|
I've always maintained that Damien Hirst's real talent lay in marketing and selling. For me he is a classic example of an artist whose ability to work out how to market his art - and to manipulate the art market for his benefit - considerably outweighed his talent as an artist. RECOMMENDED READ: The False Narrative of Damien Hirst's Rise and Fall by Felix Salmon in the New Yorker (6th December 2017)  This article is a "must read" because it highlights how Hirst has fundamentally challenged the notion of:
With the 2008 auction, Hirst moved out of the world of commodities, which are bought and sold speculatively with a profit motive, and moved into the world of luxury goods, which are bought to be consumed and enjoyed. Which is exactly what art should be! It also focuses on the fact that by moving art sales to "direct sales" between artist and art collector, a considerable amount of art market data has moved out of the reach of those who purport to know about 'value'. All they know about now is the amounts which are in the public domain because of art sold at auction. That's not always where the important sales are done any more. After (his 2008 auction sale) Hirst started selling his work directly to collectors, at scale, and stopped playing by the established gallery-system rules. Hirst’s galleries were furious, but there was nothing they could do about it. Freed from gallery constraints, Hirst could make the work he wanted to make, and sell it at whatever price his collectors were willing to pay. Hirst is obviously an artist operating at the very high end of the market. He's ripped up the rule book and started to reinvent the art market. After partnering with an auction house in 2008 to create a gigantic sale of his work, in 2017 he partnered with a Francois Pinault (the French luxury goods billionaire) and took over two museums to create an enormous thematic show and made the Venice Biennale an explicit commercial venue for buying art. Hirst says that sales from his latest show, in Venice, reached a jaw-dropping three hundred and thirty million dollars as of early November. One has to ask to what extent artists operating further down the food chain can do the same thing:
To my mind it's perfectly possible - but only if artists hone their marketing and selling skills as well as those related to creating art and partner with the right people and platforms. We've already seen it to some extent with the achievements of those who have created a credible art business by selling direct to collectors online. Now we need to see whether artists start partnering with venues to sell their art in new ways - just like Damien Hirst... Like I said - it's a recommended read for those who acknowledge that marketing has a lot to do with how value is created in the art market.
0 Comments
 The Vanity Gallery is a new page on my website.
I've extracted all the information relating to Vanity Galleries from my Alternative Options for Exhibitions page and created a page which is entirely focused on the characteristics and risks associated with Vanity Galleries. It covers:
The April 2016 edition of 'The Artist' Magazine contains my article which provides a useful summary of the various different options for How to afford to exhibit your art and keep the costs down! Plus how to maximise your income, minimise your costs and avoid nasty surprises.  Sample extract from page 66 of the "The Artist" April 2016 You can read more about the topics covered by the article in this blog post on Making A Mark.
You can also find more in-depth information about selling and exhibiting your art in the Selling Art Section of this website. Topics include:
Next month the article is all about how to get your work online - and then there's six more articles in the "Cost effective ideas for artists" series after that. The latest edition of The Artist is in the shops now (priced £3.99) and is also available via subscription (and digital download)  UPDATE: Alternative Options for Exhibitions
Artists have been using Pop Up Spaces for some years to hold exhibitions of their art and/or run art galleries in unused commercial spaces that are available for short periods. However what you need to do and how you get a pop up space is still a mystery to many artists. I've expanded the Alternative Options for Exhibitions page devoted to different places to exhibit to include a NEW section on The Pop Up Show / Art Gallery This summarises why artists use them and what you need to know and get to develop a pop up space for art. It also includes links to useful online resources in terms of guides and articles and further advice. These links include:
If you've written a blog post about your experience of running a popup art show do drop me line via comments and I'll feature it in the reference section for this topic. It's good to share! This is about TWO new pages in the Sell Art section of my Art Business Info. for Artists website. The first is A Guide to Art Dealers and Galleries. It covers:
 Rosa Sepple and her very successful solo exhibition at the Mall Galleries The second NEW PAGE published yesterday is about Alternative Exhibition Options. It covers:
I'll be adding more content to the Art Market/Fair and due diligence sections in the near future - but thought people like to see the section on Vanity Galleries now. Image: The image comes from my blog post about an artist who organised her own exhibition by renting space at the Mall Galleries (a reputable art gallery in central London) - see Rosa Sepple sells 50+ paintings in 4 days! |
Wanting to find out about the business side of art?
Art Business Info. News for Artists
Successful artists get on top of the business side of being an artist. Do you want to: Visitors so farNo. of visitors since April 2015:
and receive every post via email.
AuthorKatherine Tyrrell writes about art, artists and the art business and has followers all over the world. She also delivers workshops for art organisations and reviews websites and career strategies for artists. 
Art Business Blogs
Art Biz Blog (Alyson Stanfield) ArtBusiness.com (Alan Bamberger) Art Business News ArtsBusiness Institute Art Marketing News (Barney Davey) ArtPromotivate - Tips Artsy Shark (Carolyn Edlund) Be Smart about Art (Susan Mumford) edward_winkleman Fine Art Views (Clint Watson) Laura C George Professional Artist - News Right Brain Rock Star - no longer publishing Savvy Painter Podcasts The Abundant Artist (Cory Huff) The Art Law Blog The Clarion List - Blog Archives
January 2024
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed