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Jobbing artists and the UK markets
Ken Pratt gives an overview of the international art market from a curator’s point of view.
Most visual artists want to sell their work. Yet, for many, accessing an appropriate market remains a frustrating, confusing or seemingly impossible mission. Even the lucky few who have managed to be picked up by established commercial galleries often find that this apparent success brings new problems and complaints. Perhaps one of the biggest contributors to this frustration is that many confuse the UK art markets with the international art market. This is an easy mistake to make given that it is the UK commercial galleries operating at the top end of the international art market that usually dominate media coverage. They are not, however, reflective of the full range of art markets operating. The international art market is a strange beast that deifies the logic of more traditional economics. At its highest levels it involves a circuit of no more than a few hundred galleries. Theirs is a world that relies on a set of concomitant conditions to ensure the economic value of contemporary art works remains buoyant. These conditions include the more practical ones of sustained promotion, contact with collectors and the institutions that will effectively underwrite the artistic worth...
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