How To Become A Successful Artist

PB / 1
How To Become A Successful Artist

MAGNUS RESCH
For my father
6 –2 5
1 Introduction
26–41
2 Research Findings
—A Data-Driven
Approach
42–59
3 Navigating the
Art Market
—Data, Players,
Power Structures
6 0 –7 3
4 Artists
—Understanding
Your Competition
74–101
5 Galleries
—Finding
Representation
102–127
6 Collectors
—Convince Them to
Buy Your Work
128–141
7 Journalists
—Persuade Them
to Write about You
142–155
8 Your Brand
—Storytelling
and Pricing
156–177
4 / 5
9 Selling Art Online
—Website, Instagram,
Newsletter
1 7 8 –2 1 3
10 Documents
—Contracts, Invoices,
and Checklists
2 1 4 –2 1 5
Appendix
1
Introduction
6 / 7
$450 million for a Leonardo; a rabbit by Jeff
Koons sells for $91.1 million; Gagosian makes
$1 billion revenue—if you read the headlines,
artists are living a dream we’d all like to share.
And it’s true: Damien Hirst alone has made
more money than Picasso, Leonardo and Monet
combined during their lifetimes. Records at
auction are broken and broken again, galleries
are popping up around the world, and an artist
like Lucien Smith can sell his work for $370,000
only three years after graduating.
1.1
Introduction
Introduction
None of these, of course, reflects the truth for artists in

general. Being an artist in today’s art world is just as tough
as it’s always been. The average female artist in Berlin has
an annual income of $10,000; a degree in fine art, in the
US, is the least valued major in college; less than 20% of all
artists who graduate from art school find permanent gallery
representation; most will give
You are in control. Don’t rely up being a professional artist. If
on other people to do what you you want financial success, being
yourself can do. an artist is one of the hardest
Jeffrey Deitch, gallerist routes you could choose. And yet,
millions of students graduate
from art school every year around the world. For some,
despite the hardships, the impulse to try will not be denied.
This book teaches you how to become a successful artist.
I want to share five essential lessons in setting you on your
way to achieving this goal:
(1)
I will analyze why some artists are
successful and others aren't
(2)
I will explain how the market works
and how the players interact
(3)
I will explain, in detail, the role of
galleries, collectors, and journalists:
who they are, how they think, and
how to get them in your corner
8 / 9
(4)
I will explain how best to sell
your work—on and off-line
(5)
I will provide the documents
you need to professionalize
your practice
My advice in this book has been gathered over more than

fifteen years of research and practical experience in the art
market. I ran a gallery when I was twenty years old, I wrote
my PhD in art economics, and I have published six books to
date on the art market, including two bestsellers. I am a
professor in art management at universities around the
world, including Columbia, Yale, St. Gallen, Luxembourg
School of Business, and Zagreb School of Economics and
Management. Finally, I am the founder of two digital
ventures: LarrysList.com, the world’s leading art collector
database, and Magnus.net—an app that works like Shazam
for art, with Leonardo DiCaprio as my advisor and investor.
In all areas, my approach to the art market is similar:
I rely on data. Although I understand the history, subtleties,
and nuances of the art market, I look at market intelligence
and the evidence of the bottom line, rather than at personal
accounts or art historical notes.
Being an artist is a calling, but In a market that has proven to
it comes with professional be highly complex, anecdotal
responsibilities. Peter Halley, artist evidence has its place, but also
its limitations. As you will see in
the following chapters, this book
Introduction
is based on a research study that looks at the career history

of half a million artists. It took six years to gather the data
and three more years to analyze and draw conclusions.
I look at the art market from a global perspective. In a
market that is so international, an understanding of the
wider global context is essential. A worldwide perspective
is also second nature for me: I live in New York City, was
born in Germany, studied at Harvard, Stockholm, and the
London School of Economics, wrote my PhD in Hong Kong,
and lecture at numerous international sites. The artists I
interviewed for this book come from every part of the world.
I listen to experts in the field. In my career, I have
conducted interviews with over 1,000 art-market
professionals. This has helped immensely in making sure
that my findings are applicable and verified. For this book,
I spoke to artists, gallerists, private art advisers, museum
directors, journalists, market researchers, collectors, and
many more. These interviews helped me to generate a
bigger picture of the art industry, as well as bringing a depth
of creativity and diversity to my research. You can watch all
of these conversations in my online class, magnusclass.com.
Some of these have found their way into this book and are
presented here as case studies or quoted in the text.
This book offers guidelines to inspire and guide your
thinking but, sadly, it cannot come with a guarantee. Some
ideas may not lend themselves to your business, while others
will need adaptation. You have to decide for yourself to what
extent my recommendations are applicable to your practice.
You will also come across artists who have followed a
different route to success. I do not in any way pretend to
have all the answers. In my view, the approach in the follow-
ing pages is the most useful and most easily replicated. If
nothing else, I hope it will inspire you to look at your business
as a business, with a fresh eye and a clear sense of purpose.
1.2
Definition of a Successful
10 / 11
Artist
This whole book is about success, so I should start by defin-
ing what a successful artist is for me. In my talks, lectures,
and conversations, I am often confronted with different
definitions. Some artists consider themselves successful
when they create art that meets their standards. Others
might feel success is gauged through recognition by their
peers in awards and biennials; others still might measure
success in financial terms.
In my opinion, the goals of Take opportunities when they
an artist can be divided into appear and make the work so
three categories: economic, good no one can deny it.
artistic, and socio-ethical. The Kenny Scharf, artist
traditional view of artists sees
them fixated only upon creative merit, with economic goals
secondary to this preoccupation. Consequently, a situation
has evolved in which amateur management often presides
over an enterprise with no financial viability. If artists want
to sustain and improve their careers, they have to hold their
noses and follow the example of other entrepreneurs, and
start to integrate profit margins into their activities. Their
product may have a perceived cachet, but bills must be paid,
and fostering the development
Making money was never our of a career costs money.
main goal, but following our The artistic goal means the
morals, believing in our craft approval and endorsement of
and our network, led to success. your artistic community. What
Now our pieces are in museums. is your artistic value? What do
Niki Haas, artist other artists, museum curators,
and galleries think about you
and your work? Successful artists are part of the commu-
nity and are respected by their peers and art authorities,
meaning that networks play a fundamental role in this type
of accomplishment. Such a subjective standard inevitably
Introduction
produces an opaque and shifting valuation system that is

highly susceptible to manipulation. If the art community
does not endorse the artist’s exhibitions and program,
credibility is lost, and any attempt to meet economic goals
will be undermined.
The final goal can be described as socio-ethical. Artists
are part of an industry that runs on trust and personal
interaction—with gallerists, customers, and colleagues. Such
lack of formality might seem, to outsiders, to leave the door
open to price engineering or other forms of covert agree-
ment. It is very rare for artists to hold written contracts with
either gallerists or buyers. That said, if artists want to stay
in business, they must conduct themselves according to the
accepted ethical norms of the industry. To earn credibility,
not only among colleagues but also among buyers and
gallerists, artists must act ethically and responsibly.
These three goals are the cornerstones of a successful
art career in the twenty-first century. My summary unites the
three into my definition of a successful artist:
A successful artist earns the
approval of their reference group,
while maximizing their financial profit
on the basis of ethical
business practices.
Entrepreneur 1.3
Change Your Mindset—Be an
1 . 3 .1
Lose the fear
12 / 13
The implications of the success triangle may look over-
whelming, or even off-putting. You may feel completely at
home with the artistic and socio-ethical part, but horrified
by the thought of the economic part, for fear of economic
complexity or simply a lack of practice with numbers. Don’t
worry. This book will teach you what you need.
Management, business, and profit have already been
mentioned a few times. Those who raised their eyebrows—
stick with me. These are not dirty words, nor are they
incompatible with the arts. Discussion of the impact of
management and business
principles on the arts has Work hard. You have to make
produced much heated debate your dreams into reality.
over the last few years, among Don’t wait for someone to come
practitioners as well as help you. Mr. Brainwash, artist
academics. Critics claim that an
intense focus on management and the processes that
accompany it might infect works of art and reduce
creativity. You might fear that business principles will lead to
meaningless exhibitions and just add to the general dumbing
down of society. Losing value as a consequence of manage-
ment is a common prejudice and a deep-rooted underlying
attitude in discussions on management in the arts. I
experienced this firsthand when the first edition of my
first book, Management of Art
As an artist, you need to be Galleries, came out in 2014.
an entrepreneur. You are your The feedback was mixed. While
own business. Mills Morán, gallerist the business press, such as
Bloomberg, applauded and
praised the findings, others (most
vociferously, the site Hyperallergic.com) simply hated it.
The principles I advocate in this book are already practiced
by household names with a long track record of success. Andy
Warhol, Richard Prince, and Jeff Koons all use (or used)
marketing tools as strategic practice. They created a
recognizable look, name, and style—in other words, a brand.
Introduction
I will show you that successful artists are in many ways also
brand managers, actively engaged in developing, nurturing,
and promoting themselves as recognizable products in the
competitive cultural sphere. The best example is probably
Damien Hirst, whose instinct for marketing has made
him the richest artist the world has known. At the age of
fifty-something, Hirst’s wealth is estimated at between
$400 and $600 million. Examples abound of his highly
inventive commercial and creative thinking, from offering his
work directly through what turned out to be a $198 million
Sotheby’s auction in 2008—taking the very unusual step of
cutting out dealers Gagosian and White Cube—to the hype
surrounding the exhibition of his diamond encrusted skull
For the Love of God, displayed to timed ticket holders at
White Cube with all the fanfare and reverence of a newly
discovered Rembrandt. It is also worth considering Hirst’s
provocative naming skills. For the Love of God and, even
more so, the intrigue of naming his preserved shark The
Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living
are typical of his knack for creating a busy cultural narrative
around his output.
Hirst’s sure-footed sense of presentation translates to a
commercial awareness that should be the gold standard
for any artist hoping to be financially successful. Successful
artists think pragmatically because, unlike many other
creative professionals, they don’t
have commercial managers, and If I only focus on art, I will go
galleries need to balance not only bankrupt. If I only focus on
the needs of their artists but also money, the art will get boring.
the demands of their collectors. It’s a beautiful dance of art and
Bluntly put, you are on your own money to find the right balance.
and need to accept that you are Daan Roosegaarde, artist
an entrepreneur running a
business. Stop thinking of yourself as solely an artist.
Change your mindset. You are a business person too.
I am aware of the limitations of this model. Entrepreneurial
management principles have to be implemented with some
sensitivity to the specific market and its climate, and they
14 / 15
cannot all be transferred to the art market. This book is at
pains to merge business practices with existing habits and
characteristics of the art market. In fact, I emphasize
the balance between artistic quality and management
orientation. In my many interviews with artists, it was very
apparent that the actual art piece and its creation remains
at the center of their practice. The passion, conviction, and
emotion that go into an artwork cannot and should not be
replaced by management principles. Instead, both should go
hand in hand.
1.3.2
Create a Business Plan
Every entrepreneur starts with a business plan, and since

I see artists as entrepreneurs, I advise them to do the same.
“Business plan” is probably one of the most overused phrases
in business jargon, but you should not be scared of it. I don’t
want you to write a fifty-page strategy that defines your
marketing plan, outlook, and competitive environment.
We will work through this step by step. The first step deals
with the most obvious elements of a business plan:
‣ Mission
‣ Vision
‣ Goals
I will refer to these three elements at several points through-

out the book, so it’s a good idea to formulate these now.
Write them down. You should be open to adapting them as
you read on, but you need a basic idea of where you see your-
self headed.
1.3.3
Mission Statement
Introduction
A mission statement is a brief description of the company‘s

core purpose. It answers the question, "Why does this
business exist?“ So ask yourself: what’s your purpose? Why
are you creating art? Whom do you want to influence?
To give you an idea, let’s look
Every successful artist makes at some examples, including the
up her own business plan. original Microsoft statement,
Warhol, Titian, Monet, Picasso which, although long since
—they all had a well-defined updated, remains among the
business plan. Peter Halley, artist very best of its kind:
Microsoft
A computer on every desk and in every home.
Uber
We ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion.
Tesla
Tesla‘s mission is to accelerate the world‘s transition to
sustainable energy.
Apple
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world,
along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple
leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes
online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its
revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future
of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
Tony Robbins
Empowering individuals and organizations to make a significant
difference in their quality of life and the lives of others.
As you can see, the mission statement should describe what

the company aims to do and why they are doing it. Sit down
and write one for yourself. Keep it short. If Uber, Tesla, and
Tony only wrote one sentence, you don’t need to write ten.
16 / 17
1.3.4
Vision Statement
A vision statement is an idea of what a company will do

in the future. Be bold. It’s your inspiration. It’s a big, ambi-
tious statement about who you are and what your intention
is in the world. It’s forward-looking and descriptive, yet
straightforward.
Reflect on these questions Be entrepreneurial. Approach
when writing your own. What do your practice like a small
you want to be known for? How business. Set annual goals for
do you see the world changing sales, expenses, shows, etc.
because of your impact? Where George Wells, artist manager
do you see yourself in five years?
What’s your overall idea of how
the world will look in ten years? And what role will your art
play in it?
Here are two vision statements from familiar names to
get you started:
Apple
We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great
products, and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing
on innovating. We believe in the simple, not the complex ... We
believe in saying no to thousands of projects, so that we can
really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful
to us ... And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excel-
lence in every group in the company, and we have the self-honesty
to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change.
Amazon
Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company;
to build a place where people can come to find and discover
anything they might want to buy online.
Again, make it short. Maximum two sentences.

Introduction
1.3.5
Goals
Your mission and vision statements are useful because they

will give you a framework, almost like a compass, to help
guide you forward. Goal-setting is essential here: you should
set targets alongside your
I set myself 5-year and 1-year statements, as they will define
goals. But if I don’t accomplish what you have to do in order to
my short-term goals, I am not achieve your vision and mission.
judging myself. I keep trying. When I do this exercise with
Some things take time. students, I often hear goals
Summer Wheat, artist such as these:
I want to be represented by a gallery

I want to live by selling my art
The problem with these goals is that they are much too
vague and don’t have any sense of a time frame. Be as
specific as possible, and set clear deadlines: a goal without
a target date all too easily turns into a “goal in progress”,
which can then just exist permanently on some wishful future
horizon. More focused goals might be:
Short term
Over the next six months, I want to get the phone numbers and
email addresses of five top art collectors in my city
Long term
I want to have my first solo show at [name] Gallery in three years.
I want to be represented by [name] Gallery in five years
Firm, verifiable goals will push you toward your end aim of
a successful career.
Fill out the form below, writing down all these elements.
18 / 19
Business Plan
MISSION
50–100 Words
‣ What’s your purpose? Why are you creating art? Whom do you want to
influence?
VISION
50–100 Words
‣ What do you want to be known for? How do you see the world changing
because of your impact? Be bold here.
Introduction
GOALS
Be specific
‣ Short Term
‣ Long Term
Case
Stud
y
THE HAAS BROTHERS
One of the most hyped artist duos in today’s world is the Haas
Brothers. They truly define what it means to be successful
artists in the artistic, economic, and ethical mode. Nikolai
(“Niki”) and Simon Haas surfaced on the global art scene in the
late 2010s. Beginning as the protégés of Leonardo DiCaprio and
Tobey Maguire, the brothers quickly rose to stardom, pushing
the boundaries of art and design and becoming recognized for
their unique approach to both. I met Niki at his Los Angeles
home, where he revealed the secrets underlying their success
20 / 21
and the philosophy behind their work.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Niki and Simon came from
a creative family: their mother was an opera singer and their
father a sculptor. Simon studied art and architecture at Rhode
Island School of Design, but dropped out to join Niki in the band
RRIICCEE. Gradually the duo branched out into other creative
mediums. They had a passion for creating beauty, and they also
had confidence in their craftsmanship. They started to create
the furniture pieces they dreamed of, and with the help of family
connections they began to experience artistic success.
Economic success soon followed. The first pieces they sold
were to friends, but they soon realized that they needed to
meet the right people if they wanted to sell to other collectors
and improve their status in the art world. Through tireless and
strategic networking, they met Donatella Versace, leading to
numerous collaborations, and Marianne Boesky of the Marianne
Boesky Gallery in New York. These are the networks that helped
to channel the Haas Brothers’ work into the right collections
and into the art world as fine art, pushing the value of their
work far beyond their expectations.
With that success came the desire to spread the wealth.
While on a trip to Cape Town, they stumbled upon the products
of Monkeybiz, a women’s collective dedicated to reviving
African beadwork. Highly impressed by the standard of craft
at Monkeybiz, the brother's suggested a collaboration. Now,
four years on, the women are among the many salaried craft
workers that the Haas Brothers employ. On top of the agreed
fee for their work, the artisans at Monkeybiz receive 20% of
the profits. This arrangement and the Haas brother's attitude
exemplifies the socio-ethical goals toward which successful
artists should strive.
The Haas brothers demonstrate that success for an artist is
based on an equilibrium of economic, artistic, and ethical goals.
Introduction
22
22
ADVICE
ONE
In any deal you make, everyone should win.
TWO
Stay true to your word, or have a discussion with
whomever it concerns if you change your mind.
THREE
Don’t expect perfection at the beginning
(e.g. don’t expect star treatment from the moment
you appear on the scene) and, at least to start with,
take it one year at a time.
Case
Stud
y
D A A N R O O S E G A A R D E —T H E K I N G O F E N V I R O N M E N TA L
PUBLIC ART
Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde wears many hats: artist,

environmentalist, designer, architect, sculptor, urban planner,
mathematician, inventor, and engineer. He is internationally
known for his large, public installations. His Smog Free Tower,
for example, is a large outdoor air purifier that turns smog into
jewelry. Waterlicht, a projected illumination, simulates rising
sea levels by using LED lights and lasers to create the sensation
of being underwater. I have long been an admirer of Daan’s
22 / 23
work. In my interview, we discuss his entrepreneurial mindset
and how he implements his goal triangle.
In order to succeed and make things happen in the world of
public art, Daan believes you need to have an entrepreneurial
outlook. While he is adamant that artists must let their ideas,
rather than their economic goals, guide them, he recognizes
that it’s a trade-off. Ignore the financial aspect of art projects,
and you will go broke very quickly; focus too much on money,
and the art will suffer and you will no longer be pursuing your
initial vision. In order to avoid either financial or artistic
bankruptcy, Daan balances his artistic and financial goals—
for example, taking on private commissions while also working
on his own projects in order to maintain this balance. Most
importantly, though, any profit made goes into pursuing new
ideas rather than toward yachts or sport cars.
Interestingly, his artistic goals aren’t all about project
completion. In fact, he views his studio, Studio Roosegaarde
(aka the Dream Factory), as one of his most important
artworks. When he founded it over a decade ago, he had ideas
that no one knew how to execute. By putting together a team
of people with expertise in design, construction, and science,
as well as management, Daan was able to turn those ideas into
reality. Despite the fact that there are different departments
within the studio, they think of themselves as a single unit, able
to approach any project from a number of different angles.
Daan’s artistic goals are always intertwined with his
socio-ethical goals. He believes that art should improve the
world around us and open up people’s minds to possibilities
that they had not imagined before. But it goes beyond the art:
he also cares about helping the people that he employs, both
with their physical health and the health of their creativity.
Each member who joins the studio is given a copy of the book
Creativity, Inc. to read in order to help them get their creativity
flowing within this entrepreneurial organization.
Daan is a great example of an artist who is able to balance
his artistic, financial, and socio-ethical goals in order to realize
Introduction
large-scale public art projects.
ADVICE
ONE
Never listen to people who want to give you advice.
Follow your dreams.
TWO
You will always have people telling you that your dreams
are impossible, and it’s your job to prove them wrong.
It will be hard, but you must listen to yourself.
THREE
Find a balance between commerce and creativity. Always have
a big dream on the horizon, but think about what you can do on
a daily basis to move toward that goal.
24 / 25
2
Research
Findings
— A Data-Driven
Approach
26 / 27
When I started out in the art world, artists all
subscribed to the same mantra: “You cannot
quantify creativity. Success as an artist is about
the artwork, nothing more, nothing less. It is
impossible to quantify.” Today, fifteen years later,
I can honestly say that the success of an artist is
not based on the quality of the art. Success as an
artist is based on the network you are in.
This bold and, for some, provocative statement
is backed up by years of research, and by a study
involving 500,000 artists that I co-authored with
Harvard professors and published in the academic
journal Science Magazine.
Research Findings
2.1
What Makes a Successful
Artist
Measuring the success of an artist is an endlessly

contentious debate. In sports, while there is always some
disagreement on the criteria, supremacy can be claimed
against undeniable facts: a
I am not good with self successful runner is the fastest,
promotion. The art world came the best tennis player wins the
to me. I cannot recommend most matches, the best soccer
any artist to do it my way. team scores more goals. But in
Raymond Pettibon, artist art, it is impossible to agree on
a measure for “the best.”
There is no better place to experience this paradox than
in a museum gallery. You have almost certainly stood in
front of an artwork and known your own work to be
superior. And you will have wondered why your work is at
home, unseen and unsold, while the one in front of you is on
display. The art world has a number of stock answers to
this question, depending on who
you ask. If you were to ask the Make sure your artist brain is
curator, they would likely give you divided into compartments,
an explanation about why they with the “art part” being the
chose to include the artist, citing clearest and cleanest. When
the artist’s relevance in the art you find the moments to make
world and refer to the “context” your work try to keep thoughts
of their work in the exhibition. If of career, success, the art
you ask an art dealer the same market—even survival—out
question, they will tell you that of the studio. Everything
the artist has experienced huge emanates from your artwork.
financial success in the market There really is no gaming the
and name-drop some collectors system. Laurie Simmons, artist
of their work, or list shows in
28 / 29
which they have taken part. Ask
a collector who admires the artist why the work is being
displayed, and they will probably tell you why they find it
personally inspiring. All of these answers depend on a
different model of success.
Take, for example, two artworks: Richard Prince’s,
Untitled (Cowboy) from 1999 and Norm Clasen’s, Mission
Ridge (Perma) from 1988. You will notice no difference. But
what if I told you that one of these works was valued at a
few thousand dollars and the other was worth $2.5 million?
Take another look: Would you be able to tell me which one
was worth millions? Probably not, since one is a modification
of the other. Your first instinct might be to guess that the
older work by Norm Clasen has a higher value, since it is
the original image. You would, however, be wrong. Richard
Prince’s 1999 piece, based on a photocopy of the original, is
worth millions, while the original by Clasen is valued at only
$15,000. How is this possible?
2.2
Quantifying Reputation and
Success in Art: A Study
Fascinated by the fact that two almost identical artworks

could have such wildly different values, I began to investigate
the factors at play in making a financially successful artist.
I reached out to Harvard data scientist Samuel Fraiberger
and to Albert-László Barabási,
There are certain galleries and a leader in the field of network
institutions which have almost science. Over the course of three
unlimited power to make or years, we analyzed the careers
break an artist’s career. of 500,000 artists and looked
Gaining access to the ‘Holy at over 10 million data points to
Research Findings
Land’ early on is the best way try and spot the commonalities
to ensure artistic success. between successful artists.
Sam Fraiberger, scientist The data was provided by
Artfacts.net, a leading data
company in the art world. The prices were provided by
Magnus.net. Our paper was titled “Quantifying Reputation
and Success in Art.” It marked a breakthrough in art market
research, and the results were published in over a hundred
newspapers around the world.
What we discovered was that, by plotting the career
effect of a powerful network of art institutions, we had
created a highly informative and data-rich map. At its
simplest, the map charts how art moves around the world
and how institutions are linked by the artists they exhibit.
Each dot represents an art institution. The size of the dot
describes the impact of the institution on the price of an
artist’s work. To create this, we used a mathematical
concept called centrality, which is drawn from network
science and which is at the core of the Google search
ranking algorithm. The proximity of the dots indicates
which institutions are linked to each other and exhibit the
same artists.
One hub immediately stands out, top left. My own name
for this collective powerhouse, the majority of which is in
New York City, is the “Holy Land.” Within the Holy Land
boundary is a handful of museums—the Museum of Modern
Art (MoMA), the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and
the Art Institute of Chicago. They are surrounded by a few
commercial galleries—Gagosian, Pace, Hauser & Wirth, and
David Zwirner. These museums and galleries are crucial
because an exhibition at any of them essentially guaran-
tees that the artist will ascend to fame and earn headline
prices. The Holy Land is the definition of artistic validation.
Outside of the Holy Land, we ended up with individual
clusters of small dots, which I call “island networks.” Island
networks are all the little separate institutions that show
art but do not create truly successful artists. They are
simply too small and insignificant to influence an artist’s
30 / 31
career. 99% of all institutions sit somewhere within an
island network and they will never make a real impact at
the higher end of the market or change the lives of the
artists represented by them.
The map shows that there is only one route to success.
If an artist is not part of the
Holy Land, then they are stuck Read a lot! I read 7 days a week.
in an island network, with all its Art changes constantly.
limitations. There, the probability I read books and online
is low that they will ever cross magazines to stay updated.
the bridge to the Holy Land and Secret tip: artsjournal.com
become a big name in the art Kenny Schachter, dealer, writer, artist
world. The majority of artists
who start in an island network institution never surpass
this level, whereas artists who begin exhibiting in Holy Land
institutions tend to stay at the top.
To expand on this, we were able to see that the first five
to ten exhibitions are the most critical for artists; after
that, the trajectory, statistically speaking, becomes very
predictable. If an artist is picked up by a top gallery early on,
the chances of becoming established among the elite are
excellent. If, however, an invitation to show at any of the
high ranked institutions does not arrive within the first five
shows, then it is unlikely ever to
I am almost seventy years old, come. There have been very few
much older than many of the rags-to-riches stories. In fact, no
new artists, so I now rely on more than 240 artists (0.048%
my network of young art of the sample we analyzed) who
professionals to introduce began exhibiting at low-prestige
these people into my network. institutions ever made it
Jeffrey Deitch, gallerist to the top.
DISTRIBUTION OF INSTITUTIONS
A N D T H E I R I M P O R TA N C E
Research Findings
Gagosian
Guggenheim Museum MoMa
the Whitney
Pace Gallery
Hauser & Wirth
Rank 1
Rank 10
Rank 100
Rank 1,000
Rank 10,000
S O U R C E : H T T P S : //S C I E N C E . S C I E N C E M AG . O R G/C O N T E N T/ 3 6 2 /6 41 6/8 2 5
2.3
Implications and
Gender Issues
It was devastating to watch this map unfold. To reiterate:

99% of all institutions scored low; exclusion from the
central hub leaves artists stranded in an island network;
no more than 240 artists who began exhibiting on an
island were able to enter the central hub. That’s 240
out of 500,000.
When I presented this study to my artist friends
before the paper was published, many asked me the same
question: how do I enter the Holy Land? How do you
succeed when quality is subjective, and when the market
is indisputably unfair and undemocratic? This book will
explain the path to stardom. Here are a few tips:
32 / 33
Networking is key
The art world is a people business. Who you know
matters more than what you
make. In the absence It is really important to try
of a rule book, the network and get a good start. Try to
steps in to decide what is network as much as possible.
good and what is not. That is Do group shows with other
why networking is so vital. Don’t artists who might have more
spend all your time in the studio. connections than you do.
Go out and meet people. Sam Fraiberger, scientist
Location, location, location!

If you are an artist living in Belgrade but you want to show in
the US, don’t wait to be discovered! It will not happen—nor
will it happen if you are in Bangkok, Berlin, or Budapest. New
York is the center of the art world. You need to be there in
order to get to the Holy Land.
Choose your career path wisely
The data proves that where you start is important.
Reconsider the gallery you are with and reconsider your
target gallery. Maybe it’s not the right one because it’s in
an island network. Maybe the
Don’t wait for a savior. DIY. gallery you need is in a different
Do it yourself. Find friends who city. Maybe it’s in New York.
want to collaborate and make
something beautiful to show Forget about the terms “good art”
the world. James Fuentes, gallerist and “bad art”
For our purposes, the terms
“good art” and “bad art” are irrelevant. “Good art” is
decided by a few influencers based on subjective criteria.
“Bad art” is everything else. I suggest we reject these
terms. Everything can be good or bad art. It’s all about
Research Findings
the positioning.
So what do you do if you are someone who has been
showing in galleries for decades and you are not part of
the Holy Land?
First, don’t lose hope

There are artists who started small and then made it big.
It’s a tiny number, but they do exist. You could become one
of them.
Second, read this book

After reading this, you will understand the art market and
how to sell yourself as an artist. It will give you the insights
you need to make it.
Third, the current climate is better than ever

The signs are all pointing in the right direction for a more
democratic and equal market, particularly for women, artists
of color, and LGBTQ+ artists.
2.3.1
Women, LGBTQ+, and Artists of Color
Women artists, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and

artists of color are underrepresented in today’s art market,
a finding backed up by a lot of current research. They receive
fewer shows, achieve lower prices, sell less, and find it harder
to get good gallery representation than their white male
counterparts. The art world
presents itself as deeply and Do not think too much about
systemically undemocratic and career and marketing but
arbitrary, with a few, mostly follow your truth and your
white male painters, dominating. driving force. Focus on the
Research on gender inequal- work and the rest will follow.
ity in particular has produced Kenny Scharf, artist
the following facts. (Existing

research has not yet caught up with the emergence of non-
34 / 35
binary gender identities, so regrettably we must discuss
here in terms of the representation of men and women.)
‣ Only 33% of artists exhibited globally in 2018 were women.

‣ Only 10% of galleries represent a 50/50 split of male and
female artists.
‣ At auctions, women’s artworks fetch much lower prices. Only
two works by women have ever broken into the top 100
auction sales for paintings.
‣ In 2018, men created 92% of all lots and 95% of the total value
of art sold at auction.
‣ The number of resold works by men still far outstrips those by
women. A study by Mei Moses shows 2,472 repeat sales
by 499 female artists, compared to 55,706 repeat sales by
8,477 male artists in the period 2012–2019.
‣ Consequently, in major permanent collections in the US and
Europe, works by female artists comprise a smaller share.
‣ This significant gender disparity continues, despite more
women becoming directors, gallerists, and curators. In main
arts colleges, too, statistics show that the balance is strongly
in favor of women, with an average 65% female share of
enrollment in art programs in the US and UK.
I don’t, however, want to end on a completely bleak note.

In recent years, there has been a very strong trend toward
showing artists from previously underrepresented groups.
As a consequence, between 2012 and 2018, sales results on
the secondary market rose just
Find allies, people whom you 8% for men, but 73% for women.
respect, and connect with Exhibitions of female artists
them. But expect rejection. also went up from just 10% in
Marilyn Minter, artist 1950 to 25% in 2000, and up to
33% in 2018. But clearly, the art
market still has a long way to go.
Between 2008 and 2018, only 11% of all works acquired for
Research Findings
museums were by women. And nothing demonstrates this

more than a comparison of the most expensive living artists:
while Jenny Saville became the most expensive living female
artist with the $12.4 million sale of Propped (1992) in 2018,
her male counterpart Jeff Koons hit the far loftier figure of
$91 million with Rabbit from 1986.
Coming back to the original question of why Richard
Prince’s copy of Norm Clasen’s work sells for so much more,
the answer lies in the network. Richard Prince is deeply rooted
in the Holy Land: he is represented by Gagosian and has
had shows at MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art. Norm Clasen, in contrast, shows with little
known galleries that are part of island networks. In an inter-
view with Artsy.net in 2018, he said, “If you see somebody’s
copied your work, there’s something deep down in you that
says, ‘I’m the author of that. Somebody took that work and
rephotographed it. They’re not the ones that were out there
lying with the rattlesnakes, the ants, the mosquitos.’” I am
sure many artists often feel the same frustration when they
look at some works in museums and galleries. Since you now
understand the hidden factors behind finding success in the
art world, you can use them to your advantage.
Case
Stud
y
JEFFREY DEITCH—LEGENDARY GALLERIST AND

ART WORLD ICON
Jeffrey Deitch is considered one of the most legendary art

dealers and curators in the world. He opened his first gallery in
1972 and shortly after moved to New York to become involved
in the international art scene. He has an MBA from Harvard
Business School and invented what is now colloquially known as
“Art Banking.” He was also, from 2010 to 2013, director of the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. In our interview,
Jeffrey explains the power of being part of the central hub, and
36 / 37
how he got there—but also how he works to stay in it.
Jeffrey began building his extensive network very early on.
Shortly after graduating from Wesleyan University in 1974, he
drove down to New York to approach the best-known galleries
(all of which were located in the same building at the time)
for a position. The art world’s Holy Land happened to be here,
and he stepped right into it, working as secretary for the John
Weber Gallery. Since most of the art world was located in the
immediate vicinity of the building, within a few months Jeffrey
was acquainted with all the must-know dealers, artists, and
curators, and his career flourished from there.
In today’s more decentralized art world, Jeffrey relies on
his network for finding new artists and staying connected
with collectors and museums. Now approaching seventy, and
therefore older than most working artists, he continually and
enthusiastically connects with the next generation of gallerists
and curators so that he can learn about which emerging artists
are worth watching. He frequently visits young and upcoming
gallerists and supports them through his network, all of which
keeps him updated about what‘s going on.
When we met in early 2020, Jeffrey stressed the importance
of constantly reiterating that “you are in control.” It’s easy to
think your career is in other people’s hands, but just because
a gallery shows your work, you are not guaranteed success.
Artists must continue to do the work themselves—creating
their own networks, reaching out to other artists, writers,
curators, and building something meaningful together. It’s
hard work, Jeffrey admits, while his phone continuously rings
during our conversation. “I am nearly in my seventies, and I am
still working hard!”
Jeffrey is a great example of how you must constantly
network and connect.
Research Findings
ADVICE
ONE
You are in control. Don’t rely on other people
to do what you yourself can do.
TWO
Form a team of people that you think can
mutually benefit each other.
THREE
You need to work hard if you want to do great things.
Case
Stud
y
S E A N S C U L LY — O N E O F T H E W O R L D ’ S M O S T I M P O R TA N T
LIVING ARTISTS
Irish-born America-based painter and sculptor Sean Scully is

without doubt one of the world‘s most significant living artists.
His work is held in museum collections worldwide, and he has
been nominated twice for the Turner Prize. Growing up in an
Irish traveler community, Sean has always felt himself outside
of the norm. In our lively conversation, Sean explains how he has
managed to stay successful for more than fifty years—without
being part of the Holy Land.
38 / 39
Sean’s belief is that art should have a sacred status, and
when it is made mainstream it loses that quality. This is the
main reason why he refuses to work with the alpha galleries
in the Holy Land. The independence that he says was instilled
in him as a child is something he wants to retain. The “easy”
alpha-gallery route, in his opinion, strips artists of their
independence, much like the actors of old Hollywood who were
owned by the big studios. While this might be a bit of a stretch,
one can understand why he views things this way. Artists, as
visionaries, have a reputation for being independent outsiders
and agitators, but this attitude is not necessarily conducive to
business. That doesn’t mean that Sean shuns fame—he has as
much hunger for fame as any of the superstar artists, but he
wants to achieve that fame by walking his own path.
Sean’s path is without doubt the hard road, or, to quote
Robert Frost, “the one less traveled.” Without the networks
of major galleries and their influence on the price of artworks,
his goal of becoming a superstar artist was seemingly unlikely.
And yet he has made it, with enormous artistic and financial
success over the course of his career. In his opinion, if you want
to be a serious artist, you have to believe that the enterprise
itself is the reward, not fancy things; selling his work at higher
prices through an alpha gallery would in no way be a more
fulfilling life. In our interview, he uses Rembrandt as an example.
During his lifetime, Rembrandt’s work sold for less than that
of his contemporaries, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t widely
collected; and, of course, it has no relevance to the importance
of Rembrandt’s work today, when his work is placed far above
that of his peers.
Sean is an example of an artist who has made it without
being part of the Holy Land. His success is evidence that any
artist can make it—even without the support of the top
galleries. In this example, the raw and powerful energy of the
outsider, Sean’s strong art-led values, and his extremely hard
work, combined with great marketing skills and the desire to
Research Findings
be known, led to his success.
ADVICE
ONE
Don’t ask what you can get out of it,
ask yourself what you can put into it.
TWO
Don’t give up your independence.
It’s all you’ve got.
THREE
Be a great person. Give to other people
(compliments, advice, whatever you can), because
generosity is good for you.
40 / 41
3
Navigating the
Art Market
— Data, Players,
Power Structures
42 / 43
I am always surprised to see how little artists
know about the history of the art market, its
power structure, and its key players. Like any
other market, understanding its history can
help us predict its future. This chapter should help
you to get a general overview of the art market
and make sure you understand the main terms.
3.1
History of
the Art Market
3.1.1
Navigating the Art Market
Record Prices
A useful starting point to understanding the history of

the art market is to look at record prices, who paid them,
and where. The list of the most expensive artworks sold at
auction from 1700 to today tells us immediately that record
prices increased dramatically. From £320 in 1701, we reached
an extraordinary £340,000,000 in 2017, with the steepest
and most rapid increases coming since 2010.
We can also see how buyers
Sales results on the secondary themselves have changed over
market give confidence to a time. The last time a public
collector that there is a resale institution paid a record price for
value for this artist. That’s why an artwork was 1985, when the
artists need to have a strategy Getty Museum bought
for the secondary market. Mantegna’s Adoration of the
Simon de Pury, auctioneer Magi. Since then, institutions
have taken a back seat to those
individual buyers known as ultra-high-net-worth individuals,
or UHNWI: mostly men, mostly with a finance background,
and until now mostly American, although at the end of
2019, the highest price ever paid at auction came out of the
Middle East, when Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Culture, Prince
Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud, paid
£340 million ($450,312,500) for Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi.
The geographical center for high-value sales has moved
from eighteenth-century Amsterdam via nineteenth-century
Paris and London to its current
home in New York—and more Never listen to anybody when
precisely to the New York branch- it comes to being responsible
es of Sotheby’s and Christie’s— for your own paintings. Because
during the twentieth century. nobody knows better than you
Looking ahead, this adaptable what you need to do.
history might suggest that the Julian Schnabel, artist
center could again migrate at
any time, away from New York to a new primary hub.
Looking at the artists and works themselves, all have
three things in common: they are paintings, they originated
in Europe, and were all painted by men. This bias toward
European men is now, in the contemporary market, under
44 / 45
a degree of challenge (as we saw in the previous chapter),
but it has been sufficiently internalized over time to confer
a lasting advantage on white male artists, reinforcing legiti-
mate accusations of a lack of democracy across the market.
RECORD -BREAKING SALE PRICES
F O R PA I N T I N G S
AUC TION HOUSE

YEAR GBP ARTIST BUYER
& L O C AT I O N
1701 320 Dou Amsterdam Unknown
1811 5,250 Rembrandt Christie‘s, London Prince Regent (George IV)
1910 28,250 Hals Amer. Art Assoc., New York Henry C. Frick
1970 2,310,000 Velázquez Christie’s, London Metropolitan Museum of Art
1985 8,100,000 Mantegna Christie’s, London J. Paul Getty Museum
2010 70,452,891 Picasso Christie’s, New York Unknown
2012 74,003,394 Munch Sotheby’s, New York Leon Black

2013 89,411,063 Bacon Christie’s, New York Elaine Wynn
2015 102,600,000 Picasso Christie’s, New York Unknown
2017 340,000,000 Leonardo Christie’s, New York Prince Badr
S O U R C E : H T T P S : // W W W. S C I E N C E D I R E C T. C O M /S C I E N C E /A R T I C L E /A B S/ P I I /S 0 0 1 4 49 8 3 1 5 0 0 02 3 6
3.1.2
Phases of the Art Market
As well as understanding the numbers behind the art

market, it is helpful to understand some of its history.
I have broken down the timeline into four phases.
Phase 1: Late fifteenth to early seventeenth century

During the second half of the fifteenth century, Florence was
the hub of the art world. Craftsmen acquired professional
status, as patrons commissioned them to make artworks
for their homes. Artists tended to be members of specialized
guilds and closely associated
You are the consequence of with the church, as these
your actions so watch yourself were the sources of many

closely. You may find that you commissions for them. But
have to train very hard to there were a few individualists,
just stay in the same place including Albrecht Dürer and
and that’s perfectly OK. Leonardo da Vinci, who operated
Bharti Kher, artist outside of guild regulations and
remained separate, allowing
them to create and control the
markets for their work. Dürer, in particular, took advantage
of new printing technology to distribute his works as prints
to a larger audience.
Toward the end of the sixteenth century, Amsterdam
began to emerge as a leading art city. I am endlessly
fascinated by the fact that Dutch households could have
between thirty and fifty artworks per room. Between 1580
and 1680, approximately 5 million paintings were produced
in Amsterdam. It could hardly be a bigger contrast with our
own art collecting practices. What changed? When will the
next generation of art buyers arrive, and hang paintings on
their walls?
Phase 2: Eighteenth to twentieth century

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, an international
art market started to emerge, primarily between Paris,
London, Amsterdam, Brussels, and eventually the Americas.
Paris established itself as the center of the art market from
the mid-eighteenth century
until the end of the nineteenth You have to accept that you
century. During this period the won’t make any money.
Salon de Paris established itself Zhang Huan, artist
as the world’s most prestigious
art exhibition. A stamp from the Salon was, for all practical
purposes, the definitive hallmark of success for an artist.
Then, as now, only a handful of people decided which artists
would be graced with success.
Toward the end of the seventeenth century, the center
began to shift toward London, and by the beginning of the
eighteenth century, the city was hosting between fifteen
and twenty-five art auctions per year. The British art market
was flourishing, and London quickly gathered important
46 / 47
stock and expertise in the work of European Old Masters,
not least through the founding of Sotheby’s and Christie‘s.
Then came the rise of North America. In 1886, Paul
Durand-Ruel, a Parisian art dealer, held an exhibition of
Impressionist works in New York, and many of the works
he sold became the centerpieces of the Impressionist
collections in major American museums. It was Joseph
Duveen, however, who really pushed the art market into
the New World. Duveen observed that booming industry in
the United States had given Americans a lot of disposable
income, while the dwindling fortunes of European
aristocrats meant they were selling their art in order to
stay afloat. He began exporting art from Europe to the US,
where he sold it to the new money millionaires, including
Henry Clay Frick, William Randolph Hearst, J.P. Morgan,
Andrew Mellon, and John D. Rockefeller Sr.
Phase 3: Post-war period (twentieth century)

Following the Second World War, many artists and dealers
emigrated to New York. It became the new hub of modern
and contemporary art, replacing Paris as the home of the
avant-garde. In Europe during this period, art fairs began to
emerge. First was Kölner Kunstmarkt in 1967 (now known
as Art Cologne), which was intended to revitalize the art
world in Germany. Cologne, however, only allowed German
galleries to exhibit. Feeling left out, Swiss dealers started
their own fair in Basel and allowed art galleries from all over
the world to exhibit. Art Basel was born.
A few years later, in October 1973, the first single-seller
auction and now one of the most famous sales in auction
history took place at Sotheby‘s
As the poet and artist Etel New York, with the collection
Adnan taught me, “The world of Robert C. Scull. Scull was a
needs togetherness, not sep- famous American contemporary
aration. Love, not suspicion. A art collector, and he put around

common future, not isolation.” fifty lots up for sale, mostly
So a first piece of advice could pop art. A work by Robert
be to make love, a common Rauschenberg that Scull had
future, and togetherness cen- purchased in the late 1950s
tral to the practice. for $900 (around $8,500 today)
Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator ended up selling at Sotheby’s
for $85,000 (equivalent to
nearly $500,000 today). After the sale, Rauschenberg—in
an exchange captured on video—accused Scull of making
a profit even though he, the artist, had been “working his
ass off.” Scull responded with what is now an absolutely
central tenet in art economics: the auction would make his
reputation as an artist, because even if Rauschenberg didn’t
directly profit from the sale of his work on the secondary
market, high prices at auction would raise the value of his
other pieces. The video shows how Rauschenberg gradually
reacts as the implications of this principle sink in.
From that point on, despite ongoing debate and protest
about commodification of art, collectors grasped the vital
importance of auctions, and especially of runaway headline
prices. Noone could imagine at that time just how much
things were going to change.
3.2
The Art Market Today
3.2.1
Fine Art Categories
Phase 4 is, of course, the art market today, but before we

turn to that it is probably helpful to establish a definition of
“fine art” and its major components.
Old Masters
Artists born between 1250 and 1750. These are the artists
whose names every art history student will recognize, such
as Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), Michelangelo (1475–1564),
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–c.1656), and Rembrandt van
Rijn (1606–69).
48 / 49
Nineteenth-century art
Covers the period between 1800 and 1900, but excludes all
modern art. This category includes artists such as Caspar
David Friedrich (1774–1840), J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851),
and Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863).
Modern art Success is about the work.

Modern art overlaps with nine- It doesn’t have anything to
teenth-century art on a timeline, do with the market.
but artists who fall into this Julian Schnabel, artist
category, such as Vincent van
Gogh (1853–90), Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), and Dora
Maar (1907–97), were pushing the boundaries of art in a
way that other artists were not.
Post-war art
Post-war artists were born between 1910 and 1944 and
include Agnes Martin (1912–2004), Yves Klein (1928–62),
and Sol LeWitt (1928–2007).
Contemporary art
The contemporary art category currently comprises artists
born after 1945 and features some of the highest paid
artists ever, including Jeff Koons (born 1955), Damien Hirst
(1965), Cecily Brown (1969), and Jenny Saville (1970).
The categories above will serve as a general guide, but
it should be noted that in art, as in many disciplines, the
boundaries between contemporary, modern, and postwar
often tend to become blurred.
3.2.2
Players and Trading Levels
The two main groups of actors in the art market are, of

course, artists and collectors. Not much happens in the

art world that does not directly involve these two groups.
In economic terms, artists create supply, and collectors
generate demand. Other players, such as private galleries,
museums, and other institutions, are intermediaries. They
can be divided into two groups: commercial art mediators
and conceptual art mediators. Commercial art mediators,
such as private galleries, engage in the transaction of art
between collector and artist,
At the beginning of the or act as a reference for either
century, the boundaries side. Conceptual art mediators,
between the primary and meanwhile, engage in the
secondary market became less transfer of knowledge. They
strict. This highlights the need convey the message of art to the
for artists to work with a public, for example in museums.
gallerist who has a clear This gives them a different but
secondary market strategy. equally powerful impact on the
Simon de Pury, auctioneer art market. (These are, of course,
broad descriptions, and we will
return to each relevant player in depth later in the book.)
Turning now to the market in which works are sold, the
diagram below illustrates the two markets in the commercial
art world: the primary and the secondary market.
T R A D I N G L E V E L S A N D P L AY E R S
IN THE ART MARKET
PRIMARY MARKET
ARTIST
COMMERCIAL ART MEDIATOR

· Art gallery
INTER-
MEDIARY · Private art dealers
· Auction houses
CONCEPTUAL COMMERCIAL · Art fairs
ART MEDIATOR ART MEDIATOR · Online art platforms
· Ancillary art business
providers
COLLECTOR CONCEPTUAL ART MEDIATOR

· Public museums/galleries
· Media
50 / 51
SECONDARY MARKET
The primary market is for art that is being traded for

the very first time. The key players here are living artists
and private galleries. This market is populated by larger
numbers (relative to the secondary market) of both artists
and buyers. It is also characterized by private sales (and
consequently a lack of transparent pricing), little to no stock,
small profit margins, and, therefore, very little liquidity
(cash). Most artists operate in this market. They either sell
via galleries or directly to buyers. Most of the works that are
sold in this market don‘t have a resale value.
The secondary market is that which most people think of
when they talk about “the art market.” Here, art is changing
hands for at least the second time, sometimes more. The
biggest players in this market are auction houses, but
established galleries and dealers with huge funds and
inventories are also present.
Read Édouard Glissant every Very few artists are traded here.
day. I would advise an inter- In the primary market, compe-
disciplinary approach. We can tition is widespread because so
only understand the visual arts many artists are trying to sell
if we look at all other fields ofto so few buyers. Hence, prices
knowledge and know what is are generally low. The secondary
happening in music, literature, market is quite different; few
architecture. artists are successful enough to
Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator appear on the secondary market,
and there is a smaller number of
sufficiently well-heeled potential buyers. Key players in the
market can therefore exert great power over the rise and fall
of an artist and manipulate future price expectations.
3.3
Art Market Data
3.3.1
Overview
I am a great believer in the value of knowing your numbers,

and I am always surprised at how rare it is to see even
basic statistics about the art market. It is rarer still to see
accurate ones. For example, the press regularly quotes that
there are over 300,000 galleries. My team did the research,
going through phone books, Google maps, and other
databases. Here is our rough breakdown:
‣ 40,000 museums
‣ 20,000 galleries
‣ 1,400 auction houses
‣ 100,000 art advisers
‣ 6,000 important art buyers
(who spend more than $100,000 a year on art)
VA L U E A N D VO L U M E I N T H E
ART MARKET
YEAR VALU E ($B) VOLUME (MIL)
2009 $ 39,511 31.0

2010 $ 57,025 35.1
2011 $ 64,550 36.8
2012 $ 56,698 35.5
2013 $ 63,287 36.5
2014 $ 68,237 38.8
2015 $ 63,751 38.1
2016 $ 56,948 36.1
2017 $ 63,683 39.0
2018 $ 67,653 39.8
2019 $ 64,123 40.5
Growth 2018–2019 $ -5% 2%
S O U R C E : T H E A R T B A S E L A N D U B S G L O B A L A R T M A R K E T R E P O R T, 2 02 0
52 / 53
All of these players, plus artists, are involved in buying and
selling around 40 million artworks annually, making the value
of the art market (as of 2019) between $40 and $65 billion
(a wide range, but different reports quote widely varying
numbers). While we can’t be certain how big the art
market actually is, we can put
its size into perspective. FedEx’s Make sure you are close friends
revenue in 2019 was $70 billion. with other artists who you
One single player in the crowded adore. Those are the ones that
transportation market is there- give you honest feedback.
fore making more revenue than Chris Dercon, curator
all the galleries, auction houses,
dealers, advisers, and online platforms in the art market
combined. The art market, then, is in fact quite small.
Looking at the numbers, we can also see that the market
hasn’t really grown much. Its revenue has remained fairly
stable at around the $60 billion mark, while volume (i.e. the
number of works sold) grew only slightly. To sum up: talk of
a booming art market is largely exaggerated. Only the top
end is booming; the rest is not in healthy shape at all.
3.3.2
What Sells Where
In 2019, works that sold for more than a million dollars

accounted for a massive 55% of the market value, yet
represented less than 1% of the total lots. Meanwhile, at the
other end of the scale (see chart below), 72% of all works at
auction were sold for under $5,000, accounting for a tiny slice
of the market value at just over 2%. This is an eye-opening
corrective not only to the broad perception of the money
involved in art—it might be there, but not many get much
of it—but also evidence of the dominance of a few artists
and the extraordinarily unequal distribution of money and
power in the market. Geographically, the market is similarly
concentrated: the US, UK, and China are responsible for 82%
of sales. Smaller residual players such as Germany, France,
or Italy play no real role in the market.
DISTRIBUTION OF SOLD ART WORKS IN AUC TIONS

AC C O R D I N G T O P R I C E L E V E L
in% 55% Value

1% Volume
50
0.03%
0.4%
0.4%
0.1%
1.5%
20%
24%
10%
46%
26%
22%
19%
14%
11%
2%
5%
40
30
20
10
0 Under $1k $1k $5k $50k $250k $1m $5m Over $10m
–$5k –$50k –$250k –$1m –$5m –$10m
Volume Value
3.4
Online Art-Market Data
In contrast to the impact on much twenty-first-century trade,

the online world has intruded only minimally on the art
world. Online represents only 9% of global sales value—
small beer, considering how much the internet has disrupted
other offline retailers. Although
the Covid-19 shutdowns of 2020 Instagram will have the same
caused a temporary peak in impact on the art market
online activity, a major shift as YouTube had on the music
online won’t happen. Buyers industry. The online market
in the primary market have is here to stay.
remained intensely loyal to Simon de Pury, auctioneer
galleries and other forms of
offline buying, to the extent that if online trade happens at
54 / 55
all, it happens at the lower end, with works under $5,000.
In the secondary market, too, the average online lot value at
auctioneers Christie’s is roughly $8,000.
Within the online art market, mobile purchasing
accounts for 59% and is expected to reach more than 70%
by 2021. Those who do want to try to sell online, therefore,
would do well to optimize their platform accordingly.
Case
Stud
y
STEFAN SIMCHOWITZ— DEALER, COLLECTOR, ADVISER,

MARKET MAKER
Stefan is one of the most controversial figures in the art world.

He continually challenges the status quo. His role is hard to pin
down—collector, gallerist, adviser, journalist, and artist—and
it is this fluidity that lends him a unique position in the market.
In our interview in his office in Los Angeles, Stefan reveals how
he uses these different roles to exercise influence, but also how

they have become much harder to separate.
Coming from the film industry, Stefan started his career
in the art market as a dealer. He sold artworks to clients, but,
unlike most dealers, he also worked directly with artists—often
those lacking gallery representation. A large part of his work
still involves supporting artists in their early careers by selling
their works, introducing them to collectors and journalists, and
using his reach and network to raise awareness—all typical
functions of a gallerist. A prolific buyer, he often purchases
artists’ works in advance, providing them with the vital cash
flow to continue their practice.
The list of artists that Stefan has helped along the way is
long and includes Oscar Murillo, Sterling Ruby, and Zachary
Armstrong, but he keeps a constant eye out for new talent.
At every event where I have seen Stefan—and I see him
everywhere—he looks up the Instagram of any artist who
approaches him. If he likes something, he will immediately ask
for a studio visit.
Although Stefan relies on his existing network of curators
and artists, he does make extensive use of Instagram, so if
you have yet to come across Stefan at an event, Instagram is
definitely another route to bring your work to his attention.
There is a very good chance that he will respond to your message
if he likes your work. When he finds an artist that he likes, he
meets with them to determine how he can best accommodate
their needs with his existing network.
56 / 57
ADVICE
ONE
Brush your teeth, brush your tongue, and use breath mints.
Do not have bad breath when you are networking!
TWO
Have an Instagram that’s easy to decipher. Put up pictures
of you next to your artwork, not a bunch of random things.
Follow good galleries and art world people
(because people also look at who you follow as well
as who follows you).
THREE
Do not think about the value of each single work.
Think about your body of work as a whole.
Case
Stud
y
O S C A R M U R I L L O —T W E N T Y- F I R S T C E N T U R Y B A S Q U I AT
Colombian artist Oscar Murillo is one of the shooting stars to

come out of the 2010s. Oscar is a co-winner of the 2019 Turner
Prize and has exhibited in shows around the world, including the
2015 Venice Biennale. In 2013, just one year after graduating
from the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, he became an art
world phenomenon, and his prices skyrocketed. I spoke with
Oscar while he was in Colombia about his views on the art

market and the trajectory of his career.
Oscar’s success story is also one of financial hard grind.
After receiving his BFA from University of Westminster in 2007,
his artistic career was non-existent. To support himself, he
worked as a teaching assistant in London high schools, a job
that left him exhausted by the time he got to the studio. To
support himself during his Master’s at the RCA, he worked as a
cleaner, finding that the early starts, although punishing, left
him the whole day to produce artworks. Oscar’s practicality
allowed him to make money to support his art and to find more
time for production.
While at the RCA, he intensified his networking. In 2011,
an older artist friend who was connected to the LA art scene
invited Oscar to participate in a group show. This network
connection paid off immediately. Following this show, he was
introduced to a dealer who brought him to Elizabeth Dee’s
Independent Art Fair in New York, where Mera and Don Rubell
found his work, visited him in his studio, and offered him a
space to work in Miami.
This sudden and surprising set of connections transformed
his career. A year later, he had solo shows in London and Berlin
and was included in a group show at David Zwirner in New York.
Phillips offered his work Untitled (Drawings Off the Wall) for
auction, estimated between $30,000 and $40,000. It ended up
going for $401,000, pushing the prices of his other pieces, both
on the primary and secondary markets, into a different league.
A star was born, and the rest is history.
Oscar Murillo is an example of how the market for your art
can change in the blink of an eye through hard work and the
right networking.
58 / 59
ADVICE
ONE
Put the mechanics of the practice at the core of your
existence. Your art must go hand in hand with who you are.
TWO
Think about the mechanics of economy and production
in relation to your art.
THREE
Be defiant of history and the conventions of production.
4
Artists
—Understanding
Your Competition
60 / 61
It would be hard to argue that artists are not
at the heart of the art world, since they actually
create the product around which the whole circus
revolves. It is therefore surprising to discover just
how little control they exercise over all the other
players. We accept this arrangement in other
areas of employment without question; individual
tennis players, for example, do not themselves
schedule the tournaments or decide the prize
fund. Artists, likewise, are dependent on interme-
diaries and have little or no say over what happens
to their work once it leaves the studio.
4.1
Classification of Artists
Artists
Never have so many people considered themselves artists.

