How To Become

M A G N U S A RESCH Successful Artist 6–25 130–143 1 Introduction 7 Journalists —Convince A 26–41 Journalist To Write 2 Research Findings: About You A Data Driven Approach 144–157 8 Your Brand

42–59 —Storytelling And 3 Navigating the Art Pricing Market —Data, Players, Power 158–179 Structures 9 Selling Art Online —Website, Instagram, 60–73 Newsletter 4 Artists

—Understanding your 180–215 competition 10 Documents —Contracts, Invoices 74–101 and Checklists 5 Galleries

—Finding 216–218 Representation Appendix

102–129 6 Collectors —How To Convince Them To Buy Your Works I am always surprised to see how little artists actually know about the history of the art market, its power structure, and its key players. Like any bin Farhan Al Saud, paid £340 million ($450,312,500) for other market, understanding its history can help Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi. The geographical center for high value sales moved from us predict its future. This chapter should help you eighteenth century Amsterdam via nineteenth century Paris to get a general overview of the art market and and London to its current home make sure you understand the main terms. in New York—and more pre- Never listen to anybody when cisely to the New York branches it comes to being responsible of Sotheby’s and Christie’s— for your own paintings. Because during the twentieth century. nobody knows better than you Implications and Looking ahead, this adaptable what you need to do. gender issues history might suggest that the Julian Schnabel, artist 3.1 center could again migrate at any time, away from New York to a new primary hub. 3.1.1 Looking at the artists and works themselves, all have Record prices three things in common: they are paintings, they originate in Europe, and they are all painted by men. This bias towards

A useful starting point to understanding the history of European men is now, in the contemporary market, under 44

the art market is to look at record prices, who paid them, a degree of challenge (as we saw in the previous chapter) / 45 and where. The list of the most expensive artworks sold at but it has been sufficiently internalized over time to confer auction from 1700 to today tells us immediately that record a lasting advantage on white male artists, reinforcing legiti- prices increased dramatically. From £320 in 1701, we reached mate accusations of a lack of democracy across the market. an extraordinary £340,000,000 in 2017, with the steepest Navigating the Art Market LIST OF RECORD BREAKING SALE PRICES and most rapid increases coming since 2010. FOR PAINTINGS We can also see how buyers themselves have changed AUCTIONER & over time. The last time a public institution paid a record YEAR GBP ARTIST LOCATION BUYER

price for an artwork was 1985, 1701 320 Dou Amsterdam (Unknown) Be free, be fluid. Fluidity of when the Getty Museum bought 1811 5250 Rembrandt Christie‘s London Prince Regent George IV practice is possible. Design, Mantegna’s Adoration of the 1910 28,250 Hals Amer. Art Assoc., New York Henry C. Frick architecture, art—the Magi. Since then, institutions 1970 2,310,000 Velasquez Christie’s, London Metropolitan Museum boundaries are all permeable. have taken a back seat to those 1985 8,100,000 Mantegna Christie’s, London J. Paul Getty Museum Don’t be stuck in just one silo. individual buyers known as ultra 65,001,250 Giacometti Sotheby’s, London Lily Safra 2010 Hans-Ulrich Obrist, curator high net worth individuals, or 70,452,891 Picasso Christie’s, New York (Unknown)

UHNWI: mostly men, mostly 2012 74,003,394 Munch Sotheby’s, New York Leon Black

with a finance background, and until now mostly American, 2013 89,411,063 Bacon Christie’s, New York Elaine Wynn although at the end of 2019, the highest price ever paid at 2015 102,600,00 Picasso Christie’s, New York (Unknown) auction came out of the Middle East, when Saudi Arabia’s 2017 340,000,00 da Vinci Christie’s, New York Prince Bader

Minister of Culture, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed SOURCE: HTTPS://WWW.SCIENCEDIRECT.COM/SCIENCE/ARTICLE/ABS/PII/S0014498315000236 C a s 1986. While teaching paid her bills, it was through teaching she e S t learned what she sees as a great lesson: if something (a style, u d y a technique) comes easily to you and you enjoy doing it, then don’t stop. You may feel that it is effortless, but other people may struggle to do what you find so easy, so don’t make things harder for yourself by setting yourself unnecessary challenges. Above all, have confidence in yourself and your vision; few MARILYN MINTER—A LEADING AMERICAN ARTIST people will believe in you if you do not believe in yourself. There wasn’t really a specific point in her career where she Marilyn Minter is one of the world’s leading artists, best broke through, but eventually major galleries picked up her known for her sensual paintings and photographs. She has had work. Now in the final phase of her career, Marilyn is represented solo shows at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Deich- by top galleries globally and her works fetch high prices at torhallen Hamburg, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, auctions. To my surprise, though, she still teaches on the side and many more. to pay for her studio and her studio assistants. She teaches on I first encountered her work in 2007 when I stumbled across the MFA program of the School of Visual Arts in NYC, takes an advertisement campaign by Tom Ford, shot by Marilyn. I advertising jobs (including collaborations with Tom Ford, Jimmy

have been a follower of her work ever since, most recently when Choo, and Supreme), and takes on some commissions, all in 70

