Education On Acquiring Art
The Gallery Game 71520
- The gallery traditionally is the gatekeeper to obtaining work from an artist. This is what they call the Primary Market.
- Galleries usually take up to 50% on the work that is sold to a collector. Please keep in mind prices are hard to come by as this is an unregulated market.
- Artis that are represented by a gallery usually obtain upfront money from a gallery to produce a certain amount of work.
- In these scenarios the gallery essentially owns the rights to the work
- Also, an artist sometimes is forbidden to sell work to anyone else while in this contract.
- Galleries will initially sell to preferred collectors. A list of people who have purchased from them in the past.
- The gallery’s goal is to create a supply and demand for an artist’s work. Which can be sparked by insinuating there is a waiting list.
- For collectors who are in the know and already have these pieces. They will generally turn around and sell the work at auction after 5 years. An auction is what they call the secondary art market
- If an artist potentially sells directly to a collector outside of the gallery they can potentially be black balled from the art industry as a whole.
- The goal is to keep the artist dependent on the gallery model. Effectively because the gallery business model depends on the artist labor.
- A lot of art galleries are slow to play the artist which causes a lot of artists to earn the phrase of starving artists.
- Generally when an artist changes galleries because they are not selling generally with the gallery or they are not given a stipend by the gallery.
- Artist Trajectory
- The art industry looks at artists and there is a specific path they must take to be successful.
- What university did they attend
- Where did they get their Master
- What new up and coming galleries are supporting these artists
- How did the move up the gallery ranks and to which galleries
- How much they sell in the secondary market
- The art industry looks at artists and there is a specific path they must take to be successful.
- How to you purchase options:
- You can obtain works from a gallery
- Auction House
- The internet
- Artist Studio Visits
- Trading works