And the numbers are rising. Joseph Beuys was right when
he said everyone can be an artist—since you don’t need
either official qualifications or even proven attendance
at an art college, the hopeful,
Do it yourself. Don’t wait to the risk takers attracted by the
be discovered. impression of high rewards in
Heidi Zuckerman, curator contemporary art, and those
possessed of considerable
self-belief can proclaim themselves artists completely
unchallenged. All of these have to come face to face with
the reality of scarce demand.
Categorization of artist types cannot be a precise
science, and furthermore is not intended to be reductive or
to denigrate, but to aid us in analyzing what makes a truly
successful artist. The table below shows five categories and
an estimate, based on my experience, of the distribution of
types across the whole.
DISTRIBUTION OF ARTIST TYPES
S U P E R S TA R S
0.5%
M AT U R E / E M E R G I N G
6%
MAIN-STREET ARTISTS
12%
VANIT Y ARTIS TS
40%
PASSION ARTIS TS
41,5%
SOURCE: RESCH, 2011, PHD THESIS
62 / 63
Superstars
These are, essentially, the top fifty most important contem-
porary artists currently practicing. They have eight-figure
incomes, create the premium lots at major evening auctions,
and have had single-artist shows at the largest museums
and galleries; their works are in the collections of top
museums and collectors, and numerous catalogs of their
work have been produced by premium publishers. These
are artists such as David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Gerhard
Richter, Cindy Sherman, and Christopher Wool. In essence,
household names.
Mature and emerging artists

Mature and emerging artists have a great reputation and
stable sales records, with a slightly lower income of around
seven figures. Their works are included in top auctions, but
take second place to the superstars. They have probably
participated in group shows at top museums but have only
had single-artist shows in regional institutions. Their work is
collected by museums and important collectors. Examples
of these artists would be Tom Sachs, Marilyn Minter, and
Ugo Rondinone.
For almost ten years after Main-street artists

graduation, I felt I was not These artists are local stars
relevant at all. I wasn’t part of
with national recognition, who
any conversation. And suddenly are less known internationally.
I was asked to show in the They typically have a five-,
Whitney. maybe six-figure income and a
Salman Toor, artist small presence on the secondary
market. They participate in
group shows in national museums and are represented by
local galleries.
Vanity artists
Vanity artists have little to no reputation and make a small
Artists
income through art, an income that requires supplementing.

They are completely absent from the secondary market
and may have varying representation by local galleries.
Catalogs of their work, if any, are usually self-published.
Passion artists
These practitioners are the most common and have no
reputation within the art world. They do not make an income
through art, but are perhaps looking for representation.
They are completely outside
both primary and secondary Most of the artists I know
markets. They may organize are working other jobs ...
exhibitions by themselves or they’re doing OK in the art
through friends and have no market, just not well enough.
catalog of their work. William Powhida, artist
Career Stages
4.2
CAREER PROGRESSION OF
DIFFERENT TYPES OF ARTIST
Price/Value
ALPHA GALLERY S U P E R S TA R S
SECONDARY MARKET
B E TA GA L L E RY M AT U R E /
EMERGING
GAMMA GALLERY MAIN-STREET

ARTISTS
Education at art
academy or VA N IT Y A R TIS TS
similar institution
D E LTA GA L L E R Y
PASS I O N
PRIMARY MARKET ARTISTS
64 / 65
Age
0 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 after death
SHOPPING PHASE DECISION PHASE FINAL PHASE
Exhibitions at varying Representation through Stardom for a small

galleries, funding through fewer but recurring fraction, majority with
scholarships and art galleries; if not in top part/full-time position to
awards, some side jobs two groups, side jobs to fund artwork
fund artwork
The career of an artist can usually be separated into three

distinct phases: the “shopping phase,” the “decision phase,”
and the “final phase”.
The shopping phase is characterized by young artists
with long exhibition records at varying galleries. They work
extremely hard, they are funded by scholarships, and they
hope to be spotted by an alpha or beta gallery. This phase
extends from the moment an artist graduates (if they went
to art school) until roughly age thirty-five.
Initially in the shopping phase, artists build networks and
will try their best to self-promote. At this stage, very few will
get into an alpha gallery; most will exhibit in beta to delta
galleries first. Very rarely will an artist have a solo show
at this stage, but they will likely participate in group shows.
Those without art education might start off exhibiting
their work in mostly non-commercial spaces, and reach
a greater audience. Artist-curated shows are organized
by artists who use their own
Expenses are the enemy of network to invite potential
experimentation. Keep your customers. This kind of initiative
expenses and your prices low has led to the emergence of pro-
when you’re just starting out so ducer galleries, where artists act
you can push yourself creatively as both self-agent and gallery
without needing to maintain a manager, taking on responsibility
certain level of sales. for renting a gallery, promoting,
Susan & Michael Hort, collectors and selling. Artist-curated shows,
as well as producer galleries,
provide the artists with crucial exposure for both better
representation and sales.
Artists
At the end of this stage, artists would hope to have

moved to superstar or mature and emerging status, defined
by the tier of gallery that represents them. Bigger artists
will be represented by alpha or beta galleries and are likely
to remain at this level for the rest of their career.
The decision phase is made up of more mature artists
who have found their role in the art market and their
representation (or not). In this phase it becomes easier to
differentiate between individual artists.
By the age of around thirty-five, when this phase begins,
artists will usually have shown at various galleries. A very
small fraction who came through the shopping phase with
the right kind of exposure are able to engage in closer
relationships with alpha or beta galleries and thus pursue
superstar or mature and emerging status.
The great majority, sadly, will remain in gamma or delta
galleries, or they are dropped altogether. Two in five new
artists will no longer be showing in a gamma gallery five
years after their first show; two will have been marginally
successful, and only one will be moderately profitable for the
gallery. Those who leave will either find new representation
with another gallery of similar type, or will drop to a delta
gallery. The overlap between
these artists and those in the Early on I organized shows
bottom three tiers of artist anywhere and everywhere.
status—main street, vanity I think it is important to get
and passion—is pretty much your work out there when
100%, and these artists will you’re starting out, especially
be almost completely funded if you want to try different
by their secondary jobs rather things, because this will
than their artistic practice. help you find your path.
The final phase sees a great Chris Succo, artist
percentage of artists
abandoning full time work as artists, while a tiny number
actually make a living from it and maintain a presence on
the art market even after death.
The final phase begins at the age of roughly forty-five,
66 / 67
by which time a very small fraction of artists are repre-
sented by an alpha or beta gallery. They are comfortable
financially, with up to eight figure revenues at the highest
end. Through national kunsthallen and major biennales in
western Europe, mature and emerging artists will still hope
for passage to superstar ranking, with work dealt in both
primary and secondary markets. Superstars, of course,
will be featured in frequent solo
I have been a teacher throuhout shows around the world, and
the majority of my career and will continue to be shown
do some commissions. You need and traded during their lifetime
to have additional income if you and beyond.
want to have the freedom to During this phase, though,
create what you want to make. the remainder—the
Marilyn Minter, artist overwhelming majority—cannot
make a living from their art,
and are unlikely still to be accessing scholarships or other
funding possibilities. They will either continue to practice
alongside with other paid work, or they will relinquish their
artistic career altogether.
4.3
Artist Data
It is hard to calculate how many artists exist, as the defi-

nition of who is an artist is so broad, but if we counted the
number of artists who are exhibiting their works in for-profit
or not-for-profit institutions on any given day, worldwide,
there would be roughly 180,000 artists. If you were then to
add those who are not exhibiting on the day of our theoret-
ical census—because they will exhibit some other time this
year, or they don’t have representation—we would easily
reach one million artists or more. Don Thompson, the
author of The $12 Million Stuffed Shark, approaches it
differently. He says that there are roughly 40,000 working
artists in both London and New York.
More confidently, there are roughly 70,000 gallery and
Artists
museum exhibitions per year all over the world. Of these,

23% take place in the US, making it the world’s leading country
for exhibitions, followed by the UK and France. Australia
and South America each
Look into MFA programs. They represent 3% of total global
can fast-track you to gallery exhibitions, while the number
representation, but they also of exhibitions that China hosts
give you an understanding of yearly has doubled over the
what’s trending in academia, past five years—nonetheless,
even if you don’t enroll. they still account for only 2%
James Fuentes, gallerist of total exhibitions worldwide.
Collectively, Asia represents
5% of global exhibitions.
Comparing exhibition figures with sales figures, there
is no real geographic correlation: the US, UK, and China
dominate, with 84% of sales, but collectively host only
31% of exhibitions. In other words, while sales are highly
concentrated in three countries, exhibitions are everywhere.
When it comes to the artists exhibited in national
galleries, there is a strong preference for home-grown
talent: a German institution prefers to show a German
artist, a US institution an Ameri-
can artist, and so on. I tell artists to get involved in
Predictably, superstars are the artistic community and
far and away the most widely commit to it. Do your research
exhibited artists. From 2006 to on other artists whom you
2016, the top five most exhibited think you are aligned with.
artists did not change. Andy Look into their career paths
Warhol has held the no. 1 spot and the steps they took.
for the past decade, followed by Elizabeth Dee, gallerist and
Pablo Picasso at no. 2. The third, art fair founder
fourth and fifth spot, meanwhile,
has changed hands annually between the same three artists:
Bruce Nauman, Gerhard Richter, and Joseph Beuys.
68 / 69
Case
Stud
y
M A R I LY N M I N T E R — A L E A D I N G A M E R I C A N A R T I S T
Marilyn Minter is one of the world’s leading artists, best known

for her sensual paintings and photographs. She has had solo
shows at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Deichtor-
hallen Hamburg, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston,
and many more. Recently, Aby Rosen put up her works at the
Rose Bar in the Gramercy Park Hotel, the same hotel that first
hosted the Armory Show.
I first encountered her work in 2007, when I saw an
advertisement campaign by Tom Ford, shot by Marilyn. I have
Artists
been a follower of her work ever since. On a rainy day, I visited

Marilyn in her studio in midtown New York, where we talked
about her long career, the phases she went through, and
challenges she faces today.
While Marilyn is now a celebrated artist, her success
didn’t come immediately. In 1972, she received her MFA from
Syracuse University and shortly thereafter moved to New
York City. During this early part of her career—what I call the
shopping phase—Marilyn, like so many other young artists, was
struggling. And people exploited that: she has her fair share of
tales about dealers who, having sold her work, would slip away
in the night, leaving her unpaid and in debt. The trust system
leaves the door open for all kinds of shadiness, especially in the
shopping phase, when artists are young, inexperienced, and
without the useful protection that can come with a few
influential associates.
Partly because of this permanent financial instability, Marilyn
worked throughout her entire shopping and decision phases as a
substitute teacher in the Bronx and Brooklyn until 1986. While it
paid her bills, it was also through teaching that she learned what
she sees as a great lesson: if something (a style, a technique)
comes easily to you and you enjoy doing it, then don’t stop. You
may feel that it is effortless, but other people may struggle to
do what you find so easy, so don’t make things harder for your-
self by setting yourself unnecessary challenges. Above all, have
confidence in yourself and your vision; few people will believe in
you if you do not believe in yourself.
There wasn’t really a specific point in her career where she
broke through, but eventually major galleries picked up her
work. Now in the final phase of her career, Marilyn is represented
by top galleries globally, and her works fetch high prices at
auctions. To my surprise, though, she still teaches on the side to
pay for her studio and her studio assistants. She teaches on the
MFA program of the School of Visual Arts in New York, takes
advertising jobs (including collaborations with Tom Ford, Jimmy
Choo, and Supreme), and takes on some commissions, all in
order to finance the handful of works that she creates annually.
70 / 71
Marilyn is one of the many working artists who understands
that artistic success does not necessarily mean you can rely on
it as your primary income. Throughout all phases of her artistic
career, she has added a second income stream to stabilize her
income and finance her practice.
ADVICE
ONE
Work from the love of creation, and trust what you do well.
Other artists will recognize that.
TWO
Find allies, people whom you respect, and connect with them.
THREE
Expect rejection.
Case
Stud
y
SALMAN TOOR—HOW TO GET A SOLO SHOW

AT T H E W H I T N E Y
Salman Toor is considered one of the shooting stars on the

2020 global art scene. Within ten years of graduating from
Pratt Institute in New York, he had his first solo show at the
Whitney Museum of American Art. The classically trained
American-Pakistani artist found success in exploring modern
themes of gender, sexual orientation, and the feeling of other-
ness. In our interview, we discuss the phases of his career
thus far, and how things have recently changed.
Artists
Salman’s shopping phase was between 2009 and 2016. During

this time he was primarily looking at Old Master paintings,
because his goal was to be as good as they were. Since his pieces
were so labor intensive, he was producing only fifteen paintings
a year, which he would sell for around $3,000–$8,000 each
through a small gallery. Salman tells me that, for a while, he was
happy just painting and making a small income, but eventually he
grew tired of spending so much time painting in one manner, and
he needed to create more time to explore his other ideas.
Upon moving into a new apartment, Salman did a series of
unplanned and loosely painted works, highly creative passion
projects from his heart. He didn’t plan on showing them to
anyone in a serious capacity, but the people who saw them in
his place seemed to really respond to them. This change of style
to something more autobiographical led to the second phase of
his career, the decision phase. In 2018, he had one pivotal show.
He showed his new works at Aicon Gallery, centrally located in
downtown New York. Because he was curious about the recep-
tion of his new works and because he wanted to promote them,
he reached out to Jerry Saltz via Instagram and invited him to
his show. Jerry didn’t come to the opening, but he wrote about
it and posted it on his Instagram. The art world took notice.
Ambika Trasi, of the Whitney Museum (who had also come to
a 2015 show), saw the new “frank” paintings and visited Salman
twice during the following year. In September 2019, Trasi asked
Salman if he could manage to do a show at the Whitney in just
six months, which he gladly agreed to. After doing a number
of smaller exhibitions, this was the key moment for his career,
and it came as a total surprise. What followed was a storm
of photoshoots, interviews, and a rapid increase in sales. Asked
how this affects him, Salman tells me that despite a lot of
anxiety while events moved so fast, he tried to stay calm and
articulate about his work.
Salman’s story is a good example to show how an artist
moves through the career stages. It also shows how a single
event can help to change the entire course of a career. Now
in the decision phase of his career, Salman will continue on his
72 / 73
skyward trajectory. His career has just begun to boom.
ADVICE
ONE
You don’t have to be an artist. You don’t need the
approval from others. First you need to have a
conversation with yourself.
TWO
Don’t depend on it for money. Success is not a given.
THREE
Engage with culture and what’s going on in
the world. How can you engage with the world
through your art?
5
Galleries
—Finding
55
Representation
74 / 75
Galleries are the gatekeepers to the art world. They
decide who will be shown and who will not. As commer-
cial intermediaries in the market, their most obvious
task is simple: to sell art so that artists can produce
more work. But there is a lot more to the gallerist role
than that. They identify artists, support and nurture
them, and promote them with collectors, writers, and
curators. They must be talent spotters, agony aunts,
advocates, and publicists.
5.1
Gallery Overview and
Classification
Galleries
While artists and collectors may seem like the only truly
crucial players in the art market, gallerists play an important
role between the two. Unsurprisingly, most gallery owners
have no particular business education, as running a gallery
requires no more qualifications than any other form of retail.
This may, incidentally, explain the average gallery owner’s
resistance to contracts or written agreements.
The revenue model for a lot
You should familiarize of galleries is two-sided, with a
yourself with the international primary and secondary market.
gallery landscape and research In the primary market, revenue
their programs. Visit the comes mainly from selling
galleries and get to know artworks by artists represented
the artists who show there. by the gallery. Usually, the
James Fuentes, gallerist gallery and the artist will split
the profit 50/50 (minus the cost
of production). If the artist is
represented by another gallery, that gallery will likely receive
a 10% commission. In this market, prices are subject to
negotiation; typically, an initial price is agreed by the artist
and the gallery, but discounts may be given to museums or
known collectors with enough influence to raise the profile of
the artist and thus lead to more sales.
A small, select group of galleries is active on the secondary
market, buying artworks on behalf of the collectors they
represent or for the gallery’s
inventory. These galleries may Keep making works. Be
also act as investor-collectors, persistent. Don’t give up.
trying to buy undervalued works Katherine Bernhardt, artist
to resell at a higher price. Finally,
they might attempt to protect the reputation of an artist
they represent by bidding up prices at auctions.
The gallery market is heavily fragmented, and, like the
artists they represent, a tiny fraction of galleries account for
much of the total turnover. For our purposes, I have classified
art galleries into the four tiers below, along with an estimate
76 / 77
of their number in the market.
GA L L E RY B R E A K D O W N
ALPHA
0.1%
B E TA
2.5%
GAMMA
20%
D E LTA
7 7. 5 %
SOURCE: RESCH, 2011, PHD THESIS

Alpha
Alphas are superstar galleries with superstar clients.
They have major global brand awareness and usually have
galleries in several cities around the world. They are key
players on the secondary market and participate in the top
art fairs, such as Art Basel and Frieze, where they are given
prime booths. Examples include Gagosian, David Zwirner,
Pace, and Hauser & Wirth.
Beta
Beta galleries have nationwide brand awareness, but less
global recognition. They too have multiple locations and
participate in the top art fairs, but they are not given the
best spots. Beta galleries tend to represent mature and
emerging artists; any superstar artists are often poached
or co-represented by alpha galleries. Examples include
Galleries
Sprüth Magers, König Galerie, and Lehmann Maupin.
Gamma
Gamma galleries are the low-level galleries where even
talented artists may become trapped if they do not make
an early career move to the alpha and beta galleries.
Gamma galleries have little brand awareness and participate
in second-tier art fairs, such as Liste Basel, NADA, and
Untitled. These galleries represent high street and vanity
artists. Their collector base is small, and no strong ties with
museums exist.
Delta
Delta galleries have no brand awareness, and do not
participate in art fairs unless they are small, local ones,
maybe Art Karlsruhe, Art Zurich, or the Affordable Art
Fair. They represent only passion and vanity artists.
A good way to identify the classification of any particular

gallery is to look at the fairs they go to. If a gallery
participates at Art Basel, Frieze, Armory, or TEFAF, it’s
probably an alpha or beta gallery. A closer look at the floor
plan of the fair then reveals their exact position in the
hierarchy. You can see that the alpha galleries are centrally
based at the corners of the ground floor. The galleries
further away from the central ring or on the second floor are
less powerful and most likely beta galleries. Although fairs
claim to assign locations based on a curatorial concept, you
will see this power play in action at nearly every fair.
ART BASEL FLOOR PLAN
H AUS E R
& WIRTH
78 / 79
GAGOSIAN
AT R I U M
DAVI D
Z WI RN E R
PACE
SOURCE: ARTBASEL .COM

5.2
Key Gallerists Around
the World
Whether you achieve representation by any of the alpha

galleries in the world or not (and it is my sincere belief that
you have the ability to achieve that), it is important to know
who the major figures are.
Larry Gagosian of Gagosian

Larry Gagosian, perhaps the biggest name in the gallery
game, is the founder and owner of the Gagosian empire.
Based in New York, Gagosian has seventeen locations
worldwide and a revenue of around $1 billion. Gagosian
represents such artists as Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, and
Galleries
Georg Baselitz, and represents the estates of artists like

Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Alberto Giacometti.
David Zwirner of David Zwirner Gallery

While Gagosian may be the biggest name, David Zwirner
is considered the most influential person in the art world
(according to Power 100, an annual ranking by ArtReview).
His gallery has six locations from New York to London to
Hong Kong, and he too records revenues of around $1 billion.
Zwirner represents more than sixty artists and artists’
estates, including Yayoi Kusama and Jason Rhoades.
Jeffrey Deitch of Deitch Project

Jeffrey Deitch is a legendary American art dealer and
curator who opened his first gallery in 1972. Jeffrey has
an MBA from Harvard Business School, worked for some
time as a banker, and invented what is now known as “Art
Banking.” He was also, from 2010 until his resignation in
2013, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los
Angeles. Jeffrey has two gallery locations—in Soho, New
York City, and Los Angeles.
Manuela Hauser and Iwan Wirth of Hauser & Wirth
The Power 100 list also names Manuela Hauser and Iwan
Wirth in their top ten. Manuela Hauser started off early
in the art world, as her mother is the collector Ursula Hauser.
Manuela later married Iwan Wirth and they founded their
gallery in 1992. Hauser & Wirth now has an impressive ten
locations across the globe, including New York, London,
Los Angeles, and Hong Kong, with an estimated revenue
of between $600 and $800 million. They represent artists
such as Phyllida Barlow and Mark Bradford, along with
some artist estates, including those of Louise Bourgeois and
John Chamberlain.
Marc Glimcher of Pace Gallery

Pace Gallery was founded by Arne Glimcher in 1960 and is
now run by his son, Marc Glimcher. Pace has six locations
worldwide (New York, London, Hong Kong, Palo Alto, Geneva,
80 / 81
and Seoul) and a revenue of around $1 billion. They represent
artists such as David Hockney, and artist estates including
those of Christo and Willem de Kooning. The gallery has
also embarked on initiatives, such as Future Pace or PaceX,
which explore combinations of art and technology.
Other galleries to know
‣ Almine Rech (Paris, Brussels, London, New York, Shanghai)

‣ Lévy Gorvy (New York, London, Hong Kong, Zurich)
‣ Marian Goodman Gallery (New York, Paris, London)
‣ Perrotin (New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo,
Shanghai)
‣ Sadie Coles HQ (London)
‣ Sprüth Magers (Berlin, London, Los Angeles)
‣ Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris, Salzburg, London)
‣ Victoria Miro (London, Venice, New York)
‣ White Cube (London, Hong Kong)
5.3
Gallery Data
5.3.1
Geographical Distribution
The international gallery market for fine art comprises

19,087 galleries across 124 countries and 3,533 cities.
Although the Chinese art market is in the top three in
terms of value overall, the largest markets by number of
galleries are the US (34%), Germany (12%), and the UK
(10%). Combined, they account for more than 50% of the
total market, with 10,481 galleries. In the Asian corner of the
market, Japan accounts for 2%, followed by China (1%). On
a continental level, Europe and the US are far and away the
Galleries
most important continents to the art market, with 83% of

all galleries worldwide. Asia is still relatively minor, with 9%
of all galleries.
By city, there is no real deviation from country data in
terms of geographical significance. New York tops the table
with 6% of total gallery distribution, followed by London
with 5% and Berlin with 4%, thus accounting for 15% of
total art gallery distribution. The remaining enterprises are
distributed among the remaining 3,530 cities, the most
significant of which are Paris (3%), Los Angeles (3%), Chicago
(2%), and San Francisco (2%).
5.3.2
Revenue and Profit, Costs
Art gallery revenue in all its major markets is low, with 55%
of all galleries in the US, UK, and Germany producing revenues
below $200,000 a year. Revenue figures, moreover, are
traditionally quoted before the usual 50/50 commission split
is applied; the gallery thus retains only half of that revenue,
passing the remainder over to the artist.
At the top end, a few galleries do make money, with
16% achieving revenues over $1 million, and 7% exceeding
$5 million.
A breakdown by country, however, shows profit to be more
heavily weighted toward a small number of galleries in the
US and UK. 22% of both US and UK galleries clear over $1
million in revenue, a feat achieved by only 7% of German
galleries. At the very top, where galleries produce more than
$5 million revenue, the UK seems to do best: 13% of UK
galleries sit in this bracket, compared to only 4% of their
German counterparts. At the opposite end of the revenue
scale, 66% of German galleries and roughly half the gallery
population in both the US and UK make less than $200,000
in annual revenue.
Low revenue doesn’t necessarily mean slender profit, but
in the gallery world, all too often, it does. 30% of all galleries
operate in the red, and only 18% make a healthy profit margin
82 / 83
of over 20%.1 To put it another way, at the top end, a few
galleries have worked out how to run a highly lucrative gallery
space, but at the lower end, there is a sea of galleries that
produce little profit—or none at all.
Why are galleries so unprofitable? Most galleries have the
same four highest costs: rent (gallery space and warehouse),
salaries, art fairs (minus transportation), and transportation.
Rent is the top expense, since most galleries are located in
premium parts of cities and are closed three or four months
of the year, making that space economically dead weight for
up to a third of the year.
Another reason for poor profit numbers lies in the
product mix. The average gallery represents thirty-three
artists, but a significant proportion of their sales may well
come from just one artist. As a rule, 45% of sales at smaller
galleries (those with an annual turnover of less than $1
million) and 29% of sales at bigger galleries (an annual
[1] Profit margin is the net income divided by revenue. It measures how much out of every
dollar of revenue a company actually keeps in earnings. Profit margin is very useful when comparing
companies in a similar industry. Profit margin is displayed as a percentage; a 20% profit margin, for
example, means the company has a net income of twenty cents for each dollar of sales.
turnover of more than $10 million) comes from the works of
one leading artist.
Leading artists subsidize all the other artists, and if they
get poached by a larger gallery—which frequently happens,
since contracts don’t exist—the gallery is left with nothing.
GA L L E RY R E V E N U E
60
50
40
30
20
10 55% 29% 16%

Galleries
0 Revenue
$200k $200k–1m $1m
S O U R C E : R E S C H , T H E G L O B A L A R T GA L L E RY R E P O R T 2 0 1 6 ( DATA A P P L I E S T O U S , G E R M A N Y, U K )
GA L L E RY P R O F I T S
60
50
40
30
20
10 -10% -10–1%
0 Profit Margin
0–10% 11–20% 20%
-10
30% run at loss
-20
5.3.3
Focus vs. Profit, Competitors, Longevity
Another factor in the frequent money problems experienced

by galleries is a near universal but unprofitable passion
for contemporary art. 93% of all galleries sell contemporary
art, despite the fact that it is the least profitable sector.
An explanation for the weak profit margins yielded by
contemporary art is not initially obvious. A possible expla-
nation might be that the market
for contemporary art is highly I have no contracts with my
deceptive; while the value of this galleries. If a collector
segment is immense, it is concen- approaches me, I decide which
trated in a minuscule group of gallery will sell to them.
key names, hyped up by the rare Gregor Hildebrandt, artist
pieces that make stunning prices.
The vast majority of galleries are selling modestly priced
84 / 85
artwork from less stellar artists, and hence their labors bear
limited fruit; no other segment has as many competitors
as contemporary art.
Given the tough market conditions, a high failure rate
among galleries is not unexpected. In general, galleries do
not have long histories. Almost half were founded after
2000 (12% since 2010), and more than 40% were founded in
the last three decades of the twentieth century. Only a small
proportion, 7%, have been operating for more than forty-
five years. Galleries simply cannot replicate the historical
sustainability of auction houses. Even powerhouses like
Gagosian have no clear succession plan. As of 2020, there
was almost the same number of galleries opening as there
were galleries closing. More optimistically, while fewer
galleries are opening (there has been an 86% decline in
openings over the past decade), the rate of closure is also
slowing, meaning that galleries are surviving longer.
F O U N D I N G Y E A R O F GA L L E R I E S
I N T H E U S , G E R M A N Y, A N D T H E U K
in % 94% founded
after 2000
40
30
20
10
0 1950 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2010

–1960 –1970 –1980 –1990 –2000 –2010
Galleries
5.3.4
Art Fairs
Art fairs, for galleries, are the equivalent of an international

presence, giving gallerists a window of a few days to court
collectors from around the world. The number of art fairs
has shot up over the last decade, mostly as a consequence
of the increasing attempts among galleries to expand
beyond their limited local customer base by showing artists
internationally. Large turnouts at gallery openings may
look impressive, but don’t be
Read a lot and stay humble. fooled: openings are populated
Rashid Johnson, artist mostly by visitors, rather than
buyers. Even taking art fairs into
account, galleries—small or large—have, on average, seventy
buyers. The difference is that alpha and beta galleries have
buyers with deeper pockets, who purchase at higher prices
and more frequently.
Today, there are nearly 300 art fairs around the world.
Every second gallery participates in at least one fair, and
most of those show at one to three per year. A notable 14%
attend four or more fairs. They have good reason to invest
in attendance: 45% of total sales in 2019 came from deals
made at art fairs (up from 30% in 2010).
D I S T R I B U T I O N O F D E A L E R S A L E S AC R O S S
T H E D I F F E R E N T P L AT F O R M S
ONLINE ONLINE
Own websites Other
3% 2%
GALLERY
NATIONAL 15%
ART FAIRS
INTERNATIONAL 50%
ART FAIRS
86 / 87
30%
5.4
Finding Gallery
Representation
Finding gallery representation is one of the biggest challenges
confronting artists. While most universities include tuition
in how to move from study into work (and are scrutinized
on their graduate destinations and employability), art
academies have completely fallen short on any equivalent
coaching. The most common approach taken by your
average graduate is to send an email to the gallery staff,
general gallery email (info@) or even to the founder of the
gallery. Alternatively, some artists prefer to send direct
messages to the gallery or to
Do your homework when tag the gallery on an artwork
looking for representation. on Instagram; some walk into
If you are eyeing a specific the gallery, approach front
gallery, make sure your work desk staff, and show their work
fits in with that gallery’s on a tablet or printed out in a
program. Talk to the other binder. Unfortunately, none of
artists and make sure they are these approaches works. In our
financially secure enough to interview, Jeffrey Deitch recalled
take on another artist. that when he started, he looked
William Powhida, artist at these works, but today, he
simply hasn’t the time.
Empirical evidence suggests there is only one failsafe way
to find gallery representation: through networking. While the
Galleries
term “networking” might sound too abstract to some (and

too corporate to others), it just means that you need to know
somebody who introduces you to the gallerist. This is daunt-
ing, but necessary, and I have developed a practical three-step
approach to help you find gallery representation.
5.4.1
Step 1: Identify Your Target
If there are approximately 20,000 galleries in the world,

only ten, twenty at most, are going to be a good fit for you.
Finding a gallery is similar to dating: there are millions of
potential partners out there, but only a handful are really
a good match. In order to find the right gallery, you need to
do your research.
Visit exhibition openings

Every artist should make a point of attending gallery
openings wherever they can get to them, in their own city
and beyond. By visiting exhibitions, you get a good idea of
the gallery’s program, its clients, and the crowd it attracts.
When I moved to New York, I spent most of my Thursday
evenings in Chelsea to attend the gallery openings. I always
went by myself, which forced me to meet new people and
made it easier to gradually build up a circle of contacts from
one gallery to the next. It was a purely professional strategy:
I didn’t go to study the art, I went to network with the
guests. Sometimes I would visit
up to ten gallery openings If an artist approaches me for
a night, meeting new people an exhibition, but I have never
at each one. seen them in the gallery before,
For those of you who feel that’s a no. If someone comes
deterred by shyness, and who are to openings and becomes a
horrified by the idea of talking to familiar face, then I appreciate
gallery staff or guests, you will their interest and consider their
soon realize that gallery staff offer more seriously.
start to notice you, so I encour- Ellie Rines, gallerist
age you to put one foot in front
88 / 89
of the other and keep turning up: gallerist Ellie Rines, for
example, is very clear in her interview that she places great
value on artists taking an interest in her gallery program
and attending her openings. I can honestly say that in my
case, not one event was wasted. At each one, I connected
with journalists, artists, gallerists, and collectors. I consider
it an absolutely core activity for any artist.
Study the gallery’s website

A physical visit to a gallery will give you a good sense of its
area of interest. If you feel that you are a good fit for the
gallery, start doing your desktop research. Who is the
gallerist? What’s her background? Where did she grow up?
It’s helpful to find a way to connect, whether it’s because
you share a nationality or a love of country and western
music. Don’t ignore other employees on the website, either.
Front desk staff might not decide who gets exhibited, but
they might be your first point of contact within the gallery.
Look for these soft factors, as they will help you to create
a bond once you meet. A word of caution: visit in person first,
website and research second. Don’t be tempted to skimp
on actual gallery visits. The website alone won’t give you
a holistic understanding of the gallery, particularly if their
website—as is often the case
If you really want to get to —is fairly generic.
know me, you need to do your
research to understand more Identify, study, and connect with
about my artists, my gallery, your target gallery’s artists
my world. Don’t just come While the founder might be the
unprepared into the gallery. ultimate decision maker, anyone
Bill Powers, gallerist related to the gallery is an
important contact, particularly
its artists. Tim Blum, co-founder of Blum & Poe, stresses
in our interview that he often finds out about new artists
through introductions by his existing artists. Artists are very
receptive to other artists and remember how it felt to be in
Galleries
your shoes. If they like your work, you can generally rely on
their support, because they have nothing to lose. To reach
out to artists of a gallery, study their profiles closely. Check
their résumés, residencies, and grants, and which museums
have their works. A second benefit of this exercise is that it
will show you if the gallerist shows a pattern of recruiting
from a certain university or residency. David Kordansky, for
example, started his gallery by showing primarily artists
from California Institute of the Arts: you may find a similar
common origin among artists of the gallery you favor.
Ask for references

Networking with artists of a gallery is also an opportunity
to discreetly investigate the experience and reputation of the
gallerist. Does the gallerist pay on time? Does the gallerist
stick to commitments to do solo shows? How well connected
is the gallerist? How many pieces were sold in the last show?
It’s no different to joining a new company as an employee.
If you know someone who is already working there, you ask
questions. This is far less common in the art world, leading
to some very unwelcome surprises.
5.4.2
Step 2: Network, Network, Network
Once you have done the initial research, you then need to
start the initial outreach to people who are acquainted
with the gallery. Potential targets are:
‣ Founder of the gallery

‣ Staff
‣ Artists
‣ Collectors
‣ Friends of the gallery
This process can be time intensive and tiring, and the

influence of any one person at the gallery is often not visible,
particularly among collectors
and friends. Don’t give up if you Being in dialog with, fighting
90 / 91
feel like you aren’t making with, and communicating with
progress. Cultivating your community of artists is
relationships and building the most valuable element for
trust will take time. The most the success of any artist.
important thing is to put yourself Paul Schimmel, curator
out there by connecting with the
community, and staying visible by actively using Instagram
and attending shows. When you think you have found
someone who can genuinely advocate for you, be sure that
you can explain why you would be a good fit for the gallery.
5.4.3
Step 3: Be Prepared
When networking, it is important that you are articulate.