Aby Rosen put up her works at Rose Bar in the Gramercy Park order to finance the handful of works that she creates annually. / 71

Artists Hotel, the same hotel that first hosted the Armory Show. On a Marilyn is one of the many working artists who understands rainy day, I visited Marilyn in her studio in midtown New York. that artistic success does not necessarily mean you can rely on In our interview, we talk about her long career, the phases she it as your primary income. Throughout all phases of her artistic went through, and challenges she faces today. career, she has added a second income stream to stabilize her While Marilyn is a celebrated artist today, her success income and finance her practice. didn’t come immediately. In 1972, Marilyn received her MFA from Syracuse University and shortly thereafter moved to New York City. During this early part of her career—what I call the shopping phase—Marilyn, like so many other young artists, was struggling. And people exploited that: she has her fair share of tales of dealers who, having sold her work, would slip away ADVICE in the night, leaving her unpaid and in debt. The trust system ONE leaves the door open for all kinds of shadiness, especially in Work from the love of creation, and trust what you do well. the shopping phase when artists are young, inexperienced, and Other artists will recognize that. without the useful protection that can come with a few influen- TWO tial associations. Find allies, people whom you respect, and connect with them. Partly because of this permanent financial instability, THREE Marilyn worked throughout her entire shopping and decision Expect rejection. phases as a substitute teacher in the Bronx and Brooklyn until FOUNDING YEAR OF GALLERIES IN THE US, GERMANY, AND THE UK most of those show at one to three per year. A notable 14% attend four or more fairs. They have good reason to invest in attendance: 45% of total sales in 2019 came from deals in % 94% founded after 2000 made at art fairs (up from 30% in 2010). 40

30 DISTRIBUTION OF DEALER SALES ACROSS THE DIFFERENT PLATFORMS

20 ONLINE ONLINE Websites Other 3% 3% 10

GALLERY NATIONAL 15% 0 1950 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2010 ART FAIRS –1960 –1970 –1980 –1990 –2000 –2010

SOURCE: RESCH, GALLERY REPORT (DATA APPLIES TO US, GERMANY, UK) INTERNATIONAL 50% ART FAIRS

5.3.4 30% 86 / 87 Art fairs Galleries

Art fairs, for galleries, are the equivalent of an interna-

tional presence, giving gallerists a window of a few days to SOURCE: UBS ART BASEL REPORT, 2020 court collectors from around the world. The number of art fairs has shot up over the last decade, mostly as a con- sequence of the increasing attempts among galleries to expand beyond their limited local customer base by showing artists internationally. Large turnouts at gallery openings Finding gallery may look impressive, but don’t be representation Read a lot and stay humble. fooled: openings are populated Rashid Johnson, artist mostly by visitors, rather than 5.4 buyers. Even taking art fairs into Finding gallery representation is one of the biggest account, galleries—small or large—have on average seventy challenges confronting artists. While every university in- buyers. The difference is that alpha and beta galleries have cludes essential tuition in how to move from university into buyers with deeper pockets, who purchase at higher prices work (and is scrutinized on its graduate destinations and and more frequently. employability), art academies have completely fallen short Today, there are nearly 300 art fairs around the world. on any equivalent coaching. The most common approach Every second gallery participates in at least one fair, and taken by your average graduate is to send an email to the C a s be circulating through these schools. e S t Another main channel for him, and the first one he uses, u d y is recommendations from other known and trusted artists. Tim stresses that having another artist vouch for your work is invaluable; if another artist, already represented by him, backs a new talent, he thinks it more likely that his collectors will do so too. Timothy was introduced to the work of Asuka Anastacia TIM BLUM—LEGENDARY GALLERIST AND FOUNDER OF Ogawa in Blum & Poe artist Henry Taylor’s studio a few years BLUM & POE ago. At the time Tim bought a few works for his personal collection, but he watched her work evolve over the course of Timothy Blum is the co-founder of Blum & Poe gallery, which two years, monitoring her development before directly working opened in Santa Monica in 1994. Today, the gallery is situated in with her. For Tim, it’s essential to know that the artist is making the heart of Los Angeles in a 22,000 sq.ft (2,000m²) complex exceptional art for art’s sake, not for the sake of the market. and has locations in New York and Tokyo. Blum & Poe has Now she is firmly established as one of Tim’s artists. represented an influential roster of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Tim’s gallery speaks to two established ways to get into a European and American artists, including Takashi Murakami, gallery network: find out which MFA programs are producing Yoshitomo Nara, Mark Grotjahn, Sam Durant, Julian Schnabel successful artists and what trends appear to be circulating

