Are art galleries dinosaurs on the way to extinction?

[Darin Boville]

T9:30 Club (existing small live music venue)

Oh my god, flashback. I need to get out my (excellent) Emmet Swimming CDs...

--Darin

[Mark Sawyer]

Yep, the gallery world's all gone to hell, ever since Bravo cancelled Gallery Girls...

[invisibleflash]

Can't say about art galleries. But photo galleries are money hungry affairs that have nothing to do with the love of photography and everything to do with greed.

I've corresponded with many collectors and galleries and found them all cut from the same cloth. Let me give you an example...I contacted a small, but well known lady collector in NYC. This was when I was first starting out. I asked her if she would like $1500 of prints donated for free to her collection. (5 prints) She said she did not want them because she never heard of me.

Now, lets compare this to someone that truly loves photography. I maintain post bound portfolios of prints I make from images found on the net. Some of the images have no authors and are from anonymous photogs. While I like to know who shoots what, it makes no difference to me. I wont reject collecting an image because I do not know the author. This signifies someone that has a love for the image. The former signifies someone that has a love for $.

I've used this test with all the major and minor photo galleries in the US. I wnated to see how galleries are run. I offered 5 (13 x 19) prints for free to over 60 of the top galleries in the US. The only stipulation that the prints be put in their personal collection and not sold. No takers.

While galleries do good promoting photography, it is out of greed and not based in love of the medium.

Here, you do the same test with your photos. Offer prints for free to the galleries. See what reply you get. (if any)

http://art-support.com/galleries.htm

Now, this all happened about 1-3/4 years ago. I started seriously placing my photography in January of 2013. From that time I went from 1 institution collecting my work to almost a 100 museums and public institutions around the world.

Results are all the same...greedy bastards...all of them.

[cdavis324]

Can't say about art galleries. But photo galleries are money hungry affairs that have nothing to do with the love of photography and everything to do with greed.

I've corresponded with many collectors and galleries and found them all cut from the same cloth. Let me give you an example...I contacted a small, but well known lady collector in NYC. This was when I was first starting out. I asked her if she would like $1500 of prints donated for free to her collection. (5 prints) She said she did not want them because she never heard of me.

Now, lets compare this to someone that truly loves photography. I maintain post bound portfolios of prints I make from images found on the net. Some of the images have no authors and are from anonymous photogs. While I like to know who shoots what, it makes no difference to me. I wont reject collecting an image because I do not know the author. This signifies someone that has a love for the image. The former signifies someone that has a love for $.

I've used this test with all the major and minor photo galleries in the US. I wnated to see how galleries are run. I offered 5 (13 x 19) prints for free to over 60 of the top galleries in the US. The only stipulation that the prints be put in their personal collection and not sold. No takers.

While galleries do good promoting photography, it is out of greed and not based in love of the medium.

Here, you do the same test with your photos. Offer prints for free to the galleries. See what reply you get. (if any)

http://art-support.com/galleries.htm

Now, this all happened about 1-3/4 years ago. I started seriously placing my photography in January of 2013. From that time I went from 1 institution collecting my work to almost a 100 museums and public institutions around the world.

Results are all the same...greedy bastards...all of them.

That's not really a good test, and has nothing to do with the galleries and collectors being greedy... Any serious collector collects work around an idea, so they are constantly looking for work that will add to their collection - not just collecting for the sake of collecting. And I'll bet the main reason they said no was that it was obvious that you were just trying to fill out your resume - why else give free art to people who are used to paying for it?

[DrTang]

Man Ray's doin pretty well

[paulr]

That's not really a good test, and has nothing to do with the galleries and collectors being greedy... Any serious collector collects work around an idea, so they are constantly looking for work that will add to their collection - not just collecting for the sake of collecting. And I'll bet the main reason they said no was that it was obvious that you were just trying to fill out your resume - why else give free art to people who are used to paying for it?

Exactly. Try making a cold call to donate work to a museum collection. I'm guessing you'll get some version of the same response (or a link to a page with submission instructions ... an anonymous version of the same thing).

If they wanted any art regardless of price they'd be scouring dumpsters and the Salvation Army.

[djdister]

Man Ray's doin pretty well

You mean, for a dead person?

[Drew Wiley]

Even restaurants serve dead things, mostly cooked over a sufficient time.

[DrTang]

You mean, for a dead person?

well yeah


I kinda meant historic, well thought of dead photographers sell... as invenstments

pretty pictures for the hall - not so much

and since everyone now has a camera at the end of their phone..probably less and less so moving forward

[paulr]

Dying has always been a good business plan for artists.