Attention spans are generally short, and you need to commu-
nicate clearly who you are and what your art is about. Learn
to speak about your work and its meaning, your mission
and vision, your goals, and why you would be a good fit. Most
importantly, have your Instagram up to date. I was standing
I have come to represent many next to Hans Ulrich Obrist
artists who I met through my at Frieze Art Fair in London
existing artist network. in 2018, and watched what
Johann König, gallerist he did. Whenever artists
approached him or someone
talked about an artist he didn’t know, he checked their
Instagram. Today, Instagram seems to be the first touch
point when people look you up. So make it your window to
your work, and make sure your résumé, artist statement,
and portfolio are ready.
5.4.4
Dos and Don‘ts
DO DON‘T
Galleries
‣ Research: know the gallery, ‣ Approach gallerists at art fairs

their art, and the people ‣ Send unsolicited portfolios
working there ‣ Walk into their galleries to ask
‣ Be patient for representation when it is
‣ Be prepared: keep your website not an opening
and Instagram updated ‣ Call or email them
‣ Go to events and show interest ‣ Wait for a gallerist to find you
‣ Keep in touch with your arti-
stic community
‣ Ask questions regarding past
experiences, revenue numbers,
payment
5.5
Working with a Gallery
Congratulations! A gallery wants to represent you.

Sadly, breakdown of the representation often swiftly
follows, leaving the artist frustrated and often embroiled
in legal battles.
Why is this? The short answer is that the usual art world
combination of lack of appropriate training and widespread
resistance to business practices does not bode well for
business partnerships. In a perfect world, the relationship is
based on trust; the agreement goes beyond business, and
is based on a type of friendship and close collaboration.
Ideally, it will result in both greater personal success for the
artist and greater financial success for the gallery. But the
hard truth is that the artist/gallery relationship is not very
healthy. Both are businesses that have to be run professional-
ly, and both of you have to put your interests first. Galleries
typically represent around thirty
artists with no full-time Find dealers and gallerists who
employees, so only a fraction motivate you to make your best
of their time and energy goes on work. George Wells, artist manager
you. Financially speaking, most
galleries are not even second-tier performers, and they are
92 / 93
being run by former artists rather than people driven by
a love for sales. The fee for this well-intentioned but often
inexpert level of representation is 50% of your income. All
of this adds up to the potential for conflict.
You must ask yourself if you really need a gallery, and
whether that gallery is professional enough to advance
your career. It is almost always a bit of a gamble. That’s
why I advocate contracts, specifically a Gallery/Artist
Representation Agreement, a legally enforceable contract
whereby the gallery agrees to work as an agent on the
artist‘s behalf. You will also need a Consignment Agreement,
a legally enforceable contract that defines the terms of sale
and compensation between an artist and a gallerist. (See
chapter 10 for templates.)
5.5.1
What Galleries Expect from Artists
It is helpful to know what galleries will expect from you once

they decide to represent you.
To keep making your work
Johann König stresses that his goal is to take away most
of the daily hassle from his artists so that they can focus
solely on their work. Stefan Simchowitz takes this one step
further, even buying artwork in bulk so that the artist has
enough cash not to worry about selling the next piece.
To be professional
You will need to meet deadlines, communicate with your
gallery, update them on progress, answer emails and phone
calls promptly, arrive at your openings on time, and only sell
your art through the gallery unless otherwise agreed.
I keep track of every work that To continue to foster your career

I create. I thought that I could by networking
remember. But I realize that I You should be available to speak
forget sometimes where a work
Galleries
to journalists and collectors

went. Keeping a list of all works about your work.
ever produced is necessary.
Summer Wheat, artist To keep your documents updated
Provide your gallery with
up-to-date copies of your résumé, artist statement, and
press articles; your sales history and prices; a contact list
of collectors, curators, and journalists; and images of your
inventory. Some templates can be found in chapter 10,
others can be downloaded at magnusclass.com
5.5.2
What Artists Should Expect from Galleries
While galleries will expect you to be professional and keep

creating, there are many things that you can and should
expect from them in return.
‣ Access to a large collector base and network

‣ Exhibitions in the gallery/partner galleries
‣ Participation at art fairs
‣ Greater visibility
‣ Financial support for the development of your art
‣ Freedom from administrative tasks
‣ Sales of your work
5.5.3
Major Discussion Points
When working with a gallery, Put everything in writing

discussions or conflicts may so that you can refer back
arise. These are the most to it. Don’t leave room
common issues that I have come for miscommunication.
across while working with artists Elizabeth Dee, gallerist and
and gallerists for fifteen years. art fair founder
In each case, the contracts I have
included in chapter 10 should prevent this type of issue.
94 / 95
Minor conflicts
Revenue split
The industry standard of 50/50 is widely accepted, but make
sure your gallery handles it similarly.
Payment cycle
Prompt payment is rare. I regularly hear of artists filing
lawsuits against gallerists who are long overdue paying the
artist’s share for works that were sold years ago.
Production costs and framing costs
Who pays for production and framing is often disputed.
Moderate conflict
Discounts
Slightly more contentious issues may revolve around whether
you or the gallery would like to sell your work to someone at
a discount, and how much this discount can be.
Solo shows
It is important to ensure you get the solo shows that your
gallerist initially guaranteed, and to keep to an agreed
time frame.
Art fairs
Ask whether you are guaranteed to be shown at an art fair
in which the gallery is participating.
Openings and after-parties
I have seen fallout over the protocol for the opening and
after-parties (i.e. do they happen, who pays for them, and
where do they take place).
Severe conflict
Shipping
Who pays for the shipping of your artwork and what hap-
pens to the works while they are in storage? Transportation,
as previously mentioned, is one of a gallery’s four main
expenses and will always be costly, but sometimes it is
unclear who is actually responsible for this expense: buyer,
artist, or gallery. Sometimes the cost of shipping can be
Galleries
negotiated into the purchase price, but if it is not, then it is

important to have a plan in place with the gallery regarding
who is financially responsible for this.
Sales records and buyer information
Galleries may want to keep who bought your work confiden-
tial, so that you cannot make a direct sale without them.
You should push for this information, so that you know for
your records whose collection your work is in.
Exclusivity
Many artists do work with more than one gallery, but the
arrangements can be quite delicate, as most galleries want
some kind of exclusivity. Exclusivity could be granted over
a region; you could enter into
I haven’t been represented multiple gallery agreements
exclusively by a gallery for most over different locations, which
of my career because I felt that would spread your visibility
galleries put their own interests and potential collector base. It
ahead of mine. Peter Halley, artist doesn’t necessarily mean that
you are represented all over the
world, but you may have representation in a number of cities
within your country. To get this right, you should reflect on
your eventual goals. Exclusivity could also be based on the
gallery’s network. Not all galleries participate in the same
fairs or share the same connections to museums, curators,
etc., so working with galleries
that have different schedules Always make very clear
and networks will give you contracts. For everything.
more visibility. And don’t use the gallery’s
Ending the contract contracts. Use your own.
Lastly, and this may be This will prevent big
the biggest conflict of all, arguments at a later stage.
is terminating the contract Jorinde Voigt, artist
between you and the gallery.
Perhaps you feel that your art no longer fits thematically
with the gallery, or you’ve outgrown them. Emerging galleries
usually represent emerging artists and help to build up their
careers, so it is entirely possible that as you become more
successful, you will want to seek representation elsewhere.
96 / 97
If a more established gallery approaches you, you can define
a transition period between the two galleries that allows
you to slowly exit from the smaller one. If you want to leave
your gallery simply because you do not like the way that
the gallerist runs their business, refer to your contract and
approach the gallerist in a professional manner to discuss
why you do not feel they are doing their best on your behalf.
You may yet be able to resolve the issues, or you may take
valuable negotiating experience forward to your next
partnership. The sample documentation in the final chapter
of this book covers termination agreements; it is important
for your wider professional reputation to think ahead and
ensure that terms are clear for dissolving any partnerships as
amicably as possible.
Case
Stud
y
TIM BLUM—LEGENDARY GALLERIST AND CO-FOUNDER OF

BLUM & POE
Tim Blum is the co-founder of Blum & Poe gallery, which

opened in Santa Monica in 1994. Today, the gallery is situated
in the heart of Los Angeles in a 22,000 sq. ft (2,000m²)
complex and has locations in New York and Tokyo. Blum & Poe
has represented an influential roster of Japanese, Chinese,
Korean, European and American artists, including Takashi
Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara, Mark Grotjahn, Sam Durant,
Julian Schnabel, and many more. In our interview, Tim reveals
Galleries
how he managed his gallery successfully for over twenty-five

years and how he was able to find and retain most of the
artists the gallery represents.
From its beginnings, Tim has grown his gallery alongside the
artists that it represents. Since Blum & Poe has become such
a big name in the art world, the gallery is inundated by artists
who leave unsolicited proposals (portfolios) or send them in via
email. If he took the time to look at every portfolio, he would
have “no time left to run the business!” While the gallery is
mainly focused on its existing and hence more mature artists,
sometimes they take on a new talent. Tim mainly relies on two
channels to find new artists.
His initial network was from his student years. He started
his gallery immediately after graduating from Bard College,
and the first artists he represented were picked from his former
classmates. Twenty-five years on, universities are still a primary
recruitment source for Tim. While he admits that he doesn’t
go to every MFA open day, he considers it vital to know which
programs produce successful artists and what trends appear to
be circulating through these schools.
Another main channel for him, and the first one he uses,
is recommendations from other known and trusted artists.
Tim stresses that having another artist vouch for your work is
invaluable; if another artist, already represented by him, backs
a new talent, he thinks it more likely that his collectors will do
so too. Tim was introduced to the work of Asuka Anastacia
Ogawa in Blum & Poe artist Henry Taylor’s studio a few years
ago. At the time, Tim bought a few works for his personal
collection, but he watched her work evolve over the course of
two years, monitoring her development before directly working
with her. For Tim, it’s essential to know that the artist is making
exceptional art for art’s sake, not for the sake of the market.
Tim describes two established ways to get into a gallery
network: find out which MFA programs are producing successful
artists and what trends appear to be circulating through these
schools, and be a familiar face in the gallery that you may want
to work with. To this end, it is helpful to live in one of the main
98 / 99
art hubs, such as New York, Los Angeles, or Berlin.
Tim is an example of a gallerist who started small and has
not only grown himself but has also brought many artists’
careers along with him. While he is established, he still takes on
new artists—but only through his preferred channels.
ADVICE
ONE
Always follow your truth. Do not make art that you think
is on trend for the sake of it.
TWO
Take the plunge into the unknown. Get your work out into
the world and into people’s hands, but keep your integrity.
THREE
Connect with a community. Be prepared to construct
one for yourself.
P E T E R H A L L E Y— S U P E R S TA R A R T I S T, YA L E P R O F E S S O R ,
Case
Stud
y
P E T E R H A L L E Y— S U P E R S TA R A R T I S T A N D
YA L E P R O F E S S O R
Peter Halley is one of the world‘s leading living contemporary

artists, a professor at Yale university, and a major figure in
geometric abstraction. He has been exhibiting his work for
the past forty years and has worked with numerous galleries
around the world. Given this wealth of experience with galleries,
I talked with Peter about his gallery approach and how that has
worked for him over the course of his career.
Shortly after receiving his MFA in 1978, Peter moved to
Galleries
New York City and began by showing with an artist-run gallery,

something he recommends for all artists embarking on their
careers. He met Jeffrey Deitch through a mutual friend, and
Deitch included his work in a catalogue of geometric con-
temporary art later in the decade. In 1986, Peter’s work was
shown alongside that of Jeff Koons at Sonnabend, one of two
galleries—the other being Gagosian—with whom Peter had
short-lived exclusive contracts that ultimately faded because
Peter had the strong sense that larger galleries tend to put
their own interests first.
Peter then branched out and began working non-exclusively
with different galleries around the world. In our interview,
he acknowledged that non-exclusivity can be a double edged
sword: it allows artists to be flexible by diversifying their
distribution channels, which is a great advantage, because they
can go where the market is hottest; but it also typically means
that their prices are lower.
Another unusual aspect of Peter’s gallery relationship is that
he always has the gallery pre-pay for the works; effectively, he
does not consign works, but instead sells them to the gallery,
which then resells. Since Peter shows a lot overseas, he has
found that doing this avoids the hassle of trying to ship back
unsold works, which can be fraught with difficulty and extra
cost. This is very, very uncommon; in fact Peter thinks he is the
only one who still sticks with it, but he cites Andy Warhol and
other older artists who followed this practice. Galleries often
refuse to do this, even for established artists, and many people
refuse to work with Peter for this reason, while those who do
only take on as many works as they know they can sell. Peter
produces around twenty-five or thirty works per year, so this
arrangement seems to work nicely for him.
Even though the galleries pre-pay for the artworks, they
still inform him who the ultimate buyers are. For Peter, it is
important to know which collections his artwork ends up in, just
for the sake of documentation. Having your work included in
a particularly important collection can also raise the prices of
your work as a whole, so keep a record of your buyers.
100 / 101
While Peter’s example is admittedly very uncommon in
today’s art world, it shows that there are artists who don’t
follow the traditional norms and are successful with it.
ADVICE
ONE
Successful artists need to come up with a business plan
that reflects the nature of their work, ethics, goals, etc.
TWO
Put everything down on paper. Keep a record so that you
always have a paper trail.
THREE
You can’t become successful by replicating someone else’s path.
Reach out to your peers and find your own.
6
Collectors
—Convince Them to
Buy Your Work
102 / 103
For centuries, collectors have been the equally essential
counterpart in the art world to artists themselves.
While artists supply, collectors establish the mar-
ket by generating demand and bringing money into
the cycle. If a collector endorses an artist’s work,
whether in the form of a purchase or just expressing
an interest in it, the artist’s value can suddenly go
up—considerably so, if the collector has influence. The
reputation and brand of the collector will encourage
other collectors to buy, and the career of the artist
can be made.
6.1
Collector Overview and
Classification
Collectors
Collectors fall into three categories: private individuals,

companies, and public institutions. Of these groups, private
collectors represent by far the largest and, together with
public institutions, share the clearest rationale. Corporate
art collections, meanwhile, are established to diversify the
assets of a corporation, to cultivate the company’s image,
and to improve the working environment. I want to have a
look at the characteristics of
Take risks, experiment, and al- collectors in order to determine
ways stay out of your comfort what kind of collector you need
zone —it will take you places! to target. In very much the same
Roya Sachs, curator way as the superstar artists
create the lion’s share of the
value in the supply side of the market, the spending on the
demand side is dominated by a tiny fraction of collectors,
who account for nearly all the turnover that is generated.
I have classified collectors into five categories according
to their spending:
‣ One-time buyers: 99%
‣ Art lovers: 0.25%
‣ Investors: 0.25%
‣ Dealer/Collectors: 0.25%
‣ Corporate buyers: 0.25%
COLLECTORS BREAKDOWN
ART BUYERS
One-time Buyer Dealer Collector
Investor Corporate Collector
Art Lover
ROOKIES
104 / 105
One-time buyers
Most collectors (99%) are one-time buyers. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that they literally own one piece of art, but
they have made only a couple of purchases and aren’t look-
ing to acquire much more art. One-time buyers might have
made their first purchase as a way of identifying their level
of cultural sophistication or their place within a class system
to the outside world, or as a pragmatic matter of house
decor. Buyers is a more apt description for them than collec-
tors. This huge group includes many in their late twenties or
over, usually educated with a high income, but with almost
almost no experience in the art market. These buyers tend
to acquire their works from local galleries or maybe from an
art fair in their city, but definitely don’t frequent openings;
if they do, they enjoy the event more than the art.
Art lovers
Art lovers (0.25%) are old-school collectors, typically in their
late fifties or over and often high-net-worth individuals
(HNWI). They buy art not just to fill empty walls, but
because they love art, are inspired by it, and find it exciting
to support working artists. Art lovers want to collect, but
they also involve themselves in the wider market, establishing
connections with the artists themselves and with public
institutions, to which they might loan artworks as part of
a public education program. After their death, they will
probably donate their collections to museums or other public
institutions. Examples of this type of collector are Susan and
Michael Hort and Eli Broad.
Collectors
Investors
Investors (0.25%) are buying art primarily for the return
they will make on it through its eventual resale, though it is
not their main profession. Slightly younger than art lovers,
those among this group are in their mid-thirties and over,
highly educated with a high income, and with an internation-
al presence. Investors tend not to go to openings, but they
are regular buyers, and their impact on the price and market
for an artist is considerable. Some of these collectors may
build their own museums to house their collections after
their death. Examples of investors are Steve Cohen and
Daniel Loeb.
Dealer collectors
Dealer collectors (0.25%) are demographically similar to
investors: mid-thirties and over, highly educated, with a high
income and an international presence. They are similarly
motivated by returns, but for dealer collectors it is their
primary business. They also have a career-defining influence
on the eventual success of any individual artist; they have
reputations in the art world as being vastly knowledgeable
about the market, and they maintain a network of dealers
in their close circle. A dealer’s collection will change in style,
content, and value as their life goes on, and before their
death they will probably sell most of it. Examples are Peter
Brand, Adam Lindemann, and the Mugrabi family.
Corporate buyers
Corporate buyers (0.25%) come from established interna-
tional firms and buy to offer employees an inspirational
environment, for marketing purposes, and to put a sheen on
their corporate identity. Corporate buyers will loan artworks
to museums or have global exhibitions of the entire collection.
Examples of these collectors are Deutsche Bank, UBS, and
Würth Finance International.
Rookies
106 / 107
The collectors I’ve described above make up 100% of buyers
in the market, but they are only the tip of a much larger
iceberg. Thinking on a larger scale, most of the potential in
the art market lies among those who are completely new
to it. They are unseen and unknown, and have not bought
anything … yet. This is in many ways the most exciting group.
I call them rookies, and they hold the biggest potential for
sales. At any regular gallery opening night, you will see a
hundred people, among whom one, maybe two, are buying
a piece, and ninety-eight are just drinking the wine. If you
eliminate those who admittedly can’t afford to buy anything,
this still leaves a really interesting group of twenty to thirty
people who are potential customers, but who need coaxing
over the line to buy.
6.2
Key Collectors
Before targeting a collector type, you need to research who

is out there, what their buying history looks like, and what
their motivation is for buying art. LarrysList.com details
the most important art collectors, and you should also read
through the annual ARTnews Top 200. Listed below are a
few of the most important collectors in the world.
The Mugrabi family (US)

The Mugrabi family are major dealer-collectors. Jose
Mugrabi was born into a Syrian Jewish family in Jerusalem
before moving to Colombia at age sixteen. In 1982, he moved
to New York and met Jeffrey Deitch, the uber-successful art
Collectors
dealer and curator, who encouraged him to begin collecting.

After starting his collection, Mugrabi began dealing on his
own and eventually made it his primary business. The
Mugrabis currently own the largest collection of Andy
Warhol works (over 800 pieces) and regularly bid at auction
for Warhols to keep the prices up. Jose’s children, Alberto
and David, are also involved in the business, and will likely
continue their father’s work after his death.
Bernard Arnault (France)

Arnault is the owner of the luxury brand group LVMH and #4
on Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List 2019, with a net worth of
$107.9 billion. Classified as an art lover, he both constructed
the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (designed by Frank
Gehry) and donated approximately $219 million (€200
million) to rebuild Notre Dame after the fire in April 2019.
Adrian Cheng (Hong Kong, China)

Born in 1979, Cheng is one of the world’s youngest
billionaires. He is the CEO and executive vice-chairman
of the real estate company New World Development, in
Hong Kong. He is an investor, with a focus on collecting
contemporary Chinese art. Cheng also founded K11
Art Foundation, in their own words a “not-for-profit
organization that promotes the long term development
of the contemporary art scene in Greater China.”
Mera and Don Rubell (US)

Mera and Don Rubell are true art lovers. Having collected
for fifty years, they focus on supporting young artists. Their
approach is to buy early in an artist’s career and they usually
purchase several pieces. Their collection of more than 7,000
works includes Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Damien
Hirst, Cindy Sherman, Kara Walker, and Andy Warhol. In
December 2019, the Rubells opened the newest incarnation
of their collection space as the Rubell Museum in Miami.
UBS Art Collection (Switzerland, headed by Mary Rozell)
108 / 109
The UBS Art Collection (owned by UBS Group AG) is one of
the most important corporate collections in the world. It
includes works by all relevant artists from the 1960s onward,
such as Basquiat, Warhol, and Gerhard Richter. It is home
to 30,000 pieces, which are shared with the public, either
through loans to museums or in lobbies worldwide.
6.3
Collector Data
6.3.1
Art-Buyer Segmentation
The total number of buyers in the world is hard to calculate.

What we do know is that the group at the top is very
slim. My team set out to count the number of buyers who
spend more than $100,000 on art annually, a figure that
by definition excludes one-time buyers. There are around
3,000 people who openly spend this kind of money, but we
estimate that there is an equal number of private buyers
operating more discreetly, thus
Don’t rush to get your work bringing the total of top-end
out; it takes time to achieve art lovers, investors, dealer
quality and find your truth. collectors, and corporate buyers
Welcome in patience and per- to around 6,000 people world-
severance over the seduction wide. This group is responsible
of immediate gratification. for only a small number of total
Tali Lennox, artist transactions in any given year,
but the overall value represented
by those transactions is huge. It is this group that is spend-
ing the majority of the money on the market—not in terms
of volume, but in terms of value.
In general, most art collectors are private, rather than
Collectors
corporate buyers, and they are still, in the main, white men
aged forty to sixty-four. Women collectors, however, are
now on the rise (currently accounting for roughly 30%),
and they seem to prefer contemporary art. The top three
factors that collectors list as their motivation for buying
art are aesthetics (87%), passion (86%), and to support
artists (79%). As you might expect for the two regions with
the largest share of the world’s art galleries, the US and
Europe are home to a collective 83% of the world’s buyers,
which explains why so many galleries are found there. For all
galleries, local buyers are their most important clients. They
may have developed an international presence, but it’s still
the buyers in their home towns that generate revenue.
6.3.2
Positive and Negative Signs in the Market
An increase in the number of rich people is always the best

possible news for the art market. More wealthy people
looking to splash out on art gives you a better chance of
selling. Attendance numbers at exhibitions and shows have
also increased 9% in the last five years (1.2 million people
in 2019). In particular, the attendance at big art fairs, such
as Art Basel, has gone up, a good indicator of increased
interest in taking an active role in the art world.
Nonetheless, despite these positive indications, the
number of artworks sold in the past decade has dropped
by approximately 10%. Increasing visitor numbers and
fewer sales leads to the conclusion that the art market has
a conversion problem: people are coming to see art but are
not buying it. What that means for you and your career as
an artist is that success may lie in converting these visitors,
our rookies, into buyers.
C H A N G E I N A R T S H O W AT T E N DA N C E
FAIR FIRST VISITORS IN VISITORS IN CHANGE CHANGE

EDITION 2019 2018 2 0 1 8 –2 0 1 9 2 0 1 3 –2 0 1 9
ARCO 1982 103,000 100,000 3% -31%
110 / 111
THE ARMORY
1994 75,000 65,000 -12% -5%
SHOW
ART BASEL 1970 93,000 92 ,000 1% 8%
ART BASEL
2013 88,000 80,100 10% 47%
H O N G KO N G
ART BASEL
2002 81,000 83,000 -2% 8%
M I A M I B E AC H
FRIEZE
2003 70,000 67,800 3% 75%
LONDON
FRIEZE
2011 44,000 42 ,400 4% 69%
MASTERS
FRIEZE
2012 39,000 41,800 -7% -13%
N E W YO R K
FRIEZE
2019 30,000 – – –
LOS ANGELES
T E FA F
1988 70,400 68,271 3% 0%
MA ASTRICHT
6.4
Online Buyers
In the light of decreasing conversion rates, optimism was
high for a while that the online market would be a wel-
come savior. Dealers and gallerists hoped that a younger
generation of new collectors would use remote technology
to buy, and would establish the online channel as a firm
revenue stream. Thus far, they have been disappointed. Only
32% of online buyers are under
More than any other job, being thirty-five years old, which is
an artist requires you to delve almost the same as the off-line
deep into your own self. statistics. Nor has it helped to
Thomas Girst, cultural manager grow the market. In 2018, online
sales accounted for only 9% of
global sales, taking in around $6 billion. The average dealer
Collectors
made 6% of their annual sales online.

