writing

... on visual art ...

rent combo same
sell combo

    In a nutshell, RENTERs can earn more than SELLERs with less artwork and a lot more with the same amount of artwork. In fact, comparing renting versus selling visual artworks indicates that most people benefit when renting visual artworks is the economic interface:
  • Net incomes of RENTERs are higher and more stable than SELLERs.
  • For the same money, clients can rent almost four times as many artworks as they can buy.
  • Renting involves more client contact, hence has more marketing opportunities.
  • Governments receive more tax revenue.
    By inference the renting interface suggests:
  • Renting would lead to sound business practices among most visual artists.
  • Clients may be more adventurous with their choices.
  • Rentals would be best handled by third-party services (also with likely higher, more stable incomes).
rent vs sell cover
fountain

“Maybe you have to die first.”

That was almost funny the first time he heard it. When people were still saying it several years later, with more conviction in their voices, Michael didn’t laugh, not even politely.

At about the same time in his life, his friend Rachel inquired at some art dealers as to where she could find him. She told them that she had seen one of his paintings in a downtown office (which she had). She said that she was trying to locate the artist. These art merchants knew of Michael and his work; he had trucked his portfolio around to all of them not long before. But on her return Rachel said, “Most of them said they’ve never heard of you and they all discouraged me from contacting any artist directly. One of them left me with the distinct impression that some of you might even bite me. Another one said, ‘You won’t let anyone represent you, so you deserve to starve.’”

Shortly after her inquiry Michael talked with a prominent lawyer about finding a sponsor for his studio. Alan said, “There are lots of corporations who would love to be your sponsor.” When Michael returned a few months later, rejection letters in hand, his adviser advised, “Get some kudos.”

— o —

In Renaissance Italy artists started defining themselves as a distinct group worthy of recognition by the rest of society. In 1563, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Giorgio Vasari helped found Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno, the first “academy”. It was established as a professional association that helped visual artists move up a notch above artisans and their guilds.+Dictionary of Art & Artists, Sir David Piper, General Editor, 1988 At the time most artistic projects were begun when a patron gave an artist money or an offer.

category modules

“Don’t you see you’re arguing for a system that doesn’t go anywhere?” he asked.

“What do you mean, ‘doesn’t go anywhere?’”

“Take a look at what happens to all the artists government has ‘helped’ ... ”

“... yeah! Without grants most of them wouldn’t have been able to do the work they’ve done,” Linda interrupted.

“That’s not necessarily so,” Michael said. “But what I’m pointing out is at some point those people are going to use up their welcome at one or all of the agencies.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“If you look at the records you’ll see that some names appear fairly often ... then they disappear. They’re replaced by a new group of artists who get grants for a while.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“Well, Eileen and Rachel could probably charge people to see their work now, but I don’t see that they’d be able to do that without having first received support from government.”

“But that’s just it. Even if they can charge people they still can’t make enough from their ‘work’ to live on.”

“Isn’t that why we have subsidy in the first place?”

“Why am I thinking of a cat chasing its tail?”

— o —

Historically, Canadians have not paid much attention to Canadian visual artists. While that indifference can be attributed to a number of things, there is one reason which is perpetually overlooked in discussions of how visual artists get paid and who they are working for:

When government redefined the arts as a “cultural industry” and started handing out grants in the 1980s, a now-trenchant arts bureaucracy started imposing its will on the community.

Since that time Canada’s visual artists have operated in a most peculiar milieu. Unlike patrons of the past (who spent their own money), arts officers dispense a public purse. With it, they obliquely monitor which artists become known and which art the public sees. While called for by many artists and brought into being ostensibly to help them, government funding steered the discipline of visual art down a cul-de-sac which a majority of Canadians walks past.