About the galleries

It’s a miracle that art dealers can actually go broke. Bad art may be a contributing factor, but don’t count on it. Some dealers are just not cut out for the business and should never have tried it in the first place. The miracle of the art business, unlike practically no other business, is that dealers don’t have to pay for their inventory until after it’s sold. Often well after. When I see a guy putting soap on his windows and selling his Ferrari, I’m generally looking at a guy who got behind in paying his artists.

Others, unable to tune into my sophistication, open up with a cheerful “Welcome,” and “Have you ever been in an art gallery before? Ah, Robert, you have a delightful sense of humor! Reminds me of the afternoon when I roamed through a university art fair disguised as a curious senior citizen. It was great fun to pretend ignorance of lithography and question the difference between oil and acrylic painting, but the young artist in the photography area surprised me when he came out of the dark room and asked if I would like to do another negative set-up. “Oops, did it mess up?” I questioned. “No,” he replied. “You have an excellent sense of design, and I thought you might like to rework the upper corner of the set-up. The fold in that lace caused the chopsticks to lose their definition, and I think you meant for them to create a more dynamic line.” Dear God, this young man had read my mind………and almost blew my cover! I laughed, but maintained my casual non-artist disguise as I rearranged the set-up. Then, my heart skipped a beat as he asked if I would like to go into the darkroom and watch my design develop. “Sure, I would be delighted,” I smiled as I followed him through a revolving door into the darkness……..

I have lost work when a gallery has gone bankrupt. Even though I owned it, it became treated as the property of the gallery when the receivers stepped in. This was many years ago. Now I maintain a very close connection to my work by either selling it from my studio or at a nearby artist’s collective. The time I have to donate is a pittance when I can control the final price of the work receive the majority of income to be made on the piece. Another benefit is that the work remains in a price range where more people can afford it bringing art to a larger population rather than just the elite few.

Hi Robert, I’m one of those artist studio/gallery owners on Main Street in Scottsdale. I only show my own work. Sorry I missed you. Last night I had an event of non-artist women and talked about my art then took them around to other 5 artist-owned studio/galleries where the artist told them about their work. It was eye-opening for them because I told the group to take the time to stand still and really look at the artist’s work because they will feel a connection. No one can explain their work better than the artist themselves. It was a success.

a note to “pat”: I’m sorry to hear that you’ve lost work to galleries going out of business. So far, I’ve been fortunate on that count. I’m not sure if it will make a difference should that unfortunate scenario happen, but I try to protect myself: I prepare a consignment sheet for each painting I submit to the gallery (this was a great idea, suggested by one of my galleries), with a small thumbnail image of the painting. On it, I state: “property of the artist, consigned to…gallery”. The gallery gets a copy, I keep a copy. I think that, for the most part, gallery owners are not the Ferrari-driving thieves that some artists seem to think. I believe that most have a sincere appreciation of art and the desire to share that with the public. While art dealers “don’t have to pay for their inventory” up front, artists don’t have to pay rent on the gallery wall space they use (or utilities, staff wages, etc.) — until a work sells, when the gallery earns their commission.

“Giclées are hardly mentioned”. Thank you for this Robert. Maybe, just maybe a little sanity is returning to the art world.

About bankruptcies: check the state laws involved. I’ve been victim of two. Though the bankruptcy courts are federal, I think, how consigned work is handled is different in different states. What the artist does for protection may make no difference.

Slow sales at times are not usual with art. We at our co-op are going slowly down and down with sales. But then we get a burst of business and then the opposite. Just writing to say I am hoping that things get better for all of us. I depend on your letters because I am isolated in the mountains of WV.

How uncanny that you are writing about Santa Fe and Scottsdale. I will be shipping work to Santa Fe shortly to a gallery that became aware of my work through your letter. Not only knowledge and experience, but networking is being created. Seems like you are always on the go. Have you become a vagabond artist-writer?

Thanks for the input about Santa Fe galleries. I felt as though I had walked up Canyon Road and peeked into the galleries without actually having to make the trip. Very interesting about the Russians and the Chinese. I am so glad that figurative and abstraction are coming on strong.

Very timely piece as I was scheduling a gallery trip to Santa Fe with my giclees! I really enjoy your letter.

Regarding Anonymous, at the top, the real estate industry is another that does not pay the vendor until the sale is complete. At 1% to 6% commission, rates are considered high at the high end. Thirty to fifty percent commission rates for gallery sales seems outrageous. Artists can manage this injustice to some degree by merely favoring delivery of better works to lower commission galleries.

A Russian painter you might have included in your gallery is Larisa Aukon. Her beautiful emotionally charged landscapes have had great success in the Paul Scott Gallery, Scottsdale. She is not only a gifted painter, but an amazing teacher.

Giclees are still going strong in the Tourist Towns. Santa Fe and Scottsdale are Serious Collector Towns.