and many more. In our interview, Tim reveals how he success- through these schools, and be a familiar face in the gallery that 98 / 99 fully managed his gallery for over twenty-five years and how you may want to work with. To this end, it is helpful to live in one Galleries he was able to find and retain most of the artists the gallery of the main art hub cities like New York, Los Angeles, or Berlin. represents. Timothy is an example of a gallerist who started small Over the past twenty-five years, Tim has grown his gallery and has not only grown himself but has brought many artists’ alongside the artists that it represents. Since Blum & Poe has careers along with him. While he is established, he still takes on become such a big name in the art world, the gallery is inundat- new artists—but only through his preferred channels. ed by artists who leave their unsolicited proposals (portfolios) or send them in via email. If he took the time to look at every portfolio, he would have “no time left to run the business!” ADVICE While the gallery is mainly focused on its existing and hence ONE more mature artists, sometimes they take on a new talent. Tim Always follow your truth. Do not make art that you think mainly relies on two channels to find new artists. is on trend for the sake of it. His initial network was from his student years. He started TWO his gallery immediately after graduating from Bard College and Take the plunge into the unknown. Get your work out into the first artists he represented were picked from his former the world and into people’s hands, but keep your integrity. classmates. Thirteen years on, universities are still a primary THREE recruitment source for Tim. While he admits that he doesn’t Connect with a community. Be prepared to construct go to every MFA open day, he considers it vital to know which one for yourself. programs produce successful artists and what trends appear to For centuries, collectors have been the equally essential counterpart in the art world to artists themselves. While artists supply, collectors establish the market I have classified collectors into five categories according to their spending: by generating demand and bringing money into the ‣ One time buyers: 99% cycle. They are also absolutely fundamental to the ‣ Art lovers: 0.25% overall success of an artist. If a collector endorses an ‣ Investors: 0.25% artist’s work, whether in the form of a purchase or ‣ Dealers: 0.25% ‣ Corporate buyers: 0.25% just expressing an interest in it, the artist’s value can

suddenly go up—considerably so, if the collector has COLLECTORS BREAKDOWN influence. The reputation and brand of the collector ART BUYERS will encourage other collectors to buy, and the career One Time Buyer Dealer Collector of the artist can be made. Investor Corporate Collector Art Lover

Collector overview and / 105 104

classification ROOKIES

Collectors 6.1 Collectors fall into three categories: private individuals, companies, and public institutions. Of these groups, private collectors represent by far the largest, and, together with public institutions, share the clearest rationale. Corporate art collections, meanwhile, are established to diversify the assets of a corporation, to One time buyers cultivate the company’s image, Most collectors (99%) are one time buyers. This doesn’t Take risks, experiment, and al- and to improve the working envi- necessarily mean that they literally own one piece of art, ways stay out of your comfort ronment. I want to have a look at but they have made only a couple of purchases and aren’t zone - it will take you places! the characteristics of collectors looking to acquire a ton of art. One time buyers might have Roya Sachs, curator in order to determine what kind made their first purchase as a way of identifying their level of collector you need to target. In of cultural sophistication or their place within a class system very much the same way as the superstar artists who create to the outside world, or as a pragmatic matter of house the lion’s share of the value in the supply side of the market, decor. Buyers is a much more apt description for them than the spending on the demand side is dominated by a tiny collectors. This huge group includes anyone in their late fraction of collectors who account for nearly all the turnover twenties or over who has a good education and earns a high that is generated. income, but who also has almost no experience with the art 184 / 185 to any buyer without 4. Terms 5. Discount of the retail price, after deducting production 6. Sale proceeds is granted. 3. Responsibilities of the artist 2. Responsibilities of the gallery [30/40/50%]

