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Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

488 points by bkudria 2y ago

lesostep 2y ago
I cannot stress enough how the whole thing reads as a parody. Like modern Jerome K. Jerome. To be given such slack by your boss where they just allow you to do "whatever whenever", while not doing a lot, and then attribute your successful bout of work evading to your "work culture". And not only that, but learning lessons from it! Learning how you must work more and better, while gradually doing less and less! I especially enjoy the little math&physics section, where he introduces few metaphors that are never explained or used. I really hope that this a parody. It's kinda too sad if it's not.
beltranaceves 2y ago
Some years ago I decided that, at some point in my life, I would try and involve myself with a gallery or museum. As with all things, it depends, but it seems to me that in such places you can find some of the most authentic and driven people out there. And it's probably quite fun to work with them.
- yodon 2y ago
  Artists are like engineers. The types of decisions the two groups make are wildly different, but each group makes decisions for a living and focuses the rest of their time on craftsmanship. Also like engineers, the best make far better decisions, or are far better craftsmen, or both.
- m463 2y ago
  > the most authentic I have found the most authentic folks are the low-key ones that have a booth at an arts festival or some other show. I've been to galleries, and thought the vibe was really un-authentic. maybe I've been to the dysfunctional ones. Maybe that it is that galleries are more about something else than the art, more meta. (and they sold art not like this community gallery) Don't know the reality of museums.
  - lazyasciiart 2y ago
    The small community galleries I know are filled with artists who also have a booth at the local arts festivals - and they definitely sell art!
  - jonathanstrange 2y ago
    I don't get what you're trying to say. Most art galleries are businesses. They exhibits artists and artworks that sell. There is nothing un-authentic or dysfunctional about it; to put it more precisely, dysfunctional art galleries won't last very long, just like any other business that offers products that aren't in demand and don't attract buyers. Are you saying that galleries usually don't last very long and tend to be commercial failures?
    - m463 2y ago
      I'm saying: Talking to a guy in an arts festival booth, the conversation is usually about the art. Talking to a guy in a gallery (in the US, that sells art for other people), the conversation is usually about me (sizing up a sales prospect). Note that galleries I'm talking about are for-profit - selling people's artwork and paying the rent. If you do talk to the artist, it is some artist-attends gathering and there are a lot of other people talking to the frazzled artist too. the gallery in the article seems different, it is a community coop and might have a different dynamic.
- space_oddity 2y ago
  People there not just working for financial gain but for the preservation and promotion of something meaningful (I mean in most cases)
grammarxcore 2y ago
I refuse to believe that not answering every single email within an hour is a good predictor of anything other than being glued to your phone. I think extending it to a reasonable amount of time, maybe a business day max, works out pretty well. Sometimes people respond really fast because they’re taking regular breaks and other times they don’t respond all evening because they’re putting on their kid’s birthday party. Even at work, sometimes very good colleagues are doing things back-to-back for hours and using short windows to do things like go to the bathroom. On the other hand maybe this is some art thing I’m too far away from to understand? Maybe really good artists to work with never need more than twenty minutes of deep focus at a time for anything?
- avg_dev 2y ago
  i did take some issue with the way that point was phrased as well. but, i took it a little more broadly than it was actually specified: people who are not great about communicating or make it hard for you to work with them at the outset will probably continue to be like that throughout the entirety of your working relationship. i watch some videos on the Tested youtube channel, where the host is Adam Savage, who was one of the hosts/creators of the MythBusters tv show, and he often talks about this point, and how he learned it working with Jamie Hyneman early on in his career where they would take clients, and Jamie explained this principal.
- sroussey 2y ago
  Artists tend to be in art production mode or sales mode. When in sales mode and doing exhibitions, etc., good ones are very responsive. They work for a a year, or maybe several, then there are sales to be had over the corse of a month or so. The work they are selling is finished. Would you work on something for years, and then when the time comes to maybe sell it — not answer the phone?
  - ranit 2y ago
    People that work at art galleries are not artists.
    - 2y ago
balderdash 2y ago
I enjoyed reading this, but I felt that 90% of this person’s experience was simply the result of being a real contributor in an organization with non-existent expectations/completely un-optimized state/no other real contributors. In other words it’s easy to make a difference as a high performer in a low performance organization. Again not detracting from this persons achievements, I just don’t think these most of these observations apply in high performIng organizations
- busterarm 2y ago
  And if you're this kind of person you can absolutely crush it at certain types of non-profits and NGOs that attract people with a lot of ideas but no work ethic. At least if you're okay with being the only person with any ambition. Personally I have to flee from those environments.
- robertclaus 2y ago
  I got a similar sense, especially the section where they talked about needing to build trust before trying to change things. I do volunteer photography, and feel the same way as this article any time I do a shoot for a small organization that has never gotten good photos for their business before. It's super rewarding, but a completely different thing than my dayjob managing a solid team of engineers.
- teractiveodular 2y ago
  There are a lot more low performing organizations than high performing ones. Even organizations usually perceived as high performing tend to have a few high performing teams surrounded by oceans of mediocrity.
- jimbokun 2y ago
  Which can be an incredibly important realization. If you don't have access to high performing institutions for whatever reason, this is how you can leverage a position in a low performing institution to achieve a lot of success.
- jchmbrln 2y ago
  > In other words it’s easy to make a difference as a high performer in a low performance organization. And yet, the big takeaway for me is that to be a high performer it isn’t enough to A) know what needs to be done, or B) be able to do it well. The key is C) figuring out the incentive landscape. His story of carving out his own job only to find he had no support from the board is what I’ve tried before. In my low performing organization, I thought I could be a high performer by knowing what needed to be done and doing it well. Everybody I directly worked with loved me and thought I was highly effective, but I never made any lasting change like this author. I didn’t understand the need to skip way up the levels until I was already burnt out.
outlaw42 2y ago
