You would probably have heard before that art is associated with luxury. But is ART really a luxury or is it a creative way of expression with intangible value?
Artists express in their artworks a feeling, a statement, a message that can be appreciated for some but not for all. How much value can someone give to an art piece that was created by an emerging artist?
Nowadays the art market is saturated with online options, and it has become a difficult task for emerging artists to exhibit in galleries. This is how I would explain in detail the need of funds for new art projects:
The galleries have always had the need to pay a venue's rent and utilities, also employees, insurance, shipping and many other things, but when artworks sales slowed down galleries started struggling to stay in business.
On the other hand an artist works for hours in the creation of a beautiful piece putting all his/her creativity on it and spending money in art materials to create a masterpiece. An artwork not only is made of emotions, but it is an investment of money, time, talent, creativity and human effort.
When an artist goes to a gallery, the gallerist must believe in any possible artwork sale from the artist’s art collection. Lately the galleries' commission percentages have increased and even sometimes the artist himself has to put some money in to help with the gallery expenses.
Both sides, the galleries and the artists have to invest with no assurance of any income coming back. The reality is that art sales changed dramatically I would say after the 2008 economic recession in USA.
Between the 2007 and 2010 a financial recession was originated from excessive liquidity afforded by low interest rates and active securitization of mortgages. In addition to that decrease in sales after the recession, nowadays art buyers and collectors have more options than going to galleries (like visiting art fairs and making online art purchases or even Crypto art).
Since the galleries and the artists have to invest with no assurance of income coming back, I would say the only way to stop this vicious circle would be to look for art funds. Would the public and private sectors keep funding art in the long run?
Please leave me your comments or inputs. I would very much appreciate them.
Thanks for reading !
Note: The photography images used in this post belong to myself and were taken at our gallery space: http://www.miartspace.weebly.com