Exclusively sell this artwork through the gallery and not through their studio Deliver according to the agreed deadlines communicative Be Support the gallery on marketing efforts Provide the gallery with an updated biography and portrait (JPEG, 300dpi) The artist will receive [50%] Artist, Artist address Bank name and address Install and de-install the work Pay for the shipping toand from the gallery Provide the artist with photos of the installation Provide the artist with the name of the buyer of any work, including their 100% of the production costs for a particular work will be reimbursed upon Photographprovideartistandtheworkresolutionthese thehighwith photos in ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ (72dpi) resolution low and (300dpi) ‣ addressand email costs ‣ the sale of that work In the event of a sale, the gallery will pay the artist within [30/60] days of receiving The artist’s responsibility is to provide the gallery with this artwork. Furthermore, The gallery will offer the consigned work for the price noted above. Unless agreed in To help sales, the gallery can offer a discount of [10/15/20%] The gallery’s responsibility is to sell the artist’s work. The gallery will also: The artist understands that the gallery does not promise any particular outcome The gallery will not deliver work to a buyer until the entire amount is paid to the payment from the buyer. The gallery will provide the artist with the name, address, address, name, artist the the with gallery The provide will buyer. the from payment and email address of the buyer. The payment will be transferred by wire to this bank account: the artist undertakes to: writing before the sale of a work, the terms are the following: from its sales efforts. gallery gallery and the between borne evenly artist. are the Discounts of approval prior the theartist. galleristIfa would like purchaseto worka for the gallery’s owncollection, a discount of

And Email Email Artist 10.1.1 Address Address Between 1. Purpose Phone number Phone number Venue/Gallery Represented by by Represented Consignment Agreement Consignment Sample Consignment Agreement Consignment Sample Production costs $..... Fronted by …….. (gallery/artist) Retail price Retail Image of work Edition # Dimension Material Medium Year Title Name of the artist ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ ‣ The work will also be added to the inventory list.

The artist consigns to the venue the following work:

one four to years in the future. When the term ends, specify the return ofall yourartworks, transported at the gallery’s expense, and that open any balance are able is paid. to You terminate the agreement before the enddate, in which case getyou your work back but have reimburse to the gallery if they fronted the production costs. Thegallery does not get commission any for works once have you ended the relationship. Contracts It would be hard to argue that artists are not AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY at the heart of the art world, since they actually create the product on which the whole circus is transitions can happen between categories: for example, a Key gallerists around and Iwan Wirth in their top ten. Manuela Hauser started off based. So it is a paradox, though one mirrored very successful high street artist might become a mature early in the art world as her mother is the collector Ursula and emerging artist relatively early on. the world Hauser. Manuela later married Iwan Wirth and they founded in many other areas of employment, how little 5.2 their gallery in 1992. Hauser & Wirth now has an impressive DISTRIBUTION OF ARTISTS control they exercise over all the other players. ten locations across the globe, including New York, London, The tennis players’ union, the ATP, are the ring- Whether you achieve representation by any of the alpha Los Angeles, and Hong Kong, with an estimated revenue of masters: they organize all the events, control galleries in the world or not (and it is my sincere belief that between $600 and $800 million. They represent artists like you have the ability to achieve that), it is important to know Louise Bourgeois and Mark Bradford, along with some artist when the tournaments are, and hold all the pow- SUPERSTARS Magnus Resch is an art market economist, serial entrepreneur who the major figures are. estates. er. Likewise, artists are dependent on intermedi- 0,5% Larry Gagosian of Gagosian Gallery Marc Glimcher of Pace Gallery HIGH STREET ARTISTS aries and have little or no say over what happens 12% Larry Gagosian, perhaps the biggest name in the gallery Pace Gallery was founded by Arne Glimcher in 1960 and to their work once it leaves the studio. game, is the founder and owner of the Gagosian Gallery em- is now run by his son, Marc Glimcher. Pace has six locations MATURE/EMERGING pire. Based in New York, Gagosian has seventeen locations worldwide (New York, London, Hong Kong, Palo Alto, Geneva, 6% and bestselling book author. He is founder of Larryslist.com, worldwide and a revenue of around $1 billion. Gagosian and Seoul) and a revenue of around $1 billion. They represent VANITY ARTISTS 40% represents artists like Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, and Georg artists and artist estates like Christo and Willem de Kooning. Baselitz, and represents the estates of artists like Pablo The gallery has also embarked on numerous initiatives, like

Classification of artists PASSION ARTISTS 41,5% 62 Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Alberto Giacometti. Future Pace or PaceX, that explore combinations of art and

