

Joan B. Mirviss, the owner of a namesake gallery in New York that specializes in Japanese art, particularly ceramics, said that, internationally, the interest in Japanese art has grown exponentially. 

“I don’t think a week goes by where I don’t get a request from a serious person, who I don’t know, or a surprise museum that suddenly wants to get started,” she said.

When Mirviss opened her gallery almost 50 years ago, she said, there were six museums in the US that were collecting Japanese ceramics. 

“Now, I have over 60 institutions in the United States alone, and institutions in Europe, Australia and elsewhere,” she said.

She explained that Japanese ceramic is pretty affordable; sake cups by young artists sell for $300 — or $1,000 if they are done by a celebrated master. 

But Mirviss believes the Japanese domestic art market has some challenges. Even though Japan is a rich country, she said the average person is more likely to save money than to spend on art.

“There isn’t that drive to collect, to build for status purposes,” she said.

Mirviss explained that aside from billionaires in Japan who have several homes, most people do not have spaces for large canvases or sculptures.

“Also, traditionally, in Japan, you don’t fill your house with art,” she said. “There’s specific spaces within the home where a work of art might be displayed. But it’s not like the West, where there’s, you know, paintings hanging in every room, and a sculpture on a corner. The Japanese don’t live like that.”

Baptista said Pace’s goal with the opening of a Tokyo branch is not only to sell to Japanese collectors, but to visitors who are flocking to the country, in part because they are interested in the culture and the art.

“There is so much interest in visiting Japan,” he said. “Culturally, it’s such a place of respect.”

Attracted also by a weak yen, almost 18 million tourists visited Japan in the first six months of this year, a record. It’s still unclear how that will translate to art sales.