NYC Contemporary Art Dealer: What a gallery does is sell art. This task varies. In some cases the dealer has a base of clients. He tries to find work that will please them. If the dealer seems like a prick to his current artists this is becuase he does control the clients. If a prick to new artists it may be becasue they are not of interest to his clients. A good dealer will guide/introduce his clients to new interesting art. He serves as a trusted filter removing things his client base will not be interested in moving towards the best and removing just plain lousy art. Think of a dealer as an editor. He may, like an editor, even ask an artist to change art or styles to meet the demands of the market place. Note: even a 'public' gallery selling to 'walk ins' has a knoweldge of what his clients, these walk ins want. Very few people really buy art. Even among the wealthy, few are buyers. Fewer still are serious buyers and even fewer serious buyers trust their own taste. Oddly, those are my favorite clients; especially when they know that I know their tastes. I just find good work, present the work and make sales. Galleries, though not a primary function, do provide display space for the public to see works even if they will not buy them. This does serve a cultural purpose in our society.
Note also that I have never met anyone in the business of dealing art work who looked down on artists in general. Sometimes people look down on those who are not artists but like to live an artistic bohemian life style without the productive component.
The following is an excerpt from a conversation with a NYC art dealer. Look for comments and voices from other types of dealers in other art markets in the future, we're working on filling out this site with some of the points of the business you won't learn in college. There are many styles of doing business, and this site will present a diverse selection of comments to give you a sense of some of the key players. Look for more coming up!
