Riding the Tide

November 28, 2025


The art market moves in cycles, like tides that rise and fall with a rhythm all their own, sometimes gentle, sometimes abrupt. When the waters recede, when sales slow, when collectors hesitate, when uncertainty hangs in the air, panic spreads quickly. Artists begin to question the value of their labor, wondering whether devotion alone can sustain them, while the half-committed drift quietly away, revealing how shallow their roots truly were. Yet beneath this turbulence lies a deeper truth that those in it for the long haul understand: the market’s mood may sway, but the practice of making art remains steadfast. The canvas waits, the hours accumulate, and the work continues to unfold.

 Then, almost suddenly, the tide shifts again. Auction houses roar back to life, records are broken, collectors reemerge with confidence, and the market reveals its enduring resilience. Faith is restored, not only in the financial viability of art, but in the cultural and emotional significance that drives people to collect in the first place. These surges aren’t anomalies; they are reminders of the market’s perpetual breath, inhaling and exhaling through decades, centuries, entire eras.

 For the serious artist, this cycle is not a threat but a constant. External validation may flicker, but the inner engine keeps running. The commitment to create does not hinge on charts or headlines; it rests on something more ancient and immovable. The studio remains a sanctuary untouched by speculation, where the value of the work is measured not in immediate returns but in hours of honest labor, in the evolution of a vision, in the quiet certainty that art is meant to outlast the fluctuations that surround it.

 And so confidence is restored, not just in the market, but in the enduring truth that art persists. It survives downturns, transcends trends, and rewards those who stay when others falter. For the artists who keep showing up, and the collectors who understand the arc of history, the cycle is not a cause for fear but a sign of life, proof that the world will always return to art, again and again, renewed.