Collecting Contemporary Art and Photography: What Collectors and Artists Need to Know

This lecture will explore the principles of the contemporary art market and the unwritten rules followed by collectors and collection managers when deciding to acquire artworks, including photographs. Which artists currently dominate the international art market? What types of photography are collected by the world’s most influential collectors and museums? What are the principles guiding collaboration between artists and private galleries representing them? How do curators select artworks for exhibitions and art residencies? What should be taken into account when preparing an artist’s portfolio? How to set prices for artworks and where can they be sold? These and other topics related to the contemporary art market will be addressed during the lecture, which will also include time for participants’ own questions.

Justė Jonutytė is a curator and expert in the contemporary art market with over fifteen years of international experience. After completing her MA in Art History at the University of St Andrews, she worked at Tate Modern in London and the Jonas Mekas Foundation in New York. She led the RUPERT art residency centre in Vilnius for six years and, in 2023 founded the Art Club – a community dedicated to deepening the understanding of art. For the past ten years, Justė has been advising private clients on art investment and, for eight years, has been teaching a course on the art market to both Lithuanian and international audiences. Her lectures have taken place in Canada, Italy, South Korea, Finland, Iceland, and other countries.

Justė Jonutytė. Photo by Agnė Papievytė

Algirdas ŠeŠkus and PM8 / Francisco Salas. 1979; 1980. Photographs from the MoMA collection