i was a security guard at an art museum for a long time. it was the only job i could find after being laid off from my software gig. thanks for sharing
- cynicalsecurity 2y ago
  This is odd. What country and period was it? Before Covid, everyone on LinkedIn was bombarded with job offers as and soon as they created an account and put anything IT related on it.
  - outlaw42 2y ago
    USA/2022 I was a php dev. Sort of the Wild West over here
harisankarh 2y ago
Nice to read. I didn't guess that the article would be so fun to read and insightful. I wouldn't have even read it if it wasn't ranked 1 in hackernews.
p1nkpineapple 2y ago
Thanks for sharing. Henrik Karlsson is one of my favourite writers on the internet at the moment. His other piece called "Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process" [1] left such a big impression on me and I return to it frequently, highly recommend. 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20240816150009/https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/unfolding https://web.archive.org/web/20240816150009/https://www.henri...
- KingFelix 2y ago
  Great essay, just read it
- mwidell 2y ago
  Wow, that was a great essay. It describes the process I've been using for the past 10 years to design a happy life. I had no words to describe it in a good way, but now I have.
- heopd 2y ago
  An alternative, more nuanced, realistic version of "follow your passion" ? Follow your passion might have ended up in "follow your vision", "vision" used here as the article defines it. The article makes a case for "follow your context", a more workable version of the popular adage. Thought provoking !
- doitLP 2y ago
  He’s a struggling writer who moved to a barren island where homeschooling his kid isn’t illegal like it is in mainland Sweden. He did this so he and his family could pursue a more meaningful life and he could make a go of it as a writer. If you love his content please consider chipping in to his substack to help keep these great pieces coming out instead of linking the archive. It’s why he was working at the gallery in the first place instead of writing full time.
- schrijver 2y ago
  Interesting we get so many likes here, as I can’t stand this style. It’s the same annoying pretentiousness Paul Graham’s peddles. Karlsson even calls his blog posts essays just like PG! These authors have this habit of reflecting on their live experiences and trying to make some sense out of them (a time honed and worthy pursuit!), but then moving into thought leader / self help / linkedin territory by making every other sentence an imperative in second person person singular. A sentence like — The context is smarter than you. It holds more nuance and information than you can fit in your head. Collaborate with it. Could be The context is smarter than me. It holds more nuance and information than I can fit in my head. I keep telling myself to collaborate with it. And it wouldn’t annoy me half as much. It would feel as if a peer wants to share experiences with me, whereas now I feel like I’m being shouted at by a middle manager.
oseph 2y ago
Lovely article! It induced an unexpected feeling of nostalgia for me personally as I previously worked at an large public art gallery. I was part of the marketing team and my role focused mostly on the digital side: web updates and digital signage throughout the space. The description of great artists in the article resonated with me; the best ones where those that truly did it for the art and were surprisingly humble. That's not to say that all amateur artists are self-centered; I met plenty of up and coming artists that felt like wizened "old souls" without ego, and playful at heart. I think they were just great artists in the making! Even though it wasn't the most high paying job, it was really fun being part of the visual art heartbeat in a city.
exitb 2y ago
The article glosses over the bosses and board members, but it feels that’s where the story is. Often art institutions are not optimized to make money for the organization, but rather to employ specific people or make specific people visible in a desired way. Hence the workshops and fundraisers. I suspect that’s why the boss, eventually becomes just a „first boss”.
anshulbhide 2y ago
The article itself is fantastic. However, this is a great example of what makes catnip for HN - 1) Use scientific terms (e.g. vector fields, waves resonance) 2) Cite tech influencers (e.g. Sholto Douglas, Tyler Cowen) 3) Make the subject an abstract novel field that most developers or tech folk don't really pay attention and use #1 and #2 to make it relevant
- pickledoyster 2y ago
  Honestly, the entire blog feels that way: referencing the same old tropes and personalities in a slightly novel context. A sort of a comfort read for the web2.0 nostalgia crowd. I guess this approach worked, since it allowed the author to go on writing full time in Denmark (HCoL), which is an achievement these days.
- badgersnake 2y ago
  You forgot be smug and entitled. He does that a lot.
resonious 2y ago
> But if someone else isn’t measuring up, I have no idea how to convince them to do so. So I look for people who have already decided. This reminded me of the part in Good to Great where one company's success was attributed to setting up a steel factory in a agriculture-heavy area, where the residents were farmers who were already predisposed to working hard. I'm curious if, on the flip side, anyone has any strategies for "convincing someone to measure up" as the author puts it.
- brazzy 2y ago
  I suspect that would need to be highly specific to the individual, their personality, past experiences and current situation.
krisoft 2y ago
The problem here is that I don’t trust the author on being able to tell who is the “best artist”. Clearly he has opinions. But for example in point 3, he says he can predict which exhibition will be great based on how easy it is to work with the artist. He predicts that some exhibition will be crap and he is right! Which sounds impressive until you notice that he is not measuring his judgement against something objective, but just against his judgement. He decides something will be crap and then he feels crap about it once he sees it. Did others, who did not know that the artist was slow to email back also feel that those exhibitions were mediocre and the others not? Who knows? All we have is this one man’s opinion. Maybe others thought differently. Even more so in his point 6. He writes “What you see in the biographies of great artists, great writers, great anything is that they are good at figuring out where the vectors align.” Which is just plainly and absolutely not true. There were plenty of people who we now recognise as “great artist” who absolutely could not figure out where the “incentive vectors align”. Thus they lived in abject poverty, or needed to support themselves from something other than their art. But if your definition of “great art” is that it is commercially succesfull then of course what you will find that the “great artist” are all like good businesman. But that doesn’t tell you about what it take to be an artist, just only what you value.
- l5870uoo9y 2y ago
  > The problem here is that I don’t trust the author on being able to tell who is the “best artist”. A prerequisite to be considered a great artist is that the artist master a "craft" to perfection be it painting, drawing, sculpting, or something complete different like Burial who created one of the most important electronic album using the basic audio-editing software Sound Forge.
  - djtango 2y ago
