Notes on: FRED MANN talk at Derby University on ‘how to approach a London gallery to be represented, in order to get noticed in the Art World’. 19th October 2011
What TO do
- Have a website and email which includes your name and what you do. Buy the domain name and use it forever.
- Have a simple clear website with:
- a 2 click rule,
- image & contact info on home page,
- most recent work first,
- simple small files,
- no Flash or clever stuff - Document all your work
- Describe your work using the standard documentation system:
- Title In Italics With Mixed Case Sans Serif Typeface,
- Year Made,
- what its made of/type of photo/film format/still of film,
- dimensions, Height x Width x Depth,
- edition of/artists proofs/video duration - Artists Statement – don’t. The work should speak for itself. Better to have a review by someone else, (especially if they are well known artist in their own right!).
- There is a higherarchy of galleries, some will only take famous ones, others will take recent graduates, some will take unknowns
- Choose galleries that fit your criteria, taking into account where you are in your career, what sort of work you do, which demographic you belong to.
- Take an interest in them first, go to their private views, compliment the curator on their choice of works, write in their visitors book, attend regularly, be on their email list, (I think Buy from them, they will definitely remember you then!). Once they know who you are and like you, (chat to them get a rapport going), then ask if they would like to see your work.
- Go to see all the major current shows, so you can talk to curators about them, be knowledgeable and sound interesting.
- Never talk to a gallery owner when they are at an Art Fair, they are busy trying to recoup their money.
- Never follow up with a phone call, as this is seen as nagging. If they like you they will contact you, if they don’t they will ignore you.
- Get exhibited at the newcomers shows, like New Contemporaries, East, Open Submissions (find some here I think), Jerwood Foundation.
- Do Art Angel, or an Art Residence.
- meet student curators and get to know them
- If you get into a gallery, always sign a consignment form stating how long they will keep the work, how much they will charge, how much discount they can offer, their commission
- The gallery should pay to collect and return your work, and frame it, they can then take these costs off the sales revenue of your work (presumably before taking the commission)
- The art world uses Macs
What NOT to do
- Never hire a gallery to show your work, critics don’t go to galleries for hire, they will only see something that has been preselected by a curator
- Never pay for a private view, the gallery should do this, if they are not paying for it then they will not be trying to sell your work
- Never accept less than 50% commission, that is the standard rate
Questions I asked
- Will the gallery price the work for you? – Yes
- Some artists sell their work at private exhibitions, from their studio, and from a range of different galleries as well as being represented by a gallery… No they don’t, never heard of it, if I represent someone they sell through me and me only
- What can an artist do with the paintings that don’t sell, a gallery may ask them to produce new work for an exhibition each year, an artist may end up with lots of paintings that they have moved on from, if its old work where can you sell it – art never goes out of date, an artist must never sell their own work behind the back of the gallery
Questions I wanted to ask
- I think there is the world of the London Gallery Fine Art Represented Artist (that sells work for lots of money), and another world of the artist that sells paintings in a range of local galleries and settings (maybe you’d call them shops that sell pictures) is there any cross over? Could an artist move from one world to another?
- There seems to be a power dynamic where a small clique of “rich, conservative, right wing, art collectors” are the main buyers from Fine Art Galleries whose Artists are chosen by a Curator and celebrated by a Critic. These curators decide which artists will be offered up as ‘The Next Contemporary Artist’ to the critics and then marketed to the Art Collector Buyers as Artists Worth Buying. How does it feel to be the key decision maker in the middle of this?
- Has the Fine Art World seen any major shifts and changes over the past 30 years in how it operates, as for example the Animation Industry has changed beyond recognition in just the last 20 years? (the fine art buyers possibly being a wealthy niche investment market, which hasn’t changed much since the industrial revolution).
- Art buyers who buy ‘difficult pieces’ such as video installations, might give the work to the Tate, for example, in order to increase the value of the artist. Other pieces by that artist, which they own, can then be auctioned off at a later date when their donated work has been public long enough to become well known and critiqued into fame. Is this how it works?
Interesting to ask ourselves, what makes a piece of Fine Art great (sold written about and remembered)? Surely it is not purely the work itself, but a combination of getting represented by the right gallery, getting acknowledged by the right critic and getting bought by the right collector. Alot of this is down to the shear determination of the artist, as well as making work that resonates with the fashion of the time that artist is in. Its not just about ‘making the work’ is it?
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