Cooperative Galleries and the Future of Local Art

The market for fine art is ever-evolving and while most news about the gallery field focuses on blue chip outposts in major cosmopolitan centers the vast majority of working artists operate within their own regional communities dotted around the United States. The average artist will never see their work acquired by a museum, will not receive an institutional retrospective, and likely will struggle to find robust gallery representation. At the same time, the demands on retail gallery owners in smaller cities are constantly increasing. Rents, and the other myriad expenses associated with small business, are ever on the rise, while the pool of individuals interested in buying art remains relatively static. Looking towards the future for artists with regional scopes, one bright spot might be artist-run cooperatives that bring together makers around the idea of shared benefits.

Many communities around the country are home to long standing cooperative galleries. In the northeast, a number of these organizations count their longevity by the decade. The ways in which artists’ cooperative galleries operate can vary wildly, but the core tenants usually fall somewhere along the lines of a group of artists joining together to pay rent on a storefront where they all can show their work. Often, each participating artist is granted a section of the space where they can continually share a rotating body of artworks. Sometimes, the exhibition opportunities cycle between active members. Typically, each member of a cooperative is expected or obligated to donate several hours a month to monitor the gallery and greet guests, while in return the gallery takes a smaller than usual commission when works sell. There are some trade offs involved.

Whereas a traditional commercial gallery is (at least ideally) managed by a fine art professional who has both curatorial acumen as well as sales and networking ability, a cooperative might be run collectively by dozens of artists, each with their own goals and objectives. While gallerists will take a 50% commission on average though, the typical commission in a cooperative is something like 25%. Artists in a cooperative gallery can expect to also pay membership dues that can range from a few hundred dollars a year to hundreds of dollars a month, with some cooperatives instituting sliding scales or varying membership tiers to make dues more equitable and accessible.

The demands on small galleries, whether cooperative or owner-run, are huge. Each month a gallery needs to sell enough art to pay rent, utilities, insurance, marketing fees, and other incidentals like paint, labels, collateral materials, and reception expenses. For a retail gallery, the added expense of staff salaries and health insurance can prove insurmountable. In a cooperative, the necessity for profit is spread broadly across the artists involved and there is often no gallery manager to pay. While the panache and expertise of a career gallerist can provide a high level of value to artists represented by them, the freedom and flexibility of a cooperative has a value of its own, particularly for artists who feel overlooked by the gallery system.

Artists are constantly seeking new venues to show and sell their work. The pressures on small owner-run galleries are fierce and the need for gallerists to show works that are highly salable is very real. So for many artists, the alternative of being in community with fellow makers while having a more equitable stake in a gallery operation might be an appealing alternative to the grind of seeking gallery representation and answering to the whims of the marketplace. As the field for regional galleries continues to change, cooperative galleries have enormous potential to create dynamic spaces for artists of all backgrounds to exhibit their work within and beyond their communities.

How to Incorporate Art Into Your Home via Redfin

Thank you to national real estate brokerage firm Redfin for featuring a quote from me in a new piece on their blog detailing professional advice about how homeowners can incorporate fine art into their spaces. Artists and art gallery professionals from across the country contributed to this listing of helpful pointers.

My feedback:

The key to getting the most out of art in your home is to acquire work that you’re passionate about. Whether you buy work to support a friend who is an artist or find items by artists you admire in an auction or consignment setting, collecting works you love is the best investment you can make. And don’t be intimidated because industry professionals like gallerists, auctioneers, and independent advisors can help you out along the way, too!

Read the full article and gain plenty of new ideas for adding art to your home by clicking here. Thanks once more to Redfin!

It’s Time for Retail Galleries to Rethink Receptions

It seems that since time in memoriam retail art galleries of all sizes have been putting on parties to celebrate new shows. They go by many names, from the classic “opening reception” to the self-consciously chic “cocktails with the artist”. While the contents can vary - many feature live music, most have wine, cheese, et cetera - the idea is basically the same: if you feed them, they will come. But if you feed them, will they buy, too? On this question the jury is still out. The real inquiry is how can these events be made more engaging in small and mid-sized commercial galleries, and how can they be made to pay?