    Is art really about craft anymore? There's certainly an element of it but it's gotten very meta and abstract these days. What is the craft in a dirty bath tub or a robot endlessly sweeping liquid? Better yet what's the craft in a white canvas: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_invisible_artworks https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_invisible_artworks I'm actually not denying there's art here, sometimes I "get it" but the art of today has gotten very conceptual and meta. I see similar issues with music - where the need to be accessible vs original are pit against each other. Da Vinci, Monet, Turner, Picasso - the art is fairly accessible. Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Holst ditto. But who will be remembered as being accessible and "serious" from our generation in music? Probably John Williams - a film composer primarily. I'm not dissing composers, one of my favourites of all time is Nobuo Uematsu but I am not sure what is art anymore. I wonder if art can only emerge with hindsight. What did it feel like to be in the present when people like Chopin and Liszt were in their heyday while Delacroix and Moreau were painting. Or when Ravel and Debussy were writing impressionistic music alongside Monet and Manet painting
thih9 2y ago
> If we want to make the world a better place, we can’t just think about the lofty stuff: we have to get our hands dirty and make sure the economic engine works. This seems a very narrow if not conformist view of art. Artists doing graffiti, participating in hobby groups, state funded projects, discovered by later generations, etc - they don’t care about making viewers feel good about funding; and yet their art can very much make the world a better place.
- trosi 2y ago
  It is perhaps a narrow view, but not an incorrect one. You mention state funded projects, but the funding has to come from somewhere else. What the author is saying is this: it takes money to run a gallery (or a museum, for that matter), therefore even if it is not the primary objective, we should strive to keep the money flowing so that we can make have better galleries/museums.
  - thih9 2y ago
    Actually the money doesn’t have to come from anywhere, that’s my point. If we cut all state funding - I’m sure artists would continue making art, as they did for millenia. We encourage art with state funding because we consider it beneficial to the society[1]. The “keep the money flowing” approach distracts from making art and leads to making art that sells well. Do we really want that to dominate galleries/museums? [1]: “American taxpayers concur, with 55% supporting increasing federal investment in the arts, 57% supporting state government funding for the arts and 58% supporting local government funding for the arts” https://www.delawareartsalliance.org/government-funding-arts/ https://www.delawareartsalliance.org/government-funding-arts...
  - Tade0 2y ago
    The narrowness makes it incorrect. Galleries are necessarily behind the curve because they're businesses and have to stay afloat. You typically don't go to a gallery to see something new, but to see the works of an already established artist. Meanwhile interesting, innovative art happens outside of galleries, but you have to look for it, as there's an oversupply of aspiring artists. Bottom line is you can't base the whole art scene on the opinions of art galleries, as they play it safe and art is strictly about the opposite.
quantum_mcts 2y ago
0. There's money laundering.
bradley13 2y ago
I went into this article with a lot of skepticism, but the author has some excellent points. Here's one, as an example. On dealing with people (in his case, artists): "if...someone isn't measuring up, I have no idea how to convince them to do so. So I look for people [who do]." I.e., don't waste your time on people who are "demanding or confused or slow at answering their email". Lots of other interesting points!
ideasphere 2y ago
How many deep insights can you really gain on an entire industry by working in it for 2 years? And starting off in a separate industry which just happens to be located within the other?
KaiserPro 2y ago
Another, perhaps less triumphant account of the art world is here: https://profilebooks.com/work/all-that-glitters/ https://profilebooks.com/work/all-that-glitters/ which for me is a very interesting read. If reading isn't your thing then it has a good audio book, but also this might be of interest https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001nwhs https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001nwhs
xg15 2y ago
> I am very much in that direction myself; I found it, for example, almost shameful to turn on paid subscriptions on my blog. Almost.
- akoboldfrying 2y ago
  And yet he didn't appear to find it shameful to persuade unpaid volunteers to do the job he was in fact being paid to do.
- fragmede 2y ago
  Turns out my landlord doesn't take almost-bucks.
zenogantner 2y ago
People here in the comments seem to focus on whether it is possible to predict an artist's success based on secondary "civic" virtues, and criticize the author for having subjective criteria for what "success" means. I'd argue that independently of how you measure success, all other things being equal, having diligence and other civic virtues will get you further, on average. That said, the most interesting lessons are in the first and sixth (the 2nd 6th, the actual 6th) item: How to do a better/more widely scoped job than what you got hired for (by understanding how interests, incentives and responsibilities align in an org) and the fact that in most places, most people are not serious (meaning they tend to not go deeper, look at the big picture, etc.).
- riazrizvi 2y ago
  I think the point is more that there are indicators that a person is in conflict with their own mission. Struggles to respond, complains, focuses on the immaterial. I think OP is completely right. When a person is aligned, they get out of their own way, this people are easy to differentiate. One produces mediocre work, the other produces great stuff. I also agree it’s within the power of the individual to be either.
  - thih9 2y ago
    I like this view. Still, this seems a way of reasoning about that artist’s success at that particular gallery - perhaps the artist is busy with art projects that are better aligned with them.
    - riazrizvi 2y ago
      Quite likely, though I think we are talking about different things. OP and I are talking to shared alignment, where they came together to sell art for mutual benefit and how to spot good partners to work with. Sure if a partner isn’t good for you, they might have other places where they work well, but I think that’s out of scope to the article IMO.
greenie_beans 2y ago
artists aren't like startup founders. let's stop using that archetype to describe everything.
ParadisoShlee 2y ago
Linkedin is leaking?
- jonnycomputer 2y ago
  ?
  - ParadisoShlee 2y ago
    Linkedin is infamous for "what doing something unrelated taught me about B2B sales" or similar kinds of slop.
    - jonnycomputer 2y ago
      ah, yeah.
broabprobe 2y ago
Curious they say in the first paragraph, "didn’t speak the language" but then seemingly very quickly started attending board meetings and taking notes? With no further mention of learning Danish. Seems like a notable achievement!
- Ylpertnodi 2y ago
  ...they probably spoke in English for them at board level. Good for his benefit, also very good for theirs, too. *where i am, any engineer (of any type) that can't speak English, is classed as an idiot (and probably benefitted from nepotistic [mal-] practices).
tmilard 2y ago
