This page includes
How Galleries and Dealers Work
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Starting out as an Artist
Check out specific aspects of a working relationship with a Gallery:
Different perspectives You can also find below various perspectives - and advice - on art galleries and links to further information provided by
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There have been radical changes in the art market and models of how to sell art in recent years.
Art is now sold via
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ALTERNATIVELY
on other pages you can read about: |
Facts first: 30% of all art galleries are loss-making. There are also many myths held by artists about galleries: |
"The art world is tough, the rules are a complete mystery and only the lucky few make money" The art market is dominated by small- and medium-sized businesses who have historically been at the less tech savvy, more complacent end of the scale. |
Pros
Galleries and dealers can:
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Cons
Agents/Dealers/Galleries can:
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An art dealer is essentially somebody who buys and sells art. They have two groups of people to keep happy:
An art dealer may run an art gallery - but you don't have to have an art gallery to be an art dealer. Nor does owning an art gallery mean that somebody is an effective art dealer. Many art galleries have shut up shop on the high street to cut their fixed costs and now trade as dealers from non-gallery addresses. Their assets are the art collectors in their books and the artists they know. Their skill is in bringing them together. An art dealer who wants to exhibit work by an artist might secure suitable premises for a defined period - thus eliminating the overheads associated with running a gallery |
Art dealers might operate as a trade association for the purposes of promoting art and maintaining standards and the confidence of art collectors.
Examples in the UK include: |
A gallery owner is essentially an art dealer in a fixed location where he or she exhibits and sells art.
Those who are successful know, understand and serve their art collector market well. An art gallery usually operates out of a proper building.
They typically sell on a consignment basis (otherwise known as "sale or return". They always take a commission if your art sells and should return it (in perfect condition) if it doesn't. (Sadly this doesn't always happen) You must make sure you understand what the commission structure covers - and what it doesn't - before you sign with a gallery. |
An art gallery business might do a lot of its business and selling art via an Art Fair(s).
This is because art fairs have become very popular with art collectors. Art Fairs make it very easy for art collectors to see a lot of art via a lot of galleries in a very short space of time. They are ideal for the time-poor art collector. Do bear in mind that too many art galleries in the past have been run by people who like art and artists but who were awful at business - which is why so many have gone out of business! Before being taken on by a gallery you must check out whether they know how to be business-like - or your art might end up behind the locked doors of a gallery which has gone out of business. An art gallery might put your art online.
Don't use galleries to avoid selling your art online. The smart galleries have realised that a lot of people like browsing for art online - especially if it's below £10k - and make sure they make their art available to browse. the rate of galleries opening has fallen dramatically over the past decade..... new entrants face increasingly high barriers to entry. |
Resch's numbers are based on his anonymous electronic survey to 8,000 galleries. He got 1,300 responses (16%). These included information about their revenue, number of employees, and location.
This is a summary of his conclusions FINANCIAL DATA
MARKETING DATA
MYTHBUSTERS
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REASONS WHY ART GALLERIES LOSE MONEY / FAIL
.......why do so few thrive? A simple economic analysis should make any potential gallerist pause to think; it is a textbook inefficient market, with too much supply meeting too little demand. But a further problem is found in the practices of the gallerists themselves; they have never changed their business model, relying on white walls, commissioned art, underpaid (or unpaid) interns, identikit opening events, 50/50 artist deals, and a presence at fairs. While art can be innovative, the business surrounding it is not. |
First Edition: Rated an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars by 9 customer reviews Second (PINK) Edition: Ratings dipped as I reviewed as Content = 5* Pink Text = 0* Third (PURPLE) Edition: - 12 more pages (and easier to read!). Updated and revised for the ever changing business of selling art Officially a BEST SELLER - This book SOLD OUT FAST when it was first published in an English language edition An insight into practices in top end art galleries from the man who created Larry's List - which provides a database of and an insight into top art collectors. His book analyses how the art markets and art galleries operate, the phases artists go through in terms of economic production and place in the art market - plus he also analyses the new breed of art collectors. He provides case studies to explain key points relating to how to market and sell art to high net worth individuals. You don't have to be a gallery to benefit from the lessons he offers. See a summary of some of the key points below - plus links to articles about his work below that. |
NEW BOOK in 2015 - SOLD OUT!
First Publisher: Hatje Cantz It's sold out and was out of print - I contacted Hatje Cantz (nice publishers!) and while they weren't planning a reprint, demand for the book indicated a reprint would happen Second edition now published! I ordered and waited and have been rewarded! However printing text in pink is beyond a joke! SECOND EDITION 2016 Paperback: 140 pages Publisher: Phaidon Press UK: 18 Oct. 2016 USA: November 14, 2016 THIRD (larger) EDITION 2018 Paperback: 152 pages Publisher: Phaidon Press; Revised edition (13 July 2018) Language: English ISBN-10: 0714877751 ISBN-13: 978-0714877754 Product Dimensions: 14.9 x 1.6 x 21.3 cm BUY THIS BOOK |
This is my summary of Resch's views about how galleries need to change to become effective.
My view is that artists need to align themselves with art galleries that have contemporary business models for selling their art and who understand how to be cost effective and make profits. A Three Tier Trading Structure - Successful galleries diversify their locations according to the life cycle stage reached by the artist.
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The successful business model is underpinned by multiple streams of business income - defined by and related to different stages of the artist life cycle - and cross-financing between different market sectors
The Artist Life Cycle includes:
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The rationale behind the 50/50 split with emerging artists has never been about economics. What it costs most galleries to promote an unknown artist in a single solo exhibition, ongoing online and back-office presence, and a few art fairs, far exceeds the amount of money they will likely make from selling the average number of works at the emerging artist price points over the course of the first year or two.