Receptions, like any aspect of the gallery business, are not cheap. Between promotion, food, drink, music, staffing, and other details, it’s not unusual even for a smaller commercial gallery to spend in the range of $1,000 or more on such events. Considering the often precarious financial situation for these same galleries, does it really make sense for them to spend funds that could otherwise go towards rent, advertising, or specialized staff on throwing a party?

Many gallerists and most artists in regional and local marketplaces cling to the idea that these free gatherings drive sales. At the same time though, any gallerist will also tell you that every gallery has their opening “regulars”. These individuals attend exhibition receptions religiously, delight in the complimentary fare, and have also by and large never bought a thing. That being said, though, many gallery owners will also share that the excitement surrounding opening receptions does result in sales. In many cases most sales occur at or around the opening of a show. But is the party itself the driving force behind this? While the data on this topic is sparse, there are reasons to doubt.

The reason that so many sales occur at openings is because these aptly named events typically open the show and are buyers’ first exposure to the work available. Anyone who has loved a painting or a print or a sculpture enough to buy it knows that no amount of free Gruyère made them pull out their checkbook. Collectors of luxury goods like art require three things: means, motive, and opportunity. While some coaxing doesn’t hurt, broad costly programming seems to be a blunt answer to the question of cultivating patronage of the visual arts. And if a gallerist feels a party is an important way to entice or honor potential or prior collectors, perhaps a private VIP preview is the best way to include such individuals and encourage them to become repeat buyers.

So, if these events just happen to be an opportunity for otherwise motivated buyers to make purchases, then how can commercial gallery owners convert them into profit centers in their own right? One idea, maybe the idea, is to charge for them. A lesson you learn in Business 101 is that if you give any product away for free, the public will see it as worthless. So, if money is invested into exhibition programs like receptions, why shouldn’t there be a fee to attend? They do, after all, have value. They provide a unique first look at exhibitions as well as networking and often educational opportunities as well.

One reason I think galleries tend to be leery of charging for events is because the art community at large has an idea that even retail galleries are not merely businesses built on art sales but also cultural centers. And as cultural centers, this thinking goes, it is the responsibility of for-profit galleries to provide open, easy, and free access to their spaces at all times. This free access includes receptions and other events. I recently had this exact conversation with a gallerist who was detailing some of the difficulties they’re seeing in their business and they really leaned into this concept, namely the idea that they had a “community responsibility” to run specific programs and events even at a loss. My response was that as a business owner a gallerist’s key responsibilities are to pay their bills, to pay their artists, and to pay staff.

No other for-profit business that I know of is enlisted to provide free catering and entertainment to strangers who don’t pay for their product or service. So, why should commercial galleries? Certainly, as a gallery professional who works in a uniquely historic and public setting, I think it’s very much in the interest of non-profit, mission-driven art centers and institutions to open their doors wide to the communities they serve and to run plentiful free programs, including openings. Small and medium-sized commercial galleries, however, need to open their doors wide to collectors, patrons, and individuals interested in supporting their artists and their exhibition programming with more than just lip service or dreaded “exposure”. And in those settings, this might just mean charging for special events specifically or even charging a general admission fee.

I don’t think the suggestion that a business should charge for a service is a radical one. And if retail galleries charged a small amount to attend special parties and programs, audiences would see that these events do have a value, and more importantly that there is a cost to the small business putting them on. With the income from admission, even from a thinned herd of attendees, commercial galleries could also improve the programming to build out events that are more enticing to the young, sophisticated, upwardly mobile, moneyed class of potential collectors that need to be engaged if the commercial galleries serving local artists are to survive into the future. Millennials, for instance, are interested in such experiences - and high quality ones, too.