The real difference between online and off-line markets
seems to be price. In annual expenditure terms, there is a
sticking point of $10,000, with buyers hesitant to spend
beyond that online. In fact, 76% spend less than $10,000,
and 61% spend less than $5,000. Online buyers also tend to
want more individual pieces for their money; they buy more
works at lower prices, while off-line collectors, in the main
(57%), spend the same sum on only one or two artworks.
These trends are important to monitor, and you should keep
them in mind when setting prices, since works that are too
expensive may not find a buyer online.
The future of online art sales seems uncertain, as 22% of
buyers want to spend less online, and only about 30% want
to increase their budget for online purchases. There are a
number of reasons why people may not want to buy online.
Oversupply
Too much choice can lead to indecision. If someone has to
browse thousands of artworks, they may worry that they
will miss something they like more.
Lower service levels
Shipping and framing artworks bought online is still not
seamless and straightforward for the buyer.
Little price transparency online

No way of comparing prices, especially if something is listed
as “price upon request.”
AG E D I S T R I B U T I O N O F O N L I N E
COLLECTORS
18–24
8%
25–34
65+ 24%
11%
55–54
35– 44
112 / 113
15%
24%
45–54
18%
ONLINE COLLECTOR BUDGETS

$ 250,000+ Unsure
2% 4%
$ 100,000–$ 249,999
2%
$ 50,000–$ 99,999
3%
< $ 5,000
$ 25,000–$ 49,999
4% 61%
$ 10,000–$ 24,999
9%
$ 5,000–$ 9,999
15%
S O U R C E : T H E O N L I N E A R T C O L L E C T O R R E P O R T, A R T S Y. N E T
M O T I VAT I N G FAC T O R S F O R O N L I N E
COLLECTORS
To decorate
my home
To inspire
me
To build a
collection
To support
artists
To support
artists I know
As an
investment
To give as
gifts
To give to an
institution
To pass on
Collectors
to a client
in% 0 20 40 60 80
‣
S O U R C E : T H E O N L I N E A R T C O L L E C T O R R E P O R T, A R T S Y. N E T
6.5
Finding and Selling
to Collectors
So, who buys your works? Who, among all the potential
buyers, is your customer? Artists rarely know. If I ask them
to whom they want to sell their works, they usually take
a scattergun approach and list the names of the first big
collectors that come to mind.
I think, I move. Yue Minjun, artist Artists are entrepreneurs.
Like every other entrepreneur,
you need to know who your buyer is. That’s why I propose
the following three-step approach.
6.5.1
Step 1: Identify your Target
The natural buyer for you is someone who can connect

with the work you do and loves it, maybe shares your
personal values, lifestyle, or passion, and can pay your
prices. Visualize the life of your preferred buyer. What
interests do they have? What car do they drive? Where
do they live? What clothes do they wear? Where do they
vacation? What magazines and papers do they read?
Through what channels could you reach that person? Again,
think beyond just the top collectors and consider the
potential of the huge one-time buyer and rookie market.
6.5.2
Step 2: Find Them
114 / 115
Reclusive artists may find this a challenge: you need to go
to the venues that you imagine your perfect buyer would
frequent. Certain locations and events have a style and
brand that attract certain
people. You might even find For me a work must meet
them where nobody is looking for three criteria: 1) the work
them: tech conferences, fashion must be visually or conceptually
events, or private members’ compelling; 2) the work must
clubs. Think where you position be historically relevant; and 3)
yourself in the market (low the work must be offered from
vs. high end) and choose your a branded gallery.
venues accordingly: once your Lisa Schiff, art adviser
positioning starts to take root,
you don’t want to have to start a process of reinvention if
you can help it. Online, you should spend some time going
through platforms like Instagram and Facebook, following
and liking the pictures of people that you think might fit
your profile.
6.5.3
Step 3: Talk to Them
When you find someone that you feel fits your preferred
buyer profile, you need to talk to them. You should be able
to speak eloquently about your work, what inspires you, and
why you are an artist. This may also be a great opportunity
to invite them for a studio visit. Make sure it is a conversa-
tion and that you are not talking at them. Engage them: ask
them what interests them, and what they are looking for.
6.6
How to Convince Them to
Buy Your Work
Collectors
Twenty-first-century artists are at an advantage when

it comes to where to sell. You can stay front of mind by
sending online newsletters, direct messaging them, or
posting pictures on social media
Quit drinking early. platforms. Of course, the best
Katherine Bernhardt, artist and most personal place to sell
remains your studio; it is the
place where the work came to life, and it is also the place
that gives collectors the greatest sense of connection to the
art world. Maintaining an online presence, though, reminds
people who you are and what you do.
6.6.1
Talking Points
In order to sell your art, you have to be able to talk about it.
There is no “standard” way. How you do it is completely up
to you. However, five things are important to keep in mind
for every conversation:
(1) Be passionate about your work!
Don’t be quiet or shy when showing people what you have
created. Be proud!
(2) Always have your images or Instagram ready.

Keep a folder of your work on your phone so that you don’t
have to waste time scrolling through your camera roll to find
the right pictures.
(3) Never say you don’t like something you made.

Only show the artworks that you are genuinely proud of. The
more you doubt yourself, the more a buyer will doubt you.
(4) Know your prices.

Establish your prices in advance and know what they are off
the top of your head.
116 / 117
(5) Convey confidence and trust.
The more you exude these traits, the more people will feel
comfortable working with you. Lack of self-confidence is
very common, but learn to keep it under wraps. It will not
help you establish either a reputation or a price point at
which you can make a career.
It is also good to talk about Don’t follow any models,
your motivations and influences. pioneer your own paths, take
Show them your work and make a lot of risks … and never fear
them understand what they are failure. Shirin Neshat
seeing. Pay attention to their
seeming temperament, and adapt to their way of discussing
art: some people enjoy having art explained, but others enjoy
looking without talking, so give those people space to think.
6.6.2
Closing the Deal
When closing the deal, consider the fact that buyers have
three usual concerns:
‣ What should I buy?
‣ Is this price fair?
‣ Is it a good investment?
With the (fairly rare) exception of a decisive individual

collector, you should not leave the buyer adrift in a wide sea
of choice. Most of the time, they don’t know what they want.
Give them some options, but not too many, and try to lead
their interest in one direction by saying something along
the lines of, “This is the work that I think is my strongest
and I see most demand for.” If they have a place in mind to
hang an artwork, ask to see the space they want to fill, and
tell them which work you think would look best in there.
Once they have chosen a piece, create urgency—offer them
a discount that lasts until the end of the week, or offer to
cover the shipping costs. If you have not already done so,
Collectors
encourage them to trust you by showing them press articles

or evidence of other collectors of your work.
When it comes to pricing, show them comparable pricing.
I cannot emphasize this enough: playing hard to get will
make it difficult for you to get sales. The lack of clearly
visible pricing holds collectors back from purchasing
artworks, since it makes it almost impossible for them to
see what the market value of an artwork is—and a lot of
people feel uncomfortable asking for prices. Provide them
with historic prices of this work, ideally in print, showing
a date and location at which you charged a comparable
or maybe even a higher price. If you still don’t believe me,
let the data speak for itself: artworks uploaded with their
prices are between two and six times more likely to sell
than similar works with hidden prices.
In order to convince buyers that your work is a safe
investment, present them with a better deal than they
would get at a gallery, and explain this to them. Let them
know that they would pay twice as much for your work if
they were not buying directly from you. Finally, stress that
every work has upward potential.
6.7
Hosting a Studio Visit
Is there a better place to show your art than in the place

where it came to life? You have conceived and created an
object, considered worthy of inclusion in galleries and
museums, bought by collectors, and admired by the public.
The production site of your art,
where the initial idea is turned I call my studio “The Dream
into a physical work of art, is Factory.“ This is where it begins
your studio. When talking to and ends. It’s a living artwork,
potential buyers, it is worth a place to network, to get
inviting them for a studio visit, inspired, communicate our
since it will give them a better brand, and sell to clients.
sense of your process and how Daan Roosegaarde, artist
you work. Keep it authentic;
118 / 119
people will know if you are performing or putting on a show.
Here are three steps to make sure you are hosting a great
studio visit. I have also included a checklist overleaf.
6.7.1
Step 1: Before the Visit
Potential buyers undertake studio visits for different

reasons, and you need to know what that reason is in each
case. Some may be companies looking to entertain their
clients. Others may be gallerists, curators, or journalists who
want an insight into your working process. In either case,
work out how many people you can accommodate without
crowding, and whether you are going to charge them for
the visit. This would apply mostly in the case of corporate
visitors, and I suggest between $250 and $2,000 for the
entire visit. As a side note: your local tailor doesn’t work free
of charge, and neither should you.
When a visit is something more than a casual drop-in,
make sure that you structure it with the host who is
bringing their invited guests. Prepare a game plan (welcome,
introduction by you, Q&A, one-on-one—overall, keep it to
forty-five minutes to an hour). Ask the host to have two
questions ready to get the Q&A started: you don’t want an
awkward silence. Ask the host
Brush your teeth, brush your for a visitor list, including email
tongue, and use breath mints. addresses, and do some research
Do not have bad breath when on them beforehand, in the same
networking! way that they might research
Stefan Simchowitz, dealer you before the visit. We live in
an age where it is acceptable, if
not expected, to have done some homework before meeting
someone, so don’t feel coy about mentioning a potential
buyer’s widely documented interest in, say, yachting or
opera, if you are chatting them up.
Be sure to prepare your studio before the visit. Don’t
Collectors
move away your supplies, but do move or clean up any

paint that could leave marks on your visitors’ shoes and
clothing. Put prices next to the works or put out a price
list (as galleries do). Also take the time to prepare a short
speech, no longer than five minutes. Just talk briefly about
your background, the work, and maybe mention prices.
Think about the things that you want people to take away
from their visit with you.
6.7.2
Step 2: During the Visit
During the visit, follow the agenda that you set up with
the host. Make sure you have time to give your five minute
speech, but also give them time to ask questions. If it’s a
small group, you can also run them through the studio setup
and present two specific works. Encourage people to take
photos and upload them to Instagram, tagging you in the
process; this is a great way to increase your exposure.
Toward the end of the visit, ask for contacts or business
cards. Circulate an address book or iPad where people can
enter their information. Most You need to be able to talk
importantly, don’t forget to sell. about your art in a relatable
If you think you have identified and clear way. You want
your target collector within the people to be able to connect
group, sell them your works, with your message and what
perhaps even offering a special you are doing.
discount since they are there Heidi Zuckerman, curator
right now.
6.7.3
Step 3: After the Visit
After the visit, be sure to thank everyone who came in a short

email and tell them they have been added to the newsletter.
If there was anyone who seemed particularly interested in
purchasing a work, don’t let this slip: follow up promptly.
120 / 121
6.7.4
Dos and Don’ts
It is very easy to get distracted from the main purpose of

a studio visit, so be sure to consider the following.
DO DON‘T
‣ Keep it as original as possible, ‣ Play music. It can be hard for

but stick to basic hosting rules. people to focus on you or your
If you can afford it offer some- art if music is playing in the
thing to drink or have some background. Most galleries
snacks ready. If you want them and museums let people look
to stay longer, offer wine. It’s a in silence
good way for people to release ‣ Offer drinks and snacks
tension and to get comfortable unless it is an extra cost that
talking about your art you are okay with covering
‣ Use the checklist ‣ Talk for longer than five minutes
‣ Do it for free unless it is a
casual visit
‣ Clean up your studio beyond
moving paints that could stain
6.7.5
Checklist for Studio Visit
BEFOREHAND
‣ Find out the reason for the studio visit (if it’s a corporate visitor, they may
be entertaining clients or bringing a gallerist; if it’s a curator or journalist,
they may want to see your work and better understand it)
‣ Pricing depends on the visitor: $250 to $2,000 per visit
‣ Define maximum group size
‣ Structure visit with host
‣ Ask host to have two questions ready to get the Q&A started
‣ Create a timeline, such as

7.00 pm Arrivals
7.15 pm Welcome by host
Collectors
7.20 pm Introduction by the artist

7.25 pm Q&A
7.40 pm One-on-one
8.00 pm End
‣ Ask for a visitor list and research each visitor
‣ Prepare the studio

Don’t move away your supplies, just remove paint that could leave marks
on your visitors’ shoes or clothing
Put prices next to the works, or put out price lists
‣ Prepare your speech

No more than five minutes
Make sure you know the two things you want visitors to remember
Talk about:
Your background
Your work, your inspiration, your motivation
Call to action: prices
DURING
‣ Encourage visitors to take photos and upload to Instagram (tagging you)
‣ Talking
Don’t talk for longer than five minutes
If it’s a small group, you can also run them through the studio and present
two works
‣ Selling
In one-on-one time, identify your targets and entice them to buy
Offer a special discount as an inducement
Create urgency by offering something that is valid only until the end of
the week
‣ Ask for contact details (if not provided before)

Circulate an address book or iPad for people to enter their addresses, or
collect business cards
‣ Don’t:
Play music
Offer drinks and snacks–you don’t need to pay for this. When clients walk
into a gallery, they don’t get drinks. Save money for other things.
AFTER
‣ Send a short email to everyone who came

Thank them for coming
Tell them they are added to the newsletter
Follow up any hopeful sales prospects
122 / 123
Case
Stud
y
LISA SCHIFF—ONE OF THE WORLD‘S LEADING

ART ADVISERS
Lisa Schiff is one of the world‘s leading art advisers and most
active art buyers. On behalf of her clients, she purchases between
100 and 300 pieces annually. Her focus is on contemporary art,
particularly emerging artists. In our interview she explained how
she sources artists, what collectors are looking for when buying
art, and what artists can do to attract their attention.
Lisa started buying art on behalf of her clients in 2002. Her
company currently represents twenty of the world’s most active
Collectors
art buyers. She explains the role of an adviser as two-part. On

the one hand, she takes a fairly decisive role with some of her
clients, until they figure out what their aesthetic is. Other clients
prefer to source artists themselves and consult her before
making the final decision. They will also typically ask her to help
negotiate the price.
Lisa uses what she refers to as a “three-prong system” when
deciding to buy an artwork:
1. The work must be visually or conceptually compelling,

2. The work must be historically relevant,
3. The work must be offered from a branded gallery.
This last point is particularly interesting. For Lisa, a branded

gallery does not necessarily mean an alpha gallery: it just
means a gallery that she trusts and respects and is within her
network. While her job is not to promote artists’ careers, she
wants to purchase artworks from practitioners who are on a
positive trajectory, so she sources them from what she would
call “badass” (meaning smart, innovative, and tough) galleries
and from curated non-profits that get critical attention. She
seeks out low-budget galleries looking to show quality artists,
and it is really crucial for Lisa to know that the person running
the show can do the job of taking artists to the next level; they
must have a track record of both elevating artists’ careers and
organizing shows that receive critical attention.
But Lisa also listens to other artists and their recommenda-
tions. Hence, she too (much like Tim Blum) strongly recommends
that artists become acquainted with other artists. Finding a
community of people who are serious about what they do and
collaborating within this community is essential to
survival and success in the art world. Lisa, like many art
advisers, is looking for art that does not necessarily look like
art, but which reflects the artist’s viewpoint. She would be the
first to tell you not to be afraid to voice your opinion in your art;
collectors want to hear it because it shows passion.
When listening to Lisa’s explanation of how she buys
124 / 125
artworks, it becomes clear to me that her purchase decisions
are inspired by a hidden network of galleries and artists that
put a lot of work into identifying potential targets. From this
selection of artworks, she chooses the ones that she likes the
most and that sit best in her clients’ collections. For any artist
hopeful of getting her attention, getting into her network
is imperative.
ADVICE
ONE
Put your heart and soul into your work.
Don’t do it just for Instagram.
TWO
Find a network of other artists and support each other.
THREE
Be scrappy and learn about the marketplace. Do whatever it
takes to get your work out in the world.
Case
Stud
y
MERA AND DON RUBELL—ART LOVERS
Mera and Don Rubell are two of the most influential and
perhaps most beloved contemporary art collectors of our
time. They started collecting in 1964, the year they married,
with a budget of $25, and never stopped. In 1993, they opened
the Rubell Family Collection to present their holdings to the
public, which led to the opening of the Rubell Museum in 2019.
Today they own more than 7,000 works by more than 1,000
artists, and they continue to grow their collection by the
hundreds every year.
Collectors
Having a track record as tastemakers (they discovered

Oscar Murillo, for example), I was most interested in how they
find artists. Don reveals that there is no strategic approach to
it. To find new artists, they speak to the artists and galleries
with which they have formed relationships over the years. They
like to visit galleries, both those they’ve worked with for years
and those they’ve never heard of before. Art fairs are also useful
for them, since they get to see a lot of art in one place, and
fairs will often dictate to them where in the world they should
travel next.
Once they have identified an artist they like, they prefer to
sit and chat, preferably over food. They also visit hundreds of
artists’ studios in an effort to get to know the people whose
work they’re collecting. Mera explains that they like to experience
the culture of the artist, which often means traveling to
wherever the artist is located. There are a few places that the
couple always visit—New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Cologne,
London—but they are very open-minded and are willing to go
anywhere in the world that will lead them to good art.
The Rubells fit my description of art lovers to perfection
because of their motivation to buy: their massive collection has
been built up by the couple’s love of art, rather than financial
considerations. According to Mera, it was well into the 1980s
before they spent more than $5,000 on a single work. Today
their threshold is $20,000, but frequently they buy for less.
They know that their ownership often pushes up prices for a
certain artist or work, but they don’t care about that, as they
aren’t interested in selling. In our conversation, Mera points out
multiple works and smiles at me when she says: “This work is
$1 million or maybe $2 million. At least, we think it’s worth that
and that’s everything that matters.” True masterpieces aren’t
always expensive.
Mera and Don are wonderful examples of art lover collectors
who have proved that expensive art isn’t always the best art,
and that every artwork can be worth $1 million—if you just
believe so.
126 / 127
ADVICE
ONE
Be a good artist. Believe in yourself and your voice. Don’t be
bitter and angry.
TWO
Go to graduate school. It gives you time to work and network.
Offer to assist a more mature artist and learn from them.
THREE
There are no guarantees. The only thing you can control is your
devotion to your work.
7
Journalists
—Persuade Them
to Write about You
128 / 129
Years ago, an article in Artforum could make or break
an artist’s career. In recent years, however, the status
of journalists as major art world players has ebbed
away, with reviews in big art magazines rarely read
by buyers and, contrary to popular belief, having little
to no impact on sales. Nonetheless, journalists still
play an important role in the art world. Buyers may
not rely on specific reviews, but the art world—mean-
ing gallerists, curators, and other journalists—pays
attention to these critics, and press articles help to
build trust and convey credibility.
7.1
Media Overview
and Classification
Journalists
It is well known that the print media industry has seen a

dramatic decline in recent years. Magazines such as Art in
America or Andy Warhol’s
Picasso and Warhol had one Interview magazine, former
thing in common: they were household names in the art
both marketing geniuses. world, changed ownership
They knew how to work with or folded. Digital magazines
the press and were excellent have certainly taken some
marketers. Simon de Pury, auctioneer readership away from print,
but user behavior has also
changed. While it might have been common thirty years
ago to read several pages reviewing an exhibition, most
articles now are comparatively short and deal with the
art market, rather than exhibitions. Nonetheless, there
remain numerous print publications, often passion
projects, that focus on art and the art market. Some
that I read are:
Artforum
Content: Leader in opinion pieces for gallery shows and
museum exhibitions. Guest art critics and curators also
contribute columns.
Frequency: ten per year
Subscription: $45 per year
Frieze
Content: Launched in 1991, Frieze focuses on contemporary
artists and exhibitions and includes essays, reviews and
columns. Its founders initiated the Frieze Art Fair in 2003.
Frequency: eight per year
Subscription: $60 per year
Art in America and ARTnews

Content: Oldest art magazines in the US, recently bought by
Jay Penske. Focus is on contemporary US art and reviews.
130 / 131
Frequency: AIA monthly; ARTnews quarterly
Subscription: AIA $99 (variable); ARTnews $60 per year
The New York Times Arts section

Content: Provides insider coverage of fairs, auctions, and
other market related content. Regular contributions from
distinguished industry veteran Carol Vogel.
Other industry newsletters you should sign up to include:
‣ Artnet News (news.artnet.com)

‣ Artsy (artsy.net)
‣ The Art Newspaper (theartnewspaper.com)
‣ The Canvas (thecanvas.online)
Useful Instagram accounts include:

@bradtroemel @jeffersonhack @thirstygallerina
@stefansimchowitz @culturerow @itstimetostopnow
@alice.rawsthorn @bennyor @jerrygogosian
@thingsizzyloves @artdrunk @whitehotmagazine
@snacks___ @artcube
7.2
Key Journalists
In general, there are two types of art writer: journalists and

traditional critics. While journalists write more for the arts
section in mass-media productions, art critics usually write
for a focused audience in specialist magazines. Informed
critical opinion aside, most writers also play specifically
commercial roles, two in particular, for which they are
essentially guns for hire. For publishers, contributions from
art writers are essential in attracting new advertisers. Many
publications review only two types of exhibition: those held
by advertisers, and events at metropolitan art centers,
wealthy arts foundations, or
Being featured in Interview galleries where they receive
Journalists
magazine and having my senior either hospitality or payment.

show written up in T Magazine Venues with smaller media
really helped to trigger the budgets are therefore often
success I had after I graduated. ignored. Art writers also produce
Lucien Smith, artist catalogue copy for galleries
or auction houses. Since their
essays are reviewed and paid for by the gallery, the critic’s
objectivity is limited to a certain extent. For galleries and
auction houses, hiring journalists for this type of copy is
a smart move, as they might then make use of the same
material to write an article in the broader arts media.
A few art market journalists are considered global taste-
makers, with unique access to industry leaders, a large audi-
ence, and, hence, the ability to capture the reader‘s interest.
Georgina Adam
Georgina is considered the grande dame of art market
journalism. Based in London, she has spent thirty years
writing about the art market and the arts in general. She is
the art market editor-at-large for The Art Newspaper and
a contributor to the Financial Times.
Melanie Gerlis
Melanie is based in London and is the art market columnist
for the Financial Times and editor-at-large for The Art
Newspaper. She has covered headline-making auctions, art
fairs, and market news since 2006. While she doesn’t really
review exhibitions, she does cover art market news.
Jerry Saltz
Now an art critic and columnist for New York magazine, Jerry
was a long-distance truck driver until switching careers at
age forty-one and later working
as the senior art critic for the Jerry Saltz shared my
Village Voice. He specializes in artworks after I invited him to
exhibition reviews, which are my show via Instagram.
often humorous and brutally Salman Toor, artist
honest. Jerry received the
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2018 and is currently based in
132 / 133
New York City, where he lives with his wife Roberta Smith,
an art critic for the New York Times.
Tim Schneider
Tim is the new kid on the block. He started writing his own
blog, thegray-market.com, and was then hired by Artnet
News. He is probably the leading journalistic authority when
it comes to data and data analysis in the art market. Tim
makes art market issues accessible by comparing them with
other industries, for example sports.
7.3
Media Strategy: How to
Find the Right Journalists
If artists have a show coming up, they often approach
journalists from the magazines I listed above. In most cases,
however, none of the above magazines or journalists are
Being an artist can be very the right ones to target, since
lonely, so cultivate a communitythey typically have a smaller
of people who want to see you audience than your local news-
succeed. Artists, curators, paper, and it can be difficult to
journalists, etc. Matty Mo, artist
persuade them to write about
you if you are not part of their
network. It might be better to widen your scope. Consider
this two-step approach to finding and talking to journalists.
7.3.1
Step 1: Identify Them
As with galleries, it is essential that you research the right

journalists for your needs.
Right audience
Journalists
Look for people who cater to the audience you want to

attract and who write content that you can see yourself in.
Make sure that they are also approachable and within your
regional scope. For example, if you have a show in Lisbon,
Portugal, it’s highly unlikely that the New York Times or
Artnet News will write about you. Instead, approach the
art journalists of every local Lisbon newspaper.
Broaden your scope

Think beyond art publications alone; research general media
outlets and topical pages and blogs that coincide with com-
mon themes in your work. If your work deals with astrology,
find interest groups local to you on Facebook and Instagram.
Engage them and invite them to the preview. In order to
identify the right fit, subscribe to every newsletter and maga-
zine that you think your ideal audience or perfect buyer would
read, and look into the authors of those articles.
Research personal email addresses

Once you’ve found a few outlets, start gathering the email
addresses of those journalists you think might be interested
in your work. Emails sent to “press@xyz.com” or “info@
xyz.com” rarely bear fruit, so always personalize it. If you’re
trying to find the individual email addresses of journalists
working for mainstream publications, an educated guess
using the same formulation as other email addresses at the
same publication will often succeed. Follow them on Insta-
gram as well to show interest, and add them to your contact
list, along with the name of the publication that they work for.
7.3.2
Step 2: Approach Them
The most important thing to I am a journalist. Naturally,

keep in mind when approaching I am interested in stories.
journalists is: it’s all about the What’s the angle, what’s unique.
story. Sometimes, admittedly, Georgina Adam, journalist
there is none; in which case you
134 / 135
have to generate a reason for a journalist to write about
your work, despite your lack of visibility.
I got very lucky in 2015 when I launched the second edition
of my book Management of Art Galleries. Nobody was going
to write about it, because the first edition had already
received a lot of attention. The angle suddenly wrote itself
when the printer I was using didn’t like what I wrote on one
page about print being relatively ineffective and costly. He
manually crossed out that page on thousands of copies of
the book and wrote “MAGNUS IS WRONG: PRINT IS NOT
DEAD” and “WRONG.” Suddenly I had a story that brought
the second edition of my book into the news. So while I don’t
encourage you to vandalize your own work, do keep in mind
that most publicity can be beneficial in some way.
When you feel ready to contact a journalist via email,
follow these recommendations:
‣ Write them a personal email

‣ Attach the press release; don’t paste the text into the
main body of the email
The wrong approach
Most gallerists and artists get it wrong. They paste press
release copy into the main body and send it to their entire
press list. This is a textbook example of how not to do it.
EMAIL
‣ For immediate release | Alex Rose: MELLOW | March 20th

FROM: HONG KONG GALLERY THU, MARCH 14, 2021 AT 10.04 AM
REPLY TO: INFO@HONGKONGGALLERY.COM
View this email in your browser
HK
GALLERY
March 20 th
Alex Rose: MELLOW
On View Beginning March 20th
View Press Release Below or Click Here to Download

Journalists
It’s generic, interchangeable with almost every press release

in the art world. They all have the same elements:
‣ Subject line: Press Release

‣ Logo at the top
‣ Dates of the show
‣ An image
‣ A short, impersonal text about the show, artist, and gallery
‣ A Mailchimp footer
Who wants to read this? Every journalist immediately

knows that this is an automatic email sent to a whole
contact list. Five hundred other journalists will get this
same email. Why should any of them write about it? It
may give you a momentary sense of accomplishment to
press Send, but it won’t achieve very much. This approach
shows the lowest opening and engagement rates.
The right approach

Send them a personalized email and attach the press
release as a PDF. Consider this email I sent to Melanie Gerlis:
EMAIL
‣ New Research - What makes an artist succesful

FROM: MAGNUS RESCH FRI, OCTOBER 26, 2018 AT 4:40 AM
TO: MEL ANIE GERLIS
Hi Melanie,
I hope you are well. Read your last column on auction data. I have
something along these lines.
Together with data scientists from Harvard I analyzed the art market
in a research study. It took us 3 years. We wanted to find out: What
makes an artist successful? The results are so surprising that they will
be published in Science, the world‘s number one academic journal.
It‘s embargoed until Thursday, 8 November at 2pm (US ET). I haven‘t
shared the paper nor this information with anyone else. If you would
like to write a story on this, I am happy to work with you on it.
Let me know soon, Magnus
This approach of a personalized email gains more

engagement from the recipient, and here’s why:
‣ Subject line: catches the attention

‣ First sentence: refers to something that they wrote about
last week so they know it isn’t a mass email
136 / 137
‣ Short: one or two sentences explain the story
‣ Creates urgency at the end (gives a general deadline for
the story)
‣ No Mailchimp footer
‣ Informal
This approach gets more engagement from the recipients.

In this case it led to a story in the Financial Times.
7.3.3
Dos and Don’ts
DO DON‘T
‣ Do your research beforehand ‣ Rely on your gallery to take

‣ Only send emails to journlists care of the press
who correspond to your needs ‣ Send out a mass email
(audience, content, scope) ‣ Approach a journalist who
‣ Create an interesting story doesn’t fit your story
‣ Personalize your email ‣ Copy and paste your press
release in the email body
Case
Stud
y
LU CI E N S M ITH —TH E AR TIS T W U N D E RK I N D
Lucien Smith was one of the most hyped artists of the early
2010s. In 2013, just two years after graduating from the Cooper
Union, one of his works sold on the secondary market for nearly
$400,000. In the same year, he also landed three solo shows at
leading blue-chip galleries. In 2015, Lucien decided to step out
of the market and the spotlight, only to come back to the scene
a few years later. In our interview, Lucien reveals how the media
played a fundamental role in kick-starting his career.
Journalists
At the beginning of Lucien’s meteoric rise was an article.