80 / 81 4.1 / 63 David Zwirner of David Zwirner Gallery technology. Magnusclass.com, an artist online class, and the Magnus App, Artists While Gagosian may be the biggest name, David Zwirner SOURCE: RESCH, 2011, PHD THESIS Other galleries to know Galleries Never have so many people considered themselves is considered the most influential person in the art world ‣ Almine Rech (Paris, Brussels, London, New York, Shanghai) artists. And the numbers are rising. Beuys was right when he Superstar artists (according to Power 100, an annual ranking by ArtReview). ‣ Lévy Gorvy (New York, London, Hong Kong, Zurich) said everyone can be an artist—since you don’t need either Superstar artists are essentially the extended list of the His gallery has six locations from New York to London to ‣ Marian Goodman (New York, Paris, London) official qualifications or even proven attendance at an art top fifty most important contemporary artists. They have Hong Kong, and he too records revenues of around $1 billion. ‣ Perrotin (New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, which works like Shazam for Art. Leonardo DiCaprio is an college, the hopeful, the risk an eight-figure income, created the premium lots at major Zwirner represents more than sixty artists and artists’ Shanghai) Do it yourself. Don’t wait to takers attracted by the impres- evening auctions, and have had single-artist shows at global estates, including Franz West, Yayoi Kusama, and Jason ‣ Sadie Coles (London) be discovered. sion of high rewards in contem- top museums; their works are in the collections of top Rhoades. ‣ Sprueth Magers (Berlin, London, Los Angeles) Heidi Zuckerman, curator porary art, and those possessed museums and collectors, and various catalogues of their Jeffrey Deitch of Deitch Project ‣ Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris, Salzburg, London) of considerable self belief can works have been produced by premium publishers. These are Jeffrey Deitch is a legendary American art dealer and ‣ Victoria Miro (London, Venice, New York) investor and advisor to the company. proclaim themselves artists completely unchallenged. All of artists like David Hockney, Gerhard Richter, and Christopher curator who opened his first gallery in 1972. Jeffrey has an ‣ White Cube (London, Hong Kong) these have to come face to face with the reality of scarce Wool. In essence, household names. MBA from Harvard Business School, worked for some time demand. Some will fall by the wayside, but others—maybe Mature and emerging artists as a banker, and invented what is now known as “Art Banking.” those exhibiting at galleries but who have not really broken Mature and emerging artists have a great reputation and He was also, from 2010 until his resignation in 2013, director through—are reluctant to let go of their dreams and the stable sales records, with a slightly lower income of around of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Jeffrey Magnus is also a Professor for art economics, most recently time and money invested into their artistic careers. seven figures. Their works are included in top auctions, but has two gallery locations—in Soho, New York City, and Los Categorization of artist type is not a precise science, take second place to the superstars. They have probably Angeles. but the table below shows five categories that I work with, participated in group shows at top museums, but have only Manuela Hauser and Iwan Wirth of Hauser & Wirth and the distribution of artist type across the groups. Rapid had single-artist shows in regional institutions. Their works The ArtReview Power 100 list also names Manuela Hauser at Yale University, previously at Columbia University and Sotheby’s Institute of Art. He is the author of multiple bestselling books about the art market. In 2018 he published a paper about success as an artist in the world’s leading

are still collected by museums and important collectors, but Career stages C a s about the reception of his new works and because he wanted catalogues are distributed nationwide, instead of globally. e S t to promote them, he reached out to Jerry Saltz via Instagram academic journal, Science Magazine. The paper is considered the Examples of these artists would be Tom Sachs, Marilyn Minter, 4.2 u d y and invited him to his show. Jerry didn’t come to the opening, and Ugo Rondinone. but wrote about it and posted it on his Instagram. The art world For almost 10 years after High street artists CAREER PROGRESSION OF THE DIFFERENT TYPES took notice. Ambika Trasi of the Whitney Museum (who had graduation, I felt I was not High street artists are local OF ARTIST also come to a 2015 show) saw the new “frank” paintings and relevant at all. I wasn’t part of stars with national recognition, Price/Value visited Salman twice during the following year. In September most relevant study about success for artists and was covered any conversation. And suddenly but who are internationally un- SALMAN TOOR—HOW TO GET A SOLO SHOW AT THE 2019, Trasi asked Salman if he could manage to do a show at the ALPHA GALLERY SUPERSTARS I was asked to show in the known. They typically have a five, WHITNEY Whitney in just six months, which he gladly agreed to do. After Whitney. maybe six, figure income and a SECONDARY MARKET doing a number of gallery exhibitions, this was the key moment BETA GALLERY M A T U R E / Salman Toor, artist small presence on the secondary EMERGING ARTISTS Salman Toor is considered one of the shooting stars on the for his career and it came as a total surprise. What followed market. They participate in group in over 100 newspapers. 2020 global art scene. Within ten years of graduating from was a storm of photoshoots, interviews and a rapid increase of HIGH STREET shows in national museums and are represented by local GAMMA GALLERY ARTIST Pratt Institute in New York, he had his first solo show at the sales. Asked how this affects him, Salman tells me that, despite galleries, who publish catalogues for them. Whitney Museum of American Art. The classically trained Amer- a lot of anxiety while events moved so fast, he tried to stay Education at art academy or VANITY ARTISTS Vanity artists similar institution ican-Pakistani artist found success in exploring modern themes calm and articulate about his work. Vanity artists have little to no reputation and make a DELTA GALLERY of gender, sexual orientation, or the feeling of otherness. In our Salman’s story is a good example to show how an artist