A $30 cover for an event that features craft spirits, canapés from a locally owned restaurant, and a demo with the featured artist(s), is not in any way unreasonable and if a buyer is honestly in the market for art, even a piece in the $1,000 price range, it is not inaccessible. Of course it’s tricky to make the numbers work, but this is an industry filled with creative people and something along those lines sounds much more interesting to me than the average reception. And based on my experiences, I bet it would be much more appealing to real potential art buyers too.

Not everyone is in the market for art, and if a $20 or $30 cover charge is too steep for a visitor, then it stands to reason that a $500 or $1,000 art purchase probably isn’t in the cards for them either. Ultimately, art sales have to be the cornerstone of a successful retail gallery situation, but making openings and other gallery programming more profitable is an important step to creating a commercial gallery business model that is more tenable in a rapidly changing environment.

If important retail venues for local artists are going to last, they must be money-making operations and behave as such. Gallery professionals must show that their spaces, their exhibitions, and their work has value. Rethinking receptions and other events as income-generating activity is one step towards shoring up the economic feasibility of the small commercial gallery for the next generation of local artists.

Collecting Vintage Prints: A Personal Perspective

I have to begin this post with a thank you to my colleague Donna Parsons, Gallery Director at Dryden Gallery / Providence Picture Frame for giving me a preview of their incredible Archives Sale, which opens this Friday, June 12 and will run each Friday and Saturday through the end of July from 11am - 4pm each day. Providence Picture Frame is a 100+ year old art business and an institution in itself. It will soon be moving out of the converted textile mill it’s called home for many years and this exciting sale of work from the company’s archive is, what a seasoned collector I know referred to aptly as a “once-in-a-generation sale”.

I was supposed to be visiting Providence Picture Frame earlier this week on official business on behalf of the Providence Art Club. This sneak peak at the objects that would be for sale was supposed to grant us a chance to find some appropriate frames for naked paintings we own, as well as an opportunity to pick up a piece or two to add to our permanent collection. But, of course, I naturally lost all semblance of self control and bought a couple of items for myself.

I am extremely interested in the prints made of New York in the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s and was genuinely thrilled to have the opportunity to add two etchings from this period to my personal collection at this intriguing sale. After getting the work home, I did a bit of research and found out some incredibly fun facts about the makers of the pieces I selected. Collecting historic works of art can be interesting, and even dare I say, fun, and I hope sharing what I found and why I love these two pieces might inspire some other would-be collectors.

Nat Lowell, Lower East Side, etching, 1930’s

The first etching is by the Latvian-born Nat Lowell (1880-1956), who trained at the Art Students League of New York and was a prolific printmaker, capturing the unique vibrancy of the City. This scene of the Lower East Side, probably from the 30’s, shows off the bustling harbor, which itself already dated back 300 years to the Dutch settlement of the island. It may be forgotten today to some extent, but for most of its history New York served as one of the most important ports in the world.

In Lowell’s dynamic image, he contrasts the masts of the sailing ships in the foreground with the spires of the city’s financial hub on the tip of Manhattan Island behind. It’s worth noting that the term “skyscraper” was originally used to describe the height of ships, not of buildings. The riotous sea faring vessels before use accentuate the solidity of the City, as do the billowing baroque clouds over head.

Nat Lowell, Lower East Side, etching, 1930’s (detail)

I am unable to find this specific image online thus far, but works by Lowell can be found in the Metropolitan Museum, New York Public Library, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, The Library of Congress, and other important collections. One of the reasons I find original prints so exciting is that for an incredibly reasonable sum, you can live with museum quality work.

Karl Dehmann, Metropolitan Museum, etching, 1928

The second etching is by Karl Dehmann (1886-1974), who was born in Germany and trained both in his native country and in Paris. He made his living for a short time as a copyist at the Louvre and wrote home at one point to complain that he wished he could make more money at his trade. Don’t we all, Karl?

