Modern Art Review: make a profit on art auctions

Now that you know the modern style, it’s time to get to know Modern Art!

Modern Art is a 3-to-5 players game, recommended age 10+, from acclaimed designer Reiner Knizia, author of more than 490 different games - an astonishing amount! The artwork was done by Mike Doyle.

Modern Art was release in 1992 by the German company Hans im Glück. In Brazil, the first edition came by Odysseia, in 2006, and currently, its newest version came by Galápagos Jogos in 2017. Among the basic mechanics, the following stand out: hand management, commodity speculation, open auctions, sealed bid auction, 1-round auction, auction in turn order until passing and victory points as a resource.

With just a year after its release, Modern Art received awards and nominations: it won in several categories and received awards from Deutscher Spiele Preis, JoTa Best Game and Vuoden Peli. Nominations came from Spiel des Jahres, Japan Boardgame Prize and Årets Spill.

The Game

Modern Art is on the rise! Buying and selling paintings can be a very profitable business. Five different artists have produced several paintings, and it is our job as Art Gallery owners to organize the auctions, buy and sell these paintings - hopefully making a profit in both roles.

In a market that is so volatile, one has to consider both the artist's popularity and price history in previous seasons, so that knowing the right time to bid on an auction will make all the difference. There will be 4 intense seasons of negotiations and opportunities.

Who will be more successful? This is the background of Modern Art!

At the beginning of the game, place the main gameboard in the center of the table. It contains the names of the 5 artists who will have their works negotiated. It's worth paying attention to this, as the order in which the artists appear on the main board, from left to right, is the tiebreaker order in any situation, with the leftmost one always winning on tiebreakers.

Regarding the artists, each one has a number of works of art for negotiation:

This information is very important so you know how many paintings by each artist have already been negotiated, that is, how many are still available, or for sale. This will indicate whether they will increase in value or not - after all, those who have more paintings can negotiate better prices.

After that, each player receives artwork cards, money tokens and a screen, which represents the auction house.

Players also receive a number of artwork cards, which vary depending on the number of players:

It is important to be very clear that these artwork cards that players receive at the beginning of the game and at the beginning of each new turn, although in the hands of their respective players, are not paintings that they own, they are just works displayed in the auction house and that will be auctioned under each one's responsibility - and can even be purchased by the same player who put them up for auction. It's a kind of safekeeping. This is a very important concept in the game: you will only own the works you acquire at an auction.

As the game is very thematic, each player also receives their own auction house, which is represented by a screen, which is used for hiding our money. They have some names in order to make the game even more immersive:

Lastly, players also receive $100,000 - the game's currency - each, which will remain hidden from other players throughout the game, behind their auction house screen.

Setup is ready! Time to play a turn of the game.

On your turn, simply put an artwork card from your hand for auction, announce what type of auction out of the 5 possible ones, and coordinate that auction. The active player will be called the auctioneer.

Regarding the 5 types of auction, each one of them has a letter or symbol, to help represent it during the game and also hint at what type of auction: O, 1, H, $ and D. To make it even easier, the letters or symbols of the auction type are colored by the respective artists, according to the main board.

Here's a brief explanation of each type of auction:

This is how a turn goes in Modern Art! This is repeated until a 5th artwork by the same artist is annouced for auction - only it will not be auctioned, it just goes unsold and then the current season ends.

At this moment, the 3 most popular artists, that is, the 3 who had the most works negotiated, will receive their rewards on the main board:

At this point, after the artists are properly ranked and valued, the players sell their paintings to the bank, receiving the marked value for each artwork. As the seasons progress, if the artist maintains a high ranking, the values ​​are accumulated. If the artist doesn't sell anything in 1 season, they don't make a profit - however, if the artist is ranked again, any previous values ​​will be added back.

That is how a full season plays out in Modern Art!

After that, a new season begins! Players receive more artwork cards, but each new season reduces the number of cards received for auction.

Ending the Game

Once the 4th season ends, so does the game. All players will count their total money and reveal the amount.

Whoever has the most amount is declared the winner!

Strategy Tips

Any strategy guide in Modern Art is based on what artworks we have in our custody, that is, in our hands. These are what we will auction, and if we have many works by one particular artist, it is good to ensure that they are valued.

Of course, in the beginning it can be a little rough, as there is still no stand-out artist, except for the fact that the artists further to the left on the main board always win in the event of a tie. I strongly suggest as a starting strategy you start by auctioning works by an artist you have the most cards in hand, always.

During the game, other works by other artists will also go up for auction, and if you notice that one particular artist has many works auctioned, it's good to go after their paintings, after all, they will be valued - and when I say many works, think around 3 or 4, because the 5th one put up for auction won't even be sold, since it will trigger the end of the current season.

Manage your money well, because if you spend it all, your only source of income will be from your sales to the bank at the end of the season, and money is what matters most in the end - it shows how well you managed your auction house.

Regarding which type of auction to use, I have some recommendations, namely:

And the golden tip: bluff! It's part of it, inflate an open auction, place a bid and count on someone up-bidding you and decapitalize themselves, this is part of the game - use your charisma skills!

Organize the best auctions, acquire the best and most valuable works and win in Modern Art!

Unboxing:

Rules:

A gameplay with the Galapagos Jogos version:

If you are looking for a game to entertain the children, with the famous experience of heated auctions, and which also provides excellent learning, Modern Art is the game for you!

From the start we learn about the style of Modern Art, and this can be a cool history lesson about the era and its artistic expressions. Using books and the internet can be a good option to enrich it. Based on this, analyzing and playing with the artwork cards to detect the characteristics of Modern Art can be a lot of fun. I recommend it!

Regarding stimuli, logical mathematical reasoning will be present throughout the game, by counting the cards that have already been auctioned to find out about their profits or even to know when a season ends, or how muchmoney you have available for auctions and so on - it's basic math at all times.

Strategy will always be required when choosing which types of auction to use and which artist to feature, as we must look for the most valued ones.

A gameplan will be very necessary, that is, attention and focus, important things to avoid being caught by surprise with an early end to the season.

Pedagogically, Modern Art stimulates and entertains!

I recommend Modern Art in your collection!!!