While still an undergraduate in college, in 2009 he participated
in a group show called The New Deal: Just What the Art Market
Needed, curated by Matt Moravec and Kyle Thurman. The show
put together some of downtown New York’s most talented art
students. It would have gone unnoticed, but Interview magazine
published a piece that drew a lot of attention from international
galleries. Lucien recalls that a representative of White Cube
read it and came to visit the school studio to see his work
shortly after the show. While an exhibition with White Cube
didn’t happen, it still put him on the radar. Later that same
year, Lucien was featured on the cover of Bad Day, a Canadian
magazine that portrays the art scene and is read by a young
and hip crowd.
Lucien’s media savvy soon earned him his next major article.
For his senior show, he convinced gallerists Al and Mills Morán
to give him $24,000 in funding, which he used to try and curate
a show that would rival some of the best gallery exhibitions.
Lucien titled this show Imagined Nostalgia. This show might
have been overlooked, had Lucien not run into Sara Moonves,
the sister of a childhood friend and an editor at T Magazine, on
a night out in New York City. Excited about his show, Lucien
gambled on being able to pique her professional interest with
the fact that he had been able to raise money from a gallery,
almost unheard of for graduate shows. His boldness paid off,
and she covered the story. That was in 2011, and just two years
later one of the works from the show (pictured in the T Magazine
write-up) sold at Phillips auction house for $389,000.
Lucien is a good example of how he leveraged his own
network to receive media attention. In both cases he had an
interesting, novel story, but what really earned him the articles
was the personal connection to the journalists and later the
brand that he had built up around him as an up-and-coming
artist. Those articles didn’t make his career, but they helped to
launch him. Lucien is a great example of an artist who has used
media attention to gain more visibility within the art world.
138 / 139
ADVICE
ONE
Be honest about your work and do what comes naturally.
TWO
Work hard in every aspect of being an artist,
including networking.
THREE
Find a community of like-minded people
or build up your own.
Case
Stud
y
GEO RGI NA ADAM —TH E WO RLD - LE AD I N G

ART MARKET JOURNALIST
Georgina Adam is one of the world‘s most important and

well-respected art market journalists. She has spent more than
thirty years writing about the art market and the arts in general.
She was editor of the Art Market section of The Art Newspaper,
where she is now editor-at-large, and she is a contributor to the
Life and Arts section of the Financial Times, where she had
one of the most-read columns in the art world. In our interview,
Journalists
Georgina reveals how an artist can get her attention, the impact
an article has on the career of an artist, and how to tailor the
approach to get her attention.
My first question for Georgina, was “How many invitations
and press releases do you receive each week?” The answer is
in the hundreds, and, hence, she can no longer pay attention
to all of them. Often people will send emails without making
any effort to find out about the person they are sending them
to. Georgina mentions that messages addressed to “Dear
Adam” or similar receive automatic dismissal. “This is very
unprofessional ... If you want to engage me, you should have
done your research.”
Although emails are ineffective, there are still ways that an
artist can catch her eye. First, she trusts PR agencies to filter
out the things that aren’t worth reporting on. Those are the
emails she reads, and she plans her visits accordingly. Second,
in-person conversations have a much greater impact than
emails. “If you can talk in person with a journalist, that’s much
better. You can really present who you are and why you do what
you do. Have a short pitch in the back of your mind at all times,
but also listen and be responsive to what people are saying in
the present conversation.” It’s a delicate balance between being
friendly and pushy. The more you are able to build
up a trusting relationship with them, the better.
The power of a mention in a press article can be badly
overestimated, according to Georgina. While being featured in
the press is certainly beneficial (perhaps even if the coverage is
negative), it doesn’t make or break an artist’s career, because
many newspapers and journals don’t have art critics anymore.
These days, arts sections typically report on the market, so the
impact on careers tends to come from taste-maker collectors
and galleries. That said, Georgina does admit that a press
feature tends to lend credibility to an artist. People are less
hesitant to buy something from someone who is in the public
consciousness.
Georgina’s tips are useful not only because they reveal how
difficult it is to get into the media and why it is important to be
smart in your approaches to the press, but also because she is
140 / 141
realistic about the power of the press.
ADVICE
ONE
Try to make personal contact. Don’t send a generic email.
TWO
Do your research. Get the person’s name right.
THREE
Tailor the story to what the journalist is interested in.
8
Your Brand
—Storytelling
and Pricing
142 / 143
There has never been a better time to be an artist.
The Internet and technology have completely rede-
fined the process of starting your own business. The
traditional barriers have been swept away; practically
anyone can build an audience online and sell their work
via this channel. The downside, of course, is that you
will have to elbow your way through far more compe-
tition. The way to stand out from the mass of artists
is to build a personal brand, to create a unique image
that sets you apart.
8.1
Tell the Right Story
Your Brand
As an artist, your skill, your work, and your status as a

hard-working professional with a commercial business
in this extremely competitive field are all an extension of
yourself and a part of your life
I created a brand around the story. Personal branding weaves
mantra “Life is beautiful.” all these things together in a
I repeat it everywhere and form that can be shared with an
every day. It is the essence of audience. Why is a personal brand
everything I make. You have so important? How does it help
to be consistent. you? Well, artists and their
Mr. Brainwash, artist artworks are, to put it candidly,
interchangeable with any other
artist. What makes an artwork special is the brand image
that comes with it. It’s not the technique or your education,
or the professor you studied with that makes the impact: it’s
your brand. Damien Hirst is the guy who fished a shark out
of the ocean and preserved it in a giant tank, and Jeff Koons
is the guy who made a sculpture of himself and his wife, the
Hungarian-Italian ex-porn actor and politician, Ilona Staller.
A brand builds trust and credibility, and can get your work
featured in the media; that in turn attracts more clients and
creates lasting business. Whether you like it or not, you are
in the business of brand building. I’m giving you a five step
approach for how to do it right.
8.1.1
Step 1: Build a Foundation
The first step in crafting your personal brand is to lay

a foundation that you can
confidently build on. The key Try to be as authentic as
principle here is authenticity. possible. Tim Bengel, artist
Use the same framework as the
business plan at the start of the book, and ask yourself:
‣ Vision: What do you want to be known for?
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‣ Mission: What’s your purpose? Why are you creating art?
Who do you want to influence?
‣ Message: What is the key message you want to communicate
to your viewers?
‣ Personality: What are some personal characteristics and
traits that you can weave into your brand?
8.1.2
Step 2: Choose Your Target Audience
One of the biggest mistakes you can make as you build a

personal brand is to try to appeal to everyone. In reality,
only a few people will be your clients, so don’t worry about
pleasing the whole world. Shaping your brand to appeal to
your ideal audience has got a lot in common with your ideal
buyer, which we discussed earlier (see chapter 6).
Ask yourself:
‣ What is their age, education, relationship status, income,

profession?
‣ How do they see their future? What are their dreams
and goals?
‣ Alongside these “ideal buyer” attributes, consider also:
what are they struggling with? What is preventing them
from achieving their goals?
Finding your audience does not mean waiting for them to

find you. Like gallery representation, you need to go out and
find them.
8.1.3
Step 3: Create an Irresistible Offer
To build a profitable personal brand, you need to create an

irresistible offer that helps your audience to solve a specific
problem or achieve a specific result. How do you create that?
Your Brand
Try to fuse what you love to do, what you do best, and what
your audience wants most. Ask yourself:
‣ What do you do best? Maybe you have a particularly strong

specialist technique—better still if it’s unusual. Maybe you
are a talented self-publicist.
In the beginning it appears as if Or maybe you naturally create
opportunities trigger the work. strong networks of people. I have
Later you learn that the work seen artists who are successful
produces opportunities. because they can organize dinner
Jitish Kallat, artist parties to perfection; people
buy the art because they like the
artist as a person and host. The art comes second.
‣ What do you love to do? The answer to this is part of
your vision.
‣ What does your audience want most? We talked about
this before: some are looking for inspiration, others want
to fill the white space above the sofa, others are looking
for an investment.
8.1.4
Step 4: Communicate Your Brand
Your ideal buyer is a willing buyer, but whether a rookie or

someone who has bought art before, they need help to
decide to buy from you. Instead of trying to convince your
audience directly that you are the right artist for them,
create content that actually helps them fulfill their needs.
This builds trust and helps to position you as an expert and
an authority. For example:
‣ Have you ever posted a photo of a happy buyer of your work?

‣ Have you ever made a video of a buyer talking about how your
work has changed her life?
‣ Have you ever posted a story that shows how much money a
collector has made with it?
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It’s about demonstrating how your art has influenced and
impacted people. If you know that a lot of your buyers care
about getting a great return on their money, post success
stories. If your buyers consider your work as an inspirational
resource, post the most compelling videos you can find of
buyers describing how your art works for them. Use any and
all channels at your disposal: press, public speaking events,
studio visits, and, of course, social media. Tim Bengel’s whole
career started with this. In his case study, he explains how
he uses social media to be successful and now sells works for
more than $50,000 (p.173).
Another trick that artists Being an artist means that
often forget is that your art- you are a business. You need
works themselves are a vehicle to market yourself. SEO, SEM,
to communicate your brand. Give social media are as important
them strong titles that carry to me as my brushstroke.
a message; don’t fall back on Matty Mo, artist
Untitled. Look at Damien Hirst
for inspiration, or Grayson Perry: his titles, such as Expulsion
from Number 8 Eden Close or The Agony in the Car Park, are
witty and memorable, which is essential in brand building.
Or you can do what artist Matty Mo did so brilliantly, and
give yourself a clever tagline. If you google “the most famous
artist,” you will see Matty Mo next to Picasso, Warhol,
Van Gogh, and Monet. He founded his platform “The Most
Famous Artist” in 2013 and uses this name to drive traffic
to his art.
8.1.5
Step 5: Engage your Community
Instead of trying to build a broad audience, set your sights

on becoming a leader of a niche within your community. In
almost every interview I conducted, each expert highlighted
the relevance of the community. Build a space in the
community for your target audience to interact with each
Your Brand
other, share ideas, and support each other. Communities

are crucial for success. You need to go out and meet people.
Spend less time in your studio and network more, both
online and off-line.
Artworks 8.2
How to Price Your
Pricing in the art world is not necessarily logical or rational,

and it can be a challenge to determine an artwork’s price.
There are a number of factors that can affect price:
‣ Materials used to make the work and other related expenses

‣ Time spent on the production
‣ Size
‣ Motive
‣ Quality (i.e. is this a highly finished piece or more of a draft?)
‣ Edition size
‣ Your résumé
‣ Who collects your work and whether it was part of a
notable exhibition
A good way to find the right pricing is to look at what buyers

are willing to spend. Here are a few numbers to guide you:
‣ The majority of online buyers spend less than $5,000

annually. In art galleries, the average price for a
contemporary artwork in 2018 was $9,335.
‣ If you are selling your work straight from the studio, then
buyers may expect it to be half the price that they would
be quoted by galleries.
‣ At auction, 92% of works are priced below $50,000 and 70%
are priced under $5,000.
There are two compelling reasons to keep price points below

$5,000: first, $5,000 matches current buyers’ spending
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habits; second, the largest customer group, the rookies,
have never bought before. So it seems advisable to suggest
artworks at the lower end. When I talked to mega-collectors
Susan and Michael Hort, they set their ideal price point at
around $6,000–$7,000 for an emerging artist. Interestingly,
Mera and Don Rubell, another powerful collector couple,
settle at a similar price.
Consider your prices as a marketing tool that needs to
align with your brand and your target audience. Keep in mind
that one of the biggest reasons people don’t buy artwork
is their insecurity about what to
buy and how much to pay for it— An artist who just graduated,
so don’t make it too painful for who isn’t making their
them to part with their money. best work yet, should ask for
But it is also true that higher $6,000–$7,000 or less
prices may attract wealthier per piece. Start slow.
buyers, and if it is priced too Susan & Michael Hort, collectors
low, it will give the message that
your art is worthless. It isn’t necessarily an easy balance, but
experience will help.
Based on a thorough review of existing pricing structures
and buyer spending power, I propose the following guideline:
SIZE JUNIOR SENIOR
SMALL $50–$500 $100–$1,000
MEDIUM
$500–$2 ,000 $1,000–$4,000
(60 × 60cm / 20 × 20in)
L ARGE
$2 ,000–$5,000 $4,000–$10,000
(120 × 120cm / 50 × 50in)
OUTLIER $50,000 $100,000

Your Brand
Remember—state your price, then stop talking! Never

explain. Never apologize.
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M R . B R A I N WA S H — S U P E R S TA R S T R E E T A R T I S T
AND ART MARKET REBEL
Mr. Brainwash is one of the world‘s best-known artists. More

people have heard his name than that of Jeff Koons, Damien
Hirst, or Gerhard Richter. Thierry Guetta, his real name, rose
to fame through the famous Banksy documentary Exit Through
the Gift Shop (2010). I met him inside his new pop-up museum
located in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and we talked about how
he became successful—without having a formal art education, an
existing network in the art world, or a business degree—through
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self-branding.
First and foremost, Thierry repeatedly explains his life’s
mission. “Life is beautiful” is his mantra. He communicates it
throughout our interview, continuously repeating himself. When
I talk to this gentle Frenchman, it becomes clear to me that this
is no gimmick: he is positive to the core.
Thierry studied his audience extensively when he made a
documentary on other street artists. He understood that
street art doesn’t appeal to the elitist art market, but to the
masses. He knew that if he wanted to be successful as an artist,
he needed to reach out to normal people. And his offer was
tailored to them: his artwork is very approachable, with lots
of pop art, Mickey Mouse, strong colors, simple text messages.
But none of this would be enough to explain his incredible rise
to fame. What really propelled his brand were his marketing
skills and his endurance. In 2008, Thierry was far from the star
he is today. Galleries left and right were turning him down
after he proposed his idea for his mega-show, “Life is Beautiful.”
So instead of relying on other people to promote his art, he
did it himself. He rented an empty office building in Hollywood
and put together an entire show, which eventually attracted
50,000 visitors—a triumph built on his own hard work and
ambition, without gallery support.
This show not only helped him to sell his art, also it
strengthened his brand profile and helped him to connect with
other brands that his audience could relate to. Thierry engaged
in carefully chosen partnerships with the film industry, celebrity
culture, music, and sports, for example designing album covers
for Madonna, Rick Ross, and KYGO. Celebrity collaborations
include legendary soccer player Pelé, who joined the artist in
splattering paint on limited-edition paintings inspired by his
playing days, and even, in 2019, His Holiness Pope Francis I in
a co-creation celebrating immigration.
Thierry is the definition of a self-starter, and that is how he
brands himself. He lives, breathes, and bleeds art, but it is his
drive and willingness to self-promote that has led him to the
Your Brand
success he has experienced over the past twelve years. In what

turned out to be a highly uplifting interview, it became clear
to me that he fully embraces what he does. His messaging is
absolutely consistent, and he is convincing in communicating it.
He leaves no doubt that he knows exactly what he is doing and
that he lives on this planet to share his mission. It is this
endurance and determination that are key to his success.
Thierry as Mr. Brainwash is an excellent example of an artist
who has created a brand out of his own self and succeeded in
making the world fall in love with that brand.
ADVICE
ONE
Never give up.
TWO
Follow your dreams, no matter what.
THREE
Work hard. You have to make your dreams into reality.
Don’t wait for someone to come help you.
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J O RDAN WO LFSO N —TH E M OS T CO NTROVE RS IAL AR TIS T

IN THE WORLD
Jordan Wolfson is probably the world‘s most controversial

artist. He is best known for his interactive animatronic pieces,
specifically Female Figure from 2014, and Real Violence from
the 2017 Whitney Biennial, a VR work which shows a street
fight, both of which were widely discussed in the art world.
I first heard about Jordan when he showed Female Figure
at David Zwirner gallery in 2014. When my friends complain
that they have to line up in order to see a single art piece,
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I take notice. An artist who is below forty and attracts large
crowds is something rare. When I investigated a bit further,
I found out that the lines were a consequence of Jordan’s
decision to allow only four people into the gallery at a time.
Back then I thought that this was a brilliant marketing strategy.
When I mentioned this to Jordan, he denied it, claiming that he
“preferred people to have a quality viewing experience rather
than reaching a massive audience.” Nonetheless, the lines
undoubtedly added to his brand image.
Jordan is a natural when it comes to branding. His work—
intentionally or not—speaks for itself. “Let the work do the
work,” he says, an informal brand strategy that is nonetheless
deeply ingrained in his art. He insists that everything is created
in order to fulfill his own vision and for no other reason.
I understand that it’s the power of an artist to speak through
the work. In Jordan’s case, it’s been part of his artistic career.
As a teenager, he would frequently lose first prize at art
competitions but go on to see his losing piece featured in press
coverage of the competitions. His work was again the most
talked about at the 2017 Whitney Biennial.
However, having a strong brand also has its downsides.
Jordan has received plenty of negative press and was the
subject of a 2020 documentary, Spit Earth: Who is Jordan
Wolfson?, a rather ugly take on the artist as a person—a
portrayal that led to some bad publicity and accusations that
he was a “monster.”
His strategy for dealing with negative press is to resist the
temptation to use the attention as a springboard or “fertilizer”
for his work, and to position himself as a neutral observer. He
has seen people who experienced a little success and then tried
to use that to feed their work, only for the work to suffer. He
talked with his friend Jeff Koons, no stranger to bad publicity,
about how to handle all the attention. Jeff told him that people
attack artists because they lack the freedom that artists fight
for. (In the video on magnusclass.com you will see how Jordan
imitates Jeff, and it is quite brilliant.)
Your Brand
Jordan is an example of an artist who understands how to

organically build a brand without overthinking strategy. His
response to negative feedback is to compartmentalize the
exposure, treat it like an object to observe, and keep it away
from the purity of his art practice.
ADVICE
ONE
You don’t have to worry about being original. If you are able to
make clean contact with your vision, then it won’t be an issue.
TWO
Be nice to the people you work with. It’s good spiritually and for
your work. Don’t express fear as anger and pain.
THREE
Let the work do the work. Don’t focus on strategizing. Just
make the best work that you can.
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9
Selling Art Online
—Website,
Instagram,
Newsletter
156 / 157
The online art market is probably the greatest bluff
in the past twenty years of art commerce. So much
emphasis was put on the market: startups in tech/art
such as Artsy raised $100 million in capital, auction
houses spent millions on tech investments, eBay and
Amazon entered the art market—yet online sales still
represent only 9% of the total art market. Bringing
the market online has failed so far because no new
customers joined the market. That doesn’t mean that
the online market is irrelevant for artists—in fact,
buyers who buy at the low end of the market are at
home online. And while online purchases still only
represent a small proportion of the total income, the
internet’s value as a promotional tool is incalculable.
Selling Art Online
Every artist must have an online presence.
9.1
Build a Website that Sells
Remember: you are in the business of brand building. Every

brand has a website, so you should have one too. A website
gives gallerists, curators, buyers, and the press information
they can trust about you and your work; plus, it’s the only
place where you have total
Just do your thing and ignore control over how people see
the mainstream. your work when they search for
Amalia Ulman, artist you online. And it doesn’t have
to be expensive. There are plenty
of off-the-shelf options that cost much less than hiring a
designer to build you something from scratch. Consider this
three-step approach to building a site.
9.1.1
Step 1: Choose the Right Website Builder
Unless you have cash to burn, don’t ask a graphic designer

to build a website for you. This will easily cost you between
$2,000 and $5,000. Make use of one of the website builders
listed below, which will allow you to create your own website
using an existing framework. Content can be added with a
simple drag and drop, so you don’t need any understanding
of coding. Many of these companies will also allow you to
customize your domain and email address and create an
e-commerce shop to sell your art online. Examples include:
‣ Squarespace ($18/month)
‣ Wix ($23/month)
‣ Shopify ($29/month)
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9.1.2
Step 2: Choose Your Domain Name and Email
When choosing your domain name and email address, keep

these things in mind.
Domain name
Since you are the brand, you should use your own name (e.g.
magnusresch.com). This is important because Google will
rank your website higher when people search for your name.
Something more conceptual will get lost among the masses.
“.com” is preferred, but if it’s taken, choose a local one, like
“.de” or “.fr”. If these are also taken, you can go with “.art”.
Email
You are a brand, so your email address should not be “james-
ss63@yahoo.co.uk”. Your email should be “firstname@
firstnamelastname.com” (e.g. andy@andywarhol.com). The
good news is that your platform builder of choice will help
you set this up and connect it with your email service.
9.1.3
Step 3: Prepare the Content
A website needs to be representative of what you do and

who you are, but you don’t have to update it daily. Just
make sure that you are checking
Be true to your art and be it every few weeks and updating
overwhelmed by an intelligent it when necessary. I have seen
passion. over 5,000 artists’ websites from
Juan Manuel Echavarría, artist the simple to the elaborate, and
I strongly recommend that you
keep the design clean. Stick to mostly neutral colors for the
background and simple fonts, and an easy-to-use navigation
bar with these five sections:
Selling Art Online
Home
This is the first impression a visitor will get of you and your
work, so make it count. It should include:
‣ Your name
‣ Navigation bar
‣ An image or two of your work
‣ A list of upcoming events
Artworks
The “Artworks” page should include a broad selection of
your work. It doesn’t need to, or rather shouldn’t, include
every artwork that you have ever made, but you should
show your progression as an artist. You must include:
‣ Your most recent works

‣ Title, year, medium, dimensions, edition, and price for
every work
‣ If you want to show installation shots, include a
separate section
‣ If you do video or performance art, post clips of these
works using Vimeo or YouTube to embed the videos
If you are selling your work through your website, be very
selective about the work you show, and include multiple
photos (different angles) of each work, along with the price
and a short description. I emphasize: do not put up every
artwork you have ever done. Oversupply introduces fear of
missing a better work in online buyers and is one of the key
reasons why people don’t buy online. And again, I stress:
show the price. Don’t be tempted to follow the example of
galleries, who tend overwhelmingly not to put prices on their
sites. Research has shown that
artworks with prices are more Be direct. Don‘t hide your
likely to sell, and the financial prices. Mills Morán, gallerist
performance of most galleries
certainly does not suggest that any artist hoping to make
a living should copy their practices without good reason.
Press
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This is where you list the press articles or any other copy
that has been written about you (e.g. from a catalogue).
For every item:
‣ Include a link to either the article or a PDF of the article

(which should open in a new tab)
‣ If it’s catalogue text, copy and paste it into a PDF and
link that
‣ If you can reproduce it in sufficiently high quality and w
want to include it, add the logo of the media outlet
About
This is the “About Us” page you find on business websites,
introducing the founder or management team and
explaining a little about their history and mission. Your
page should include, at a minimum:
‣ An image or video of you

‣ Your artist statement
‣ Your résumé (in text and as a PDF to download)
Contact
Make it easy for people to reach out to you or your gallery
and to follow you on social media platforms. This section
should include:
‣ Your email and/or your phone number

‣ A link to your social media (Instagram, Facebook, etc.)
‣ If you are represented, your gallery contact information
‣ If you are required to, a link to an impressum/legal disclosure
‣ No contact form
Bridgette Duran’s website is an excellent example of a

simple site that offers all the necessary features.
Selling Art Online
W W W.BRIDGET TEDURAN.COM
BRIDGETTE DURAN HOME ABOUT BRIDGET TE ABSTRACT ART
Large paintings
Sort by Best Selling
LD LD
SO UT SO UT
O O
STORIES I TOLD MYSELF $3,550
PINK ABSTRACT $4,000

9.2
Sell Art on Instagram
Instagram is the art world’s Social media is an increasingly

preferred platform. Learn it important tool that artists
well and make it your own: a should fully embrace. As the
window into your world, your Hiscox report shows, 45% of
work, and what sets you apart. art buyers regard social media
Susi Kenna, social media expert as one of the most important
channels for discovering and
finding artists, and 91% of the galleries surveyed said that
they actively use social media to promote the gallery.
9.2.1
Why You Should Use Instagram
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Instagram is currently the most popular social media
platform, with over a billion active monthly users
(approximately 13% of the global population). Most
galleries and artists now use the platform to reach younger
generations of art buyers. Generally speaking, the younger a
buyer is, the more time they spend on Instagram. It has the
following advantages:
‣ It’s free. Artists can maintain complete control of their own

online presence, digitally showcase works, interact with a
wide audience, and arrange sales, all for the low, low price
of $0.
‣ It allows users to display images in a digital space that
already hosts thousands of
collectors and gallerists. I look at Instagram a lot,
‣ Not only can buyers interact because I think it’s really helpful
directly with artists via direct to see things chronologically
messages (DMs), but they can and to get a sense of the
also request sales through location with the geotags.
this format. Ellie Rines, gallerist
‣ Artists are capable of building up a steady and loyal following,
whom they can keep updated on current projects or their
daily life with the “story” feature.
‣ It’s free advertising for your work.
If you are an internet artist A note of caution: appealing

and you work online, go though all these features may
ahead. If you are not, what be, it is important to balance
the hell are you doing on your time and not get lost in the
there? I don‘t think having app, since, although Instagram
followers or going viral are offers access to buyers across
markers of success. the globe, it is primarily used for
Amalia Ulman, artist research and not for sales.
9.2.2
How to Build Up Followers
Selling Art Online
Building up followers is tricky, especially since Instgram has

matured and users are more reluctant to add new accounts.
The days when you could get 10,000 followers fast are over.
Still, there are a few ways to grow your follower numbers.
Partnerships
Leah Schrager (@leahschrager for her personal account
or @onaartist for her “conceptual celebrity” account)
recommends reaching out to accounts with similar content
to your own and promoting each other on your respective
accounts (colloquially known as “s4s” or share for share).
Endorsement by a larger handle

Some artists have been fortunate enough to be discovered by
bigger accounts who then share their content. Tim Bengel
(@timbengel) was discovered by business news website
businessinsider.com after posting a video of himself on
Facebook creating one of his works. His exposure through
the online magazine led to him to gain half a million followers
on Facebook and over 330,000 on Instagram.
Hashtags
While both of these methods can work (assuming you are
fortunate enough to find people willing to promote you), the
most tried and true way of building a following on Instagram
is through the use of hashtags. Hashtags can be added
to posts or “stories” so even users who do not follow you
might find your content on the
“explore” page. For example, if I answer every DM I receive
you were to post a photo of an and have found so many great
abstract piece you painted, you people through Instagram who
might write a small description I then meet off-line.
followed by #abstractart #ab- Kenny Schachter, dealer, writer, artist
stractartist #abstractpainting
#contemporaryart #contemporaryartist, or #artoftheday.
Your post would then pop up on the feed of anyone who
follows or searches for these hashtags.
Up to thirty hashtags can be used in the description of
164 / 165
a post (more can be added if you comment on the post).
The hashtags you use will define the audience you end up
reaching, so do your research; work out which ones are
going to best represent you and give you the best chance of
exposure to ideal buyers of your work. Using hashtags will
help you to gain likes and followers. Most importantly, create
a hashtag (if one doesn’t already exist) of your name or the
name of your account, and use this specific hashtag in the
description in all of your posts. This will make it easier for
people to find you and follow your work.
9.2.3
What to Post
Without a publicist to tell you what to post and when, how

do you decide what content to deliver to your followers so
that you remain front of mind but do not exhaust their
interest? Well, it depends on you and your brand. The following
are widely used because they work:
‣ Studio images to give a look behind the scenes
‣ “Work in progress” to show your creative process and
give people an insight into your studio practice
‣ Photos of things that inspire you
‣ Artworks or inspiration for artworks
There are also ways to engage with your followers.
Ask your audience questions

Through your stories or in the description of your post, ask
them how they feel about a certain work of art or method.
One of the easiest ways of getting people to comment on
a post is to publish multiple images at once and then use the
description to ask: “Image 1 or 2?” Prompting your audience
to “vote” on which of the options they prefer in the comments
Selling Art Online
is minimal effort for them, but gets them to look, even

momentarily, at the image.
Make things fun for your audience

Offer a print of your work as a prize in a competition, for
example a comedy caption contest, or encourage followers
to share pictures of themselves with your work and then
feature them on your story.
Make videos
People love videos, especially if they are fairly short and,
as Tim Bengel says, contain
I am working on converting some element of surprise for the
my follower base to buyers by viewer. Short videos are more
selling lower-priced editions at likely to go viral, which is how
around $1,000. Tim Bengel, artist Bengel rose to fame. Artists, like
all social media users, will need
to find their own comfort level when it comes to online
privacy. Some artists, such as Bengel, prefer to remain
slightly enigmatic, and keep their accounts fairly private,
posting primarily photos of their own works or photos
advertising their upcoming exhibitions, and saving more
Case
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personal or behind-the-scenes moments for stories, which
disappear (unless archived) after twenty-four hours.
9.2.4
How Often to Post
Instagram can be time-consuming. Many artists I speak to

fear that they spend more time
on Instagram than in their Engage with people through
studio. The received wisdom Instagram and promote each
is that, in order to grow your other. The more people that
account, you need to post follow your account, the more
three times a day; there is Instagram is going to suggest
certainly evidence to support your account to people to
that, but rules are rarely follow. The best way to ensure
unbreakable. Over four years that people follow you is to be
(February 2015 to December clear about who you are and
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2019), Tim Bengel posted only what you are doing.
220 photos to his Instagram Be personal and consistent.
account, averaging about three Leah Schrager, artist
or four posts per month, the vast
majority of which were directly related to his art—yet he has
amassed a following of over 337,000.
Other artists will post pictures and videos at a much
greater frequency, leading them to sometimes include
images from their lives that may not directly involve art.
Since Takashi Murakami started his account (@takashipom)
in November 2012, he has been averaging around three daily
posts. Along with thousands of posts involving his work, he
has sprinkled random photos which include pizza, his feet,
selfies, and his dog POM.
Stories can be shared more frequently (aim for around one
to three a day) and are a great option if your work has been
featured or reviewed in the press, since these can be archived
on your account without having to actually post them.
9.2.5
When to Post
Have an Instagram that’s easy Post at times when your

to decipher. Put up pictures of audience is most active on
you next to your artwork, not a Instagram in your time zone:
bunch of random things. Follow
good galleries and art world ‣ Weekdays: 9am to 6pm
people. Stefan Simchowitz, dealer ‣ Weekends: around 11am
To stay active on the app and maintain your audience’s

attention, you may want to create a loose schedule for
posts and stories, for example:
Tuesday: Post drawings or sketches