This beautiful nocturne depicts the glowing Beaux Arts facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1928, which one source reports as the year Dehmann emigrated to the United States. This exact print can be found in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York as well as the Metropolitan Museum itself, which acquired it the year it was printed.

Karl Dehmann, Metropolitan Museum, etching, 1928

You might notice that the seemingly cramped steps and horseshoe driveway in this image are not the hallmarks of The Met recognized today for its gracious cascade of stairs. This entry was dramatically altered in the early 1970’s under Thomas Hoving’s directorship. But this print captures a moment in time while also expressing the innate grandeur of the Richard Morris Hunt building abutting Fifth Avenue, as well as the drama of the well-lit facade against the inky night sky.

Both of these images are richly detailed and executed in a style that was extremely popular in this period. They are intricately and lovingly detailed. They exude two polar qualities of New York: the gritty excitement of downtown in the middle of the workday and the meditative night of a staid and cerebral uptown. They also express some of the wonderful technical qualities found in the medium of etching: the specificity of the line work, the graduated tones of dark and light, the possibility for an image to be descriptive, narrative, and abstract all at once.

It is also worth noting that both of these images, as well as many others crystallizing the singular personality of the place that Brooklyn-born poet Walt Whitman called “America’s great democratic island city”, were executed not by native-born artists but by individuals who came to the United States from abroad. This fact has a message for all of us living in the US in 2019.

Historical works of art can add so much to a collection because in looking at them we can know and understand their makers and their context in ways that do not always translate to artists and artworks of our own time. We know the way the places depicted have changed and that makes these works romantic, doesn’t it? We understand the impact that this school of printmakers had on the shaping of art history and that makes these works educative, doesn’t it? And, if we let the lessons inherent in works like these wash over us they can change our mind or make us see the world differently, can’t they?

Although one of today’s more popular art memes goes something like “buy work by living artists, the dead ones don’t need the money”, there is an alternative saying in the museum world about art-makers who are no longer with us. “The only good artist is a dead artist.”

In the case of collecting there are many great things about buying the work of living artists you might know and like, of course. But there is also something to be said for broadening, deepening, and enriching your collection with works by artists whose careers ended decades ago and whose productions were influenced by an entirely different set of social, political, and artistic realities than we know now.

When I look at the prints I recently purchased, I see not only the New York of Lowell and Dehmann, but I feel inklings of my own experience in the City. I also see indications of familiarity on the part of these printmakers with artists whose work I will never be able to afford like Edward Hopper or Martin Lewis. And for a much more affordable price I can bring prints that capture the zeitgeist of their time with technical precision and artistic flourish into my home.

I removed these prints from their frames and pulled them out from under glass and I honestly cannot stop looking at them. They are a delight and I know I will enjoy them for years to come.

And that is truly the best art investment money can buy.

Providence Picture Frame’s Archives Sale is on July 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, and 27 from 11am - 4pm. They are located at 27 Dryden Lane in Providence, Rhode Island.

In Black and White: Examining the Recent Market for Drawings by Martin Lewis

The Australian-American artist Martin Lewis (1881 - 1962), a contemporary of Edward Hopper, was a talented and prolific printmaker, though not as widely recognized by the general public as the creator of Nighthawks. Martin’s work is, however, popular in the market for themes that frequently parallel those admired by Hopper’s collectors. Specifically, the market tends to respond well to work depicting evocative urban environments and scenes of New York life in the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s. An examination of some recent sales of work by Lewis illuminates a few of the qualities found in his oeuvre that are rewarded in the market.

In Study for Yorkville Night, a preparatory drawing for one of the artist’s numerous prints, figures gather around the pool of light emanating from a storefront below an elevated rail line. The work is executed in ink with apparent ink washes. It has a great range of tonality and developed figurative compositions within the scene. That being said, it does not have the level of detail that would be expected of a finished print by the same artist. This work sold for $13,750 at Heritage Auctions in May of 2018. This sale price was squarely in the house’s estimate range of $10,000 - $15,000, indicating a level of predictability about the market for Lewis’ drawings.

