(Laura’s note: Rob should probably be writing on this since he gave a talk on pricing art at a symposium for craft artists a few months ago, but I thought I’d give him a break from the heavy lifting.)
In the process of doing research prior to opening Migration, I talked with a very respected, long-time gallery owner in my hometown of Chapel Hill. He has since moved his gallery to Durham. Go here for a virtual tour of the new and spectacular gallery. Joe has been a gallery owner and art dealer for almost 40 years. I asked him many questions during the three hours he generously allotted for our meeting. The advice that was most sticky was this: "Tell your artists to price as low as they can as long as they can." Now, Joe represents many artists whose works approach and exceed $20,000, which may not seem low, but that was not his entire point. His point was that it’s good to start low at the beginning of your career and finish high. He and I have no problem explaining a low price to a client; it’s much harder, especially in a small market like Charlottesville or Durham, to explain a high price, especially for an artist with a short resume.
Pricing art and craft is tricky. Some craft artists price by the square or cubic inch. Some painters price their work depending on how much they like it. [Insert sound of shuddering.]
As a gallery owner and art buyer, I like prices to make sense. Sometimes they make sense because an artist is famous (Damien Hirst internationally or Dean Dass locally). Sometimes they make sense because the work is simply spectacular and obviously technically difficult and time consuming (Joachim Knill). Sometimes they make sense because of value for size ("Hey, I can get an original work of art to hang over my sofa for about the same price as my sofa. Cool!")
But often prices baffle the uninitiated buyer. In an attempt to de-baffle the pricing of contemporary art, I had our wonderful intern, Katie Jenkins, think about this issue and read an interesting book on the subject, Talking Prices: Symbolic Meanings of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art, by Olav Velthuis, published in 2005 by Princeton University Press.
The book promises to address "How do dealers price contemporary art in a world where objective criteria seem absent?" Velthius attempts to answer this question from a sociological perspective. I would argue that objective criteria are not always absent, but that’s just quibbling.
I would sum up my advice on buying art this way: If you like it and can afford it, buy it. My advice to artists would be the same as Joe’s. Unless you have the larger art world contacts to "make it work" (as Tim Gunn would say), don’t bother with pricing a work higher that the price you want for it just so people will think it’s valuable. Those aren’t long term customers anyway.
Stay tuned for part 2.
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