THE ARTIST
Any buyer interested in collecting a certain artist's work will tell you they prefer to meet the artist. I don't believe it does any good. After all, the work is what buyers are after. The work must speak for itself; the object must communicate that blissful liberation that ever masterpiece conveys. Whether the artist is polite, polished, or tortured, after the cocktails are over, you are living with the purchase you made, not the artist...Kinda sounds like an Abstinence program.
Note to the artist:
The dreaded words "My new work is going to be my best". The artist must have faith in order to continue to develop his or her personal vision, but you don't, and neither does the art market. A piece of advice I could give to an artist is be absolutely confident in your work and have a clear direction for your future work (granted its always relative to change) before you try to make your debut. Once you've graced the art world with your presence by jumping the gun too early - your future work will not be taken seriously.
THE ART CRITIC
It is a challenge to understand why these sophisticated people no longer influence the prices of art in the marketplace. In the Forties, Fifties, and early Sixties, a review by the great (and despised) Clement Greenberg could make or break an artist's show; today, no critic has that power. Reading art criticism is like reading Rotten Tomatoes. Yes, people read those reviews, but if the movie got a bad rating people will still go see it. Even though art critics may seem outdated and unnecessary this information will ultimately save you money - they're experts for a reason. They highlight market hype and derivative copycatting, and potentially alerting you to work that is passe.
The influence of Clement Greenberg has possibly affected the work of artists today. If it wasn't for Greenberg following Pollock throughout his career - whose reviews put Pollock's success in writing (initially there was no art market during his time - not many people knew or cared about up and coming artists), Pollock's work wouldn't have influenced future artists.
THE ART DEALER
These cats are fascinating people. With egos that are even bigger than some of the artists they represent, art dealers, the good ones, have a gift. It takes balls to open up a pricey retail store that sell things that nobody needs and that nobody wants to buy. Collectors need art dealers. Whether you are a well-known, self-made successful collector at some point in the years you've been collecting you have crossed paths, sought advice, and even used their services to buy that ultimate painting at the ultimate price. Just keep in mind - most dealers will offer a 10% discount on any
primary work, so if you like to negotiate, remember, 15% is the maximum you can realistically expect - but on secondary material, prices should be much more negotiable; the dealer is seeing what he/she can get out of it, so make an offer and wait. Dealers need their relationships in order to keep a good name and gain more clients - so scamming you is not their idea of a good business deal. Results will vary - some may be disappointing - but, note, the success of this deal is just as important to them as it is to you.
Here are a list of prominent dealers:
Marianne Boesky - MB has built one hell of a programme over the last ten years. Her major representation that put her on the map was developing the career of
Lisa Yuskavage.
Bruno Brunnet and Nicole Hackert - Founders of Contemporary Fine Arts in 1992 - here's an extensive list of
artists they represent.
Sadie Coles - In 1992 new paintings by John Currin and an installation by Sarah Lucas were the first exhibitions shown in Sadie Coles' gallery. Soon after opening her gallery, she started "gallery swaps" - a programme of exchanging her exhibits with galleries in other locales all over the world.
Jeffrey Deitch - Seriously the coolest and most annoyingly loud website I've seen - especially for an art dealer. I have this constant image in my head that shows dealers having minimalistic lifestyles. Deitch does not look like he would tolerate the art that he collects, but sure enough he does.
Marcia Fortes - Fortes started working as an art critic and correspondent for
Jornal do Brasil along with other art magazines including
friez after graduating from New York University. In 2001 she founded Fortez Vilaca with her partner Alessandra d'Aloia. She is known for representing Brazilian artists like Ernesto Neto and Beatriz Milhazes.
There are so many dealers I would love to mention, but I still have four more players to name.
THE ART CONSULTANT
For awhile I believed dealers and consultants had the same job description, but I was wrong. Who are these people? From what I gather, an art consultant is simply the middle man. They have ties to many of the seven heavy hitters in the art market. They consult collectors on what to watch for, when to buy, and even help sell the work you've collected. Consultants touch base with art dealers, other collectors, galleries, museums, and lawyers. They make a collectors profile - they are usually very personable and in order to do their job right they need to know the type of person they're buying for.
Anyone willing to spend ungodly amounts of money for a piece of art is probably a control freak, so the consultant has a pretty difficult job ahead of them. They are hired for their knowledge of the art market and to know the wants and needs of the clients they are representing. I think of a wedding planner when I think of an art consultant. They are hired because they are good at what they do, the amount of money one might spend using a wedding planner might actually save them money if they tried to do it themselves, and so on and so forth. They may not be a necessity, but if you are going to spend tons of money and you have know idea what you're spending it on, art consultants are the smart way to go.
THE COLLECTOR
I know a couple of art collectors, and I think I am one of the lucky ones. The collectors I know are incredibly wealthy, incredibly smart, and incredibly humble. You usually don't get the chance to see all three characteristics in one person let alone two. I aspire to be an art dealer, or consultant, or adviser depending on what I can get and what I end up loving. Even though I have been extremely lucky to know these collectors, I also know that I need to meet a nasty collector in order to get a sense of what most of them are like out there. BUT the truly great collectors don't make it their goal to just make money; they want to live with major masterpieces - if you're ever up against a nasty art collector just try to remember this.
THE AUCTION HOUSE EXPERT
Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips sound a look glamorous, but the reality is that they are struggling and competing with each other and with all the dealers...This was news to me too. I
did think it would be a glamorous job - working in an auction house handling and dealing beautiful pieces of work - but I guess in retrospect auction houses
are struggling. The auction houses obtain many of their prize works for sale by giving the sellers a "guarantee". Often works that are priced over $1 million will be guaranteed by the auction house for the low end of the estimate. This means that works that are priced $1 million to $1.5 million the sellers have already received a check for the low estimate from the auction house, and will probably receive only a small portion of the gain over the guaranteed figure.
Not so glamorous in the grand scheme of things. These experts need to have an extensive knowledge of the buyer's market or they're in deep shit.
THE MUSEUM PROFESSIONAL: DIRECTORS & CURATORS
I am currently working for a museum in Ohio. I am going to leave out the name because I am going to be talking about some pretty shady stuff. The museum is going in a downward spiral. Our director and associate director were hired about a year ago. The Director used to run a theatre and the Associate Director ran a small gallery that only represented community artists. The museum is in a substantial amount of debt, there is a lack of funding and a serious lack of museum ethics. The wealthy families that supported the museum have stopped giving money; one of the reasons being the museum stopped caring about the art and are now spending the money they receive on events and parties - events and parties that members only go to, probably because they get in for free or have a major discount. OVERALL, this is a shitty example for a museum.
Concerning the art market, are these the type of people that are aware of the art market today? Are they purely academic? I don't have a great answer for these questions. I do know that curators are academic, but along with this level of academia they also have a broad knowledge of the art market - they need to. To prevent questionable museum ethics, curators need to know what's selling and why. If a museum secretly started collecting certain artists for a future show "not knowing" that they were playing a big role in the art market, the museum could have a major portion of a superstar artist's collection that could potentially sell for big bucks in an auction if they decided to sell. They would become a commercial business and lose their non-profit institution status.
Collecting Contemporary. Adam Lindemann
