Forget the shuffleboard and the deck quoits. Art is the big thing aboard cruise ships these days, and it’s a multi-million-dollar business.
“My advice is to buy the best art, by the best artist, that you can afford,” says Adam Goodwin, who has been bringing the hammer down afloat for almost a decade. “That means if you can afford one Picasso, or seven works by a lesser-known artist, then buy the Picasso.”
However, that advice is tempered by another maxim: “Buy what you like.”
“It’s going to be hanging on your wall, to be looked at and enjoyed. So don’t buy something you don’t like just because it’s a good deal.”
Goodwin works for Park West at Sea, a division of Park West Gallery in Michigan. It is the world’s largest private gallery, and has a major share of the cruise business, holding events aboard more than 60 ships. These include the fleets of Carnival, Celebrity, Crystal, Cunard, Festival, Holland-America, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean and Windstar. London Contemporary Art, based in London, handles Radisson Seven Seas.
Auctions at sea, however, are not those quiet, staid events shown in movies and TV shows. They are rollicking entertainment. Goodwin, a bright-faced young Australian, conducts each auction in a wise-cracking, swinging style, keeping the audience laughing. After all, the cruise line has offered its passengers a fun experience, and the art sales are part of that. Those who attend also receive a free piece of art, usually a small serigraph or lithograph with a gallery price of about $45.
“We often get asked how many of the works are original,” says Goodwin. “The answer is that they all are. We do not sell prints; we sell paintings and watercolours, but also serigraphs, etchings, mixed-media, lithographs…all created by the artists themselves and often signed.”
Sports memorabilia are also big sellers. They include montages of Muhammad Ali or other sports greats, with their autographs, pieces of uniforms and huge dramatic photos. Anything signed by Ali is especially valued, because the champion who used to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” now suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and can no longer write his name.
That’s why generally speaking, a dead artist’s work fetches a higher price than that of one who is living. “He won’t be creating any new art, so what there is, is all there is,” Goodwin says.
Park West publishes several artists, such as Fanch Ledan, Emile Bellet, and Linda le Kinff. But auctions are also likely to feature high-end pieces by the masters, such as Rembrandt, Durer, Chagall and Picasso.
Animation and illustration are two more fast-growing categories. Cells from Walt Disney or Hanna-Barbera are very collectible, as are works by Norman Rockwell, probably the most-famous illustrator of the 20th Century. These are especially popular with Americans, who make up the bulk of passengers. Americans also are great collectors of the works of contemporary artist Peter Max. His huge patriotic pieces usually feature the Statue of Liberty and Old Glory.
About 600 works are carried on each cruise. Auctions are held on “sea days” when the ship is between ports, as are seminars and invitational viewings with champagne. As well, several pieces are raffled off on each cruise, and there are a number of “mysteries” which are turned away from the audience. The auctioneer then gives the gallery price, followed by the lower auction price, and everyone interested holds up a bid card. The numbers are noted, then the piece (or set of pieces) is turned face outwards.
“If you like it, then you can buy it at that price” explains Goodwin. “Sometimes there is only one available, in which case the first person to commit gets it. Other times we have more than one and each bidder can have one at the same price.” And if you don’t like it, then you don’t buy it.
Many of the ships are themselves floating galleries and museums. A walking tour of Holland-America’s NOORDAM will lead you past exquisite chinoiserie cabinets, 200-year-old ship models made of bone and hair, and an Andy Warhol portrait of Queen Beatrix. The ship’s atrium lobby is dominated by a huge rotating compass rose, in gold and Waterford crystal, which changes colour as it turns.
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The Art of Cruising
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