What role should the gallery play in the life of the Artist?
Under cutting costs and prices is part of the Peruvian culture and many people have come up with ingenious ways to cut prices on products and Art is no exception. It is not a Peruvian phenomenon to by pass galleries and sell direct to buyers and this is something some artists unwisely do in many parts of the world. Selling under the table as it were is not new. The reasons for it vary but for the most part it boils down to economics. The buyer wants the work but knows that the gallery tags on a 40% charge and the artist wants to sell the work to buy materials to make more work, and sometimes to eat, and live. There are many dynamics at play here and so lets break them down and look at them.
Sucicide by any other name is still sucicide!
How many Artists todat undermine their own success in the future!
The Gallery functions as a go between for the artist and the public. It is an agent that supports the artist and publicizes the artist. A good gallery works hard to promote its artist's in as many venues as possible. A good gallery maintains a list of buyers and knows what they like and so caters to them, but it also functions as an educational institute for its clientele and informs them of new artists and trends in the arts. Good galleries host regular events and exhibitions of its regular stable of artists and introduces new talent to the market. If a gallery is carrying out all these functions it incurs cost. It must pay out a large portion of its income for advertising, catering, and staff. The physical building of the gallery must be kept up and each exhibit requires numerous people to install and take down. The gallery must pay for utilities, property taxes and upkeep. To do this the gallery must have sales, or be funded in some other way.
The Artist is usually an individual living on the margins. The average artist is a creative individual, who has as a main goal in life to make art. Artist's do not make art for money. It may happen that for a very small percentage of artists that making money is a by-product of their creative process but for the purist this is not paramount. Yet, artists must survive, and so if they can they will sell their precious works at cut-rate prices. Many artist are forced to work at a wide variety of jobs that have little or nothing to do with art to survive. So, it is no wonder when an artist is approached by a gallery patron who expresses interest in a work, but who wants to cut the gallery out of the deal, that the artist acquiesces and sells. The artist in most cases really needs that money! Is the artists at fault? Yes, I think the artists should take some responsibility and share in the culpability of cutting off his or her own head. It is an act that dissolves honor, and integrity.