Edward Winkelman | The Art Newspaper
I first came across Edward Winkelman via his blog (which he no longer writes). He was providing some excellent advice for those artists who wanted to get a gallery - about how to approach a gallery (see links below).
He opened (and closed) a gallery and now lists himself as the cofounder of the Moving Image art fair and has participated in art fairs such as ARCO, Art Chicago, Independent, PULSE, The Armory Show, and NADA. |
edward_ winkleman art | politics | gossip | tough love
I highly recommend reading Ed Winkelman's blog if you want to get your artwork shown in a serious art gallery (those are the ones that don't have gift shop or frame shop on the side). Bear in mind it stops in 2016.... |
Then he opened an art gallery and converted his blog into a book for all those wanting to go down the gallery route
How to start and run a Commercial Art Gallery
by Edward Winkelman (published 2009) Rated an average of 4.4 out of 5 stars by 44 customer reviews
BUY THIS BOOK The blog became a book! This book is essentially written for people wanting to become gallery owners. However, it's also very helpful for artists who want to research and understand:
How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery
How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery
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Then he closed his gallery in 2014 - and went back to doing what he was doing originally. Selling contemporary art as an art dealer. In 2017 he published his new book.
NEW! Selling Contemporary Art: How to Navigate the Evolving Market
by Edward Winkleman (published 2017) Rated an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars by 6 customer reviews
BUY THIS BOOK This is a book about selling art from the art dealer's perspective and is a must read for those wanting to understand the contemporary art market. Sections cover:
Selling Contemporary Art: How to Navigate the Evolving Market
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How to get a gallery
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How to work with gallery contracts
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REFERENCE:
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Advice from ArtQuest (University of the Arts, London)
Advice from artists: Check Out the Gallery
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Rated an average of 4.7 out of 5 stars by 135 customer reviews
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Gallery Commission - and what it means
Commission is charged by all commercial galleries. There's no standard rate as such. You'll find it varies by type of gallery and geography and often there is no rhyme nor reason for the variations. Commission is intended to recover the gallery overheads associated with having a building, staffing it and putting on exhibitions. Galleries vary as to what is and is not covered by the commission. If you intend to do business with or via a gallery, you must always check and get in writing precisely what their commission is intended to cover. Watch out for the gallery commission that is payable if a collector having seen your work in an exhibition then commissions you to produce a piece of art. Introducing artists to art collectors is the business the art gallery is in and many will seek to recover a percentage from you for so doing.
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What the written contracts mean
These are links to pages of advice from ArtQuest about working with Commercial Galleries. They cover all the different aspects of having a contractual and legal relationship to sell your artwork via a gallery.
Exhibition Insurance
If exhibiting with a gallery you need to check whether or not their insurance covers your artwork.
Read more about Insurance for Art and Artists |
The Artist-Gallery Partnership: A Practical Guide to Consigning Art
by Tad Crawford Rated 4.8 out of 5 stars by 8 customer reviews This is a bible for both artists and art galleries who work on the basis of consignment by artist to art gallery! Tad Crawford is renowned for writing books which cover the legal and contractual side of the art business. This book provides a comprehensive coverage of the Standard Consignment Agreement including agency, consignment, warranties, transportation, insurance, pricing, gallery commissions, promotion, return of art, and more - PLUS the ways in which the law varies in different states in the USA. It also includes a ready-to-use contract. |
Paperback: 216 pages
Publisher: Allworth Press; 1 edition (May 13, 2008) BUY The Artist-Gallery Partnership: A Practical Guide to Consigning Art
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So where does that leave the middle class, those galleries in Chelsea and on the Lower East Side that have been around long enough to be somewhat established, but still have to sell enough to make rent? Now, they have to deal with a perfect storm of gallery-killing factors: a market cooling from top to bottom, plummeting prices for onetime hit artists who minted money for mid-tier galleries just two years ago, the chokehold of fair booth prices, skyrocketing rents in neighborhoods where buying a building is unthinkable.
- Mom & Popped: In a Market Contraction, the Middle-Class Gallery is Getting Squeezed | ArtNews (Nov. 2016)
The sad fact is that changes in the past model of retailing is also changing the number of galleries around the world.
Artists need to be aware of what can happen when a gallery closes - and how little notice they may get (if they get any at all). |
REFERENCE
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Artists move on - up or down the food chain.
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Even with a consignment deal in place, things can still go wrong. When Yayoi Kusama left Gagosian Gallery in 2012, she asked for all her work to be returned to her within a month. It took nearly a year, according to a source close to the artist, because the gallery was trying to recoup its costs by selling as much of its [ Kusama ] stock as possible. |
How to change / end a gallery relationship
There are good ways - and bad ways - of bringing the relationship between gallery and artist to an end
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Dealing with rejection
What should you do when an art gallery doesn't want to work with you any longer?
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ArtQuest has some useful articles about working with galleries
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I see my relationships with artists as similar concentric circles. Gallery artists are core artists, those at the centre of the circle. We work together and communicate constantly, and I am at their service. Then there are others with whom I have a relationship, but do not represent. Some I show regularly. Then there are others that I might work with just once, or infrequently. |
ABOUT ART BUSINESS INFO. FOR ARTISTS
This website provides a compendium of resources about the art business for artists. It helps artists learn how to do better at being business-like, marketing and selling art and looking after their financial security. |
If you've got any suggestions for what you'd like to see on this website please send me your suggestion
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PLEASE NOTE:
1) Content and the law change all the time. 2) Given the size and scope of this site I do NOT warrant that
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3) This website is free for you but not for me. Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. Buying a book via this website means I get a very small payment which helps to fund and maintain this website. .I much appreciate any support your provide. Adverts are provided by Google AdSense - but the adverts do not mean I endorse the advertiser.
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