This essai reminds me of someone a few years back telling me that Artists and Startups where very similar. - "What ?" I replied confused. - "Yes ! We work for nothing, crafting a unique skills and hoping to find Product Market Fit. Of either an original Software or an special Sculpture. The economic is for both an economic of big incertinity. Galleries bet on a few Artists among many just like YCombinator bets on a few startups every years hoping for the best.
wslh 2y ago
I grew up immersed in the art world—my father is an artist, and my sister is a curator working on exhibitions for institutions like MoMA and the Reina Sofia Museum, and linked to a known dead artist. Based on my lifelong experience in this environment, here are my thoughts: Art as a Business: Selling art is predominantly a business, and, frankly, quality often doesn't play the leading role. Market dynamics, branding, and influence have a much stronger impact on an artist’s commercial success. Many buyers lack a refined taste for art but are guided by curators, galleries, or social trends to invest in one artist over another. This is particularly true outside the realm of blue-chip artists like Picasso, van Gogh, or Bacon, where established market signals guide decisions. Theory and Practice: while I love the theoretical discussions around art (e.g. Walter Benjamin) I find these ideas largely irrelevant to the business side of the art market. Theory has its place in academia and criticism, but it often feels disconnected from the pragmatic realities of selling and promoting art. If you're interested in understanding how the art world operates, I highly recommend visiting Art Basel or similar art fairs. These events showcase the intersection of commerce, curation, and culture, providing a fascinating snapshot of the art market's priorities and trends. I personally did my own art intervention with technology and received known artists who wanted to participated in the experiment and beyond the project originality it would not work in other contexts without some validation (being in a space in Wynwood [1]). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynwood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynwood
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WaitWaitWha 2y ago
I think the biggest win for this job was not the six points identified, but the author gained their boss's trust; got project alignment to the organization's mission, and earned more autonomy. In essence the task-oriented leading was switched to area-of-responsibility leading. That is, instead of giving a list of tasks to complete by the author, an AoR was given, and all tasks initially verified, then allowed to move forward as the author saw it fit. It is task-oriented vs. AoR-Oriented leadership. Basically, in large part this worked because of the job context and the leadership of the boss.
iamleppert 2y ago
How dare someone not respond to the email of a gallery coffee director within the hour! Obviously that makes them a bad artist. I like how the OP has anointed himself as the judge of other's work but instead of actually judging the work itself based on its own merits (which he can't be bothered to do) he instead relies on personal attacks and poor measurements like how fast someone responds to an email from him. Maybe these artists were put out by the odd relationship of corresponding with the guy who runs the coffee stand for their show? He strikes me as the kind of person who needs to be involved in everything, but doesn't really care about anything. Huge ego and constantly judging everyone around him. He would make an excellent manager in corporate america.
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JoeAltmaier 2y ago
He set them up for success, and then left. With no mention of choosing a successor! Without that, they will fall back into bad decisions in months and blow through their 'war chest' the first year. My wife reorganized the after-school program for our elementary school, got it on an upward trajectory, got grants and some money in the bank to pay for exceptional bills. And left, without choosing a successor. Of course, the staff blew through the savings instantly, because they didn't know the budget or the purpose of having some margin for safety. Had to raise rates and reduce hours and all the bad things, just to keep going. All the time thinking it wasn't their fault, just the bad old world that didn't want to give them money for free to blow on their whims.
jheriko 2y ago
this is kind of mindblowing... just... WAT?!?! getting through that first section makes me want to take nothing this guy says seriously. the insanity of it...
akoboldfrying 2y ago
>So instead of selling coffee, I looked into how we could streamline the café and the cash register so that the volunteers who help out at the gallery felt comfortable doing my job, then I made myself a small office where I sat down to analyze the business and figure out how to improve it. So he persuaded unpaid volunteers to do the work he was being paid to do? Nobody has a problem with this?
HackYourGrowth 2y ago
The insights on how the best artists resemble top startup founders hit home. It's amazing how professionalism and a relentless drive to improve can make someone a joy to work with—and how the opposite traits predict mediocrity and headaches.
mehmetemirsen 2y ago
[flagged]
octopusRex 2y ago
Does anyone else cringe at the grifter vibes?
gwbas1c 2y ago
> In August, King Frederik X, the new Danish King, made an official visit to the gallery during his first tour. Since I’m not in the least a royalist, I was surprised at how sentimental the event made me This is something a lot of people don't appreciate about a modern constitutional monarchy with a functioning democracy: The modern role of royalty. In the US, (I'm American,) we don't have events like this. Why? Elected officials (the President, a governor, mayor, ect,) has to perform these roles. They can't do these as often because they (elected officials) are busy running the country / state / city, trying to get reelected, or helping someone else get reelected. When these events happen in the US, they are always inherently political. You always have an opinion of the leader. Even when event isn't supposed to be political, there's always a remark or an attempt to schmooze to get you to vote some way. In this case, my understanding is that the King's primary role is an apolitical (because he's not elected) representation of the government and culture. We (in the US) simply don't have this. We get movie stars and Donald Trump. I'm not trying to say that one form of government is better than the other: There are always people who are power hungry seeking power, and there are always people who are wealth hungry trying to manipulate the system. What I'm trying to do is point out that Henrik's system (constitutional monarchy) has its own advantages.
gwbas1c 2y ago
> The worst exhibitions take the most work I suspect Henrik missed the more important part of that lesson: Sometimes you have no choice but to work with someone who's difficult. Why? To be quite frank, finding someone to work with is difficult, too. As Henrik states: > I was the only person who applied for the job at the gallery I suspect that, if the gallery chose to fire the artists that Henrik didn't like working with, there would be no art to show; and thus no gallery. The way to solve that would be for Henrik to be more involved in choosing the artists; and for the gallery to cast a wider net when searching for artists. That implies a sense of exclusivity that may or may not be part of the gallery's core mission.
Adam121 2y ago
Thanks for sharing such insightful feedback, will keep in mind on my next visit there