64 Magnus holds a Ph.D. in art economics and studied at small income through art that requires supplementing, interview, we discuss the phases of his career thus far and how moves through the career stages. It also shows how a single 72 / 73 PRIMARY MARKET POOR DOGS often with teaching. They are completely absent from the / 65 things have recently changed. event can help to change the entire course of a career. Now

Artists secondary market and may have varying representation by Age Artists Between 2009 and 2016 was Salman’s “shopping phase.” in the decision phase of his career, Salman will continue on his local galleries. Catalogues of their work, if any, are usually 0 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 after death During this time he was primarily looking at Old Master paint- skyward trajectory. His career has just begun to boom. self-published. ings because his goal was to be as good as they were. Since the SHOPPING PHASE DECISION PHASE FINAL PHASE Harvard, the London School of Economics and the University of Passion artists Exhibitions at varying Representation through Stardom for a small pieces were so labor intensive, he was producing only fifteen galleries, funding through less but recurring gal- fraction, majority with Passion artists are the most common and have no scholarships and art leries, if not in top two part/full-time position to paintings a year, which he would sell for around $3,000–$8,000 awards, some side jobs groups, side jobs to fund fund artwork reputation within the art world. They do not make an income art work each through a small gallery. Salman tells me that, for a while, through art, but they are perhaps searching for represen- he was happy just painting and making a small income, but tation. They are completely The career of an artist can usually be separated into eventually he grew tired of spending so much time painting ADVICE St. Gallen. His career has been portrayed in a Harvard Business outside of both primary and Most of the artists I know three distinct phases: the “shopping phase”, the “‚decision in one manner, and needed to create more time to explore his ONE secondary markets. They may are working other jobs, phase”, and the “final phase.” other ideas. You don’t have to be an artist. You don’t need the approval organize exhibitions by them- like teaching, but they’re The shopping phase is characterized by young artists Upon moving into a new apartment, Salman did a series of from others. First you need to have a conversation with selves or through friends and doing OK in the art market, with long exhibition records at varying galleries. They work unplanned and loosely painted works, highly creative passion yourself. have no catalogue of their work. just not well enough. extremely hard, they are funded by scholarships, and they projects from his heart. He didn’t plan on showing them to TWO School case study and in various articles, in the New York Times, William Powhida, artist hope to be spotted by an alpha or beta gallery. This phase anyone in a serious capacity, but the people who saw them in Don’t depend on it for money. Success is not a given. extends from the moment an artist graduates (if they went his place seemed to really respond to them. This change of style THREE to art school) until roughly age thirty-five. to something more autobiographical led to the second phase Engage with culture and what’s going on in the world. Initially in the shopping phase, artists will build networks of his career, the “decision phase.” In 2018, he had one pivotal How can you engage with the world in conversation and will try their best to self-promote. At this stage, very show. He showed his new works at Aicon Gallery, a gallery through your art? the Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and the Financial Times. few will get into an alpha gallery; most will exhibit in beta centrally located in downtown NYC. Because he was curious

SALES POINTS

- Artists are rarely taught business skills in art school: and Iwan Wirth in their top ten. Manuela Hauser started off Key gallerists around $10 million) comes from the works of one leading artist. 5.3.3 early in the art world as her mother is the collector Ursula Leading artists subsidize all the other artists, and if they Focus vs. profit, competitors, longevity the world Hauser. Manuela later married Iwan Wirth and they founded get poached by a larger gallery—which frequently happens, 5.2 their gallery in 1992. Hauser & Wirth now has an impressive since contracts don’t exist—the gallery is left with nothing. Another factor in the frequent money problems expe- ten locations across the globe, including New York, London, rienced by galleries is a near universal but unprofitable this book fills that gap. Whether you achieve representation by any of the alpha Los Angeles, and Hong Kong, with an estimated revenue of passion for contemporary art. 93% of all galleries sell con- GALLERY REVENUE galleries in the world or not (and it is my sincere belief that between $600 and $800 million. They represent artists like temporary art, despite the fact that it is the least profitable you have the ability to achieve that), it is important to know Louise Bourgeois and Mark Bradford, along with some artist sector. An explanation for the weak profit margins yielded Revenue who the major figures are. estates. in % by contemporary art is not initially obvious. Possible expla- Larry Gagosian of Gagosian Gallery Marc Glimcher of Pace Gallery 60 nations might be that the market - Written by proven expert in the business side of art. Larry Gagosian, perhaps the biggest name in the gallery Pace Gallery was founded by Arne Glimcher in 1960 and 50 for contemporary art is highly I have no contracts with my game, is the founder and owner of the Gagosian Gallery em- is now run by his son, Marc Glimcher. Pace has six locations 40 deceptive; while the value of this galleries. If a collector pire. Based in New York, Gagosian has seventeen locations worldwide (New York, London, Hong Kong, Palo Alto, Geneva, 30 segment is immense, it is concen- approaches me, I decide which worldwide and a revenue of around $1 billion. Gagosian and Seoul) and a revenue of around $1 billion. They represent 20 trated in a minuscule group of gallery will sell to them. represents artists like Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, and Georg artists and artist estates like Christo and Willem de Kooning. 10 55% 29% 26% key names, hyped up by the rare Gregor Hildebrandt, artist - Features case studies with high-profile artists, dealers and Baselitz, and represents the estates of artists like Pablo The gallery has also embarked on numerous initiatives, like 0 $200k $200k–1mio pieces that make stunning prices. Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Alberto Giacometti. Future Pace or PaceX, that explore combinations of art and $1mio

