Marketing Mondays: Demystifying the Art World

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"To me the first rule in the art world is there are no rules in the art world! (If there were I am sure I would not be allowed to be in it! I am a critic simply because I say I am! I have no training in this! I am making it up as I go along. Like you. Like everyone, we're learning on the job, doing the best we can as honestly as possible."--Jerry Saltz*

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I get frequent emails from readers who tell me this column helps them demystify the business of art and the art world in general. I’m glad to hear that; thanks. Certainly the dealers, curators, critics and collectors I’ve talked with and worked with over the years have helped to demystify the art world for me, so I’m happy to pass along whatever wisdom or information I’ve gained.

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Early on it was a revelation to learn dealers were in it for the same reasons as artists. Here's Stephanie Walker, owner of Walker Contemporary in Boston: "We do this because we have to, like artists. There is simply nothing else we can picture ourselves doing. It's certainly not for the money! This is a tough business and if you're not in it for passion, you're not going to make it."

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It was a bigger revelation to realize that dealers also struggle. Back in a previous downturn, one prominent dealer confided that he'd mortgaged his home to be able to keep his gallery running. In November, just after the crash, I was making the rounds in Chelsea and I got an earful: who was downsizing, who was going cyber, who was considering sharing space with another gallery. A number of galleries did close, and those dealers are now consulting privately or running a gallery for someone else.

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"I need a job!" said more than one dealer, meaning, of course, that they needed another job. In this regard, artists have the advantage, as most have always juggled artmaking with the other job. We have learned, by necessity, to do a lot of things.

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Critics are not exempt from the struggle. Here's uber critic and Facebook provocateur Jerry Saltz: "There are only a tiny tiny handful of critics being published at all. And only five or six in the US making their living from art criticsim alone (I am lucky enough to be one of that tiny handful)." And even he teaches and lectures.

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Wonder what an art critic earns? Here's Saltz again: “A review in an art mag. earns a critic $125; an article, $800. The Village Voice now probably pays brilliant critics like C. Viveros-Faune and M[artha] Schwendener around $400 (before taxes). The most well-known critic, if she/he is super lucky makes around $35,000 a year (before taxes). . . . I just wanted you to know that the annoying critics you sometimes hate are as bad off as you are.” *

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So let's stop putting dealers and critics and other art world folks on Mt. Olympus while we tremble before them. Let's consider them as equals instead. As colleagues. Yes they have power, but they don't have jobs without artists and art. Walker again: "I don't understand the reverence artists have for dealers. The relationships I establish with my artists are a true give & take partnership." As for a power imbalance, she says, "If you feel your relationship with a dealer is lopsided, run!"

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In terms of demystifying the art world in a bigger and broader way--i.e. how to find or create a place for yourself in it--I noted a number of books and online resources in a recent post, Useful Reading.

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And of course your frequent comments in these posts help draw back the curtain as well. Here’s my e-buddy Steve Eichenberger telling me about a panel discussion sponsored by an arts council in his area of the Pacific Northwest: “By the end of the presentation I felt I'd learned enough to proceed with confidence in approaching new galleries. It demystified the process, answering all my major questions, so I can now expend less mental angst on worrying about getting into galleries and turn that energy toward sculpting instead. ("It's the work!!") You can read his blog report here.

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As for understanding the curatorial point of view, let me refer you to two posts in this blog (click here first, then here), in which the curator of a regional museum helps demystify the process. As for the more bizarre and byzantine politics of New York curating, click here for Paddy Johnson's Curators on Display in City Arts.
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What has helped demystify your relationship to the art world? Please share what you have found helpful: info, quotes, books, blogs or websites, links--and of course your own experience.

Both images from the Internet

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*On a Facebook thread recently I invited Jerry to write for my blog, since the thread was about critics and artists starting ‘zines and blogs and writing for free. He turned me down in a generous way: “Thank you for the invitation to write for your blog. I wish I could. Feel free to take anything off this FB and use it in anyway you'd like; for free, of course.”