488 points by bkudria 2y ago

I cannot stress enough how the whole thing reads as a parody. Like modern Jerome K. Jerome. To be given such slack by your boss where they just allow you to do "whatever whenever", while not doing a lot, and then attribute your successful bout of work evading to your "work culture". And not only that, but learning lessons from it! Learning how you must work more and better, while gradually doing less and less! I especially enjoy the little math&physics section, where he introduces few metaphors that are never explained or used. I really hope that this a parody. It's kinda too sad if it's not.

beltranaceves 2y ago

Some years ago I decided that, at some point in my life, I would try and involve myself with a gallery or museum. As with all things, it depends, but it seems to me that in such places you can find some of the most authentic and driven people out there. And it's probably quite fun to work with them.

yodon 2y ago
Artists are like engineers. The types of decisions the two groups make are wildly different, but each group makes decisions for a living and focuses the rest of their time on craftsmanship. Also like engineers, the best make far better decisions, or are far better craftsmen, or both.
m463 2y ago
> the most authentic I have found the most authentic folks are the low-key ones that have a booth at an arts festival or some other show. I've been to galleries, and thought the vibe was really un-authentic. maybe I've been to the dysfunctional ones. Maybe that it is that galleries are more about something else than the art, more meta. (and they sold art not like this community gallery) Don't know the reality of museums.
- lazyasciiart 2y ago
  The small community galleries I know are filled with artists who also have a booth at the local arts festivals - and they definitely sell art!
- jonathanstrange 2y ago
  I don't get what you're trying to say. Most art galleries are businesses. They exhibits artists and artworks that sell. There is nothing un-authentic or dysfunctional about it; to put it more precisely, dysfunctional art galleries won't last very long, just like any other business that offers products that aren't in demand and don't attract buyers. Are you saying that galleries usually don't last very long and tend to be commercial failures?
  - m463 2y ago
    I'm saying: Talking to a guy in an arts festival booth, the conversation is usually about the art. Talking to a guy in a gallery (in the US, that sells art for other people), the conversation is usually about me (sizing up a sales prospect). Note that galleries I'm talking about are for-profit - selling people's artwork and paying the rent. If you do talk to the artist, it is some artist-attends gathering and there are a lot of other people talking to the frazzled artist too. the gallery in the article seems different, it is a community coop and might have a different dynamic.
space_oddity 2y ago
People there not just working for financial gain but for the preservation and promotion of something meaningful (I mean in most cases)

grammarxcore 2y ago

I refuse to believe that not answering every single email within an hour is a good predictor of anything other than being glued to your phone. I think extending it to a reasonable amount of time, maybe a business day max, works out pretty well. Sometimes people respond really fast because they’re taking regular breaks and other times they don’t respond all evening because they’re putting on their kid’s birthday party. Even at work, sometimes very good colleagues are doing things back-to-back for hours and using short windows to do things like go to the bathroom. On the other hand maybe this is some art thing I’m too far away from to understand? Maybe really good artists to work with never need more than twenty minutes of deep focus at a time for anything?

avg_dev 2y ago
i did take some issue with the way that point was phrased as well. but, i took it a little more broadly than it was actually specified: people who are not great about communicating or make it hard for you to work with them at the outset will probably continue to be like that throughout the entirety of your working relationship. i watch some videos on the Tested youtube channel, where the host is Adam Savage, who was one of the hosts/creators of the MythBusters tv show, and he often talks about this point, and how he learned it working with Jamie Hyneman early on in his career where they would take clients, and Jamie explained this principal.
sroussey 2y ago
Artists tend to be in art production mode or sales mode. When in sales mode and doing exhibitions, etc., good ones are very responsive. They work for a a year, or maybe several, then there are sales to be had over the corse of a month or so. The work they are selling is finished. Would you work on something for years, and then when the time comes to maybe sell it — not answer the phone?
- ranit 2y ago
  People that work at art galleries are not artists.
  - 2y ago

balderdash 2y ago

I enjoyed reading this, but I felt that 90% of this person’s experience was simply the result of being a real contributor in an organization with non-existent expectations/completely un-optimized state/no other real contributors. In other words it’s easy to make a difference as a high performer in a low performance organization. Again not detracting from this persons achievements, I just don’t think these most of these observations apply in high performIng organizations

busterarm 2y ago
And if you're this kind of person you can absolutely crush it at certain types of non-profits and NGOs that attract people with a lot of ideas but no work ethic. At least if you're okay with being the only person with any ambition. Personally I have to flee from those environments.
robertclaus 2y ago
I got a similar sense, especially the section where they talked about needing to build trust before trying to change things. I do volunteer photography, and feel the same way as this article any time I do a shoot for a small organization that has never gotten good photos for their business before. It's super rewarding, but a completely different thing than my dayjob managing a solid team of engineers.
teractiveodular 2y ago
There are a lot more low performing organizations than high performing ones. Even organizations usually perceived as high performing tend to have a few high performing teams surrounded by oceans of mediocrity.
jimbokun 2y ago
Which can be an incredibly important realization. If you don't have access to high performing institutions for whatever reason, this is how you can leverage a position in a low performing institution to achieve a lot of success.
jchmbrln 2y ago
> In other words it’s easy to make a difference as a high performer in a low performance organization. And yet, the big takeaway for me is that to be a high performer it isn’t enough to A) know what needs to be done, or B) be able to do it well. The key is C) figuring out the incentive landscape. His story of carving out his own job only to find he had no support from the board is what I’ve tried before. In my low performing organization, I thought I could be a high performer by knowing what needed to be done and doing it well. Everybody I directly worked with loved me and thought I was highly effective, but I never made any lasting change like this author. I didn’t understand the need to skip way up the levels until I was already burnt out.

outlaw42 2y ago

i was a security guard at an art museum for a long time. it was the only job i could find after being laid off from my software gig. thanks for sharing

cynicalsecurity 2y ago
This is odd. What country and period was it? Before Covid, everyone on LinkedIn was bombarded with job offers as and soon as they created an account and put anything IT related on it.
- outlaw42 2y ago
  USA/2022 I was a php dev. Sort of the Wild West over here

harisankarh 2y ago

Nice to read. I didn't guess that the article would be so fun to read and insightful. I wouldn't have even read it if it wasn't ranked 1 in hackernews.

p1nkpineapple 2y ago

Thanks for sharing. Henrik Karlsson is one of my favourite writers on the internet at the moment. His other piece called "Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process" [1] left such a big impression on me and I return to it frequently, highly recommend. 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20240816150009/https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/unfolding https://web.archive.org/web/20240816150009/https://www.henri...