The vast majority of galleries are selling modestly priced

80 / 81 SOURCE: RESCH, GALLERY REPORT (DATA APPLIES TO US, GERMANY, UK)

David Zwirner of David Zwirner Gallery technology. artwork from less stellar artists, and hence their labors bear 84 While Gagosian may be the biggest name, David Zwirner Other galleries to know / 85

Galleries limited fruit; no other segment has as many

Galleries GALLERY PROFITS is considered the most influential person in the art world ‣ Almine Rech (Paris, Brussels, London, New York, Shanghai) competitors as contemporary art. curators to inspire readers. (according to Power 100, an annual ranking by ArtReview). ‣ Lévy Gorvy (New York, London, Hong Kong, Zurich) Given the tough market conditions, a high failure rate Profit His gallery has six locations from New York to London to ‣ Marian Goodman (New York, Paris, London) in % among galleries is not unexpected. In general, galleries do Hong Kong, and he too records revenues of around $1 billion. ‣ Perrotin (New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, 60 not have long histories. Almost half were founded after Zwirner represents more than sixty artists and artists’ Shanghai) 50 2000 (12% since 2010) and more than 40% were founded in estates, including Franz West, Yayoi Kusama, and Jason ‣ Sadie Coles (London) 40 - Follow-up to the successful book by the same author the last three decades of the twentieth century. Only a small Rhoades. ‣ Sprueth Magers (Berlin, London, Los Angeles) 30 proportion, 7%, have been operating for more than forty- Jeffrey Deitch of Deitch Project ‣ Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris, Salzburg, London) 20 five years. Galleries simply cannot replicate the historical Jeffrey Deitch is a legendary American art dealer and ‣ Victoria Miro (London, Venice, New York) 10 -10% -10–1% 0–10% 11–20% 20% sustainability of auction houses. Even powerhouses like curator who opened his first gallery in 1972. Jeffrey has an ‣ White Cube (London, Hong Kong) 0 Gagosian have no clear succession plan. As of 2020, there MBA from Harvard Business School, worked for some time Management of Art Galleries. -10 was almost the same number of galleries opening as there as a banker, and invented what is now known as “Art Banking.” 30% run at loss -20 were galleries closing. More optimistically, while fewer He was also, from 2010 until his resignation in 2013, director galleries are opening (there has been an 86% decline in of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Jeffrey SOURCE: RESCH, GALLERY REPORT (DATA APPLIES TO US, GERMANY, UK) openings over the past decade), the rate of closure is also has two gallery locations—in Soho, New York City, and Los slowing, meaning that galleries are surviving longer. - Affordable, point-of-sale title Angeles. Manuela Hauser and Iwan Wirth of Hauser & Wirth The ArtReview Power 100 list also names Manuela Hauser

