Courtesy Galleria Mazzoli, Modena.
Dear Fellow TIAMSA Members,
The International Association for Art Market Studies (TIAMSA) invites proposals from its members for its official sponsored session at the 2027 College Art Association (CAA) 115th Annual Conference, to be held February 3-6, 2027, in New York, chaired by Dr. Giada Pellicari and Prof. Stefania Portinari.
The Dawn of Euphoria: The Art Market’s Transformation in the 1970s and 1980s
The 1970s and 1980s constituted a pivotal era in the evolution of the art market ecosystem, deserving of scholarly attention for its transformative impact. This period marked the onset of a significant shift toward the contemporary euphoria of the global art sector, while simultaneously facilitating the transition of its primary hub from Europe to the United States.
The goal of this panel is to investigate the transition from the experimental, often anti-commercial, ethos of the early 1970s to what Paul Ardenne described as the “Euphoric Celebration” of the 1980s (Ardenne, 1995)—a golden age for contemporary art, defined by the beginning of soaring prices.
During the 1970s, the art world experienced enormous changes. Contemporary art fairs proliferated throughout Europe, becoming a significant influence in fostering global relationships and enhancing art circulation. This new art system was driven by the growinginfluence of galleries, the rise of curated exhibitions, and seminal critical writings, such as Lawrence Alloway’s 1972 Artforum article that assessed the “artworld” as a networked system (Alloway, 1972).
This decade was also marked by a shift in the center of gravity towards the United States, while the Venice Biennale was viewed as a place of both prestige and market validation, with private galleries beginning to be recognized as affecting power dynamics (Portinari, 2018). Furthermore, the rise of influential art criticism and media was also central to this transformation; journals like Artforum and Flash Art, as well as The Village Voice’s cultural reportage, did more than just document the scene; they actively constructed the value and “myth” of the contemporary artist, turning him or her into a “Superstar” (Rosen, 1981).
By the 1980s, this momentum had resulted in a decade of market “euphoria”. The decade witnessed the emergence of the current global mega-dealer, as exemplified by the opening of the Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles (1980), and the international success of Italian dealers such as Emilio Mazzoli, who played a critical role in the global explosion of artistic movements such as the Transavanguardia and international artists like Basquiat.
We encourage qualitative and quantitative submissions that analyze how these actors, publications, and institutions fundamentally altered the DNA of the art market, and shaped this dawn of euphoria.
Interdisciplinary research is highly welcomed.
Suggested Themes for Submission:
The 1970s Institutional Shift and Exhibition History:
The role of the Venice Biennale and great exhibitions in promoting new forms of contemporary art beyond painting, and their relationship with the art market’s response.
Transatlantic Dynamics:
The shift of the market’s core from Europe to the U.S. and the reciprocal influence of European galleries (e.g., the “Mazzoli model”). The evolution from the local “dealer-critic system” to the international mega-gallery.
The Rise of the Mega-Gallery:
From local dealership to global enterprise: the new wave of the art galleries and their influence on artistic trends
Ardenne’s Euphoria:
Case-Studies on Contemporary Artists
Theoretical reflections on the 1980s as a “Golden Age” of market celebration and artistic commodification.
The begininning of the “Superstar”.
Market-Driven Aesthetics:
The relationship between the 1980s “return to painting” and the demands of a booming speculative market.
The Power of the Press:
How magazines like Artforum, Flash Art, and The Village Voice shaped artistic reputations and market demand.
Please, send your abstracts (200-250 words including keywords), short biography, and up to ten bibliographic references to: giada.pellicari@unive.it
Deadline August 25th, 2026
SHORT BIOS
DR. GIADA PELLICARI
Giada Pellicari is the recipient of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowhisp with the project FWAM – Between Art Fairs and Art Markets. The Role of Women at the Beginning of the Contemporary Art Ecosystem, at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Department of Humanities under the supervision of Prof. Portinari, at Yale University under the guidance of Prof. Goetzmann, and at Erasmus University Rotterdam (for a secondment) with Prof. Dr. Vermeylen.
She holds a Ph.D. in Visual and Media Studies, (Visual Arts Curriculum) from IULM University in Milan (2025), where she developed a research dissertation on the evolution of the art fair model.
At Duke University, Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies she was invited as a DALMI Fellow (Duke Arts, Law and Markets Initiative), for the Fall Term 2023, and she was a Visiting Scholar at the Université Libre de Bruxelles-Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (June-July 2023). Previously, she was an Adjunct Professor at the Sanremo Academy of Fine Arts and Accademia del Lusso in Milan, where she taught several Contemporary Art courses (2025-2026); an Adjunct Professor in Museology and History of Collections at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin (2021-2022); a Research Fellow in Art Market Analysis at IUAV University in Venice (2020-2021), and a lecturer for a course on “Contemporary Art in Venice-The Biennale Exhibition”, at IED (2019).
Website: https://www.unive.it/pag/50578/ https://www.unive.it/data/people/29792902
Email: giada.pellicari@unive.it
PROF. STEFANIA PORTINARI
Prof. Portinari is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Department of Humanities, and has a strong expertise on contemporary art history, the art system, as well on the 1970s, with a series of publications on the role of women in the arts.
She has been teaching for a long time the contemporary art course within the Master’s Degree in Art Economics 1.
She is the Director of the book series “Storie dell’arte contemporanea” (Contemporary Art Stories) and a scientific member of the journal “Venezia Arti”. She is on the faculty of the Doctorate in Art History at Ca’ Foscari and the National Doctorate in Heritage Science at Sapienza University of Rome, and is Associate Professor (Status-only Appointment) at the University of Toronto for the Ph.D. in Italian Studies. She is responsible for the Minor in Curatorial Studies at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice.
Prof. Portinari is a member of several research teams, she took part into numerous academic projects involving curating and high-level tutoring activities in the fields of contemporary art history and curatorship, such as “Il sistema dell’arte: istituzioni, gallerie, esposizioni e collezionismo nel Novecento”; “Storia del collezionismo contemporaneo”; “Storia della Biennale diVenezia”; “Curatorial Studies”.
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