For comparison, the print produced after this drawing sold for $42,000 (over a high estimate of $35,000) a year prior in May of 2017. Previous sales of the same print image for $26,400 in 2008 and $35,000 in 2016 are indicative of increasing interest on the part of collectors in Lewis in general, his prints more specifically, and this image in particular. This intense interest appears to be mostly correlated to the artist’s prints and it is important to note that such enthusiasm does not always translate across media. When examining recent sales of Lewis’ drawings this is an important detail to be cognizant of.

One question arising from the comparison between the drawing and print sales of Yorkville Night is why would a drawing, which might be considered the more “original” of the two works, sell for so much less, especially at the same auction house? One potential answer to this is that Lewis is primarily known as a printmaker, so the market response will tend to be stronger for his “primary medium”. Another issue is that the drawing in question is almost certainly preparatory and therefore might be considered by some collectors to be an “unfinished” work. In the print, the artist’s intention for the final and complete work is evident. Therefore, it becomes the more desirable work even though it is a multiple. While this is not an uncommon phenomenon, it can be illustrated well in this case.

Variations between the auction and retail markets for Martin’s work are also important when considering varying levels of market response to his drawings. A Study for Yorkville Night is currently on offer in a retail setting at The Old Print Shop for $35,000. This retail price is roughly double and a half the auction price, which is common for a retail setting.

Importantly, a simpler Yorkville Night study executed in graphite and conté crayon is held in the venerable collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. So, the Study can rightly be called “museum-quality”, an often misused descriptor in the commercial art gallery setting.

Martin Lewis, Study for Yorkville Night, ink and pencil on paper, 8.63" x 11.88", unsigned and undated
Sold for $13,750 at Heritage Auctions (Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000)
Sale date: May 4, 2018, Lot #68185

Martin Lewis, Yorkville Night, drypoint, 8.5” x11.5”, edition of 18, signed
Sold for $42,000 at Heritage Auctions (Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000)
Sale date: May 7, 2017, Lot #355
Same image sold in 2016 for $35,000, in 2008 for $26,400
It was also offered in 2001 and 2002 for estimates of $1,500 - $2,000 and was unsold both times via Swann

In another work, the undated watercolor On The Bridge, Lewis handles a daytime scene of commuters traversing a bridge. Like Yorkville Night, the work shows one of Lewis’ central themes: the interaction of figures within nakedly urban environments. This work is larger than the preparatory drawing for Yorkville Night and also considerably more “finished”, yet it sold for the same price ($13,750) just three days prior to the sale of Yorkville Night. Again, the reason for this seemingly surprising result might have to do with the expectations of collectors. Lewis is known for depicting rich dramas of New York night scenes. Daytime imagery is inherently less dramatic, and therefore potentially of less interest to the types of individuals who will vie for his work in the auction setting.

In this watercolor, the focal point of the scene is the atmosphere of the city highlighted between the girdered superstructure of the bridge. While the figures and architectural elements are finely described, the city beyond and the sky above are loose and gauzy. Because collectors tend to respond to Lewis’ prints and to works on paper that exude a strong use of line, a looser treatment would likely be less attractive to the core pool of buyers who help to drive sales results. It also is highly possible that the sale price of this work informed collector response to Yorkville Night, which again sold at Heritage Auctions three days later.

Martin Lewis, On The Bridge, watercolor on paper, 17.75" x 20.75", signed and undated
Sold for $13,750 at Doyle New York (Estimate: $10,000 - $20,000)
Sale date: May 1, 2018, Lot #133

In yet another work on paper, a loose drawing titled Night Windows, an apartment building topped with a water tower is silhouetted in the misty twilight. This work furthers an understanding of Lewis’ process; from loose studies, to more refined drawings, to finished prints. This work is slightly smaller in scale than Study for Yorkville Night. It sold for $5,000 at Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers in 2018, down from a $5,760 sale price at Swann Galleries in 2009. This result shows a clear decline in value for this individual object. This decline appears to be rather unique to this object and its situation, as sales of other work by Lewis have tended to remain strong over time.

