Would you sell your work to decorators?

[Drew Wiley]

Would you sell your work to someone who just left it in a little box under their bed?
When they die, their nephew will probably just throw it in the dumpster anyway.
I know a museum which had the full collection of a frontier photographer who
roamed the plains setting up a 48" plate camera. Think of what he went through taking each shot! Because the insurance company wouldn't allow the museum to store the negatives, they deliberately burnt them all. What makes you think
anyone will give a rat's a. about any of our own pictures 50 years from now?

[Doug Dolde]

Why the hell not?

[paulr]

something that might be a big part of the issue: decorators often work with art dealers who are specially set up for the job. When a decorator buys art, it's very different from a collector buying art; they buy piles of it at a time, and have a completely different set of requirements than either a serious collector or a casual one.

The typical client is a motel or restaurant or office ... or a chain of one of the above. The decorator needs work that's the right size, has the right look, the right vibe, the right quantity, and the right price.

It's not like they're going to a gallery and plopping down $5000 for a print that wil look just right next to the client's piano. At least that's not the bulk of the job. I doubt any gallery would have a problem with that kind of sale to a decorator.

[Drew Wiley]

Well, I do find this thread stupid. But I should give a specific reason. In the past I've
been approached by decorators, art buyers, whatever you want to call them, who
were also advisors to major museums. OK, let's call it moonlighting. But their clients
were in fact collectors who wanted framed works for personal decor. Why can't a
fine print be on the wall? Or maybe you want a portfolio box for a 30X40? Not all
decorators work for banks and motels! In a couple of instances I've had people fly
clear across the country to look at prints, or in one instance, to purchase a single
one an fly back with it. Their estate recently contacted me. Can't tell me those folks
didn't have money - especially since nobody knows who the hell I am except for
word of mouth. No cool books, no nothin' except some gallery gigs way back. But
I still hear from people who have my prints safely hung away from sunlight and are
enjoying them right on the walls. I was asked the value of one of them recently -
how should I know. Take what you paid for the thing and extrapolate for inflation,
blah, blah, blah! All I care is that the thing is still appreciated!

[paulr]

Not all decorators work for banks and motels! In a couple of instances I've had people fly clear across the country to look at prints, or in one instance, to purchase a single one an fly back with it.

This thread probably suffers from us lumping all kinds of buyers/dealers/middlemen/consultants together under one title. When I say decorator, I have in my head one kind of person (described in a previous post). You're describing someone in a very different role.

I'd also suggest that hanging art on a wall doesn't make it decoration. Art hangs on walls at museums ... it hasn't been chosen to make the room look spiffy or to match the rug. It's there to be looked at as its own thing.

When I hear "decorator," I think of an interior design consultant, not an art collecting consultant. Their interest is primarily the room, not the art. The art for them has primarily an esthetic role, and a purely subordinate one.

[William McEwen]

I'm having an interesting conversation with a photo dealer who refuses to sell any of the work he sells to people who want to use the art to decorate their home. He only wants to sell to SERIOUS photography collectors.

I thought Stieglitz died in 1946.

Actually, that was part of his method. It's said that he would wear some customers down about their worthiness to the point they were begging him to sell him artwork.

[William McEwen]

If a bunch of little Left leaning Red and Green Muppets from the planet Koozebane contacted you requesting subscriptions to your magazine, expressly to be used as special toilet paper by their esteemed leader Kermit the Great, would you take their bank details?

LOL

Kev, this is probably the funniest post I've ever read on this forum.

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

LOL

Kev, this is probably the funniest post I've ever read on this forum.

You haven't been here long enough. The Lounge was a real knee slapper back in the day!

[Scott Davis]

I think the biggest issue with decorators vs gallerists/collectors is the idea of having a relationship with the art and/or artist. I did sell a piece to a decorator once- she was more concerned with the framing dimensions, which as an artist, felt demeaning to me. I was happy enough to cash her check, but it left me rather cold at the end of the transaction. I suppose I can get away with feeling that way about my work because I don't have to rely on sales to put food on the table; were that the case, I'd probably be more aggressive in pursuing those kinds of transactions because they're relatively easy money. Since I have the luxury of not needing to make sales to survive, I prefer the pain in the ass from an over-involved customer than the pain in the ass from the disinvolved customer. I make my art because I WANT to, and because I have a personal emotional investment in each image. I'd rather not sell directly to someone who doesn't, and if I have a gallery that does business with that kind of clientele, I'd rather not know about it.

I understand why some galleries don't like that kind of business, and I also understand why some galleries will refuse to represent artists who do that kind of business - decorators, especially those who buy in volume, want discounts on price. They want to treat art as a commodity. The volume discount in turn lowers the value of the artists' work across the board. It undercuts any other gallery representing that artist, and it undercuts the artist him/herself.

Since galleries are not in business to lose money on a transaction, if they have to discount the price of the work to make a sale, they'll discount the payment to the artist so they still get their cut. How many artists would stay at a gallery that consistently sends them less than the agreed upon selling price for their work because " I needed to discount your work to make a big sale"?

[Dave Wooten]

Edward Curtis portraits are sold by museums on jewelry boxes. Notice all the art work sold by museums in their gift shops....ties, hats, umbrellas, purses. Art of the old masters was commissioned-commercial art- to adorn and often glorify those commissioning the work. Designers and decorators are excellent sources for the sale of photography...if one is fortunate enough to be able to make photographs that another would actually want to purchase and put on display, well then I guess one has entered the coveted ranks of professional.

Answer to the question is Yes.