4 ms·

This is a fascinating article. But what I'd like to know about is the effect of this activity on the other side of the table: the modern artists who produce the

by wyclif 9y ago

This is a fascinating article. But what I'd like to know about is the effect of this activity on the other side of the table: the modern artists who produce the works the rich purchase and auction. How does one become a top modern artist? (I'm thinking primarily of painters and sculptors).

usrusr 9y ago
Be interesting to the key galerists who define the first hand market. Outdo your peers in skill, aesthetics, novelty, materials, scandal. Ideally in all five of them, but exceptions happen. Then get very, very lucky. Edit: oh, and keep in mind that few pieces that later became coveted collector items already commanded a high price on the initial sale.
- sedachv 9y ago
  > Outdo your peers in skill, aesthetics, novelty, materials, scandal. Fortunately this part is completely optional. There are many very successful conceptual artists with terrible ideas and a complete lack of technical skills (you can tell by looking at their early work). All the hard work of material, skill, and aesthetics gets done by studio assistants.
jazzkingrt 9y ago
This was posted on HN recently and does a good job with your question: https://qz.com/103091/high-end-art-is-one-of-the-most-manipulated-markets-in-the-world/ https://qz.com/103091/high-end-art-is-one-of-the-most-manipu...
- watwut 9y ago
  I dont really buy premise that art is supposed to look pleasant on the wall and have uplifting message (opening in the essence). To the extend it is, it is pretty easy to find very good looking unique paintings for reasonable price.
holdenc 9y ago
How to be top modern artist: 1) Move to NYC, get a job working for a near blue-chip artist. Look for one with the fewest assistants. Accept $20 an hour. 2) Go to art openings, sign your name in every gallery guest book and attend every after-party. 3) Have a studio, and get your friends, employer and his gallery contacts to visit 4) Start showing your work, or repeat steps 2 and 3 until someone shows your work. 5) The ball is now, rolling. To add some momentum do the following: - Curate a summer show at a gallery somewhere - Upgrade your studio to someplace people like to visit. (Dark wood floors, on the waterfront in Red Hook, Brooklyn perhaps) Throw good parties. - Grow a lumberjack beard. Or, only shop at comme des garcons. Or thrift-store jeans and a white T, for all occasions. 6) Make friends with writers and critics. (Their needs are human, just like yours) 7) Get shown, written about, and finally get collected. 8) Now...this is the part where most artists discover how life as a successful artist is actually appalling. You'll need to socialize with and be popular among some very wealthy, but ultimately superficial people who treat you and your art as a certificate of their cultural sophistication. 9) If you have made it this far, and still want to continue, you probably have what is takes to be a successful modern artist whose work will appear at auction in a few years. Just keep in mind -- you'll receive none of those auction proceeds, and there's no promise you'll every go to auction again.
- unknown_apostle 9y ago
  During all of the above, to become a top modern artist: say and do stuff that is very disturbing or controversial to the plebes, but avoid real controversy at all cost when it comes to your art friends. However, to be a top future artist: say and do stuff which is super controversial to your art friends. Have an actual vision, be fanatic about it and avoid everyone except those who are truly interested in what you do. You'll probably die penniless even when you're supremely gifted.
- codingdave 9y ago
  Or, to translate all that to HN-speak -- learn an industry, network, do marketing, and cultivate a brand, until some day down the road, your product becomes big, and all your backers take the lion's share of the exit. How is all that any different than what the rest of us do to grow our business? Seems to me like the process of building a business doesn't differ by industry as much as people might think. Now, if we think that art SHOULD be different, that is a completely valid (and possibly more interesting) question.
mozumder 9y ago
The key is to get a gallery to represent you. And not just any gallery, but one of the few hundred around the world with any influence - the kind that would have a booth at Art Basel or some of the other major art fairs around the world. But for that to happen, you actually need to be talented and create amazing work, since it's a lot easier for a curator to push for you if you create something that's compelling. If you look at the works in the elite galleries, the artists that are represented by them are much, much better than your everyday artists that you'd see at your local art fair. So, the process is: 1. Create some awesome art. 2. Show it someplace - could be in a local fair or student exhibit or on the internet someplace. 3. Have some people talk about it by sending out press emails. 4. Get a major gallery to notice your work. The good galleries are always on the lookout for new, marketable talent, and if you have some buzz, that helps influence them. 5. Profit.
- TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
  Being amazing or awesome is optional. I spent a while doing the rounds of art fairs in London, and while some of the work is very good, some of it is banal. One conceptual piece: a laser dot on a white wall. Another: a video of a house being floated down a river. Another: a collection of chrome door knobs. I also saw the output of KPT FraxFlame (HN readers of a certain age will remember it) framed and being sold for four figures. I asked the gallery owner if he knew what it was, and he said "Of course." Galleries are essentially marketing machines for items and experiences that don't necessarily have intrinsic non-trivial aesthetic value of any kind.
  - mozumder 9y ago
    The later works can be dull, and if they don't sell, their gallery drops them. But its the initial works that draw them to the gallery in the first place is what needs to be amazing. Artists need to sell to these galleries first before selling to the elite buyers.
  - unknown_apostle 9y ago
    Here's an idea for a (European) art work: collect the subsidy, cash it out in 50 euro notes and put the notes on a pedestal.