If ou’re still in the area, you might hob nob an hour up north to our little town of Payson, AZ. We have a lot of artists tucked away in the mountains up here who come out for our two major shows each year. Also, we have two co-op art galleries on Main Street. I happen to be in Artists of the Rim, which a group of us founded over four years ago. Still holding our own despite the horrible economy, especially down here in Arizona. Always enjoy your newsletters and words of wisdom

I have a very uplifting experience since January I have sold a total of 12 paintings, I have a habit of saying my prayers. I have been adding a request to sell my paintings. Today I have an appointment to firm up a commission, this is number13. Of course the gratitude is very helpful!!! I have even had 3 sell at once to the same lady.

Donna Lee, I guess God was so busy answering your prayers about getting your art sold that he completely missed the disaster in Japan that resulted in the horrific death of thousands of innocent children and so many others.

In this letter you assumed that artists are men and ,”their wives and girl friends” are sitting beside them. Mistake, big mistake, huge. I like receiving your email letters …anyway.

Your comments suggest that gallery staff are young. Correct! They are not hiring many 50-plus sales people. Younger people are often cheaper. Also, that’s true about the solo artist gallery here, with the wife or girlfriend. The female solo artist gallery is often just closed when she has other chores, because she doesn’t have the support of a partner, usually. Guess who hates sitting in galleries to keep them open? Artists, of course! When they don’t get the “action” many artists then blame the gallery.

Nice that god smiled on Donna Lee, isn’t it? I wonder if he smiles on all of us artists equally?

Here in Lunenburg County we once advertised ourselves as the “art centre of Nova Scotia.” In 1995 there was a Lunenburg Art Gallery Association with 23 members. Now there are three “art galleries” in town and two are “one-person” places.

To Donna Lee: congratulations and well done! I always feel that when one artist succeeds, we all succeed. Thanks for sharing your good fortune.

Good morning Robert Ah…Santa Fe…the proverbial diamond in the rough…after reading your article, the icing on the cake was the “Esoterica”….the facade of the “city different”…did indeed work its magic on you as it does most tourists…a stroll up Canyon Road…where high priced art abounds…”Kalopsia” is knee deep…and the only redeeming establishment serves Spanish Tapas…and wonderful beer on a Sunday afternoon…much like the obligatory visit to Fisherman’s Wharf while in San Francisco…Canyon Road is and has been like a Nehru Jacket…while the Rail yard best expresses the pulse of art in Santa Fe…I live in Albuquerque and though Santa Fe has the limelight…the high prices…gallery atmosphere…exorbitant rents and a massive selection of questionable art…the real undiscovered gems are abundant here in the shadows…Thank you…

Yes, they certainly are a friendly bunch of dealers in Santa Fe, and a lot of the art is not questionable at all, but of excellent quality.

In Baltimore if you want to sell to the best collectors, you have to take your work to New York. Local collectors only invest in “accredited” pieces. Once upon a time, the Baltimore Museum of Art had a sales and rental gallery in it’s lower floor and I was able to get into a major collection through it. That was probably seen as the last legitimate place for a true collector to buy here.

Serious collectors follow wealth and real estate. Here in New York the Bankers and Brokers are still big buyers. Go figure.

I just sent your letter to some of my former classmates (friends and fellow artists). One lives in Taos and has been successful, the other lives in the Chicago area and is doing well and then there is me…dying on the vine in Naples (NOT very artist friendly) Florida…sigh.

I live south of Santa Fe and visit Canyon Road regularly where gallery owners claim that the market ticks up when the stock market rises. I was also in Scottsdale over the New Year. The latter was far more depressed as far as I could see (I was staying with a former gallery owner who closed her gallery in the recession).

I was in Santa Fe this week also, and spent a part of the 25th walking around to galleries. If I knew what you look like, I might have seen you and introduced myself. I think it is unlikely though, because of the 6 or 7 galleries I visited that day, only one of them had any customers inside. Taos seemed even worse.

There is a great deal of rationalization of the “Gallery System” going on all over the world right now. Some areas are in a modestly steady decline, others are in free fall. As usual, a few individual dealers with chutzpa make it look like a thriving business. A lot of the changes taking place have to do with the internet and the growing power of networking. This has brought on a new honesty and integrity in the gallery world. Just as millions of democratically-inspired young Arabs are rebelling against their oppressors and dictators, and need to be encouraged, so too are artists and collectors now empowering each other.

