finding a market for art
Seth Godin and I seem to be on the same wavelength: his post today on pricing models is eerily similar to notes I scribbled down yesterday on potential markets for artwork. I’ve been struggling lately with questions of how to price my artwork, and what markets I should go after. After spending the morning doing research on line, I was getting up with sitting at my desk, so I grabbed my notebook and sat out on the deck to think.
I sketched out this little diagram of prices. On the left is cheap art: $20 and less. This is land of posters, microstock, greeting cards, and licensing. You put your art down here, and you are going after the volume. Problem is, you are also banishing your work to the Land of Cheap Art, a placed filled with puppies with huge eyes and babies sitting in cabbage leaves — a place few ever escape.
Just to the right of it are online communities like Etsy — craft-oriented artwork that sells between $20 and $100. Etsy is a fascinating place, filled with great artists making beautiful handmade stuff. But the prices are low. Etsy seems to be going after the traditional art fair market: a place where you can wander around looking at beautiful art, and come away with a nice souvenir for $50 or so. I think they may be hitting a sweetspot for online art sales: with prices that are low enough to enourage people to take a chance at buying art they’ve only seen as a JPEG, but high enough that the art still has the feel of quality. Only question is, does this generate enough sales to make it worthwhile for the artist. Can you make a living in this market?
Then on the far right is the expensive stuff. This is art selling from the high hundreds to thousands of dollars, in small exclusive editions to small exclusive groups of people. Because of the price, this is art that needs to be sold, usually in person. It requires the artist to either do some kick-ass relationship building, or to hire a professional networker to do it for him (also known as a gallery).
I’ve been struggling with where to place myself on this continuum. I’d like to be somewhere in the middle: selling my work for enough money to make a living, but cheap enough for normal people to afford. However I don’t know if this market exists. My gut tells me that it does, or at least, it should. But I fear I may be like Mulder, wanting to believe in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence. Maybe the way to go it to pick the high end or the low end, and dedicate all your energy to making it work. I’d love to experiment for a while, trying different products for different markets. But art markets are very insular, and once you place your art in one of them, it is really hard to leave. If you sell your stuff for $50 on Etsy, it’s tough to convince a collector that it’s worth $500. Likewise, if you try to sell though galleries, they would not look kindly on you undercut your own prices.
I don’t have any answers yet, just a lot of questions. All of these questions is what drove me outside yesterday, to sit on the deck with some iced tea and my notebook, stare at the trees, and think. I think I need to do a lot more of it.
Addendum 7/2/07:
Holly Becker of Decor8 has graciously offered to post my questions about these different art markets on her blog. Check out some of the great comments from a range of artists.
Other posts on related topics:
Comments on 'finding a market for art'
This continues to be an interesting topic for me, and you threw some new aspects out there to think about. The concept about getting yourself ‘anchored’ in one particular market is particularly interesting.
I think about the podcasts and writings that Brooks Jensen has had on this subject in relation to this. He admits to pricing his work low for a reason, that it allows greater ‘ownership’ of his work. But I don’t think anyone would consider him a cheap artist, which is a unique situation. And perhaps that is the exception here, because Brooks already has a strong reputation.
And I have seen the other end of the spectrum also, relative unknowns asking a pretty penny for their work. I wonder if this is because some place a lot of emotional value on their own work. The ol - ‘do you know I had to starve and climb that mountain to make this?’ Perhaps that might work in jacking up the price for someone already well-known, but for others, I think it is overestimating the empathy of the market.
I like that concept of “ownership”. I think I know exactly what he is talking about. For example, my gut wants to sell my work in open editions — the egalitarian in me likes the idea of selling work that is more readily available, instead of putting artificial limits on it to jack up its “collectability.” But most galleries, physical and online, require limited editions. In fact, some bias your work based on edition size — I know what gallerist who won’t even look at work in editions greater than 20. So this puts you in a bind — either set up limited editions, and limit your ability to sell yourself, or use open editions and say goodbye to galleries.
Hi Daniel. I’ve been thinking about this subject a lot lately so it was interesting to read your thoughts.
On your diagram I’m wanting to be in the collectors/galleries market. To do this I need to return to employment outside my art so that the power of not needing to sell returns to me. I have spent a couple of intense years building my brand & this is what it will take for me to move to the next level. So…I see more intense years ahead but in a slightly different direction.
It is a strange but interesting business to be in. Are there any rules written down anywhere?!
[...] Sroka’s comment and his related post was really right on track to my line of thinking. What are the markets? What are the costs and [...]
[...] finding a market for art [...]
[...] most popular posts Spiralwhat being a juror taught me about juried showsArtists need blogs!on buying artthe myth of the tortured artistSelling prints of my works-in-progresslife as an artist/parentpick the notes you really meannow with added etsymacro photography ain’t for whinerssound of the new year flying byFuseI’m the Featured Artist on Area of DesignEx Ovofinding a market for art [...]
Add your own comment:
You may add a comment to this post by filling out the form below or by tracking back to a post on your own blog. All comments are moderated. Your Email address is required to post, but is never shared.
cynthia (June 9th, 2007):
Very interesting and timely post for me! I was just reading a similar post on pricing that sort of relates to yours . http://oneblackbird.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-much.html
Thanks so much for linking to me, I appreciate it!