Another question that might come to mind is why would a drawing such as this lose value as other works by Lewis such as Yorkville Night rise in value? Again, the answer is almost certainly linked to collector expectations and desires. This work is quite loose and lacks the detailed description which tends to be rewarded. It is rather abstract and illustrates the artist’s process but not the finer details of his more complete works. There is also a great deal of competition in the marketplace, and high quality prints by Lewis become available in a variety of auction settings regularly. Competition rewards works of high quality and is less kind to works that are of less interest to passionate collectors.

It is important to note that this piece has even less “finish” than Study for Yorkville Night. It also has no clearly developed figures, which are often central to the artist’s most popular works. Although there is some evidence of a figure in one of the windows at lower left. Again, Lewis’ oeuvre is known for the presence of characters interacting in urban spaces. It is still a wonderful drawing in many ways, and again, a great indicator of the artist’s process. But as the sale price indicates, it is of less interest to the market than other works by the same artist.

Martin Lewis, Night Windows, graphite on paper, 10.5” x 8”, unsigned and undated
Sold for $5,000 at Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers (Estimate: $4,000 - $6,000)
Sale date: April 26, 2018, Lot #149

Same drawing sold for $5,760 in 2009 at Swann Galleries.

Finally, in another drawing, New York Nocturne, the qualities that truly excite the market for Lewis’ drawings are very evident. The work, executed in charcoal around 1930, shows two figures on a street in New York. One person stands on the sidewalk while the other is prone. Both individuals are framed below the black underside of an awning. There is an element of mystery to the subject and it is not immediately evident whether these two men are friends stumbling home drunkenly from a bar, or whether one is a passerby stopping to glance at a homeless person asleep on the street.

The image bears a great deal of linear description that is architectural in quality. It also has a range of tonalities that describe the way in which street light and ambient moonlight affect facades within an urban setting. This treatment would likely be of great interest to the type of collectors that seek out, and pay high sums, for Lewis’ intricately detailed prints.

This work sold for $47,500 over an estimate of $10,000 - $15,000 at Swann Galleries in 2018. This illustrates that there can be interest in Lewis’ drawings equal to that of prints, when the drawing in question is of exceptional quality. Some of the positive attributes of the drawing in question are that of line, contrast, and narrative drama. All of these, and more, add up to a work that is naturally of great interest to serious collectors.

Martin Lewis, New York Nocturne, charcoal on paper, 12.75" x 16.88", c. 1930, signed
Sold for $47,500 at Swann Galleries (Estimate: $10,000 - $15,000)
Sale date: March 13, 2018, Lot #166

This brief examination of just five recent sales of works by Martin Lewis does not provide a complete picture of the market for his work more broadly, but illustrates some of the key issues that inform value in his drawings. Each of the works presented has their own unique qualities, but the market response to each was informed by the values of those in the market for such work at this time. Because most of the sales cited here took place in 2018, these few sales provide a snapshot of the diverse market attitudes that can exist at one time.

Lewis was a prolific artist in multiple media and his work comes up at auction regularly and is also readily available in the retail setting. The market for his work is strong, and the response of collectors to the variety of his production is fascinating. Many artists of Lewis’ generation are not as well represented in the marketplace. Still others, such as Hopper, are much more widely known and more well publicized than Lewis. Generational peers are not always equal in the market. Collectors do truly tend to look at artists and artworks with deeply individualized values and opinions.

This post should serve to aid in broadening a better understanding of some basic market opinions about one specific artist during a singular time period. With a better understanding of how the market reacts to work like these by Lewis, collectors, dealers, and even living artists become more informed and more ready to deal with the realities of the current market for fine art.