At the end of every month there is the moment of truth. Can I cover the bills. Who do I have to call and ask for a bit of time. Which clients have not kept their promises. Which wagers did I make which paid out, and which did not.
This ever repeating cycle seems to be the religious mantra of the art world. As galleries open and close it remains a mystery how this works. Better said, the question is why it sometimes works and other times it does not.
The very simple answer is that the gallery that sells enough art to cover its expenses will remain. This is, in fact true. The events that lead up to this are much more curious.
We, the gallerists, are the pirates of the art world. We are admired by some, dreaded by others. We live a swash buckling life of swilling champagne and jetting throughout the known world offering our wares to the highest bidder and gather our wares at the lowest price. We hide our stash so no one will know what we have because we don’t trust much of anyone.
This is a hard world, a place of backstabbing and intrigue. We are jealous. We are… sellers of new and used wares that retain the cultural heritage of our society. We are the ones who bought Picasso when he was uninteresting. We save the pre christ relics of an ancient brand of monk in our home to remind ourselves that they once existed. We present the memorials to those those who’s only shot at immortality is to be saved in the discoloured silver of a photographic print.
All this romanticism, all of these merry stories are of course examples of my ability to make a point. I am selling you an ideal. And by saying this I am giving that away. Curse my wooden leg!
If I sell enough pictures then I keep my ship afloat. Sell enough pictures…
This is the part that becomes challenging. If I believe in what I see, and I endorse it, then I will find myself at paar or ahead of my audience. We, the gallerists, are the bridge between the artists and the clients. We are the free museums of the city where the show is as fresh and new as can be. We can show you whatever we choose however we choose based on our personal opinion of what we deem to be great. And we can err. It is our pleasure to do so. But by embracing that which the audience does not know we are traveling in a storm at high sea. Most will not embrace the new as we are trained to trust what we know, not what we don’t. But if I show the audience what I know, then I am only serving the vanities of my audience and by doing so am not fulfilling one of my most important jobs. So how should I chose between my passion and my requirement. I don’t know.
Maybe I need more daring clients, maybe I need more mainstream material, maybe I need both.
It works if people buy pictures.
It works if people buy pictures. That is the bottom line. So, actually, it does come down to that very simple truth. That’s what’s in the pudding.
