This is a tale of two artists. One who died before his time, in the 1930s and in straightened circumstances, and one who is still living and producing art. Both were known as painters. The latter specialises in landscape painting. The other did plenty of landscape work but was accomplished in many subjects. Both worked in the same nation of the UK.
The living painter has said that he makes a lot of money from his art-more than a million pounds a year. The dead artist-let us call him Mr A never obtained such wealth in his lifetime, even allowing for the change in purchasing power of the pound. The other artist, let us call him Mr B is happily still with us. He seems to be a thoughtful, not to say religious person, and is working away to promote himself.
Mr A certainly did exhibit his work and was a member of an exclusive artists' group, but as I say he never had as much financial success as Mr B; this is despite the fact that most people in the art world would see Mr B's work as negligible in comparison with that of Mr A. I have no doubt that Mr A was a very promising art student but he has not developed in accordance with his youthful promise. Much more promising was Mr A whose talent was recognised early in life and who was encouraged by some of the finest artists of his day.
So what happened? Mr B has claimed to be earning a considerable amount (he gives some of it away too), but I have known his oil paintings to be on sale recently at a price of £6000 from his dealer and the dealer wants a substantial cut from that price. Now to earn a million pounds a year from art at this rate you would have to produce and sell- an enormous number of works; do you want to do the maths? Whatever result you get it is a lot of paintings.And Mr B has said,one might think naively, that he does two or three paintings in a day. So there must be another income somewhere, and this is where marketing comes in. If you go to a certain region of the UK and enter a gift shop or a cafe you are very likely to see greetings cards or mugs with examples of Mr B's work.In the winter Mr B has a calendar available-and pricey it is.This may be a good additional source of income as it appears to be self-published. Mr A's work was, I am fairly certain, not reproduced on mugs and greetings cards in his lifetime. Thus a mediocre-at best-artist Mr B is making-as he says a fortune from his art but MrA whose art is incomparably finer than Mr B's could never be financially secure.
Mr B had an exhibition in one of the UK capitals recently and he or his dealer, in some combination has/have hired a gallery in the city centre (twice).It must have cost a substantial sum but Mr B will now be able to say that he has exhibited in a prestigious quarter-though not if course at a prestigious gallery.I cannot find any independent reviews of these exhibitions.The information that an exhibition occurred will look good on Mr B's CV and will impress the credulous.But why Mr B needs to do this when he has been painting for years with so much financial success is beyond me. It seems like a vanity project and I would not recommend the expenditure to anyone trying to establish themselves in the art world.He also donates paintings to national institutions.He seems to have a strong need for recognition. Mr A would have laughed at all this.
The moral of this story may be that artists should not put all their eggs in one basket if they want financial success. This is an old idea. Many teach and some find ways of marketing their work in less expensive formats.But financial success is not everything as Mr B seems to know in his heart of hearts.(slightly edited, June 2019.)
The living painter has said that he makes a lot of money from his art-more than a million pounds a year. The dead artist-let us call him Mr A never obtained such wealth in his lifetime, even allowing for the change in purchasing power of the pound. The other artist, let us call him Mr B is happily still with us. He seems to be a thoughtful, not to say religious person, and is working away to promote himself.
Mr A certainly did exhibit his work and was a member of an exclusive artists' group, but as I say he never had as much financial success as Mr B; this is despite the fact that most people in the art world would see Mr B's work as negligible in comparison with that of Mr A. I have no doubt that Mr A was a very promising art student but he has not developed in accordance with his youthful promise. Much more promising was Mr A whose talent was recognised early in life and who was encouraged by some of the finest artists of his day.
So what happened? Mr B has claimed to be earning a considerable amount (he gives some of it away too), but I have known his oil paintings to be on sale recently at a price of £6000 from his dealer and the dealer wants a substantial cut from that price. Now to earn a million pounds a year from art at this rate you would have to produce and sell- an enormous number of works; do you want to do the maths? Whatever result you get it is a lot of paintings.And Mr B has said,one might think naively, that he does two or three paintings in a day. So there must be another income somewhere, and this is where marketing comes in. If you go to a certain region of the UK and enter a gift shop or a cafe you are very likely to see greetings cards or mugs with examples of Mr B's work.In the winter Mr B has a calendar available-and pricey it is.This may be a good additional source of income as it appears to be self-published. Mr A's work was, I am fairly certain, not reproduced on mugs and greetings cards in his lifetime. Thus a mediocre-at best-artist Mr B is making-as he says a fortune from his art but MrA whose art is incomparably finer than Mr B's could never be financially secure.
Mr B had an exhibition in one of the UK capitals recently and he or his dealer, in some combination has/have hired a gallery in the city centre (twice).It must have cost a substantial sum but Mr B will now be able to say that he has exhibited in a prestigious quarter-though not if course at a prestigious gallery.I cannot find any independent reviews of these exhibitions.The information that an exhibition occurred will look good on Mr B's CV and will impress the credulous.But why Mr B needs to do this when he has been painting for years with so much financial success is beyond me. It seems like a vanity project and I would not recommend the expenditure to anyone trying to establish themselves in the art world.He also donates paintings to national institutions.He seems to have a strong need for recognition. Mr A would have laughed at all this.
The moral of this story may be that artists should not put all their eggs in one basket if they want financial success. This is an old idea. Many teach and some find ways of marketing their work in less expensive formats.But financial success is not everything as Mr B seems to know in his heart of hearts.(slightly edited, June 2019.)
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