Explanation of the Process of Contemporary Iranian Painters’ Participation in Auctions

Iranian painters had a closed and uncertain market in the late 1370’s, and the social conditions were not satisfying for emergence of an active art –however, after a while these conditions changed and improved. As the result, from Ordibehest 1384 ,big institutions such as Christies and Sotheby's established branches in the Middle East (Dubai) which paved the way for the Iranian and Arab artists. Iranian artists did well in this local market and got their position in international markets as well. This was the first huge step for the modern art of Iran. Certainly, Iranian artists’ participation in international markets in the early 21 century was significant, mainly in terms of sales. This auction has had a brilliant effect on the fate of Iranian artists and has linked them to international markets. Following that the presence of Iranian artists in the Middle East auctions began. Artists cannot easily participate in auctions, unless they have achieved the minimum requirements and the conditions for participation in the auctions. Individuals and institutions such as gallery owners and collectors, consultants, auction specialists, as well as other factors are to allow the works of art to be auctioned and give credit and role to artists. Therefore, economy and trade of the works of Iranian artists became an issue for governors. It is very important to pay attention to the questions such as: what are the causes of the success of Iranian artists in auctions? Which organizations and individuals were responsible for this participation and how? The purpose of this paper is to study the process of participation of Iranian contemporary painters in auctions. In this study the reasons for the Iranian artists’ success in terms of sales as well as the influence of people on this achievement (individuals and organizations (were explored. The descriptive and analytical methods have been used and data are collected from discovering interviews. The results show that artists participating in auctions were affected by four factors: cultural capital, social capital, economic capital and symbolic capital. These four factors can play different roles together and could make wealth in different combinations, but the best combination that could save the artists at the auction, gives them credit. It is first to know the cultural capital of the artist (for example, artist's background, creativity, intelligence and artistry, quality and variety in the artist's works), and the artist's social capital is absorbed (for example, the permanent and continuous presence of the artist in the art world, the artist's communication networks, the artist's character, the press attention, the taste of the agents of the auction, ...), then turn into symbolic capital (reputation). Finally, the combination of these capitals created economic capital. This kind of combination is a natural and correct process for participation in auctions. Artists can earn other combinations to achieve easier economic capital, but these capitals make a disproportionate combination which leads to the artist's failure in the next auction. Of course it may be that in a short period of time, obtaining the unreasonable emotional record of an auction, but that will not be permanent. Eight important groups considerably affect the cycle of art marketing: artists, inland gallery, dealer, inland counselors, external specialist, auction, external gallery and buyers. The most popular kind of participation of artists and artworks in auctions is through six categories of: artists, inland gallery, inland counselors, external specialist, auction and buyers.
The Iranian artists take part in sales events in two ways:1-Direct participating which is too difficult and lacks the guarantees.
2-Indirect participating that provides the guarantees and almost permanent participation. In the indirect participation method, there are many ways to get the artist's work to an auction, so that the artist himself may be unaware of his exposure to the auction. In this article, 17 types of participation are discussed. One of them is direct participation and the other 16 are indirect participation types. Of course, there are other paths that remain outside the scope of this article. Among these 17 indirect contributors to the auction, one is more conventional and well-known than the rest. In this research, the aim is to study the status and trends of the artist's presence from the first stage of production to selling it at auctions and determine what the current trend is and what is really going on