Super Art Market

Solomun’s documentary takes us on a wild—but true—journey through the international art market of the recent past, following several subjects from New York City to Berlin to Shanghai, and journeying to most of the major art fairs around the globe. Never had contemporary art pieces made so much money as in the years 2002 to 2008. Some individual works were more expensive than a Boeing airplane. A new money aristocracy took the art market by storm and the image of the “starving artist” disappeared and was replaced by the notion of the art star. The real protagonists of this develop¬ment were not the investors or the artists, but the gallery owners and art dealers who helped create the artists’ untouchable reputations. The film portrays this “super art market” through five über-successful galleries at its center—Leo König, Judy Lybke, Lorenz Helbling, Mihai Pop, and Laura Bartlett—gaining unmitigated access which allows us to peek behind the scenes of a world that is unknown, and often publicity-shy.