I am a 20 plus year resident of Arizona, Having lived in Cave Creek and North Scottsdale most of that time. I have have been lucky enough to have earned a very good living as a full time professional artist for most of those years, being an independent / self representing artist, though I did occasionally show in galleries in Scottsdale and Sedona. In all those years, including the 1990’s bust of Bank / Savings & Loan, and attendant Real Estate scandals… where nearly every single AZ bank went bust and was taken over by the Feds Resolution Trust Corp. when real estate crashed both in housing AND commercial, and remained dead in the water for more than 5 years, while the galleries folded all over town. ( Many artists lost work to court appointed lease default / bankruptcy receivers with the inventory of works consigned considered to be “property owed in kind” to the lessors or to the dishonest “gallerists” who absconded with their artworks across state lines )…. I can tell you point blank, with VERY few exceptions that the Galleries in Scottsdale are in worse shape NOW, than they ever were… and our economy is much worse than stagnant…. with housing prices fallen nearly 64 % , back to about 1995 valuations in many locations of Maricopa County. As for the Fifth Avenue / Marshall Way Arts district, where once there were many good Contemporary Galleries, there are but a few left, and most of them are long term Dealers who sell National and International Artists from everywhere, to everywhere on the globe, with several dozen prime gallery spaces pad locked and vacant for 3+ years now and NO real traffic to speak of at the height of the Tourist Season…( I was there just 2 weeks ago and toured the dismal scene extensively ) What you’ll see in most Scottsdale Galleries on Main Street is purely tourist / decorator oriented “Cowboy Art” mostly representational “Western / Native American art”, and the aforementioned “Russian Academic Impressionism”….all of it still vastly overpriced in the few shops still functioning. These are primarily COMMERCIAL hard sell..close the sale… “flavor of the month” type places with little to no REAL Fine Art knowledge or conviction about what they show or sell….It’s a REAL MESS folks!

Its been years since I’ve been in New Mexico, but I remember walking down the legendary Pecos Trail going in and out of galleries. You don’t have to die to go to heaven, just go to Santa Fe. Thanks for the memory

Thanks for needling me Robert. Not that I meant for everybody to do it but since you mention it, it may be not such a bad idea as there’ll always be something leftover for a Cézanne for the very rich and a Robert Glenn for the less financially privileged. In that proposed manner the hunger for the arts will be gratified 3-ways: for the young or the mature artist and the buyer and dilettante and even the middleman.

And in seeing in retrospect your pencil sketches I buy these also. Usually they’re very affordable when sold as separate art. Of course there’re few artists today that have such advanced studies to offer since the advent of Expressionism.

Artists all over this country have storehouses full of new work and nowhere to sell it. I for one could stop painting tomorrow and have enough work to supply a gallery for a year. When you paint every day, this seems to be a problem. I’ve taken to removing canvases from stretchers and storing them for a time when things get better, which doesn’t seem to be real soon. What I feel everyone seems to be missing is galleries don’t sell “great “work, they sell what sells. Also there are several strata in “quality” galleries and works and artists thought to be “quality”. Contemporary art is the big mover and shaker today. This is what is in the eye of the storm today, contemporary galleries not traditional art galleries. Much art today has no context. At the turn of the first century when America was expanding west, landscape became king. People had never seen the land being newly discovery and were enthralled. Also America was expanding and trying to find its identity and uniqueness as a new nation. Some were getting rich quick in manufacturing, industry, railroads. They had money to burn then, especially with no taxes to speak of. These movers and shakers wanted to show their wealth by building huge homes and of course they had to fill them with furniture and Art. At first they bought European art or classical art because there was virtually no “American” art. American artists even trained in Europe. You couldn’t get arrested as an artist without having studied in Europe. When they returned they painted this new land. The landscapes they painted then had context. A reason, so to speak, for being painted. This continued through the thirties and forties. Things changed in the fifties after the War. Prosperity made more wealth for average people and our attention shifted to commercial goods, diversion, movies became the big thing, photography took a big chunk out of art making. Galleries sold photos of landscapes for those to buy for much less. Art became an item for the rich and not the common man. Needless to say there are more of us than them. And they already had all the “good” art. So Art became “common”, down to earth, made less well by lesser artists or artists with questionable training, weekend painters. Artist didn’t have to acquire a European pedigree any longer. Anyone could paint with a few lessons and the prices were made more affordable. To make this already long story shorter, Art made today has less worth and is made lesser by the fact that many buyers think anyone can do it and yes even sell it. The idea that there is “quality” art has to be manufactured in the minds of the buyers because no one can really tell you with any certainty- what good art is anymore. There is technically good work, well painted art, but art today has no context. It is just painted to fill a gap in one’s life, a diversion from retirement, release from the routine of work or the children. It’s fun to paint regardless of its quality or meaning. The idea of art has lost its seriousness, it meaning. We fill canvases and have galleries sell things that no one really has any connection to. We make pretty pictures for no apparent reason because we are “artists”. And we wonder why no one cares enough to pay $100.00 for it. I love the idea that more and more people appreciate painting and attempt to do it, but selling it is another matter. Art making is an industry, somewhat insular and egocentric and so much more is unknown about why art sells and who sells it and to whom it gets sold. It has little to do with “quality” or even pedigree any longer and has little or no context.

Many galleries are thriving. It all depends on the owners, how hard they work and how they access modern media. Passion pays.