brianvds
Well-known member
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I have seen it and read it, but decided to let the topic go, as the moderator requested we avoid falling down a political hole.
So back to scammers I go. Artists seem to be uniquely vulnerable. My late uncle was an artist, long before the days of internet marketing and scamming. He had to work directly with galleries and dealers, and he always complained about what a bunch of crooks they were. He once physically threw a dealer out of his house. When the internet came along, he had a website for a while, but it had no effect on anything, so he let it go.
Well, he was a tad eccentric, so perhaps he exaggerated? I worked at a small art gallery for a while, and the owner was something of a crook! He never cheated his artists outright, but he knew nothing about art, wasn't interested in learning about it, and only cared about money, which he frequently ran out of so he couldn't pay artists whose work he had sold. He always paid up eventually, but sometimes only after legal threats.
It may be that there are really just too many artists - who wouldn't want to be one? And so the crooks also multiply. But the local art community is actually not that large, so nowadays, if a gallery develops an unsavory reputation it often soon runs out of artiste willing to exhibit there. And the more famous artists now often have their own galleries.
I see a new trend around here is that better galleries simply won't take work on consignment anymore. If they like your work and think there's a market for it and that you have future as artist, they'll directly buy it from you, which eliminates the risk for the artist. Alas for me, I am too small-time a player to get into those galleries.
