Selling Work
I was at Hunsaker/Schlesinger Gallery at Bergamot Station yesterday, and they had a drawing by an artist who is a young graduate student at CSU Long Beach. Her work is very detailed, somewhat surrealistic drawings of animals done only with a carbon pencil. I wish I had a picture to show you. I'll have to remember to carry my digital camera with me, or least remember the artist's name for a link. The gallery owner said that she sells every piece that this artist brings her. What's that about?
The work is very beautiful, but so is other work that doesn't sell so easily. Is it that this artist is in the right place at the right time, figurative work being popular right now? Is this artist more talented than other artists? Does this artist have better connections? She was introduced to the gallery owner by well-known painter Peter Zokosky.
I always wonder about what art sells and what doesn't. It's a mystery to me.
The work is very beautiful, but so is other work that doesn't sell so easily. Is it that this artist is in the right place at the right time, figurative work being popular right now? Is this artist more talented than other artists? Does this artist have better connections? She was introduced to the gallery owner by well-known painter Peter Zokosky.
I always wonder about what art sells and what doesn't. It's a mystery to me.
posted by Cassandra at 7:55 AM
2 Comments:
Congrats on your blog, Cassie! Looks good. Nice to have a record of where we've been with Jim's class and your comments.
Why some art is more saleable than other -- always part of the mystery. In the case of this young artist (don't remember her name either) although the work gives me the creeps, I think I understand the appeal. It shows enormous technical skill -- very assured line drawing and texturing almost like an etching -- yet it's not photorealism. You can't just say, "Why didn't she use a camera," because it's surreal, with one animal or human morphing into another continuously, seamlessly across the entire page, even forming the smaller images around the border. It's the product of an extremely fertile imagination; that's part of its fascination. But the cute doe-eyed animals are also menacing. You don't know what they're going to morph into. That's what creeps me out, but that's probably part of the work's appeal to some people -- the edginess. It keeps it from being sappily sentimental; keeps it "cool."
Thank you, Judy, for that great description of her work. Now if someone could just remember her name . . .
Post a Comment
<< Home