ARTISTS FACE COMPLEX CHOICES TO MARKET THEIR ART IN THE APPLE
Art galleries, art sale web sites, personal web sites, auctions and crypto currency markets -- Artists in the 21st century have a dazzling choice of markets to offer their creative efforts to a buying public.
Each sales platform has its pros and cons. Here is a brief rundown of what these different sales methods offer, and how the venue costs can vary.
Galleries: In New York City and many other art centers around the world, artists can look for physical spaces (‘brick-and-mortar galleries’), or Internet based galleries. New York currently has approximately 1,400 physical galleries, catering to every style and scale of artwork. Most brick-and-mortar galleries now maintain detailed websites so clients can inspect and purchase art without ever leaving their laptop computers or i-phones. Most galleries maintain a stable of between 15 and 70 artists. They offer knowledge of who might want to buy, and often carefully supervise the presentation of each artist’s work. Show of those artists’ works are usually mounted for a 4 week run, with an opening reception designed to attract potential buyers to a social occasion. There is no free lunch: Most brick-and-mortar galleries take a 50% slice of the price of works they sell. However, well known artists can command a better percentage for themselves. Galleries such as Gagosian, Jim Kempner, Tagliatella and others have been known to negotiate custom commissions for artists in their stable.
Co-op Galleries: Since the early years of the 20th Century, artists have tried to have more control over the financial aspects of art sales, by banding together to form cooperative galleries. Some of the best known in New York City include Atlantic Gallery, Prince Street, 1st Street and others. On the one hand, this gives member artists greater control over the percentage of the sale prices actually go to the artist. On the other hand, artists often lack the marketing and social skills that make gallery owners so effective. The other negative is that the costs of running a gallery in New York City can be formidable, which can be a financial burden on hard pressed member artists.
Artists have long had a love/hate relationship with galleries and the buyers they attract. The great early 20th century artist John Sloan used his skills to portray problems with galleries and buyers alike in his scathing etching, “A Taste for Art”, which depicts an art opening where the guests are more concerned with each other and their cocktails than the art hanging on the walls.
Art sale web sites such as 1st Dibs, Artsy, Etsy and Invaluable each have their own sales policies. 1st Dibs takes a commission of up to 15% from the sellers, who are vetted and monitored. They also offer reasonable priced shipping services for the seller as well as the buyer. Similar terms are offered in the other such sites. Invaluable also works with major auction houses, providing live video links to sales, which individuals can use as a bidding platform. In the case of 1st Dibs, sellers are encouraged to be flexible on price, to allow offers up to 20% below the offering prices. Several of these web sites also offer silent auctions, in which site visitors can register and bid for works on offer for anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months.
Personal web sites can be both original and disasterous for the artists involved. Managing a business is not their primary function. However, the emergence of computer generated art and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing artworks, suggests a new generation of artists may be learning to cope. The personal web sites of artists such as Scott Cousins, George Towne or Julia Woronowicz show just how sophisticated some of these web sites can be. The NFT phenomenon (whose death, like that of crypto currencies, has been greatly exaggerated) will be addressed in a separate article in the near future.
Auctions: Some artists will periodically sell off a significant number of works through auctions. A mass sale of an artist’s work is often part of an estate sale. There are positive and negative aspects. Although auction commissions are significantly less than what galleries charge, the seller has less control over the price works will fetch. Sellers can limit the downside by setting an agreed minimum acceptable bid, Commissions and fees for works under $50,000 usually amount to 15%, plus New York sales tax (8.875 %) added on the total. In addition to top ranked houses like Christie's and Sotheby’s, there are a number of smaller and accessible auction rooms like Doyle’s and Swann Galleries.
This gives you a brief summary of the pros and cons of different sales options.
In the next view of the art market, we will look at how buyers select the venues they use to acquire – and sometimes sell -- artworks.
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