Page 14 - Studio International - March 1973

Art market trading expenses — licences, advertising costs, Possibility 2
rent, their prestige costs (private views) — and The gallery buys works from him for immediate
also to make a profit, these galleries must resale (there is an already existing demand). The
sell at 10,000 francs what the artist can sell for gallery doubles, triples or more the purchase
1,000 francs. The 9,00o francs difference means price.
A statement by the Front des Artistes that the artist and the public may not be Possibility 3
Plasticiens from the first issue of their bulletin allowed to mingle = at least not freely. The gallery buys works from him for short term
PAP, 1972. These galleries have for the public something resale (with an exhibition in view, for example)
of an aura of mystery and initiation. Of course involving particularly high costs for the gallery.
they cannot announce the price of a painting as The sale price may be anything from double to
follows : ten times the purchase price depending on the
i,000 NF
Artists, dealers and public are the chief Cost of object circumstances — the reputation of the painter,
protagonists in the art market which may be Cost of exhibition, prestige, publicity 4,00o NF the standing of the show, the artist's share in
described as the sum total of the economic Amortization of financial risks and the expenses, etc.
relationships made among those protagonists. profits 5,000 NF Possibility 4
Clearly the notions artist, dealer and public are They say they are selling 10,000 francs worth of The gallery buys works from him for medium
determined by the engagement in, and nature beauty, aesthetic emotion, creative genius, etc., term resale, as a more permanent investment
of, these relationships. Corollary: other i.e. 10,000 francs worth of confidence in the (contract with the artist). This investment more
relationships would entail different notions. gallery's prestige, in the mythology of art, or often than not involves accumulation of works,
This is leaving out of account the ancillary perhaps of social prestige or faith in art regular publicity, rating sustained in sale rooms,
art market — books, reviews, publishing, speculation. etc. In that case the purchase price to sale price
journalism, photos, tourism, cinema, On the other hand, these galleries are ratio may easily be 1 to 10 at the first transaction.
reproductions, public relations. secretive in their dealings with artists, preventing Possibility 5
The dealer may be defined as the middleman direct contacts with the public, and keeping The gallery makes a long-term investment,
between producer and customer. That them in the dark about decisions and going so far as to stockpile the artist's work and
customer may in his turn become a middleman transactions. A gallery may show the artist, in waiting until his death to sell.
if he resells the work, and so on in an endless person, when they are sure he will abide by the The output of an artist is based on the
chain. The first link in the chain is the artist. rules because he has signed a contract, or is authenticity of the work, on its specific
At present the artist has two means of access economically dependent, or is anxious to live existence, in short, on particularity. The gallery
to the public (and the public to the artist) : I. up to his standing. substitutes for this qualitative notion the fact
the private (or commercial) circuit — galleries, Art criticism, whether favourable or that the work is unique — a quantitative notion.
dealers, brokers; 2. the public circuit (in unfavourable, also plays the game. Modestly It overlays the living particularity of the work
public places) — public exhibitions, salons, concealing the economics beneath the cultural, with its uniqueness — a notion which is basic —
official retrospectives. aesthetic, metaphysical, cosmic, political and dead.
In fact the public circuit is an illusion — on the considerations, it establishes the myth . . . and Once the substitution has been made under
one hand because the artist derives very little, if its price. cover of the signature, and to meet demand, the
any, direct means of subsistence from a public The first link in the economic chain is gallery often has to increase the number, either
show or a salon — on the contrary, in this case provided by the artist supplying the product. by asking the artist to reproduce the unique
both he and the public pay a contribution : on What are the possibilities ? work to within a hair's breadth likeness and thus
the other hand, and in particular, because Possibility o to become a specialist on himself, or by dividing
retrospectives, biennales, prizes, exhibitions in His work is not accepted anywhere. Coming up the 'uniqueness' of the work — several copies
public places, are the instruments, directly or from the provinces or from abroad, non-middle of the work are issued, each of which, by
indirectly, of the choices and decisions of the class or having broken away from his middle numbering and adding the signature, assumes
private circuit. Official decisions concerning class origins, with absolutely no socio-economic a part of the 'uniqueness'.
art more often than not entail public expenditure benefits in sight, isolated, he does not know The artist who suffers under, and fights
which serves the private circuit. We have here where to turn. He tries to meet up with against, oppression with the people, if he finds
the same deflection of public resources for the colleagues in cafés and to glean information. He himself taken up by the middle classes, will be
benefit of private interests, as in property lives in a state of unsubsidized unemployment picked out as being something exceptional and
speculation where the speculative rise in the which may be chronic, total or partial. This is will find himself the centre of a cult. He will
price of land has been made viable on public the most usual situation which may last all his serve as a demonstration that people are free,
money. Similarly, artists are made viable or are life. He is no use to anyone. This state of that they can rise from humble origins to
rendered operational. It is not surprising that general unemployment, of social non-existence, succeed in anything, and he will add to his
the private circuit is the decisive circuit within a of isolation and freedom sets up a psychosis of transformed image that of champion and
liberal capitalism. dependence and submission to the decisions of self-made man. And more recently that of
Under the heading gallery we find every kind the market and therefore to authority, a international celebrity.
of economic method practised by dealers, psychosis which will persist even if he is taken From the state of zero economic and social
brokers, agents, collectors, banks, finance up by that authority. existence of the majority to the hyperprivileged
groups . . . from hire of shop premises down to If he comes from a more favoured social position and world renown of the few, authority
contracts, exclusive rights, acquisition of works, background he may make use of contacts, reproduces in the artistic microcosm a
sale room auctions, etc. The gallery does not become integrated into the cultural scene, or caricature of its own hierarchical system.
fulfil its apparent role of contact, linking the maybe have the necessary resources to finance The art market is following the general
artist and the public, using these methods; on his own exhibition in a hired gallery. economic trends : the laws of large-scale
the contrary, the gallery becomes a screen. Take Possibility concentration, of international monopoly, short-
the true gallery, the boutique: these of necessity He deposits works with a gallery. The gallery term profit and standardization of the product.
operate artificial prices, that is to say, the real takes a commission of anything between 33% At the present we are witnessing an economic
cost of the product hardly influences the price and 70% of the sale price. (The works deposited and cultural conflict between the traditionalists
asked. Of necessity, because to meet their fixed constitute free stock.) and the modernists within the middle classes.
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