The artist and the art market

The art system has peculiar characteristics. It presents barriers apparently insurmountable to an artist at the start of his career; but, when he enters the circuit and makes a lot of success, he begins to be disputed by galleries and collectors. This doesn’t happen only in the artistic segment, but we would risk saying that in this territory this phenomenon manifests in a more intense way. If we are going to talk about artists, art and market, it is convenient to clarify what, to us, represent this terms. Artists is a professional that creates, that produces something new, that develops what, in specialized media, is known as language. Artistic language. It means, a particular way of doing something, an original way to produce something, of using a personal vocabulary and syntax. The word here is really to produce and not to reproduce. Reproduction is an industry’s activity and it is closest to handicraft, although, by no means, we want to disqualify artisan’s figure as a creator. Indeed, in industry, products are always the same. In it there is a sector, normally called Quality Control, which has to ensure that all products are made with the same characteristics within a technical pattern previously established. In handicraft, products are never the same, but similar. And, in true art, they are different, enganoalthough there must be something that unifies them, which identify them as something produced by the same person. What allows that is language, which makes possible the miracle of different, but equal products. People inside the business perfectly know what we are talking about. Of course, artistic product is subject to a personal process of evolution, but it normally doesn’t happen suddenly. There will always be a common thread, sometimes subtle, uniting one phase to the other. It is language that allow us to identify, with no trouble, an abstract painting by Manabu Mabe, Tomie Ohtake or Antônio Bandeira. The artist is the creator, the producer of art. Art, as consequence, it’s the product of an artist creative work. And the market is the user universe or, as would say, economists, managers or marketing professionals, art’s consumer universe. Biding this two universes, producer and consumer, there is a constellation of figures that integrates the art system: the museum, cultural institutions, press, advertising, the critics. To get to the market, the artist must know this system. Or to have someone close who knows and assumes the part of mediator between him and the public. To many, who turn an artistic product sacred, it’s hard to accept it as a commodity, and, for this, they have great difficult in distributing its production. There are, still, those who understand that if the product is good, there is someone that will spontaneously show up to acquire it, to pay for it. History has shown that this doesn’t always happens, or happens too late. On the other side, the artist must be careful not to look as a marketer, who does misleading advertising of his product. Even so, as it has been said, you cannot fool everybody all the time. The best would be for the artist to be represented by a merchant. But as, in most cases this doesn’t happen, he must find his own way. Some of them will, certainly, participate in official art shows, Gallery Artists’ Salon, of artists’ promotion publications, go to exhibitions, courses, seminars, participate in artists’ associations, create a website or a blog, spread their work on social media, have a portfolio to present to gallery owners, cultural entrepreneurs, curators, art critics, cultural managers; to start a business and present projects, get funds, with Culture Ministry, State and Council Culture Departments, cultural institutions among others. It will also be useful to know the 4Ps system: product, placement, pricing and promotion. Wich means: product must be good; distribution, adequate; price, compatible and promotion must not be neglected.

ENOCK SACRAMENTO