KingFelix 2y ago
Great essay, just read it
mwidell 2y ago
Wow, that was a great essay. It describes the process I've been using for the past 10 years to design a happy life. I had no words to describe it in a good way, but now I have.
heopd 2y ago
An alternative, more nuanced, realistic version of "follow your passion" ? Follow your passion might have ended up in "follow your vision", "vision" used here as the article defines it. The article makes a case for "follow your context", a more workable version of the popular adage. Thought provoking !
doitLP 2y ago
He’s a struggling writer who moved to a barren island where homeschooling his kid isn’t illegal like it is in mainland Sweden. He did this so he and his family could pursue a more meaningful life and he could make a go of it as a writer. If you love his content please consider chipping in to his substack to help keep these great pieces coming out instead of linking the archive. It’s why he was working at the gallery in the first place instead of writing full time.
schrijver 2y ago
Interesting we get so many likes here, as I can’t stand this style. It’s the same annoying pretentiousness Paul Graham’s peddles. Karlsson even calls his blog posts essays just like PG! These authors have this habit of reflecting on their live experiences and trying to make some sense out of them (a time honed and worthy pursuit!), but then moving into thought leader / self help / linkedin territory by making every other sentence an imperative in second person person singular. A sentence like — The context is smarter than you. It holds more nuance and information than you can fit in your head. Collaborate with it. Could be The context is smarter than me. It holds more nuance and information than I can fit in my head. I keep telling myself to collaborate with it. And it wouldn’t annoy me half as much. It would feel as if a peer wants to share experiences with me, whereas now I feel like I’m being shouted at by a middle manager.

oseph 2y ago

Lovely article! It induced an unexpected feeling of nostalgia for me personally as I previously worked at an large public art gallery. I was part of the marketing team and my role focused mostly on the digital side: web updates and digital signage throughout the space. The description of great artists in the article resonated with me; the best ones where those that truly did it for the art and were surprisingly humble. That's not to say that all amateur artists are self-centered; I met plenty of up and coming artists that felt like wizened "old souls" without ego, and playful at heart. I think they were just great artists in the making! Even though it wasn't the most high paying job, it was really fun being part of the visual art heartbeat in a city.

exitb 2y ago

The article glosses over the bosses and board members, but it feels that’s where the story is. Often art institutions are not optimized to make money for the organization, but rather to employ specific people or make specific people visible in a desired way. Hence the workshops and fundraisers. I suspect that’s why the boss, eventually becomes just a „first boss”.

anshulbhide 2y ago

The article itself is fantastic. However, this is a great example of what makes catnip for HN - 1) Use scientific terms (e.g. vector fields, waves resonance) 2) Cite tech influencers (e.g. Sholto Douglas, Tyler Cowen) 3) Make the subject an abstract novel field that most developers or tech folk don't really pay attention and use #1 and #2 to make it relevant

pickledoyster 2y ago
Honestly, the entire blog feels that way: referencing the same old tropes and personalities in a slightly novel context. A sort of a comfort read for the web2.0 nostalgia crowd. I guess this approach worked, since it allowed the author to go on writing full time in Denmark (HCoL), which is an achievement these days.
badgersnake 2y ago
You forgot be smug and entitled. He does that a lot.

resonious 2y ago

> But if someone else isn’t measuring up, I have no idea how to convince them to do so. So I look for people who have already decided. This reminded me of the part in Good to Great where one company's success was attributed to setting up a steel factory in a agriculture-heavy area, where the residents were farmers who were already predisposed to working hard. I'm curious if, on the flip side, anyone has any strategies for "convincing someone to measure up" as the author puts it.

brazzy 2y ago
I suspect that would need to be highly specific to the individual, their personality, past experiences and current situation.

krisoft 2y ago

The problem here is that I don’t trust the author on being able to tell who is the “best artist”. Clearly he has opinions. But for example in point 3, he says he can predict which exhibition will be great based on how easy it is to work with the artist. He predicts that some exhibition will be crap and he is right! Which sounds impressive until you notice that he is not measuring his judgement against something objective, but just against his judgement. He decides something will be crap and then he feels crap about it once he sees it. Did others, who did not know that the artist was slow to email back also feel that those exhibitions were mediocre and the others not? Who knows? All we have is this one man’s opinion. Maybe others thought differently. Even more so in his point 6. He writes “What you see in the biographies of great artists, great writers, great anything is that they are good at figuring out where the vectors align.” Which is just plainly and absolutely not true. There were plenty of people who we now recognise as “great artist” who absolutely could not figure out where the “incentive vectors align”. Thus they lived in abject poverty, or needed to support themselves from something other than their art. But if your definition of “great art” is that it is commercially succesfull then of course what you will find that the “great artist” are all like good businesman. But that doesn’t tell you about what it take to be an artist, just only what you value.

