Whenever I write about the dust biting fate of any dealer who specializes in period material, invariably I receive a number of responses about changing tastes, with a contemporary focus on, wait for it, contemporary art and design. One would presume, therefore, that those marchands whose specialty that is would, perforce, be thriving. Such is not the case, however. An article in Art + Auction discusses at great length the fate of contemporary galleries in New York, Paris, London, New York, Beijing- and all point to the same thing- business is crap, and very many, including venerable dealers like Jerome de Noirmont, Valerie Carberry, and Yvon Lambert, have closed their public spaces and chosen, like my own self, to trade privately.
No one wants to admit that being closed to the public is a money saving maneuver, but of course it is. Rents are ruinous, and at least for high profile contemporary material, it is nearly impossible to compete with the major auction houses. Although my loyal cadre of blogophiles will doubtless remember my writings about the struggles, yet ongoing, of the major houses, at least for the moment their purses are a bit longer than that of the typical independent gallery. The internet, pop up spaces, and art fairs are stop gap efforts to stay afloat and in front of clients, but these, too- save the internet- are expensive. With booth space at any of the better fairs running from $200 to $1,000 a linear foot, plus lighting, plus décor, plus advertising, to say nothing of the cost of transporting you and your stock in trade, $50,000 to $100,000 is not unreasonable to budget for a decent four to seven day fair. With dealers particularly of emerging artists offering most pictures and sculpture at prices well below $5,000, it takes lots of opening of the order book just to break even.
And that’s the problem- very many are not and those that are, are just keeping their heads above water. In his Management of Art Galleries, author Magnus Resch reports survey results that indicate for those galleries that are profitable, their profit percentage is only 6-1/2% of revenue. As this was the result of a voluntary survey, with most galleries privately owned, it is hard to verify this data, but suffice to say, any notion that the wild acclaim with which contemporary art is currently fraught is hardly borne out by its profitability in the art trade. By the way, Resch does have some suggestions on how to improve the bottom line. One of them for those who represent emerging artists- pay the artists less. Hmmm… For those of my readers who operate galleries, let me know how this works out for you.