by wyclif 9y ago

usrusr 9y ago

Be interesting to the key galerists who define the first hand market. Outdo your peers in skill, aesthetics, novelty, materials, scandal. Ideally in all five of them, but exceptions happen. Then get very, very lucky. Edit: oh, and keep in mind that few pieces that later became coveted collector items already commanded a high price on the initial sale.

sedachv 9y ago
> Outdo your peers in skill, aesthetics, novelty, materials, scandal. Fortunately this part is completely optional. There are many very successful conceptual artists with terrible ideas and a complete lack of technical skills (you can tell by looking at their early work). All the hard work of material, skill, and aesthetics gets done by studio assistants.

jazzkingrt 9y ago

This was posted on HN recently and does a good job with your question: https://qz.com/103091/high-end-art-is-one-of-the-most-manipulated-markets-in-the-world/ https://qz.com/103091/high-end-art-is-one-of-the-most-manipu...

watwut 9y ago
I dont really buy premise that art is supposed to look pleasant on the wall and have uplifting message (opening in the essence). To the extend it is, it is pretty easy to find very good looking unique paintings for reasonable price.

holdenc 9y ago

How to be top modern artist: 1) Move to NYC, get a job working for a near blue-chip artist. Look for one with the fewest assistants. Accept $20 an hour. 2) Go to art openings, sign your name in every gallery guest book and attend every after-party. 3) Have a studio, and get your friends, employer and his gallery contacts to visit 4) Start showing your work, or repeat steps 2 and 3 until someone shows your work. 5) The ball is now, rolling. To add some momentum do the following: - Curate a summer show at a gallery somewhere - Upgrade your studio to someplace people like to visit. (Dark wood floors, on the waterfront in Red Hook, Brooklyn perhaps) Throw good parties. - Grow a lumberjack beard. Or, only shop at comme des garcons. Or thrift-store jeans and a white T, for all occasions. 6) Make friends with writers and critics. (Their needs are human, just like yours) 7) Get shown, written about, and finally get collected. 8) Now...this is the part where most artists discover how life as a successful artist is actually appalling. You'll need to socialize with and be popular among some very wealthy, but ultimately superficial people who treat you and your art as a certificate of their cultural sophistication. 9) If you have made it this far, and still want to continue, you probably have what is takes to be a successful modern artist whose work will appear at auction in a few years. Just keep in mind -- you'll receive none of those auction proceeds, and there's no promise you'll every go to auction again.

unknown_apostle 9y ago
During all of the above, to become a top modern artist: say and do stuff that is very disturbing or controversial to the plebes, but avoid real controversy at all cost when it comes to your art friends. However, to be a top future artist: say and do stuff which is super controversial to your art friends. Have an actual vision, be fanatic about it and avoid everyone except those who are truly interested in what you do. You'll probably die penniless even when you're supremely gifted.
codingdave 9y ago
Or, to translate all that to HN-speak -- learn an industry, network, do marketing, and cultivate a brand, until some day down the road, your product becomes big, and all your backers take the lion's share of the exit. How is all that any different than what the rest of us do to grow our business? Seems to me like the process of building a business doesn't differ by industry as much as people might think. Now, if we think that art SHOULD be different, that is a completely valid (and possibly more interesting) question.

mozumder 9y ago

The key is to get a gallery to represent you. And not just any gallery, but one of the few hundred around the world with any influence - the kind that would have a booth at Art Basel or some of the other major art fairs around the world. But for that to happen, you actually need to be talented and create amazing work, since it's a lot easier for a curator to push for you if you create something that's compelling. If you look at the works in the elite galleries, the artists that are represented by them are much, much better than your everyday artists that you'd see at your local art fair. So, the process is: 1. Create some awesome art. 2. Show it someplace - could be in a local fair or student exhibit or on the internet someplace. 3. Have some people talk about it by sending out press emails. 4. Get a major gallery to notice your work. The good galleries are always on the lookout for new, marketable talent, and if you have some buzz, that helps influence them. 5. Profit.

TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
Being amazing or awesome is optional. I spent a while doing the rounds of art fairs in London, and while some of the work is very good, some of it is banal. One conceptual piece: a laser dot on a white wall. Another: a video of a house being floated down a river. Another: a collection of chrome door knobs. I also saw the output of KPT FraxFlame (HN readers of a certain age will remember it) framed and being sold for four figures. I asked the gallery owner if he knew what it was, and he said "Of course." Galleries are essentially marketing machines for items and experiences that don't necessarily have intrinsic non-trivial aesthetic value of any kind.
- mozumder 9y ago
  The later works can be dull, and if they don't sell, their gallery drops them. But its the initial works that draw them to the gallery in the first place is what needs to be amazing. Artists need to sell to these galleries first before selling to the elite buyers.
- unknown_apostle 9y ago
  Here's an idea for a (European) art work: collect the subsidy, cash it out in 50 euro notes and put the notes on a pedestal.