John Smith
Thoughts From My Studio The MARKET PROBLEMS and Possible SOLUTIONS Identifying and listing problems is so much easier than finding and convincing others to embrace solutions. In the August ‘THOUGHTS’ I tried to present an overview of what the current Arts Industry and Visual Arts Market in South Africa looks like. (I had the most wonderful response to that article for which I thank you the readers) Those responses showed the extent of the concern and interest relating to the current situation and presented a few interesting additional issues. There is always difficulty in writing articles such as ‘THOUGHTS’ in that there tends to be more than a suggestion of generalising, (touché Gail?) but because of available space, time and lack of provable statistics, this is the best one can do in the circumstances. So yes there are places, individuals and businesses that do not conform to the image that was presented and I acknowledge that. However after so many years in the business I am convinced that the picture painted is reasonably accurate. (One reader, a well known S.A. artist felt that I was in fact too generous and optimistic when describing the extent and future of the Art Market here) That may well be so. However, generally the e-mails I received were a little pessimistic but we need to take in to consideration a number of things among which are transformation, the economic climate, and generally a lack of professionalism in the Industry. The previous article (August) paints a broad picture of the market and the problems we have to negotiate, but now we need to be a bit more specific and also try and present possible ways of solving those problems and clearing the log-jams as it were. Problem 1: Fair Business Practices This is an important problem which is one of the root causes why more career artists are not entering into the market. Some compromise or alternative needs to be found but frankly I do not have an answer. Obviously for the artists the ideal solution would be that, like in most business, artworks (stock) should be bought cash. The time and terms of payment, or other alternative solutions, can and should be negotiated. I remember well in the mid 80’s when this Consignment way of doing business started taking hold, how we tried to resist it. I don’t know if it can be called progress but the Interior Decorators had arrived on the scene and they were far more concerned with ‘choice and decoration’ than quality. What was then left to the professional or career artist with exceptional skill or a proven track record, was to either bend your knee or be replaced by amateur or less well known artists. We eventually gave in one by (unhappy) one. Most of us then believed that it was just a temporary thing and that in time we would revert back to the galleries buying the work and stability returning to the market. Nearly 30 years later, if anything it is worse than ever and with new artists believing it is ‘the way it’s always been’ and is the only way. Well it isn’t, and I do think that negotiation and agreement has to be reached or the industry will always be unstable and with fewer excellent artists coming into the market as full time professionals. Even now the industry presents as a sort of semi-professional thing with a large section being far below par as far as quality goes, with little incentive to become professional or improve standards. Is this a major concern or not, or is it only me and one or two others that cares about this situation? What is the solution? I’m not sure, but I do think that we all need to apply our minds to it and talk about it if we want things to improve and so grow a healthy market and industry. I am certain that it will not go away without that happening. I know of a few artists who have great talent and will probably never maximise that talent because they will not go in to art full time while this instability and insecurity exists. That is a great shame and we are all losing out because of it. A compromise can and must be found. While some galleries do not have the trust and ability to back their own judgement by investing in artists, those artists will in turn not trust the galleries or the market to commit to it fully. Is that a good and healthy situation? The issue of cash paying ‘dealers’ should be an answer to an artist’s dream, but in fact that dream is in most cases short lived. The reason being although the artists often sell all or most of what they produce to the dealer they are paid a fraction of what the work is really worth. In some cases they receive a fifth or less of the retail price. This results in artists having to rely on quantity of work rather than quality of thought and so exchanging creativity for a formula or template. Mass production is the result. Although this may suit some painters or sculptors it in fact destroys the soul of many a creative artist. The work becomes ‘slick’ from repetition and the untrained eye may see this as clever, but in most cases the work is tired and the artist seldom tries to come up with new ideas and the connection they felt with the source material or subject matter in the beginning becomes a daily dirge. Going through the motions almost like an operator on a conveyer belt. The only excitement emerging when the paymaster arrives with his/her bag of money and taking away the month’s production. A moment of exhilaration and then the whole process carries on, and on, over and over… There is no doubt that this is professional painting/sculpting, and some of it includes some very clever manipulations of paint and technique but can one really consider it art or creative art? What results here then is some very clever ‘Marketing’ and more than a bit in the way of ‘smoke and mirrors’ posing as marketing too? Here we have to ask who is to blame for this sad situation. The dealers and their perceived good intentions or disguised avarice? The galleries who perhaps unknowingly drive the artists into the arms of the dealers? The artists themselves who are often desperate or in some cases just greedy for money. They like anyone else like nice things, have families and bills to pay and often have large egos. The consignment system must take a large slice of the blame and makes it an absolute nightmare for the artists, putting them totally in someone else’s hands and waiting anxiously to get the nod. It can take literally months to get your money for the work you have completed and PAID for. Artists do not get any of their materials on consignment, and in most cases because of the precariousness of their income they are not even able to attract loans, overdrafts or hire-purchase. Can they be blamed for grabbing some kind of security where they can get it? Even if that so-called security destroys the very essence of what