I first met Cinga Samson in 2009, he was in his early twenties and determined to establish himself as a professional artist. He was part of a collective of artists exhibiting their work at VANSA (the Visual Arts Network of South Africa) in Cape Town. His exhibited pieces were visually captivating and charged with social commentary. Since it was a showcase for emerging artists, these works were reasonably priced at ZAR500 each. During my visit to his studio at the Castle of Good Hope, I was introduced to Cinga’s large-scale works, which resonated with a potent rawness, offering commentary on the socio-political landscape of South Africa. They were priced at ZAR2,000 each. After participating in group shows at various galleries, Blank Projects represented Cinga where he had his first solo show in 2015. His palette evolved into darker hues, but his artistic expression and commentary remained unwavering. With Blank Projects, the price of his work reached US$20,000, a value still considerably lower than his international potential. In 2022, Cinga made a significant leap by joining White Cube, one of the top ten international mega galleries , who showed some of his works at art fairs and in July 2023 held his first solo exhibition at their Mayfair space in London.
Cinga Sampson
The exhibition featured sixteen works, ranging in price from US$50,000 to US$350,000, all of the works sold out on the opening night. White Cube has given him the international audience access, brand recognition and support to take him on to the world stage. He is now a highly successful South African artist. Although there have been successful secondary market sales of his work in South Africa, his results have been even more impressive in the major UK and US auction houses. His auction record for an individual work now stands at US$378,000, a significant increase from the approximately US$20,000 range during his Blank Projects era.
Despite his success, Cinga remains modest, soft-spoken, and as determined as when we first crossed paths at VANSA. Living and working at his studio in Woodstock, Cape Town he was flying home the day after his London opening, as he had to get on with creating more work.
Cinga’s journey is one of many success stories of artists emerging from Africa on to the international stage over the last five to ten years. Their works are now housed in important collections in most continents, shown at prominent biennales and they star at premier fairs including Art Basel, Frieze and Armoury. The rise in demand, price and prominence is driven by many factors. Hungry for new markets to develop, top galleries finally turned their attention to works from Africa. Art fairs, exhibitions, and biennales have heightened the visibility of African art. The quality and significance of the works are now widely acknowledged, their narratives resonate with collectors who are keen to enter the market early, as well as being in high demand from the African diaspora and locally. Artists now have many avenues to access global markets including direct, online and collaborations with local and international galleries. Major auctions now offer significant African works in their general evening sales in the global hubs of Hong Kong, London, New York and Paris. Hammer prices ranging from US$100,000 to over US$1,000,000 are no longer rare and this encourages the opening of the market to new African artists. The constant message from market analysts is that this demand will continue to grow in the coming years.
The global primary and secondary art markets performed exceptionally well in 2022, with strong returns forecast in 2023. Christl Novakovic of UBS opened the Art Basel 2023 report confirming that 2022 saw the art market hold onto its post-pandemic rebound and strengthen further despite severe economic uncertainty and the return of war to Europe. African art is now an integral part of this success and, in addition to the major South African art fairs, specialist African art fairs such as AKAA, Art Lagos, and 1-54 continue to grow and cement themselves into the international art world calendar. Mega galleries and local galleries now represent work from the African continent at large international fairs. Auctions dedicated to African art at Artcurial, Aspire, Bonham’s, Christie’s, Piasa, Phillips de Pury, Sotheby’s and Strauss are growing in prominence. In 2022, over 2,700 works by African artists sold at auction, a record and twice the 2019 number, the year preceding the Covid pandemic. South African galleries including Goodman, Everard Read and Stevenson are responding to this opportunity by establishing European and US spaces and a significant presence on the international fair programme. In a market where demand is galloping, work from the continent of Africa has secured its place.
The African art market is at an inflection point and its support services need to respond to meet the multiple complexities including legal jurisdictions, tax considerations, import and export regimes, languages, logistics, insurance and risk management. As galleries and artists increasingly internationalise there are higher levels of art values in studio and gallery stock, in transit, at multiple locations and permanently located outside of Africa. It is highly likely that some private collections hold artworks acquired during an artist’s early career phase that have now appreciated significantly in value reaching tens of thousands of US dollars. Some collectors may not even be recognized as such by their insurers, as their acquisitions were not initially identified as financially significant. As these artists’ prices increasingly become denominated in US dollars, their value in South African rand can fluctuate considerably and they will benefit from having a US dollar valuation. Without an awareness campaign, these works, while cherished for their artistic merit, may not be identified and acknowledged for their financial value or treated accordingly.
During the 1990’s, with Lloyd’s and Nordstern at the vanguard, the art insurance capability internationalised in response to similar art market developments in Europe and the USA. The evidence suggests that increasing pressure will come for an analogous response to the insurance of art from the African continent and the needs of its commercial customers and collectors. Intertwining regional knowledge, access and capability, local insurance industry leaders can become the nexus between the African art world and its international markets.
Gordon A Massie
Naloke Lilo Elo, 2023
Uqobo lwakhe, 2023
Ivory (iv), (2018)
Cinga actively participated in various VANSA professional artists’ skills workshops including finance, legal, contractual, pricing and marketing.
https://www.contemporaryartissue.com/top-10-of-the-biggest-art-galleries-in-the-world/
https://www.whitecube.com/artists/cinga-samson
https://www.phillips.com/detail/cinga-samson/NY010321/1
Cinga talks openly about his definition of success, the ability to manage his life with simplicity whilst being able to paint, in the recent Latitudes podcast – The Voice of Art from Africa powered by ITOO Artinsure https://editorial.latitudes.online/blog/posts/latitudes-podcast-featuring-cinga-samson/
A small sample of these artists includes El Anatsui, Marlene Dumas, Ben Enwonwu, William Kentridge, Moshekwa Langa, Nelson Makamo, Misheck Masamvu, Wangechi Mutu, Julie Mehretu, Jabulane Sam Nhlengethwa, Ntombephi Ntobela, Chéri Samba and Yinka Shonibare.
https://www.artprice.com/artmarketinsight/contemporary-african-art-another-record-year-at-auction
https://www.artprice.com/artmarketinsight/contemporary-african-art-establishing-a-secondary-market
https://theartmarket.artbasel.com/download/The-Art-Basel-and-UBS-Art-Market-Report-2023.pdf
https://akaafair.com/en/, https://artxlagos.com/, https://www.1-54.com/
https://www.goodman-gallery.com/press/4714
Works by contemporary artists born in Africa recorded US$63 million at auction in 2022 versus a 2021 record of US$47 million.
I know one collector that has five Cinga Samson works and they have recently been valued for insurance purposes at US$500,000 (their original purchase price was less than ZAR10, 000).