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Seven new art words you didn't need to know

The Art Newspaper's (least) favourite neologisms

By The Art Newspaper. Focus, Issue 263, December 2014

Published online: 22 December 2014

How many in this picture are suffering from fairtigue and over-sharking?

Fairtigue

A term circulating since 2012 and increasingly heard this year as dealers, collectors (and, yes, journalists) struggled to keep abreast of the exploding number of art fairs around the world. 

Megagosian 

Used to refer to the increasing global reach of the dealer Larry Gagosian who now runs 13 outlets worldwide with another set to open in London next year. The term is also used generically to signify the rising power and ambitions of a small number of dealers who control the top end of the contemporary art market.

Crapstraction 

Coined by the New York magazine critic Jerry Saltz to describe the market-driven abstract art produced by numerous artists out to make a quick buck. Also known as zombie formalism.

Biennihilism 

The feeling experienced by art lovers after yet another phoned-in, theory-laden “ennial”, sending them into a funk of despair and prompting a belief that human life has no intrinsic value or meaning.

Sharking 

The activity engaged in by dealers, mostly at art fairs, who refer to themselves as sharks ready to sniff out the blood (ie money) of collectors.

FOBOFF 

“Fear of being ostracised by fair folk” is an art world specific variant of the popular acronym FOMO—fear of missing out—which encapsulates dealers’ concerns of not joining the lucrative art fair bandwagon.

Tyre Kicker 

A term used by art dealers to describe a time-wasting punter who makes gallery staff jump through hoops by asking interminable questions about a piece that he—and it usually is a he—invariably ends up not buying.

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