Selling Art Online
Wednesday: Ask your followers a question on your “story” /

chat with followers
Friday: Post a new artwork
Sunday: Offer your followers an exclusive discount
9.2.6
Make Use of Data
If you have set up your Instagram as a business account,

you can look at the data that the app collects on your
followers (called “Insights”) and use it to see how you
might tailor your content to suit your audience or
increase follower engagement. Your engagement figure
is the sum of the number of likes and comments per post,
divided by the number of followers you have. This number
will help you to understand
how much your followers Create an experience around
interact with your content. selling your work online. You
Accounts with large follower can’t just post a work and hope
counts will usually have it sells. You have to engage
an engagement rate people and create urgency.
from 1%–5% or higher. Matty Mo, artist
Although Instagram is free, you might consider paying for
a sponsored post. Instagram allows you to choose how much
you want to pay per day and will not exceed that. You can
start by spending $30 a day; this should allow you to set a
low overall budget for testing, and see if advertising for a few
weeks increases your exposure and follower numbers.
Here are a few example accounts:
@martin_creed @obeygiant
@dirty_corner @jeanettehayes
@jeffkoons @chloewise_
@takashipom @hatecopy
@pauloctavious @jenny_saville_art
@juliaspowellart @timbengel
@cindysherman @mrbrainwash
@kara_walker_official @zhanghuanofficial
@hankwillisthomas @rashidjohnson
@amaliaulman @yueminjun001
@aiww @tylersphotos
168 / 169
@danielarsham @marilynminter
@banksy @shirin__neshat
@kaws @thehaasbrothers
@bridgetteduran
Send a Great Newsletter

9.3
We talked about newsletters when discussing how to
approach journalists, but I think it’s worth going over it
again, because most emails from artists and galleries
(invitations to openings, press releases, artist news, etc.)
are boring. Only about 20% of those emails are opened, and
even fewer are read. Consider the following examples and
think about which one you would be more inclined to read.
Bad invitation
Most mass emails just show a gallery logo, an image, the
date, and address. That’s it. I find this utterly uninspiring.
EMAIL
‣ INVITATION | OPENING | BRAVE NEW WORLD | Thursday , May 03,

6PM–9PM
FROM: WOLF <INFO@WOLF-GALLERY.COM> THU, MARCH 26, 2020 AT 11.10 AM
WOLF
Selling Art Online
BRAVE NEW WORLD (Wallace & Nichols)

Opening
Good invitation
This is a personalized email, it’s short, and all the reasons
why you might want to go are immediately detailed.
EMAIL
‣ Paul Stephen Benjamin Opening

TO: MAGNUS RESCH TUE, JAN 15, 2020 AT 12:59 PM
Hi Magnus,
Hope all is well and happy new year! I wanted to reach out and invite
you to our opening this week of Paul Stephen Benjamin‘s work.
This will be Paul‘s first solo show in NYC, and it has been beautifully
curated by the former Director of the ICA at VCU Lisa Freiman.
I have attached images of the works here in case you are interested to
have a look, and hope to see you at the gallery soon.
Best,
9.4
Build Your Contact List
You are—as I have said so many times—in the business of

networking, so the most valuable business asset you have
is your contact list. The problem that we all face is that
we are active on so many platforms. We have followers on
Instagram and friends on Facebook, we chat on WhatsApp,
we write text messages, we write emails, we collect
business cards at events, and we have a mix of personal
and professional contacts in our phones. Hidden among all
those contacts and followers, there are potential buyers,
journalists, curators, and other people who are invaluable
to your business. One central contact list—for example, an
Excel sheet—where you keep the information of everyone
you meet is the only way to keep control of this unruly
170 / 171
mass of contacts. Each entry should include:
‣ First and last name

‣ Category
Buyer (have bought or have shown interest in buying)
Dealer (auction houses; dealers, gallerists; owners
and staff)
Fan (people who like your work)
Museum (curators and other museum staff)
Press (journalists and other writers)
‣ Ranking (1–3, 1 = very important and 3 = less important)
‣ Institution
‣ Address (street, city, country)
‣ Email, phone, Instagram
‣ Comment
Starting your contact list can be tedious, but it will repay

the time invested many times over. Don’t skimp on either
of these two essential steps:
Enter all of your existing contacts
Most of the time, your phone can export the address
book so that you don’t need to manually enter all of your
existing contacts. Once they are uploaded, categorize and
clean them up. Make sure you delete duplicates and merge
contacts if you have more than one record. If you have a
lot of business cards and don’t want to copy them into the
document, you can use Shoeboxed ($29/month), which is
a service that scans paper documents and puts the data into
digital form.
Add new contacts

Your hard work will be wasted if you don’t add new
contacts on a regular basis. When you enter a new contact,
immediately add the category, ranking, and a comment.
Selling Art Online
A contact list is only going to be useful if you update it;

none of these tools works by itself. You have to be diligent
and take an hour, once a week or once a month, to enter
all of your new contacts. If you don’t want to update your
sheet manually, then you can use a tool such as Contacts+
($9/month), which allows you to sync your contacts across
multiple platforms and provides an exportable list.
Case
Stud
y
TIM BENGEL—SOCIAL MEDIA PRODIGY
German artist Tim Bengel is one of the rare examples of an artist

who managed to convert a huge social media following into
commercial success. His rise on social media is quite astonishing:
in 2015 he had just a thousand followers on Facebook, and today
he has over 300,000 Instagram and 500,000 Facebook follow-
ers. His short viral videos have logged over 500 million views.
Tim’s success began with a simple idea—to make a video
about the creation of one of his artworks. He understood the
basic elements of a viral video: it can’t look too polished, and it
172 / 173
needs to have an element of surprise. He recruited a film-
student friend to help him, and together they produced a very
manageable 1 minute, 45 second video to post on Tim’s
Facebook page. In May 2016, not long after making the video,
businessinsider.com asked Tim if they could repost his video.
It was then reposted repeatedly by other media outlets. Within
the first week, the video had had 18 million views (a figure
that has now risen to over 100 million views across different
platforms), and as a result of the success of the video, Tim was
quickly contacted by a large bank that wanted to purchase one
of his works. He not only sold that work, for around $5,000, but
he also realized the potential for growth that he now had.
Now, five years on, thanks to his large social media following,
Tim sells his works for $50,000 per piece. But the landscape
of social media is shifting. Tim knows that the algorithms are
getting more complex and that he has to be more calculated
with his posting in order to get the widest reach. He still uses
Facebook, but also Instagram. In terms of what to post, he
gets the most engagement when he posts pictures or videos of
himself with his work, rather than just one or the other. In the
caption, he likes to write something positive. Engagement is
important to him, because the more followers he has, the more
his prices can go up; followers mean demand and credibility.
When we met, Tim was at an interesting phase of his career.
While he had hefty attention from a general audience, he was
missing acclaim from the established art market; although his
shows are visited by a large audience, these followers don’t
necessarily convert to buyers, nor do they help to increase
credibility among the very elitist art market. Tim developed
a twofold strategy in response. On the one hand, he is now
commercializing his existing followers by offering smaller works
or editions (under $1,000). And to promote more art market
recognition, he is now represented by an established art gallery
that has been in business for over twenty-five years. Together
they show at art fairs, globally. They hope to be able to bridge
Selling Art Online
the gap between Instagram popularity and acceptance by

credible art market players.
Tim is a great example of the power that social media can
give to artists. He has proven that a large audience can help to
open the door to the art market, but once there, you need to
work with existing, established players to command a position
as a serious major artist.
ADVICE
ONE
Use platforms that allow users to repost your work
(such as Twitter or Facebook).
TWO
Try to be as authentic as possible.
THREE
Use Instagram as a teaser for your work or to create
shows in the off-line world.
Case
Stud
y
T Y L E R M I TC H E L L—T H E 2 3 -Y E A R - O L D W H O
PHOTOGR APHED BEYONCÉ FOR HER VOGUE COVER
Tyler Mitchell might well be 2020’s most talked about photog-

rapher. He graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts in 2017
and has quickly risen to the top of the photography world. He is
best known for his shoot with Beyoncé for the September 2018
issue of Vogue, which he did when he was only twenty-three.
In 2019, Tyler had his first solo exhibition at the Fotografiemu-
seum Amsterdam; it later traveled to the International Center
of Photography in New York, where it was shown in 2020. In
174 / 175
our interview, Tyler reveals to me how he uses Instagram to
promote his brand and network.
Before shooting for Vogue, Tyler—as an art student—would
connect with people through Instagram and Twitter, seeking
collaborations. “Instagram was for me the way to reach out
and connect with people whose work I liked. It’s about creating
an online community.” For example, he reached out to Kevin
Abstract, an American rapper, through Twitter and offered to
shoot his music video. They raised $3,000 through Kickstarter,
made a great video, and stayed in touch. Abstract agreed to it
because both Tyler and Abstract were largely unknown. When
Abstract started getting more famous, he continued working
with Tyler, which brought Tyler into the spotlight. Tyler says:
“Find people who you can grow with and build each other up.”
This strategy can be very powerful—instead of battling for the
attention of more well-known names, he connected within his
reach, identifying and partnering with upcoming talent.
But Tyler is not only an expert in fostering online communities.
He is very smart in using existing networks and expanding
them. With Vogue, for example, Raul Martinez, Condé Nast‘s
Corporate Creative Director, found Tyler’s work and reached
out to him through email. Tyler has since shot two more Vogue
covers: May 2019 with Zendaya and April 2020 with Ugbad
Abdi, Adut Akech, and Kaia Gerber. He is clearly very good at
building lasting relationships within the art world.
I found another element in Tyler’s young career insightful: he
is very smart in combining his art and commercial work. In 2018
he participated in an open-call show by Aperture, a non-profit
foundation. This show accepted twenty-five unrepresented
photographers and helped his exposure within the community,
allowing him to form numerous relationships with art insiders.
This then led to his shows in Amsterdam and in New York.
Tyler shows that it is possible to build up meaningful networks
with the help of social media. His tactic of partnering with people
who are still on the up, growing with them, and building strong
Selling Art Online
and lasting connections offline has worked out for him.
ADVICE
ONE
Don’t be afraid to push your work. Make your voice heard
and your art seen. Reach out to people whom you realistically
think will answer.
TWO
Don’t be too concerned which category to place your art in.
THREE
The more you get to know yourself, the easier it will be to find
what you want to create.
176 / 177
10
Documents
—Contracts,
Invoices, and
Checklists
178 / 179
Contracts, invoices, legal documents—nobody likes
them in the art world. Only a rare few use them,
leading to relationships between gallerists and artists
that are often strained. And when it comes to
updating your résumé, or writing a cover letter,
artists are often lazy, falling back on the idea that
their artistic mindset does not lend itself to the
task. It is really important to get over this prejudice.
Gallerists, artists, and collectors have historically
worked on a handshake basis, but this will always lead
to problems. In the pages that follow, I list the most
relevant documents with which all practicing artists
have to deal. Most, wrongly, view them as an annoy-
ance rather than seeing their true protective value.
10.1
Documents
Consignment Agreement
A Consignment Agreement is a legally enforceable contract

that defines the terms of sale and compensation between
an artist and a venue, such as the gallery.
Almost all works in a gallery–artist relationship are sold
on consignment. This means you give your work to a gallery
and they sell it for you. The gallery then keeps a percentage
of the sale (usually 50%). Legally, this means that the gallery
never holds the title (ownership to the work), so as soon as
the collector buys it, the ownership passes directly from you
to them. A Consignment Agreement makes sure that this
transaction, and your compensation, are smooth and swift.
Basics
At the top of the agreement is your name and the venue/
gallery name, plus each party’s contact information.
There then follows a description of the work that you are
consigning. Be very precise and detailed here. Make sure an
image of the work, the price, and if it’s an edition, the edition
number, are included. Production costs and who covered
them should also be accounted for.
Responsibilities of each party

This section is important because it sets out who is
responsible for delivering what.
The gallery should:

‣ Pay to ship works to and from the gallery (without exception)
‣ Pay for photographs to be taken of your works as required
‣ Agree to provide you with the details of buyers who purchase
your work (this can be a sticking point, and the gallery may
not agree, but it is worth asking for)
180 / 181
You will likely need to agree to:
‣ Deliver your work on time
‣ Commit to exclusively sell this work through the gallery during
the term of the agreement
Terms
This is the most critical section and covers the revenue
split and payment process, including dates and discounts.
It is essential that production costs are reimbursed before
the 50/50 split. Be clear about when you want to get paid;
otherwise, you could go months without receiving funds.
Give the gallerist flexibility to offer discounts of up to 20%,
but everything beyond that should require your approval.
Other clauses
The final part of the agreement deals with shipping, storage,
and termination. Shipping and storage should always be
paid for by the gallery. That is non-negotiable. You must also
insist that from the moment an artwork leaves your studio,
the gallery must insure it.
Termination arrangements should include a clear end date
to the contract, from one to four years in the future. When
the term ends, specify the return of all artworks, at the
gallery’s expense, and that any open balance is paid. You can
terminate the agreement before the end date and have your
work returned, but you will have to reimburse the gallery if
they fronted the production costs. The gallery does not get
any commission once you have ended the relationship.
10.1.1
Sample Consignment Agreement
Consignment Agreement
Between
Artist
Documents
Address
Email
Phone number
And
Venue/Gallery
Address
Email
Phone number
Represented by
1. Purpose
The artist consigns to the venue the following work:
‣ Name of the artist
‣ Title
‣ Year
‣ Medium
‣ Material
‣ Dimension
‣ Edition #
‣ Image of work
‣ Retail price
‣ Production costs $..... Fronted by …….. (gallery/artist)
The work will be added to the inventory list.
2. Responsibilities of the gallery
The gallery’s responsibility is to sell the artist’s work. The gallery will also:
‣ Install and de-install the work
‣ Pay for the shipping to and from the gallery
‣ Provide the artist with photos of the installation
‣ Photograph the work and provide the artist with these photos in high resolution
(300dpi) and low resolution (72dpi)
‣ Provide the artist with the name of the buyer of any work, including their
address and email
The artist understands that the gallery does not promise any particular outcome
from its sales efforts.
3. Responsibilities of the artist

The artist’s responsibility is to provide the gallery with this artwork. Furthermore,
the artist undertakes to:
‣ Exclusively sell this artwork through the gallery and not through their studio
‣ Deliver according to the agreed deadlines
‣ Be communicative
‣ Support the gallery’s marketing efforts
‣ Provide the gallery with an updated biography and portrait (JPEG, 300dpi)
182 / 183
4. Terms
The gallery will offer the consigned work for the price noted above. Unless agreed in
writing before the sale of a work, the terms are the following:
‣ The artist will receive [50%] of the retail price, after deduction of production
costs
‣ 100% of the production costs as detailed in Clause 1 will be reimbursed upon
the sale of that work
‣ The gallery will not deliver work to a buyer until the entire amount is paid to
the gallery
5. Discount
To help sales, the gallery can offer a discount of [10/15/20%] to any buyer without
the prior approval of the artist. Discounts are evenly borne between the gallery and
the artist. If the gallery/a staff member would like to purchase a work for its/their
own collection, a discount of [30/40/50%] is granted.
6. Sale proceeds
In the event of a sale, the gallery will pay the artist within [30/60] days of receiving
payment from the buyer. The gallery will provide the artist with the name, address,
and email address of the buyer. The payment will be transferred by wire to this bank
account:
‣ Artist, Artist address
‣ Bank name and address
‣ IBAN, BIC
‣ Account number
‣ Routing number
7. Shipping
The gallery will pay for all shipping costs. If works are shipped from the artist’s
studio to the gallery or a venue organized by the gallery, the artist will make sure
that the works are adequately packed to prevent any damage during transit. While
in transit, the gallery will insure the works for no less than the retail price. If this
agreement comes to an end with a work or works unsold, the gallery will also pay for
the shipping from the gallery to the artist’s studio. The gallery is also responsible for
shipping the work to and from any outside venues and insuring the work against loss
or damage during shipment.
8. Storage
The gallery is responsible for safe keeping of the work while it is in the gallery’s
possession. The gallery will insure the work for no less than its retail price against
any loss or damage. To be clear: if any work is lost or damaged beyond repair while
under consignment to the gallery, the gallery will pay the artist the full retail price.
9. Copyright
Documents
The artist owns the copyright to all artworks and images of their work. The
gallery can use images of consigned work to promote the artist’s work. This includes
sharing them with the press, uploading them to third-party digital platforms (such as
Artnet or Artsy), and sharing them with collectors. The credit should be: “Courtesy of
[Venue/Gallery] and [Artist].”
10. Termination
This agreement starts on the day it is signed and lasts for [1/2/3/4] years. It
automatically renews for [1/2/3/4] years. The artist and gallery will regularly review
their partnership. If unsatisfied with the performance, or if other opportunities arise,
either party can terminate the agreement. Termination must be in writing. When
terminated, the gallery will return any unsold works to the artist at the gallery’s
expense and will settle any outstanding debts within [30/60] days.
If the gallery terminates the agreement before the end of the term, the gallery
will reimburse the artist for any unrecouped production costs owing to the artist.
If the artist terminates the agreement before the end of the term, the artist will
reimburse the gallery only for unrecouped production costs owing to the gallery.
11. Warranties
This agreement applies only to works in the Consignment Agreement. The artist
confirms that they:
‣ Created the works
‣ Own the works
‣ Own all proprietary rights to the works
‣ Have the right to appoint the gallery as agent to sell the works
The artist retains the title of each work until the artist is fully paid for any sale. The
title then passes directly to the buyer. The gallery holds the artist’s proceeds from a
sale in trust. The artist shall not be subject to claims by any creditors of the gallery.
If the gallery becomes insolvent, the artist shall have the rights of a secured party.
If the artist dies or the gallery becomes insolvent, this agreement will automatically
terminate. This agreement replaces any earlier agreements between the parties. It
may be modified only in writing, signed by both parties. If any part of this agreement
is illegal or unenforceable, the rest of the agreement will remain effective. If the
parties go to court, the losing party will pay the winning party’s reasonable
attorney’s fees. This agreement is governed by the laws of [country].
(Date)
Signature Signature
Artist Venue/Gallery
‣ Download this form by registering on magnusclass.com
10.2
184 / 185
Gallery/Artist
Representation Agreement
A Gallery/Artist Representation Agreement is a legally

enforceable contract in which the gallery agrees to work
as an agent on the artist‘s behalf. It is similar to the
Consignment Agreement but includes additional items,
such as setting responsibilities and defining issues such
as exclusivity. You need both agreements, since the
Representation Agreement doesn’t replace the
Consignment Agreement.
Basics
At the top of the agreement will be your name and the
gallery name, plus each party’s contact information. There
then usually follows a statement of agreed exclusivity and
territory/territories in which the gallery will represent you.
You may have no need for exclusivity and would like a gallery
to represent you alongside other galleries. I am very much in
favor of the latter option. Exclusivity is important if you are
in very high demand, but for 99% of all artists, that is not
the case, and exclusive gallery representation is probably
not in your best interests. In practical terms, no exclusivity
means that the gallery can sell all works that the gallery
has on consignment, but has no right to sell a work that
you have not entrusted to them by way of a Consignment
Agreement. If a collector who has never been in touch
with the gallery approaches you for a work shown on your
website, then you should be able to sell it without the
gallery’s involvement.
Responsibilities of each party

As with the Consignment Agreement, this section clarifies
Documents
what each party has to deliver, but it is more detailed. We

discussed above the responsibilities of the gallery in the
Consignment Agreement, and these are repeated below for
clarity and then extended.
The gallery should:

‣ Pay to ship works to and from the gallery (without exception).
‣ Pay for photographs to be taken of your works as required.
‣ Agree to provide you with the details of buyers who purchase
your work (this can be a sticking point, and the gallery may
not agree, but it is worth asking for).
‣ Commit to a certain number of solo or group shows within a
defined time period. A guarantee to do this is one of the
main reasons for partnering with a gallery; if they can’t do
this, there is little point in being represented by them.
‣ Commit to including you in art fairs and print catalogs. This
does depend on the gallery, though; not all galleries under-
take all promotional activities, so delete terms that aren’t
applicable. Also note that the gallery will not pay for your
visits to the opening or art fairs, so it’s in your interest to sell
your works in order to pay for this.
You will need to agree to:
‣ Keep creating artworks
‣ Act professionally
‣ Not sell works directly through your studio or to collectors of
the gallery if you agree to being exclusively represented by
the gallery.
Terms
Terms are identical to the Consignment Agreement above.
Other Clauses
These sections are mostly identical to the Consignment
Agreement, with a few exceptions. If you terminate the
agreement before its official ending, you have to do
two things:
‣ Pay any production costs owed to the gallery.
186 / 187
‣ For the next year, pay a percentage of new gallery sales
to your old gallery. I think this is fair—your old gallery
nurtured you and helped build up your career.
10.2.1
Sample Representation Agreement
Gallery/Artist Representation Agreement

Between
Artist
Address
Email
Phone number
And
Venue/Gallery
Address
Email
Phone number
Represented by
1. Exclusivity
The gallery acts as the artist’s [exclusive/non-exclusive] agent in [city/region] for
the sale of the artist’s original artwork (“work”).
2. Responsibilities of the gallery

The gallery’s responsibility is to sell the artist’s work. The gallery will be responsible
for all costs related to the sale of the work. The gallery will also provide the artist
with the following:
‣ One solo show, every [6/12/18/24] months
‣ One group show, every [6/12/18/24] months
‣ Participation in an art fair, every [6/12/18/24] months
‣ One catalogue, with a minimum of sixty pages, published by [name of
publisher] distributed by [name of distributor]
For shows:
‣ Install and de-install the work
‣ Promote the work among journalists and collectors
‣ Host an opening reception
‣ Host an opening dinner
‣ Provide the artist with photos of the installation
Documents
Generally:
‣ Pay for shipping to and from the gallery
‣ Photograph each work and provide the artist with these photos in high
resolution (300dpi) and low resolution (72dpi)
‣ Provide the artist with the name of the buyer of any work, including address
and email
The artist understands that the gallery does not promise any particular outcome
from its sales efforts.
3. Responsibilities of the artist

The artist’s responsibility is to provide the gallery with artworks. Furthermore, the
artist undertakes to:
‣ Deliver according to the agreed deadlines
‣ Be communicative
‣ Support the gallery’s marketing efforts
‣ Attend openings and other events that the gallery hosts at the artist’s own
expense, including accommodation and other costs, to help to sell the works
‣ Provide the gallery with an updated biography and portrait (JPEG, 300dpi)
‣ Update the gallery on progress, new works, and new exhibitions
‣ If exclusivity was agreed upon:
• Sell artworks to buyers from [city/region] through the gallery and
not through the artist’s own studio
• Forward all sales requests from buyers from [city/region] to the gallery
• List the gallery on the artist’s website as a sales contact
4. Terms
The gallery will offer consigned works for the prices noted in the Consignment Agree-
ment. Unless agreed in writing before the sale of a work, the terms are the following:
‣ The artist will receive [50%] of the retail price (as stated in the Consignment
Agreement), after deduction of production costs.
‣ 100% of the production costs for a particular work will be reimbursed upon
the sale of that work.
‣ The gallery will not deliver work to a buyer until the entire amount owed is paid
to the gallery.
5. Discount
To help sales, the gallery can offer a discount of [10/15/20%] to any buyer without
the prior approval of the artist. Discounts are evenly borne between the gallery and
the artist. If the gallery or staff member would like to purchase a work for its/their
own collection, a discount of [30/40/50%] is granted.
6. Sale proceeds
In the event of a sale, the gallery will pay the artist within [30/60] days of receiving
the payment from the buyer. The gallery will provide the artist with the name, ad-
188 / 189
dress, and email address of the buyer. The payment will be transferred via wire to
this bank account:
‣ Artist
‣ Artist address
‣ IBAN
‣ BIC
‣ Account number
‣ Routing number
7. Shipping
The gallery will pay for all shipping costs. If works are shipped from the artist’s studio
to the gallery or a venue organized by the gallery, the artist will make sure that the
works are adequately packed to prevent any damage during transit. While in transit,
the gallery will insure the works for no less than the retail price. If a consignment is
ended, the gallery will also pay for the shipping from the gallery to the artist’s studio.
The gallery is also responsible for shipping the work to and from any outside venues
and insuring the work against loss or damage during shipment.
8. Storage
The gallery is responsible for safe keeping of the work while it is in the gallery’s pos-
session. The gallery will insure the work for no less than its retail price against any
loss or damage. To be clear: if any work is lost or damaged beyond repair while under
consignment to the gallery, the gallery will pay the artist the full retail price.
9. Consignment
The gallery sells all works on consignment, and every work that is delivered to the
gallery is automatically on consignment. A Consignment Agreement will be signed
by the gallery and the artist. The length of each consignment will be for the duration
of this agreement, unless noted otherwise on the receipt. The gallery will provide the
artist with a list of all works consigned to the gallery once a year or upon request.
This list will also include the current location of the work.
10. Copyright
The artist owns the copyright to all artworks and images of their work. The gallery
can use images of consigned work to promote the artist’s work. This includes sharing
them with the press, uploading them to third-party digital platforms (such as Artnet
or Artsy), and sharing them with collectors. The credit should be: “Courtesy of [Ven-
ue/Gallery] and [Artist].”
11. Termination
This agreement starts on the day it is signed and lasts for [1/2/3/4] years. It
automatically renews for [1/2/3/4] years. The artist and gallery will regularly review
their partnership. If unsatisfied with the performance, or if other opportunities arise,
either party can terminate the agreement. Termination must be in writing. When
Documents
terminated, the gallery will return any unsold works to the artist at the gallery’s
expense and will settle any outstanding debts within [30/60] days. If the gallery
terminates the agreement before the end of the term, the gallery will reimburse
the artist for any unrecouped production costs fronted by the artist. If the artist
terminates the agreement before the end of the term, the artist will reimburse the
gallery only for unrecouped production costs fronted by the gallery. The gallery
should receive [10/20%] of the sale price of any work in the new gallery within one
year of the termination.
12. Warranties
This agreement applies only to works in the Consignment Agreement. The artist
confirms that they:
‣ Own the works
‣ Have the right to appoint the gallery as agent to sell the works
The artist retains the title of each work until the artist is fully paid for any sale. The
title then passes directly to the buyer. The gallery holds the artist’s proceeds from a
sale in trust. The artist shall not be subject to claims by any creditors of the gallery.
If the gallery becomes insolvent, the artist shall have the rights of a secured party.
If the artist dies or the gallery becomes insolvent, this agreement will automatically
terminate. This agreement replaces any earlier agreements between the parties. It
may be modified only in writing, signed by both parties. If any part of this agree-
ment is illegal or unenforceable, the rest of the agreement will remain effective.
If the parties go to court, the losing party will pay the winning party’s reasonable
attorney’s fees. This agreement is governed by the laws of [country].
(Date)
Signature Signature

Artist Venue/Gallery
10.3
Certificate of Authenticity
Authenticity has always been an issue that receives a lot

of media attention, but the truth is that this topic is largely
190 / 191
exaggerated. Issues of authenticity only really concern a few
artists. It doesn’t make sense to copy most artists, because
there is no market for these forgeries. What you can do
to prevent future problems for your collectors, your heirs,
and yourself, is to sign and date all of your finished works.
Always sign the artwork itself, never the frame. Frames
are often replaced, so you don’t want to risk your signature
being lost. The general rule is to use the material you used to
create the artwork and position it wherever you feel best:
‣ Paintings: paint (front or back)

‣ Photographs/prints: pencil (conservators can check the
authenticity of the signature by erasing a small part to
ensure that it is not printed), or acid-free pen or marker
‣ Drawings: whatever medium you used for the drawing
‣ Videos: sign the case or USB stick
More and more buyers, even in the low-end segment, are

now asking for a “Certificate of Authenticity.” Sending out
a CoF with every work that you sell isn’t hard and takes
almost no time. It’s very simple and should follow
these guidelines:
‣ Print it on your letterhead, featuring your name and address

‣ Include a color image of the work
‣ Include all of the details of the artwork (title, year, medium,
size, etc.). If it’s a video performance or a digital work, give
corresponding details. If you feel it is necessary, you can
stipulate that the owner can alter the work in a non-drastic
manner if the technology no longer works or is obsolete.
‣ “I hereby confirm the authenticity of the above work”
‣ Sign and date at the bottom
10.3.1
Sample Certificate of Authenticity
Documents
Artist Name
Certificate of Authenticity
IMAGE OF WORK
Artist, Title
Year, Medium, Material, Dimension
Edition #
[If video /performance]
Duration (e.g. hours; minutes; seconds / perpetual loop)
Audio
Item provided: DVD, USB stick, Link
ID Number
I hereby confirm the authenticity of the above work.