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C a s who then resell. Since Peter shows a lot overseas, he has found 10.8.1 degree, school, city, country) e S t that doing this avoids the hassle of trying to ship back unsold Sample inventory list Exhibitions u d y works, which can be a nightmare. This is very, very uncommon; ‣ List your solo and group exhibitions Stratford in fact Peter thinks he is the only one who still sticks with it, but ‣ Image ‣ Edition ‣ Status ‣ Solo exhibitions: year, title of the show, venue, city, he cites Andy Warhol and other older artists who followed this ‣ Item # ‣ Artist ‣ Buyer country ‣ Artist ‣ Proof ‣ Sold By ‣ Group exhibitions: year, title of show, curator or juror, practice. Galleries often refuse to do this, even for established ‣ Year ‣ Edition number ‣ Sold When artists, and many people refuse to work with Peter for this ‣ Title ‣ Location ‣ How much venue, city, country PETER HALLEY—SUPERSTAR ARTIST, YALE PROFESSOR, reason, while those who do only take on as many works as they ‣ Medium ‣ Price ‣ Paid Text/Press London E15 2UR ‣ Material ‣ Frame Cost ‣ Exhibition AND GLOBAL THINKER know they can sell. Peter produces around twenty-five or thirty ‣ Dimension (h x w x d) ‣ Other Cost ‣ Notes ‣ List any printed or published literature and press works per year, so this arrangement seems to work nicely for ‣ Books and catalogues: year of publication, title of the Peter Halley is one of the world‘s leading contemporary him. book, author, publisher and city living artists, a professor at Yale university, and a major figure Even though the galleries pre-pay for the artworks, they ‣ Press: date, author, title of the article, publication, city, in geometric abstraction. He has been exhibiting his work for still inform him who the ultimate buyers are. For Peter, it’s section and/or page the past forty years and has worked with numerous galleries important to know which collections his artwork ends up in, just ‣ Online press: author, title, blog or website name, date, around the world. Given this wealth of experience with galleries, for the sake of documentation. Having your work included in Résumé URL I talked with Peter about his gallery approach and how that has a particularly important collection can also raise the prices of Other

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10.9 worked for him over the course of his career. your work as a whole, so Peter advises that you keep a record of ‣ Any other relevant information, such as artist talks and 100 / 101 Shortly after receiving his MFA in 1978, Peter moved to NYC your buyers. Of all these documents, your résumé is the one that you public collections—but the key word here is relevant Phaidon Press Inc. and began by showing with an artist-run gallery, something While Peter’s example is admittedly very uncommon in will need most. There are a few simple rules: ‣ Artist talks: year, title, description, city, country Galleries which he recommends for all artists embarking on their careers. today’s art world, it shows that there are artists who don’t Contracts ‣ Your résumé should list all your work experience as ‣ Collections: name of the institution, city He also met Jeffrey Deitch through a mutual friend, who follow the traditional norms and are successful with it. an artist. If it’s not related to art, it doesn’t belong ‣ Residencies: year, name, city, country included his work in a catalogue of geometric contemporary art on your résumé ‣ Awards, grants, and fellowships: year, name, 65 Bleecker Street later in the decade. In 1986, Peter’s work was shown alongside ‣ Watch your layout, avoid typos, keep the font clean, stick description, city, country Jeff Koons at Sonnabend, one of two galleries—the other being to black and white Gagosian—with whom Peter had short-lived exclusive contracts ‣ Work in reverse chronological order, meaning the most ‣ Sample résumés can be downloaded if you register on that ultimately faded because Peter had the strong sense that recent items come first magnusclass.com larger galleries tend to put their own interests first. ADVICE ‣ One page is completely fine if you are just starting out New York, NY 10012 Peter then branched out and began working non-exclusively ONE with different galleries around the world. In our interview, Successful artists need to come up with a business plan A résumé has four main sections: he acknowledged that non-exclusivity can be a double edged that reflects the nature of their work, ethics, goals, etc. Personal information Artist statement sword: it allows artists to be flexible by diversifying their T A W O ‣ Your name distribution channels, which is a great advantage because they Put everything down on paper. Keep a record so that you ‣ Address (including country) 10.10 can go where the market is hottest, but it also typically means always have a paper trail. ‣ Email that their prices are lower. T H R E E ‣ Website I am constantly approached by artists to review their Another unusual aspect of Peter’s gallery relationship is You can’t become successful by exactly replicating someone ‣ Date and place of birth artist statement. Artists find it challenging to write about that he always has them pre-pay for the works; effectively, he else’s path. Reach out to your peers and find your own path. ‣ Current city of residence their work and present themselves. I can only think that this does not consign works, but instead sells them to the gallery, ‣ Your education after high school (year of graduation, is because there is no real guide to how to do it. The sad truth © 2021 Phaidon Press Limited phaidon.com The business guide for artists of all experience levels, ages and mediums. Ever wanted to understand why some artists are successful, while others struggle? Magnus Resch explains the core business principles of being an artist and reveals how to make it in the art market. He answers questions such as: how do I find gallery representation? How do I write an artist statement? How should I price my artworks? And what’s the best Instagram strategy? This must-have guide includes business advice from the art world’s leading experts, such as Sean Scully, Marilyn Minter, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jeffrey Deitch, Mera & Don Rubell, Mr. Brainwash, Oscar Murillo, Peter Halley, Kenny Scharf, Lucien Smith, Lisa Schiff, Raymond Pettibon, Julian Schnabel, and many more.

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