Artists want to create. Selling enough of their works to make a living often is the hard part. Still, savvy artists can profit from their creativity.
I sold Andy Warhol (too soon)
Richard Polsky.
New York : Other Press, c2009.
In early 2005, Richard Polsky decided to put his much-loved, hard-won Warhol Fright Wig, up for auction at Christie's. The market for contemporary art was robust and he was hoping to turn a profit. His instinct seemed to be on target: his picture sold for $375,000. But if only Polsky had waited . . . Over the next two years, prices soared to unimaginable heights with multimillion-dollar deals that became the norm and not the exception. Buyers and sellers were baffled, art dealers were bypassed for auction houses, and benchmark prices proved that trees really do grow to the sky. Had the market lost all reason? InI Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon), Polsky leads the way through this explosive, short-lived period when the "art world" became the "artmarket." He delves into the behind-the-scenes politics of auctions, the shift in power away from galleries, and the search for affordable art in a rich man's playing field. Unlike most in the art world, Polsky is not afraid to tell it like it is as he negotiates deals for clients in New York, London, and San Francisco and seeks out a replacement for his lost Fright Wig in a market that has galloped beyond his means. A compelling backdoor tell-all about the strange and fickle world of art collecting,I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon) takes an unvarnished look at how the industry shifted from art appreciation to monetary appreciation.
How to survive and prosper as an artist : selling yourself without selling your soul
Caroll Michels.
New York : Henry Holt and Co., 2009.
Successful Sculptor, Career Coach, And Artist-Advocate Caroll Michels draws on three decades of experience and shares insights for success in the complicated, often political, art world. She offers a wealth of insider information on obtaining gallery representation, attracting media attention, establishing prices for your work, and developing exhibition and sales opportunities. She tackles issues that create artist career angst, including advice on building immunity to rejection and balancing studio time with the business of art.
Marketing illustration : new venues, new styles, new methods
by Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman.
New York, NY : Allworth Press, c2008.
Editors Heller (MFA/Designer as Author Department, School of Visual Arts) and Arisman (MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program, School of Visual Arts) use interviews, essays and work samples to provide a comprehensive picture of today's illustration market, providing students and artists with a thorough review of media environments for graphic novels, animation, Web games, toys, fashion and textiles. Contributors address the current shifts in these marketplaces due to technology, software applications and versatility and outline blueprints that will help readers to launch careers in their chosen fields. A chapter also describes the steps for creating both a computer-generated and traditional portfolio from the perspectives of illustrators and art directors. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
For centuries artists have worked to interest someone, often a rich person, in their works. Such patrons support artists, allowing them to create art without having to find another way to earn a living.
In Renaissance Italy, Michelangelo worked for seven Popes. Their esteem and protection allowed him to work on the Sistine Ceiling and The Last Judgment. Today patronage is corporate rather than personal, generally taking the form of grants, fellowships, or commissions to create a project for a specific purpose or collector.
Emerging artists are not likely to find a patron to provide financial support. Yet many discover it is possible to make a reasonable living and still have the time and resources to focus on their art.
Potential collectors need to know about an artist’s work. Galleries are important, but cafes, juried art shows, and local shops are worth consideration. Some take artwork on consignment. Before considering this option, artists assure the business is well established and attracts collectors interested in the artist’s type of work.
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Selling art online
Today the Internet offers opportunities to reach a larger number of collectors. Artists create their own websites to increase awareness about their work and allow contact with potential buyers. |
Pricing art right is another concern. Emerging artists that base their prices on what comparable works by other artists in the area are selling for find more success. Potential buyers should remember the art for its quality, not its sticker price.
Every showing provides another showcase for the artist’s work, sales opportunities, and growing respect within the art community. And maybe, just maybe, the artist will gain the eye of a potential patron or learn of a corporation desiring to commission an artwork.
Romanov riches : Russian writers and artists under the tsars
Solomon Volkov ; translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis.
New York : Knopf, 2011.
In this sweeping cultural history, Solomon Volkov effortlessly unwinds the twisted relationship between art and the royal family from the rise of the Romanovs in 1613 to their downfall in 1917. Throughout the Romanov dynasty, Russia's great artists served two masters: their craft and their tsar. Now, Volkov illuminates as never before the complex system of patronage and loyalty that bound the artists to the monarchs, and vice versa. He explains how Pushkin, the rebellious poet, was suffered by-and then suffered under-Alexander I; he explores why Nicholas I never embraced Gogol, in spite of the writer's outspoken nationalism; we see how Dostoevsky-the last great literary defender of the monarchy-was won over to the tsarist cause after Alexander II released the writer from prison in Siberia; and how composers such as Glinka and Tchaikovsky, and painters including Ivanov and Briullov,navigated the royal court. Romanov Richesis a work of epic scale in which the individual comes vividly to life. It is an essential work that helps us grasp Russia's passionate, and timeless, devotion to its most important artists.
Art and activism : projects of John and Dominique de Menil
edited by Josef Helfenstein and Laureen Schipsi ; [essays by] Suzanne Deal Booth ... [et al.].
Houston, Texas : Menil Collection ; New Haven, Conn. : Distributed by Yale University Press, c2010.
This lavishly illustrated book is the first to examine the significant contributions of John and Dominique de Menil to art, architecture, and the civil and human rights movements. The de Menils, who moved to Houston from France in 1941, amassed one of the world's great private art collections and became passionately involved in the cause of human rights. The volume includes a discussion of the building of the de Menils' art collection; their patronage of modern architecture in Houston; their embrace of modernism; their leadership in Houston's civil rights movement and in human rights projects worldwide; their commissioning of works of art and catalogue raisonnés; and their establishment of the Rothko Chapel, the Menil Collection, the Cy Twombly Gallery, the Dan Flavin Installation, and the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum. Vintage photographs, many taken by Henri Cartier Bresson, previously unpublished correspondence with artists, and an illustrated chronology all add to this textured tribute to the de Menils' extraordinary achievements.
America's Medicis : the Rockefellers and their astonishing cultural legacy
Suzanne Loebl.
New York : Harper, 2010.
Based on information gathered from the family's archives, this book traces the Rockefellers' artistic philanthropies from their beginnings to today.
Annotation by: St. Louis Public Library staff.
Victoria & Albert : art & love
edited and with an introduction by Jonathan Marsden.
London : Royal Collection, c2010.
The Victorian era is unquestionably one of the high points in the history of British art—and the culture of that period was defined, as much as anything, by the artistic tastes of Queen Victoria and her beloved Prince Albert. From Victoria’s accession in 1837 to Albert’s death in 1861, Buckingham Palace was known as “the headquarters of taste,” and in a time when royal patronage was still essential to a successful artistic career, the pair enthusiastically collected paintings, sculpture, jewelry, and furniture from a wide range of British and European artists. Victoria & Albertpresents the highlights of that extensive collection through more than four hundred beautifully produced full-color illustrations. In addition to the many artworks, both familiar and little-known, that Victoria and Albert collected, the book also features the monarchs’ own creations, from paintings, drawings, and etchings to the loving souvenir albums they assembled to record their travels and commemorate the major events of their lives. Opening a window onto the lives of two people as passionate about art as they were about each other,Victoria & Albertwill be a comprehensive resource for scholars of British art and the royal family.
Article by: St. Louis Public Library staff