l5870uoo9y 2y ago
> The problem here is that I don’t trust the author on being able to tell who is the “best artist”. A prerequisite to be considered a great artist is that the artist master a "craft" to perfection be it painting, drawing, sculpting, or something complete different like Burial who created one of the most important electronic album using the basic audio-editing software Sound Forge.
- djtango 2y ago
  Is art really about craft anymore? There's certainly an element of it but it's gotten very meta and abstract these days. What is the craft in a dirty bath tub or a robot endlessly sweeping liquid? Better yet what's the craft in a white canvas: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_invisible_artworks https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_invisible_artworks I'm actually not denying there's art here, sometimes I "get it" but the art of today has gotten very conceptual and meta. I see similar issues with music - where the need to be accessible vs original are pit against each other. Da Vinci, Monet, Turner, Picasso - the art is fairly accessible. Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy, Holst ditto. But who will be remembered as being accessible and "serious" from our generation in music? Probably John Williams - a film composer primarily. I'm not dissing composers, one of my favourites of all time is Nobuo Uematsu but I am not sure what is art anymore. I wonder if art can only emerge with hindsight. What did it feel like to be in the present when people like Chopin and Liszt were in their heyday while Delacroix and Moreau were painting. Or when Ravel and Debussy were writing impressionistic music alongside Monet and Manet painting

thih9 2y ago

> If we want to make the world a better place, we can’t just think about the lofty stuff: we have to get our hands dirty and make sure the economic engine works. This seems a very narrow if not conformist view of art. Artists doing graffiti, participating in hobby groups, state funded projects, discovered by later generations, etc - they don’t care about making viewers feel good about funding; and yet their art can very much make the world a better place.

trosi 2y ago
It is perhaps a narrow view, but not an incorrect one. You mention state funded projects, but the funding has to come from somewhere else. What the author is saying is this: it takes money to run a gallery (or a museum, for that matter), therefore even if it is not the primary objective, we should strive to keep the money flowing so that we can make have better galleries/museums.
- thih9 2y ago
  Actually the money doesn’t have to come from anywhere, that’s my point. If we cut all state funding - I’m sure artists would continue making art, as they did for millenia. We encourage art with state funding because we consider it beneficial to the society[1]. The “keep the money flowing” approach distracts from making art and leads to making art that sells well. Do we really want that to dominate galleries/museums? [1]: “American taxpayers concur, with 55% supporting increasing federal investment in the arts, 57% supporting state government funding for the arts and 58% supporting local government funding for the arts” https://www.delawareartsalliance.org/government-funding-arts/ https://www.delawareartsalliance.org/government-funding-arts...
- Tade0 2y ago
  The narrowness makes it incorrect. Galleries are necessarily behind the curve because they're businesses and have to stay afloat. You typically don't go to a gallery to see something new, but to see the works of an already established artist. Meanwhile interesting, innovative art happens outside of galleries, but you have to look for it, as there's an oversupply of aspiring artists. Bottom line is you can't base the whole art scene on the opinions of art galleries, as they play it safe and art is strictly about the opposite.

quantum_mcts 2y ago

0. There's money laundering.

bradley13 2y ago

I went into this article with a lot of skepticism, but the author has some excellent points. Here's one, as an example. On dealing with people (in his case, artists): "if...someone isn't measuring up, I have no idea how to convince them to do so. So I look for people [who do]." I.e., don't waste your time on people who are "demanding or confused or slow at answering their email". Lots of other interesting points!

ideasphere 2y ago

How many deep insights can you really gain on an entire industry by working in it for 2 years? And starting off in a separate industry which just happens to be located within the other?

KaiserPro 2y ago

Another, perhaps less triumphant account of the art world is here: https://profilebooks.com/work/all-that-glitters/ https://profilebooks.com/work/all-that-glitters/ which for me is a very interesting read. If reading isn't your thing then it has a good audio book, but also this might be of interest https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001nwhs https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001nwhs

xg15 2y ago

> I am very much in that direction myself; I found it, for example, almost shameful to turn on paid subscriptions on my blog. Almost.

akoboldfrying 2y ago
And yet he didn't appear to find it shameful to persuade unpaid volunteers to do the job he was in fact being paid to do.
fragmede 2y ago
Turns out my landlord doesn't take almost-bucks.

zenogantner 2y ago

People here in the comments seem to focus on whether it is possible to predict an artist's success based on secondary "civic" virtues, and criticize the author for having subjective criteria for what "success" means. I'd argue that independently of how you measure success, all other things being equal, having diligence and other civic virtues will get you further, on average. That said, the most interesting lessons are in the first and sixth (the 2nd 6th, the actual 6th) item: How to do a better/more widely scoped job than what you got hired for (by understanding how interests, incentives and responsibilities align in an org) and the fact that in most places, most people are not serious (meaning they tend to not go deeper, look at the big picture, etc.).

riazrizvi 2y ago
I think the point is more that there are indicators that a person is in conflict with their own mission. Struggles to respond, complains, focuses on the immaterial. I think OP is completely right. When a person is aligned, they get out of their own way, this people are easy to differentiate. One produces mediocre work, the other produces great stuff. I also agree it’s within the power of the individual to be either.
- thih9 2y ago
  I like this view. Still, this seems a way of reasoning about that artist’s success at that particular gallery - perhaps the artist is busy with art projects that are better aligned with them.
  - riazrizvi 2y ago
    Quite likely, though I think we are talking about different things. OP and I are talking to shared alignment, where they came together to sell art for mutual benefit and how to spot good partners to work with. Sure if a partner isn’t good for you, they might have other places where they work well, but I think that’s out of scope to the article IMO.

greenie_beans 2y ago

artists aren't like startup founders. let's stop using that archetype to describe everything.

ParadisoShlee 2y ago

Linkedin is leaking?

jonnycomputer 2y ago
?
- ParadisoShlee 2y ago
  Linkedin is infamous for "what doing something unrelated taught me about B2B sales" or similar kinds of slop.
  - jonnycomputer 2y ago
    ah, yeah.

broabprobe 2y ago

Curious they say in the first paragraph, "didn’t speak the language" but then seemingly very quickly started attending board meetings and taking notes? With no further mention of learning Danish. Seems like a notable achievement!

