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  • #1359473
    Romanticist
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        I’ve just signed a tie-in contract with a gallery. One of the problems the manager reports is, he shows an artist and the price reflects the gallery costs.  So then the customer looks at the painting, checks the artist out online, notices the same painting on sale on their website for a cheaper price and just contacts the artist directly and expresses an interest and starts haggling for a lower price than that.

        It seems to me that an easy way to avoid this is for the manager to contact the artist himself under a fake name, to see what they do. Or use Google image search to see if any paintings turn up in places they shouldn’t be.

        Does anyone have experience of this?

        There is hope in honest error.
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        #1360039

        No, I’ve never seen that but it makes sense that that would happen.

        If they want to exclusively represent an artist I would think that they would have in their contracts that the paintings can’t be offered for sale anywhere else.

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        #1360085
        La_
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            Best way to lose your contract with a gallery (and all other galleries in the area) is to cheat their system/contract.

            Usually there’s a limit to your display time in a gallery and if it doesn’t sell via the gallery you can, if you save the contact of the interested party, sell to them sans commission later (assuming they haven’t found art elsewhere).

            la

            _____________________________________________
            When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know Peace

            #1369171
            Kmart
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                I’ve never heard of this exact scenario, but have heard of other stories of artists getting themselves in trouble with the galleries. One semi well known artist sold off the easel at a plein air invitational, got found out, and there was a little drama. Galleries are hit hard now, and artists have more opportunity to sell art than ever. It’s important for artists to keep their end of the deal, but also very important for galleries to be pushing their artists (through advertising and online presence) more than ever.  I think there will always be galleries in major art areas, but the days of a community gallery in every town will end. It’s too bad because I have enjoyed working with galleries and they have definitely helped me grow my business.

                #1374523
                stlukesguild
                Default

                    You should sell your work for the same price whether it is shown in a gallery or you are selling it directly. The art market is rather small and word tends to get around to the galleries and buyers if they find you are selling something at a discount outside of the gallery. This is the perfect way to destroy your support from galleries and buyers.

                    Saintlukesguild-http://stlukesguild.tumblr.com/
                    "Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know." - John Keats
                    "Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea."- John Ciardi

                    #1379063

                    Interesting.  I think that what might be the story of an artist whose work we liked and bought, at a gallery and at off-the-easel shows.  I noticed that his work is no longer in our local galleries, so his profile has really dipped.  Short term gain for him might have created a longer term pain.

                    "None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm." - Henry David Thoreau

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