I just read a great article by Hazel Dooney, a well known artist in the Asia-Pacific area. She talks about traditional art selling venues verses buying art online. I found this align very much with how I feel about selling online and how I see the game changing for artists and their collectors. And it’s a good thing!
“More and more galleries are developing websites. So-called virtual galleries are popping up everywhere online. Some of the dealers behind these efforts are writing about their reasons for getting out of bricks and mortar. They’re not exactly a mystery: gallery profits are falling and the sway they used to hold over artists has been undermined by a younger generation of artists (and musicians and film-makers) savvy enough to use the web to manage and promote their own careers.A gallerist recently wrote on Art News Blog, “Why shouldn’t the internet be profitable for both artists and galleries?” Well, for one thing, the whole point of the web is that it disintermediates – in other words, it makes life tough on the middleman.The gallerist tried to argue that collectors discover artists through visiting galleries – so galleries have a right to any and all sales of artists’ works: “A collector walks through our doors, falls in love with the artist, goes home and Googles the artist and then commissions directly from the artist.” The implication is that it’s the gallery that attracts the collector. What nonsense! Collectors seek out a gallery which represents a particular artist in whom they are interested. The gallery then tries to leverage that specific interest to ‘introduce’ the work of the other artists they represent. That any artist owes a gallery for the development of their career is also a nonsense.”
Yes it is a very good thing. This is good for the artist and the art buyer. By taking out the middle man it is possible to lower the price of art without effecting the artist’s profit. Lower costs make art approachable by more people. Which is also a good thing.
Exactly. I’d love to see a chart or some kind of graph that shows the costs that have been removed from selling direct. Would be interesting to see and I think collectors would enjoy learning about that too to understand why the cost of art is so much more affordable online.