brought them into art in the first place? Their options are so very unpalatable. Other than the proceeding reasons can we not blame the largely art ignorant and culturally lazy public for not being better informed when acquiring art? After some reflection I feel we are all to blame and it is a sad indictment on all of us for allowing this untenable situation to come about. No sane businessman would go into the business of art or any business where the return on your investment is often 10% or lower p.a. No Gallery or dealer would work under those conditions. Problem 2: Short Sighted Problem 3: Attracting People I was privileged to speak to some of the really successful agents and they were the ones that tried to see as many people as they could and actually liked their customers and talking to them. (I have often wondered why businesses that employ these personalities who are so hugely successful, then inevitably move them to a desk job. Is it that they believe they will inspire those under them. Seldom works does it?) I have spoken in the past to people selling other things such as cars, property and even shoes, and those who are hugely successful all say the same thing. To sell stuff you need a through-flow of people! The more people of the right kind the more you sell. To me it would follow then that the same would apply to artists and more especially to galleries. It may sound a bit mercenary to some but it would be a simple matter for a gallery to keep a record of how many people visit the establishment, and how many paintings sold during that time. The gallery would need to devise a strategy to bring through more people and see if the sales went up accordingly. Over a period of time some kind of pattern should emerge and the gallery would know the kind of numbers they would need to meet their targets. Last month I talked about the ‘Shotgun method’ against the ‘Laser method.’ Most galleries, and not letting the artists off the hook, use the Shotgun method and have no clue as to how many works they want to or should sell, or what it takes to achieve that target. That is mainly because they have no targets. What other business could survive like that? Very little is done, (again this applies to artists and galleries, the artists often believing that they are some kind of superior beings who’s only role is to churn out little gems,) to identify a particular market (Laser) and then come up with devices to bring people/buyers to the galleries or get them to see a particular artists work. If you apply your mind to it there are many ways of identifying your potential market and also for bringing those people/buyers to the gallery and to view artists work. Each idea will bring in a different crowd. It will take a bit of experimentation to see what works for you. Not trying at all achieves nothing. Artists need to be ready to give up some of their time and expertise to assist those galleries that represent them, because if people do not know who you are you are certainly not going to reach the top. I have at times offered my services free of charge to galleries to come out of an evening and talk to their clients about my work, or art generally, or answer questions that people may want answered. Never once has a gallery taken me up on my offer. PROBLEM 4: Presentation. If you present yourself as an Art Gallery and then have so much other stuff for sale as well you lose your identity to a point where you are not taken seriously any longer as a purveyor of serious art, you will start to lose your art collector/ customers as well as your better artists. This needs to be considered. With artists, pretty much the same applies. If you diversify too much or the work seems to be little more than a formula which is being mass produced you lose your status as an Artist and so your regular/more serious customers and so become merely a decorator. How you present yourself needs to be considered carefully. Many galleries present more as shops than as Galleries and here I think some advice from one of the cleverest Gallerists I have known, one Gerrit van Niekerk, who said that “You must never reveal too much of the gallery to the people outside, but must give them an alluring taste of what they are missing by not going inside” He spent a great deal of effort and creativity setting up his window displays, which were generally simple but very tasteful and very compulsive. Other than that you could see nothing of what was within. He also had a little ‘trick’ he played with prospective customers when they were in his gallery, where he put a painting (any painting) on a very beautiful easel set up in a corner. After a bit he would approach the person browsing and ask them what they thought of the painting on display. He would say something such as “Don’t you think that this is quite the loveliest painting ever?” The person would generally look at it and say “Yes it’s Ok”, or “No, I really don’t like it” He would then say”Oh, and which do you prefer?” In most cases they would enthusiastically lead him to a painting or sculpture of their choice and he would enthusiastically support them in their preference. They seldom left without buying the art-piece they had taken him to. He was hugely successful and never stopped thinking and innovating. There are many stories about him and others like him. I think the Galleries need to often ask themselves why people would come into their galleries and why they would spend money on their displayed art. Artists too need to ask the question why people would spend what amounts to a lot of money (Often the equivalent of many fridges) on their creations. Would ‘they’ in fact be prepared to spend that on ‘their’ work? Time and space is up and I have gone beyond my self-imposed limit. These last two have been long articles and I have felt that although I have only touched the surface of the Art Market and the Art Industry and the problems associated with them, and a few of the things we can/need to do to fix them have needed to be aired. When I was preparing to write this article I jotted down thirty problems in the market and possible solutions. We have touched on four! Perhaps if you have the interest and the Visual Arts industry at heart, you will make a list of how you see the market, the problems and your ideas of how we can go about solving them? Take the time while you are about it to jot down all the many ‘good’ things about being in the Arts Industry too. There are many, and if they didn’t exist we would not be writing or reading this article. The biggest positive of all is that we EXIST! That is not enough though and it is up to us in the industry to tirelessly improve things. WE will be the beneficiaries. What do you think? Till next month.... |
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