According to Miriam Webster, a charlatan is “a person who practices quackery or deception in order to prey on the credulity of others.” In other words, they are a fraud. A charlatan will exploit their victims’ lack of knowledge and trust in order to get them to believe that the charlatan knows something the victim does not, and thereby profit off that imbalance. The result will lead to either financial loss or personal injury.
The art world has always provided shelter to charlatans. Due to the fact the market is opaque, confusing and vastly unregulated, it has always been easy to exploit this environment with confidence tricks designed to fool the public into paying extraordinary sums for works of dubious provenance, authenticity, and quality.
However, in recent years, charlatanism has reached new heights which are simultaneously more sophisticated but also dangerously misleading to the average buyer. Thanks to the internet, it has never been easier for charlatans to create an online persona of authority and expertise. And thanks to the globalization of the art market, it is now possible for them to sell their shoddy wares all over the world.
These shoddy wares aren’t limited to art itself. In recent years a surge of so-called art “experts” have created a vast ecosystem of products and services which prey on artists themselves. Chief among these are services which purport to help artists “make it” in the art world, including management sites that package routine web, marketing, and fulfillment services in compelling ways. These sites often use creative marketing copy and professional-looking design to sell their services, and prey on artists’ desperation for a competitive advantage—and at a fairly high cost. The promise these sites make—explicitly or otherwise, but always with carefully crafted language—is that by purchasing these services artists will see their careers take off. (To the Moon!) What they don’t say is that success has little or nothing to do with the specific services they offer. Those who succeed do so because they worked extraordinarily hard to make it happen, and benefited from other, unpredictable factors. (Often you’ll see this stated in the fine print.) This begs the question: what value do these sites provide beyond standard ecommerce solutions that are available at much lower rates? Answer: none. This is the power of the charlatan.
What these charlatans really do is take advantage of artists’ lack of information and resources. Artists and arts professionals who care about the health of the art market should take note. This behavior it erodes trust and places artists at a competitive disadvantage (if you are spending more than your peers on similar products and services, you are making poor business decisions). Rather than empowering artists, these charlatans bleed them dry. It’s toxic.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no end in sight for charlatanism, but that doesn’t mean artists can’t fight back. Here are a few things you can do to protect yourself and your wallet:
- Be vigilant! Do your research before buying any service or product that claims to help artists succeed in the art world. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- Don’t be afraid to walk away. Or, at the very least, don’t be afraid to take a breath and slow down. Don’t get caught up in the marketing hype and feel pressured to invest more than you are comfortable with.
- Talk to your peers. Chances are, you’re not the only one who’s been tempted by a charlatan. Share information and experiences with each other so that you can make informed decisions about how to best spend your resources.
- Support artists who speak out against charlatanism. There are many artists and arts professionals who work tirelessly to create a healthy art market. Make sure to elevate their voices so better practices can become the norm.
For more information on practices that put artists at a disadvantage, read about information asymmetries here. But stay tuned as well, I’ll be writing more on this topic in the coming months.
Support Arts Coverage!
If you enjoyed this piece, and would like to ensure the work continues, please consider supporting it.
Your contribution provides vital assistance and serves to demonstrate your appreciation for the work artists and creative people do to keep our communities vibrant and full of imaginative light.
If you enjoyed this arts coverage, donate below to keep the content coming! Learn more about becoming a supporter.
Become a Patron Without Spending a Dime. Learn More Here.
Nick Thornburg is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. Subscribe to his mailing list to keep up-to-date with upcoming features and other news.
Stay Creative.