As someone with particular domain knowledge (I worked in the art world for years and have many professional artist and gallerist friends), I don't I've ever seen an online art sales platform that actually understand the purpose of an art gallery--for both collectors and artists.
Galleries are not simply point of sale vendors for art. They establish a scene, they contextualize the art and the artists, and they make strategic decisions in how to cultivate the careers of their stable of artists via a number of different tactics:
0) By organizing solo shows. It seems silly to say this, but actually putting on shows is a critical element that is missing from these online sales platforms. Shows allow the artist to present a body of work and establish a narrative around it via reviews and and social scenes.
1) Connecting the artist, through sales or even social means, with relevant collectors. Collectors have different status' in the art world, different connections to other art world players, and have particular themes to their collections. By placing art in the right collections, a gallerist can make a significant impact on the career of an artist.
2) By organizing group shows, or using their influence to get their artists into other's group shows, which will then associate their artists with a scene or an institution.
3) Funding! A lot of art is _expensive_ to make. I have friends who have literally calculated how much it costs them per square inch to make a painting and it can be shocking. It is not uncommon for a gallerist to front a large sum of money leading up to a solo show.
Not all galleries will do all--or even any--of these things. However, these are the actions that define a good gallery. A good gallery is invested in an artist, much like a good VC firm is invested in a startup.
If a startup wants to 'disrupt' the art world, I think the first step would be to figure out how you are going to make a business that cultivates an artist's career over the long term and which establishes a real art scene involving both artists and collectors.
If a startup wants to 'disrupt' the art world, I think the first step would be to figure out how you are going to make a business that cultivates an artist's career over the long term and which establishes a real art scene involving both artists and collectors.
As an aside, this view of how to establish a startup and 'disrupt' an industry isn't a very positive one. I hope artinres aren't aiming to take over the existing art market, but instead they want to grow the whole market and bring together new buyers who haven't bought from galleries with artists who want to sell their work.
Whenever a startup's pitch deck includes something like "The global market for this is $X billion, and we want to get 5% of that.", I always wonder why they want to fight the established competition who won't give up their business easily. Competing is hard. If you can find a way to grow the market by 5% instead you'll get the same result for much less effort (still a massive amount of effort though, obviously).
This just seems like a justification of what the art gallery does for the art industry as it exists _now_, perhaps this isn't the best model anyway? I can totally see myself buying a painting from this site if it resonates with me, Im not particularly worried about how the single piece I buy forms a story with other pieces that I'm not going to buy, all I care is what it says in my room. In that regard the single biggest impediment is that I can see myself buying art I want in my home without ever seeing it in person!
Also nothing here says that I represent a viable customer segment either so there's that.
This is a description of what a gallery does now, not a justification for it.
Here is a justification:
I would say that generally selling art is not the goal of artists. Yes, they want to be able to support themselves through making their art, but generally speaking their goals are likely some kind of combination of obsession with their craft and a desire to make it into the art canon and attain mass exposure via museum exhibitions/acquisitions, inclusion in biennales, inclusion in art history/theory texts, etc. Working with a good gallery helps to promote the (artistic) career of the artist and establishes their art as culturally significant.
Ramraj, if you just want it to look good in your room, are you really going to pay several hundred dollars more over time for what you could get a beautiful poster from art.com? This is the challenge all online platforms (not so much galleries) face - people just want something to look good, and that can cost fully framed $120 from art.com. If you're going to spend $400, $1000, $1800, etc you have to care about the artist.
Another really important point I forgot to include is that not all artists are as financially viable as others, yet may still make really great art that is perceived as culturally significant.
Perhaps they make large scale installations that are difficult to sell, perhaps they are performance artists, or perhaps they are simply having a down period in the market.
A good gallery will leverage the sales of their more successful artists to support the production of work by their other artists
No specific numbers, but I have friend who uses thick impasto style with oil paints. At one point he was trying out cheap and expensive oils and had a studio visit with the owner of a major gallery.
The first thing the gallerist did was point out every painting that used the cheap oil paint. Now he exclusively uses Old Holland brand oils. some of which list for 300-500 USD for 225ml.
MKL this is something as an artist or a platform I would make much clearer. You're right that if you look at materials alone its more than folks are willing to pay. Then there is artists time. You could show like based on materials plus time this artist would be getting paid $10/hr. this may help people to justify costs. However its not necessarily the best measurement (some artists are faster, more experienced are faster)
As someone with particular domain knowledge (I worked in the art world for years and have many professional artist and gallerist friends), I don't I've ever seen an online art sales platform that actually understand the purpose of an art gallery--for both collectors and artists.
Galleries are not simply point of sale vendors for art. They establish a scene, they contextualize the art and the artists, and they make strategic decisions in how to cultivate the careers of their stable of artists via a number of different tactics:
0) By organizing solo shows. It seems silly to say this, but actually putting on shows is a critical element that is missing from these online sales platforms. Shows allow the artist to present a body of work and establish a narrative around it via reviews and and social scenes.
1) Connecting the artist, through sales or even social means, with relevant collectors. Collectors have different status' in the art world, different connections to other art world players, and have particular themes to their collections. By placing art in the right collections, a gallerist can make a significant impact on the career of an artist.
2) By organizing group shows, or using their influence to get their artists into other's group shows, which will then associate their artists with a scene or an institution.
3) Funding! A lot of art is _expensive_ to make. I have friends who have literally calculated how much it costs them per square inch to make a painting and it can be shocking. It is not uncommon for a gallerist to front a large sum of money leading up to a solo show.
Not all galleries will do all--or even any--of these things. However, these are the actions that define a good gallery. A good gallery is invested in an artist, much like a good VC firm is invested in a startup.
If a startup wants to 'disrupt' the art world, I think the first step would be to figure out how you are going to make a business that cultivates an artist's career over the long term and which establishes a real art scene involving both artists and collectors.