[In the case of a digital work]
This work uses technology that may be unavailable in future. The owner may
then modify the technology to ensure the continued digital life of the work.
(Date)
Signature
Artist

10.4
Writing Invoices
Every work you personally sell needs an invoice for three

reasons (the gallery will deal with invoices for their sales):
‣ Bookkeeping and taxes

‣ Tracking your sales
‣ Inclusion of legal terms
As with the Consignment Agreement, invoices should be on

your formal letterhead. After your initial information, put
the buyer’s name, address, phone, and email, followed by the
date of the invoice and the invoice number. You must then add:
‣ The artwork details: title, year, medium, size, edition #,
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and, if you use one, the ID number of your inventory system
‣ A small image of the work
‣ Price plus sales tax
‣ Your wire transfer details and a statement that payment
is due immediately
‣ Signature and date at the bottom
On the back of the invoice you can include some simple

legal terms:
‣ Transfer of legal title, meaning who owns the work.

Clearly state that the buyer has to pay before the work
will be released to them.
‣ Add a copyright byline. This prevents the buyer from printing
your artwork on skateboards, T-shirts, etc.
‣ Make it clear that the buyer is responsible for the
shipping and insurance.
‣ If you need the work on loan for an exhibition, the buyer
should lend it to you. This is also in their interest, as an
exhibition might increase the value of the work.
‣ Right of first refusal: you want to make sure that you
control your secondary market, so if the buyer wants to
sell it, they need to offer it to you first. This is a clause
that not every buyer will accept, but it’s worth proposing.
Even if the agreement says that payment is due

immediately, this rarely happens. Most buyers take up
to one month to pay galleries or artists. In China, 43%
of dealers have to wait for two months for their money.
Don’t expect it to come in immediately.
10.4.1
Sample Invoice
Artist Name
Documents
Invoice for:
‣ Name
‣ Address
‣ City, postcode
‣ Country
‣ Email
Date Invoice #
Dear Madam or Sir,

I hereby invoice you for the following artwork:
ITEM DESCRIPTION PRICE
Description IMAGE $
Price
Artist name
Title
Year
Medium
Material
Dimension
Edition #
ID Number
TOTAL Subtotal $
Tax $
Total $
The payment is due immediately via wire transfer to this bank account:
‣ Artist name
‣ Artist address
‣ IBAN
‣ BIC
‣ Account number
‣ Routing number
Thank you,
Signature
Artist
Please note the following terms on the back of this page.
BACK OF PAGE
Purchase conditions: Buying an original artwork from a living artist is a unique

procedure. Unlike the purchase of a watch or a car, I am developing my career, which
also means I need to protect it. I would like to draw your attention to the laws that help
194 / 195
artists to ensure that protection.
Transfer of title: Until full payment is received, the work will not be delivered and title
will not pass.
Copyright: As the artist and creator of this work I retain full copyright of the work. As a
buyer I grant you the license to use an image of this work for non-commercial purposes.
Shipping & Insurance: As the buyer, you will pay for all shipping costs and insurance
while in transit. I will make sure that the works are safely packed to prevent any
damage in transit.
Loans: A museum or a gallery may like to exhibit this work. This would be beneficial for
you because any exhibition of a work increases its value. You agree to loan this piece
for any future exhibitions. All costs associated with this loan, including the insurance,
will be met by the venue.
Right of first refusal: As an artist I want to keep control over my secondary market. If
you decide to sell the work, you will initially offer me the opportunity to buy it back at
a reasonable price.
By paying the amount listed on the front page, you agree to these terms.

10.5
Commission Agreement
A Commission Agreement is a contract between an artist

and a collector for a custom work. While it can be flattering
that a collector wants you to create a work, it can quickly
become frustrating. Collectors often have very specific ideas
about what they want, which might limit your creative
freedom; if they were happy to let you make whatever you
wanted, they would be more likely to wait for your next work.
I strongly recommend setting rules ahead of time, and a
Commission Agreement helps with that.
Basics
As with all contracts, a Commission Agreement should
Documents
begin with your name and contact information, followed by

the name and contact information of the collector who is
commissioning the work. In the first paragraph, specify the
work and the location where it will be installed. Be precise
here; include photos of a work similar to the one the collector
wants and the location where the work should be placed.
Terms
Itemize all the costs, which, combined, are the “work price”
(i.e. the total costs), including the actual sale price of the
work plus all material costs and costs associated with
creating it (site visits, assistants, etc.). Then specify
payment terms. I propose a three-step approach:
(1) Upon signing the contract, the collector has to pay a small
non-refundable fee, roughly 10% of the work price. This
ensures that they are committed and that you don’t end up
doing any work for free.
(2) You charge an amount after you have agreed on a proposal,
perhaps a sketch or a 3D rendering. Don’t omit this prepara-
tory draft before working on the actual piece: involve the
collector in the process before you start, so they know what
to expect. Collectors often have a clear idea what they want,
so make sure you both agree. Request that 50% of the work
price is payable on sign-off of the proposal by both parties.
(3) Then, and only then, do you start working. The remaining fee
is payable on completion.
Other clauses
This section deals with copyright and modifications. Make it
clear that you own the copyright to your work and that the
collector is not allowed to modify it. If they do, then the work
is no longer attributed to you and loses its value as a result.
Finally, cover warranties: this releases you from any claims
if someone, for example, suffers injury through your work.
It’s the collector’s responsibility to make sure that your work
is displayed safely for visitors.
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10.5.1
Sample Commission Agreement
Commission Agreement
Between
Artist
Address
Email
Phone number
And
Buyer
Address
Email
Phone number
1. Purpose
[Buyer] has asked the artist to create an artwork (“work”) with these properties:
‣ Working title
‣ Dimensions
‣ Color
‣ Medium
‣ Material
‣ (Add a sketch here or an image of a work that is similar if appropriate)
‣ The work is originally to be installed at this site:
‣ Street, city, country
‣ (Add a photo of the location if appropriate/feasible)
2. Costs
The price of the work is $ ………
Expenses to create the artwork are covered by the buyer. These are the following
and should not exceed the amount listed below.
‣ Travel expenses (hotel, transportation, food): $………
‣ Assistants to create the work: $………
‣ Materials and labor for preparing and installing the work: $………
‣ Shipping and any storage needed for the work: $………
‣ Total expenses: $………
The total price of the work is $……… (“work price”)
3. Payment Terms
Documents
Payment is due in three stages.

1. Signing Fee
Upon signing this contract, the buyer will pay the artist a non-refundable fee of
$[dollar sum] ([10%] of the work price) This fee will count toward the total work
price.
2. Proposal Fee
Within [thirty] days of signing this agreement, the artist will create a proposal for
the work. This proposal will be submitted as a sketch or Photoshop mockup to give
the buyer an idea of what the work will look like. The buyer may request [three]
changes in total to the proposal within [fifteen] days of receiving the most recent
proposal. The buyer will be charged for proposals that exceed this number. A
proposal is accepted when both parties sign the sketch. The buyer will then pay the
artist $[dollar sum] ([50%] of the work price) within [thirty] days, which counts
toward the total work price.
3. Finish fee
Within [90/180/360] days of signing the proposal, the artist will deliver the work.
The buyer will pay the remaining fee to the artist.
The transfer should be made via wire transfer to this bank account:
‣ Artist name
‣ Artist address
‣ IBAN
‣ BIC
‣ Account number
‣ Routing number
4. Copyright
The artist owns the copyright to all artworks and images of their work. The buyer is
granted a license to use images of the work for noncommercial purposes. The artist
owns any drawings, models, molds, digital renderings, and similar materials created
for making and installing the work.
5. Modifications
The buyer is not allowed to modify the work during or after the artist’s lifetime
without written permission, including moving the work. If anyone modifies the work
during the artist’s lifetime without written permission, the work will no longer be
attributable to the artist.
6. Death before Finishing

In the unlikely event that the artist dies before the work is finished, neither the
artist nor the estate will have any obligations to the buyer.
7. Warranties
The artist confirms that they:
‣ Own the works
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‣ Are not infringing on any copyright
The buyer confirms that they:
‣ Will release, indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the artist against all
claims, demands, losses, and expenses connected in any way to the work
This agreement replaces any earlier agreements between the parties. It may only be
modified in writing, signed by both parties. If any part of this agreement is illegal or
unenforceable, the rest of the agreement will remain effective. If the parties go to
court, the losing party will pay the winning party’s reasonable attorney’s fees. This
agreement is governed by the laws of [country].
Date
Signature Signature
Artist Buyer

10.6
Grants and artist
residencies
Selling art is difficult, so diversifying your income makes

sense. You could have a day job, for example teaching or
working in a shop, but there are also awards and residencies
that can fund you. Depending on the reputation of the award,
these can also be beneficial for your résumé. I would broadly
categorize awards into two fields:
Cash awards
A pure cash donation, often to be used for a specific purpose.
Residencies or studio programs

Documents
Placements that provide space and equipment. They can help

you to increase your network, learn new techniques, or progress
in a certain area of your practice.
There are thousands of grants and residencies, ranging from

$0 to $625,000. Each has a unique mission, making it hard
to find the right one. Some resources you can check are:
‣ The Foundation Directory (Candid.org)

‣ New York Foundation for the Arts (nyfa.org)
‣ Federal Government (grants.gov)
In almost all cases, you need to supply an application. Here

are two rules:
Follow the application directions

This is very important. The juries have to go through a lot
of applications, and they often immediately filter out those
that don’t follow the directions. If, for example, they ask
you to hand in printouts of images, but you send in PDFs
by email, then you’re out.
Check if you are eligible
I have seen an Italian artist apply for grants that are only for
US citizens because they felt that all the other criteria were
such a perfect fit. Of course, they were denied.
10.6.1
Cover Letter
Most applications have one common requirement: write a

cover letter. The purpose of a cover letter is to show your
motivation, to show why you would fit the program, and to
give you a chance to stand out from the crowd. The following
overview of approach and structure will help you prepare
a successful letter.
Design
200 / 201
The design should be kept simple. Don’t include any
artworks or fancy colors, just black and white with a simple
font. Use a clear and simple letterhead design: your name
at the top, address, phone number, and email at the bottom.
Include the address of the grant at the top along with
your own.
Subject line
Start with the subject line, in bold.
Salutation
For the body of the email/letter, start with a polite greeting.
Use a specific name instead of “Dear Madam or Sir.” Do your
research; find out who works in administration or is part of
the jury. Addressing someone directly automatically sets your
application apart from others who just use a generic greeting.
Introductory paragraph
Begin by stating exactly which application you are interested
in. Often organizations offer multiple grants, so you want to
be clear here.
Second paragraph
In the second paragraph, explain who you are and how you
would benefit from this grant or residency. Explain what you
will do with the money or why the residency or grant will be
beneficial for you. Be specific here, and refer to different
elements of the grant or residency. This conveys to the jury
that you have done your research and are part of a trusted
professional network.
Third paragraph
In the next paragraph, explain how the organization will
benefit from selecting you. Sometimes the award is expecting
a specific outcome, so address how you will achieve that. End
with “Thank you for your consideration.”
Remember to keep it short and on topic; avoid complexity.

Documents
The jury members read hundreds of cover letters, and they

don’t want to spend too much time on each one. It’s import-
ant, also, to express your passion. This means that you
shouldn’t directly copy and paste the application for another
grant—it will be too generic, and the jury will see through
this immediately. Standardized texts just don’t work any
more. And be confident! Avoid using “I hope,” “I aim,” or “I try
to.” Be assertive.
10.6.2
Sample Cover Letter
JOHN SMITH
Artist in Residence Application Board

The Art Foundation
1 Main Street
Marfa, Texas 79843
USA
Boston, November 19, 2020
Application for the Artist In Residence Program 2021
Dear Mr. Williams,
It is with great interest and enthusiasm that I hereby apply for the 2021
202 / 203
Foundation Residency Program. I am an English-born painter based in Boston,
with global exhibitions. I am represented by Mary Doe Gallery in Los Angeles.
At this point in my career, I want to get closer to the source of my practice. An

inspiring, legendary, and innovative institution such as the Art Foundation would
be ideal. Having spoken with Steve Shaw, Juliet Moncher, and Taryn Shila about
their experiences at the residency, I am even more assured that this would
be an unrivaled and rewarding opportunity. Aside from the possibility of being
able to create work in the environment that attracted the likes of Donald Judd,
Christopher Wool, Carl Andre, and many more, I am also thoroughly interested in
the vast research possibilities that the Foundation collection can offer.
If accepted, I plan to work on a new series of paintings inspired by the surroundings

and unique nature of the location. What can I contribute to the Foundation? I would
like to actively engage with the local community and other artists in residence.
I believe it is this exchange that we will all benefit from most and will lead to
lasting relationships.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
John Smith
1 AR T ROAD, BOS TON , MA 02 39 1 J O H N @J O H N S M I T H . C O M 555-555-5555

10.7
Image Portfolio
Art is experienced visually, and images of your works are key.

Methods of distribution and quality of the images are
important considerations. There are multiple ways to present
your images, but these four are probably the best:
‣ Your website
‣ Your Instagram
‣ An attachment to an email you send (for example, if the
press wants to reproduce one of your works)
‣ A PDF illustrating some of your works (Sometimes collectors
or galleries ask for this)
Documents
10.7.1
Attach Images
You will often need to distribute images of your works as an

attachment—when you apply for a residency, for example,
or if a newspaper wants to print one of your works. Here are
three things to keep in mind:
Labels
Label every file: Last Name_First Name_Title_Year. Do it,
otherwise it will get messy.
Details
In the body of the email, include the following details: Author,
title, year, medium, dimensions (height x width x depth),
edition number (if applicable).
Formats
When it comes to the actual image, always use standard
sizes and formats:
‣ JPEG or PNG
‣ Print: 300dpi
‣ Digital: 72dpi
‣ For moving images, have a three-minute version ready,
uploaded to Vimeo
10.7.2
Image PDF
Sometimes you need to create a PDF showing a selection

of your work. Making a PDF is very simple. A “Save as PDF”
feature is available in all Microsoft programs and Google
Docs, as well as many other applications. Don’t feel you have
to use Photoshop or hire a graphic designer to do it for you.
Choose a clean design with simple fonts and include the
204 / 205
following information on the first page:
‣ Your name
‣ The purpose of this PDF
‣ The name of the person/institution requesting the PDF
‣ Date
‣ Your contact details
The following pages should have a consistent structure, such as:
‣ Image
‣ Full description, i.e. title, year, medium, size, edition number
(if applicable)
‣ If you have it, an internal storage number
‣ Price
Make sure that your file size does not exceed 7MB, since
people may want to read it on their phones or forward it.
‣ Sample portfolios can be downloaded by registering on

magnusclass.com
10.8
Managing your Inventory
Keeping a comprehensive inventory of your entire body of

work, from the start, is essential for a professional artist.
It ensures that fakes can be easily traced and breaches of
copyright addressed, and it gives you an overview of how
much of your work is in the market. Your inventory list may
also be the basis for a catalogue raisonné at some point,
which is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known
artworks by an artist. Include:
‣ Image
‣ Item number
‣ Year of completion
Documents
‣ Title, medium, edition number, dimensions

‣ Location
‣ Exhibition history
‣ Price and past prices
‣ Framing
‣ Production costs
‣ Status (available, sold, not for sale, loaned, donated, on
consignment)
‣ Sale information (who sold it, for how much, who was
interested in it, etc.)
‣ Notes
10.8.1
Sample Inventory List
‣ Image ‣ Edition ‣ Sold By

‣ Item # ‣ Proof ‣ Sold When
‣ Artist ‣ Location ‣ How much
‣ Year ‣ Price ‣ Paid
‣ Title ‣ Frame Cost ‣ Exhibition
‣ Medium ‣ Other Cost ‣ Notes
‣ Material ‣ Status
‣ Dimension (h x w x d) ‣ Buyer
10.9 Résumé
Of all these documents, your résumé is the one that you will
need most. There are a few simple rules.
‣ Your résumé should list all your work experience as an artist.

If it’s not related to art, it doesn’t belong on your résumé.
‣ Watch your layout, avoid typos, keep the font clean, stick to
black and white.
‣ Work in reverse chronological order, meaning the most recent
items come first.
‣ One page is completely fine if you are just starting out.
A résumé has four main sections:
206 / 207
Personal information
‣ Your name
‣ Address (including country)
‣ Email
‣ Website
‣ Date and place of birth
‣ Current city of residence
‣ Your education after high school (year of graduation, degree,
school, city, country)
Exhibitions
‣ List your solo and group exhibitions
‣ Solo exhibitions: year, title of show, venue, city, country
‣ Group exhibitions: year, title of show, curator or juror,
venue, city, country
Text/Press
‣ List any printed or published literature and press
‣ Books and catalogs: year of publication, title of the book,
author, publisher, and city
‣ Press: date, author, title of the article, publication, city,
section and/or page
‣ Online press: author, title, blog or website name, date, URL
Other
‣ Any other relevant information, such as artist talks and
public collections—the key word here is “relevant”
‣ Artist talks: year, title, description, city, country
‣ Collections: name of the institution, city, country
‣ Residencies: year, name, city, country
‣ Awards, grants, and fellowships: year, name, description,
city, country
‣ Sample résumés can be downloaded by registering on

magnusclass.com
10.10
Documents
Artist Statement
I am constantly approached by artists to review their artist

statement. Artists find it challenging to write about their
work and present themselves. I can only think that this
is because there is no real guide to how to do it. The sad
truth is, most people don’t read artist statements—because
most of them are dull, generic, complex, or all three. Despite
this, you will need one. People want to understand what you
are doing, and why you are doing it. It’s also your chance to
enforce your branding.
Platforms for sharing your artist statement include:
‣ Your website
‣ Applications for residencies, schools, grants, and exhibitions
‣ As part of a press release, in catalogs, or in exhibition booklets
It’s important to have one, but it’s not the daunting task
it may appear. There are two ways to create an artist
statement.
10.10.1
Route 1 to an Artist Statement
The first way is structured. You will need to do some prep

that will lead you to your artist statement.
Write down your key messages

Your key message is no more than fifteen words. It’s what
you want the audience to remember and relate to. It keeps
your brand and vision on track and in line with what you
want to accomplish. The key question to ask yourself is:
what do you want the audience to remember?
208 / 209
Write down your goals
Goals define what you have to do in order to achieve your
key message. Be very specific and always set deadlines. Don’t
say, “I want to be represented by a gallery”; say, “I want to
be represented by XYZ gallery five years from now.” Or say,
“I want to have my first solo show at XYZ gallery three years
from now.” Set short-term goals as well. Short-term goals
can be, “In six months, I want to have five phone numbers
plus the email addresses of the top art collectors in my city.”
Now write down your mission statement

A mission statement is a brief description of a company‘s
fundamental purpose. It answers the question “Why does
our business exist?“ Ask yourself: What’s your purpose?
Why are you creating art? Who do you want to influence?
Take a look back at the examples of mission statement
that I mentioned on pages 16–17.
It should be fun to actually write this down, but keep
it short, around 50–100 words.
What’s your vision?
A vision statement is a picture of your company in the
future. What do you want to be known for? How do you
see the world changing because of your impact? Be bold.
Where do you see yourself in five years? How do you think
the world will look in ten years? And what role will your art
play in it?
Here are two examples of a vision statement:
Apple
We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great
products, and that’s not changing. We believe in the simple, not
the complex.
Amazon
Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company;
Documents
to build a place where people can come to find and discover

anything they might want to buy online.
Think about your vision statement. What picture of yourself

do you want to paint? Again, make it short, two sentences
at most.
If you have made it this far, you are 80% on the way to
creating an artist statement. These prompts have brought
the essential factors to the front of your mind. Combine
the four elements (key message, goal, mission, vision) in
a short paragraph.
10.10.2
Route 2 to an Artist Statement
The second way is more unconventional. Art schools and

teachers have put so much emphasis on creating an artist
statement that artists shy away from the process. My
preferred approach is just to write it down without thinking
about it too much. To get in the right frame of mind, try the
following scenario.
Imagine we met briefly in the subway and introduced
ourselves, artist to potential buyer. I ask you to forward
some images of your work and give you my email. The next
day you sit down and attach a PDF with your images. This
experiment starts with what you actually write in the body
of the email. I am very keen on this role-playing approach.
Don’t use more than 50–100 words to complete the sen-
tence in the email, and it will all fall into place. Start with:
EMAIL
‣ Meeting Subway
TO: MAGNUS RESCH SUN, FEBRUARY 02 , 2020 AT 10:00 AM
Hi Magnus,
Good to meet you yesterday. I attach a PDF with some images. My

work deals with ………
Hope you like it. Yours, Florence
210 / 211
10.10.3
Some Tips
Read it out loud

Re-read and edit your “free writing,” structure it, match the
language, cut out repetitions, and get rid of jargon. It should
be easily understood by readers without a background in the
art world, and should make your art approachable.
Ask other people to read it

The trick is to have them read it, then ask them if they can
summarize what your work is about. If they can’t, you have
failed. If they can repeat your core message, you
have succeeded.
Give it some time

Put it down for a couple of days, and then read it again.
10.10.4
Example of a Clear Artist Statement
Maria Qamar is a first-generation Canadian from a tradi-

tional South Asian family; her mother is Indian, her father
Bangladeshi. She moved to Canada at the age of nine in
2001 and was forced to endure bullying and racism as a
young girl in a post 9/11 world. She later recalled, “I started
going home and drawing comics about these experiences.”
Qamar found her artistic voice five years ago through
Instagram under the name @Hatecopy where her illustra-
tions resonated with the Desi community, particularly the
second generation. Art became a means for her to handle
realities of being brown and South Asian in the early 2000s
North American context. Qamar’s Bollywood-beautiful
women paintings with ironic cartoon speech bubbles speak
Documents
to the trail and tribulations of 21st-century Desi life and the

challenges of being a South Asian millennial.
On August 1, 2019, Maria Qamar broke into the New York
art world with her first US solo exhibition FRAAAANDSHIP!
at Richard Taittinger Gallery, which received great press
acclaim by the New York Times, Forbes, Vice, TimeOut New
York, and Artnet News. In December 2019, Qamar exhibited
in Europe for the first time presenting the solo exhibition
FIGHT BETI, FIGHT! at Phillips Paris.
Maria currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada.2
Qamar’s statement is very clear. It tells her story and

explains her motivation. I can relate to some of the details,
or at least know someone who can. It’s not abstract, it’s
very straightforward. At the end, her credibility is underlined
by naming some trusted companies that she has worked
with or been featured by.
[2] www.richardtaittinger.com/artist/maria-qamar/
10.10.5
Example of an Unclear Artist Statement
Born in Colombia and based in various locations, Oscar

Murillo (b.1986) is known for an inventive and itinerant
practice that encompasses paintings, works on paper,
sculptures, installations, actions, live events, collaborative
projects, and videos. Taken as a whole, his body of work
demonstrates a sustained emphasis on the notion of cultural
exchange and the multiple ways in which ideas, languages,
and even everyday items are displaced, circulated, and
increasingly intermingled. Murillo‘s work conveys a nuanced
understanding of the specific conditions of globalization and
its attendant state of flux, while maintaining the universality
of human experience ...3
Murillo’s statement at first appears quite complicated, but
212 / 213
ultimately it boils down to no more than “Born in Columbia
and based in various locations, the work of Oscar Murillo
(b.1986) focuses on cultural exchange in a globalized world.”
10.10.6
Do’s and Don’ts
DO DON‘T
‣ Make it personal ‣ Use unnecessary and fanciful

‣ Be engaging! Grab the reader‘s words, poems or abstract
attention in your first two writings
sentences ‣ Use empty expressions or clichés
‣ Be clear and specific ‣ Generalize
‣ Over-explain things
‣ Write more than 100 words
[3] www.davidzwirner.com/artists/oscar-murillo/biography
Interviews
Some interviews can be watched
on magnusclass.com
Participants
Georgina Adam
Tim Bengel
Katherine Bernhardt
Tim Blum
Mr. Brainwash
Simon de Pury
Elizabeth Dee
Jeffrey Deitch
Chris Dercon
Bridgette Duran
Juan Manuel Echavarría
Sam Fraiberger
Appendix
James Fuentes
Thomas Girst
The Haas Brothers
Peter Halley
Susan & Michael Hort
Gregor Hildebrandt
Rashid Johnson
Jitish Kallat
Susi Kenna
Bharti Kher
Johann König
Tali Lennox
Marilyn Minter
Tyler Mitchell
Matty Mo
Mills Morán
Oscar Murillo
Shirin Neshat
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Raymond Pettibon
Bill Powers
William Powhida
Ellie Rines
Daan Roosegaarde
Mera & Don Rubell
Roya Sachs
Kenny Schachter
Kenny Scharf
Lisa Schiff
Paul Schimmel
214 / 215
Julian Schnabel
Leah Schrager
Sean Scully
Stefan Simchowitz
Laurie Simmons
Lucien Smith
Chris Succo
Salman Toor
Amalia Ulman
Jorinde Voigt
George Wells
Summer Wheat
Jordan Wolfson
Yue Minjun
Zhang Huan
Heidi Zuckerman
Phaidon Press Limited
2 Cooperage Yard
London E15 2QR
Phaidon Press Inc.

65 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
phaidon.com
First published 2021

This ebook edition first published 2021
© 2021 Phaidon Press Limited
ISBN 978 1 83866 242 4 (trade edition)

ISBN 978 1 83866 374 2 (ebook edition)
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from

the British Library and the Library of Congress.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
written permission of Phaidon Press Limited.
The information in this publication is of a general nature

and is not intended to address the circumstances of any
particular individual or entity. No reader should act or
refrain from acting on the basis of information in this
book without first seeking legal advice from a lawyer in
the relevant jurisdiction.
Commissioning Editor: Deborah Aaronson

Project Editor: Tom Furness
Production Controller: Rebecca Price
Design Concept: Cee Cee Creative (Studio Hausherr)
& Karolina Rosina-Meisen 2015
Design by Karolina Rosina-Meisen, thegentletemper.com

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PB / 1

None of these, of course, reflects the truth for artists in

My advice in this book has been gathered over more than

is based on a research study that looks at the career history

produces an opaque and shifting valuation system that is

Every entrepreneur starts with a business plan, and since

I will refer to these three elements at several points through-

A mission statement is a brief description of the company‘s

As you can see, the mission statement should describe what

A vision statement is an idea of what a company will do

Again, make it short. Maximum two sentences.

Your mission and vision statements are useful because they

I want to be represented by a gallery

THE HAAS BROTHERS

Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde wears many hats: artist,

large-scale public art projects.

Measuring the success of an artist is an endlessly

Fascinated by the fact that two almost identical artworks

Guggenheim Museum MoMa

Hauser & Wirth

It was devastating to watch this map unfold. To reiterate:

Location, location, location!

First, don’t lose hope

Second, read this book

Third, the current climate is better than ever

Women artists, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and

the following facts. (Existing

‣ Only 33% of artists exhibited globally in 2018 were women.

I don’t, however, want to end on a completely bleak note.

museums were by women. And nothing demonstrates this

JEFFREY DEITCH—LEGENDARY GALLERIST AND

Jeffrey Deitch is considered one of the most legendary art

Irish-born America-based painter and sculptor Sean Scully is

be known, led to his success.

A useful starting point to understanding the history of

AUC TION HOUSE

1701 320 Dou Amsterdam Unknown

1811 5,250 Rembrandt Christie‘s, London Prince Regent (George IV)

1970 2,310,000 Velázquez Christie’s, London Metropolitan Museum of Art

1985 8,100,000 Mantegna Christie’s, London J. Paul Getty Museum

2010 70,452,891 Picasso Christie’s, New York Unknown

2012 74,003,394 Munch Sotheby’s, New York Leon Black

As well as understanding the numbers behind the art

Phase 1: Late fifteenth to early seventeenth century

your actions so watch yourself were the sources of many

Phase 2: Eighteenth to twentieth century

Phase 3: Post-war period (twentieth century)

aration. Love, not suspicion. A art collector, and he put around

Phase 4 is, of course, the art market today, but before we

Modern art Success is about the work.

The two main groups of actors in the art market are, of

course, artists and collectors. Not much happens in the

COMMERCIAL ART MEDIATOR

COLLECTOR CONCEPTUAL ART MEDIATOR

The primary market is for art that is being traded for

I am a great believer in the value of knowing your numbers,

YEAR VALU E ($B) VOLUME (MIL)

2009 $ 39,511 31.0

In 2019, works that sold for more than a million dollars

DISTRIBUTION OF SOLD ART WORKS IN AUC TIONS

in% 55% Value