“For any interview, you have to go through my galleries. How did you get my contact? » It is not Daniel Buren, Sophie Calle or another tenor of the art world who responds to us haughtily, but a very young 26-year-old artist, Pol Taburet. The general public does not yet know him. But he’s already a star, quite sure of himself to decline an interview. “Pol Taburet, genius creature”, headlined in June Releasedazzled by his paintings steeped in art history and haunted by chimeras. “The future star of French painting”had already predicted, in 2020, a podcast of Inrocks.
His rise, it is true, is meteoric. At the age of 23, even before obtaining his Beaux-Arts diploma from Cergy, he exhibited at the Balice Hertling gallery, a trendy brand in the Marais, in Paris. Then everything comes together: Reiffers Art Initiatives prize in 2022 and personal exhibition at the Lafayette Anticipations art center, which art researchers frequent.
Pol Taburet is today the big favorite for the annual prize of the Pernod Ricard Foundation, which will be awarded on October 20, during the Paris+ fair by Art Basel. To top it off, the precocious youngster joined the collections of a maker of kings and queens, François Pinault, whose fads are closely scrutinized.
Soaring prices
This type of excitement is nothing new. Collectors, dealers and dowsers of all kinds have always demonstrated an appetite for fresh flesh – and paint. And, periodically, this little world believes it has its new genius.
In 2007, the role of child prodigy fell to Loris Gréaud, who, at the age of 28, was entrusted with the keys to the Palais de Tokyo. The same year, Cyprien Gaillard, 27, entered the art world with Desniansky Raiona hypnotic video topped with electro music that turns heads. The Louis Vuitton Foundation bought a copy, as did the powerful American hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, who donated it to the MoMA in New York. “An explosive bomb”plebiscite Les Inrocks. “A graceful hedgehog”compliments Releaseunder the spell of a gifted young man who has understood everything about the codes of art and celebrity.
What is new is the soaring prices of precocity. Fifteen years ago, when a beginner posted his first attempts at 10,000 euros, collectors’ eyes widened. Today, it is a normal, even low, entry ticket. According to the Artprice database, the average price of creators aged under 35 at auction was, in 2022, around $28,276 (around 27,000 euros), compared to $8,025 in 2012.
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