Ylpertnodi 2y ago
...they probably spoke in English for them at board level. Good for his benefit, also very good for theirs, too. *where i am, any engineer (of any type) that can't speak English, is classed as an idiot (and probably benefitted from nepotistic [mal-] practices).

tmilard 2y ago

This essai reminds me of someone a few years back telling me that Artists and Startups where very similar. - "What ?" I replied confused. - "Yes ! We work for nothing, crafting a unique skills and hoping to find Product Market Fit. Of either an original Software or an special Sculpture. The economic is for both an economic of big incertinity. Galleries bet on a few Artists among many just like YCombinator bets on a few startups every years hoping for the best.

wslh 2y ago

I grew up immersed in the art world—my father is an artist, and my sister is a curator working on exhibitions for institutions like MoMA and the Reina Sofia Museum, and linked to a known dead artist. Based on my lifelong experience in this environment, here are my thoughts: Art as a Business: Selling art is predominantly a business, and, frankly, quality often doesn't play the leading role. Market dynamics, branding, and influence have a much stronger impact on an artist’s commercial success. Many buyers lack a refined taste for art but are guided by curators, galleries, or social trends to invest in one artist over another. This is particularly true outside the realm of blue-chip artists like Picasso, van Gogh, or Bacon, where established market signals guide decisions. Theory and Practice: while I love the theoretical discussions around art (e.g. Walter Benjamin) I find these ideas largely irrelevant to the business side of the art market. Theory has its place in academia and criticism, but it often feels disconnected from the pragmatic realities of selling and promoting art. If you're interested in understanding how the art world operates, I highly recommend visiting Art Basel or similar art fairs. These events showcase the intersection of commerce, curation, and culture, providing a fascinating snapshot of the art market's priorities and trends. I personally did my own art intervention with technology and received known artists who wanted to participated in the experiment and beyond the project originality it would not work in other contexts without some validation (being in a space in Wynwood [1]). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynwood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynwood

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WaitWaitWha 2y ago

I think the biggest win for this job was not the six points identified, but the author gained their boss's trust; got project alignment to the organization's mission, and earned more autonomy. In essence the task-oriented leading was switched to area-of-responsibility leading. That is, instead of giving a list of tasks to complete by the author, an AoR was given, and all tasks initially verified, then allowed to move forward as the author saw it fit. It is task-oriented vs. AoR-Oriented leadership. Basically, in large part this worked because of the job context and the leadership of the boss.

iamleppert 2y ago

How dare someone not respond to the email of a gallery coffee director within the hour! Obviously that makes them a bad artist. I like how the OP has anointed himself as the judge of other's work but instead of actually judging the work itself based on its own merits (which he can't be bothered to do) he instead relies on personal attacks and poor measurements like how fast someone responds to an email from him. Maybe these artists were put out by the odd relationship of corresponding with the guy who runs the coffee stand for their show? He strikes me as the kind of person who needs to be involved in everything, but doesn't really care about anything. Huge ego and constantly judging everyone around him. He would make an excellent manager in corporate america.

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JoeAltmaier 2y ago

He set them up for success, and then left. With no mention of choosing a successor! Without that, they will fall back into bad decisions in months and blow through their 'war chest' the first year. My wife reorganized the after-school program for our elementary school, got it on an upward trajectory, got grants and some money in the bank to pay for exceptional bills. And left, without choosing a successor. Of course, the staff blew through the savings instantly, because they didn't know the budget or the purpose of having some margin for safety. Had to raise rates and reduce hours and all the bad things, just to keep going. All the time thinking it wasn't their fault, just the bad old world that didn't want to give them money for free to blow on their whims.

jheriko 2y ago

this is kind of mindblowing... just... WAT?!?! getting through that first section makes me want to take nothing this guy says seriously. the insanity of it...

akoboldfrying 2y ago

>So instead of selling coffee, I looked into how we could streamline the café and the cash register so that the volunteers who help out at the gallery felt comfortable doing my job, then I made myself a small office where I sat down to analyze the business and figure out how to improve it. So he persuaded unpaid volunteers to do the work he was being paid to do? Nobody has a problem with this?

HackYourGrowth 2y ago

The insights on how the best artists resemble top startup founders hit home. It's amazing how professionalism and a relentless drive to improve can make someone a joy to work with—and how the opposite traits predict mediocrity and headaches.

mehmetemirsen 2y ago

[flagged]

octopusRex 2y ago

Does anyone else cringe at the grifter vibes?

gwbas1c 2y ago

> In August, King Frederik X, the new Danish King, made an official visit to the gallery during his first tour. Since I’m not in the least a royalist, I was surprised at how sentimental the event made me This is something a lot of people don't appreciate about a modern constitutional monarchy with a functioning democracy: The modern role of royalty. In the US, (I'm American,) we don't have events like this. Why? Elected officials (the President, a governor, mayor, ect,) has to perform these roles. They can't do these as often because they (elected officials) are busy running the country / state / city, trying to get reelected, or helping someone else get reelected. When these events happen in the US, they are always inherently political. You always have an opinion of the leader. Even when event isn't supposed to be political, there's always a remark or an attempt to schmooze to get you to vote some way. In this case, my understanding is that the King's primary role is an apolitical (because he's not elected) representation of the government and culture. We (in the US) simply don't have this. We get movie stars and Donald Trump. I'm not trying to say that one form of government is better than the other: There are always people who are power hungry seeking power, and there are always people who are wealth hungry trying to manipulate the system. What I'm trying to do is point out that Henrik's system (constitutional monarchy) has its own advantages.

gwbas1c 2y ago

> The worst exhibitions take the most work I suspect Henrik missed the more important part of that lesson: Sometimes you have no choice but to work with someone who's difficult. Why? To be quite frank, finding someone to work with is difficult, too. As Henrik states: > I was the only person who applied for the job at the gallery I suspect that, if the gallery chose to fire the artists that Henrik didn't like working with, there would be no art to show; and thus no gallery. The way to solve that would be for Henrik to be more involved in choosing the artists; and for the gallery to cast a wider net when searching for artists. That implies a sense of exclusivity that may or may not be part of the gallery's core mission.

Adam121 2y ago

Thanks for sharing such insightful feedback, will keep in mind on my next visit there