Valleys and big peaks. "Since the beginning of 1990, business has been at a standstill," columnist B.C. Gardner writes in Art+Auction’s September 1990 issue. Indeed, the highs of ’89 — the evening sales of contemporary art at Sotheby’s and Christie’s that May were record setting — stand in stark contrast to the lows of ’90, when Japanese buyers all but disappeared. But the art world soon rebounded: Fairs proliferated, and a new breed of private dealers emerged, as did fresh talents, such as the shape-shifting artist Matthew Barney.

See more highlights from 1989–1998:

"1989-1998" originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's September 2009 Table of Contents.