The art world is a complicated one, and it can be difficult to understand how an artist becomes legitimized in such a complex and opaque environment. To cope with this uncertainty, many artists fall prey to a “let the chips fall where they may” type of approach to their career. “Let the work speak for itself,” they say. “If it’s good, it’ll do well. If not, I’ll just do better.” This, besides being naïve, is also a form of complacency and magical thinking. Plenty of highly skilled artists have gone unnoticed and unrewarded over the years. Their work, though it may have been of the utmost quality, did nothing to advance their careers. Instead, they floundered in poverty because they allowed themselves to believe, erroneously, that ignorance of the workings of the art market wouldn’t hold them back.
They were wrong.
Today, as the world becomes ever more connected and more creative products are being brought to market than ever before, it’s vital that artists learn the ins-and-outs of the arts industry. That means understanding new, emerging models as well as traditional ones. This knowledge will serve to help artists make educated decisions, and empower them to become active participants in the crafting of their careers. Among the important topics artists must consider when thinking about their career is that of subscription, something commonly found in the traditional art market model.
In a report on the contemporary art market published in 2004, the international strategy and insight consultancy Morris Hargreaves McIntyre explained the concept of subscription. Subscription, according to the report, “is the process by which art is filtered and legitimised [sic]. In an otherwise unregulated sector, where anyone can proclaim themselves an artist and anything be held up as `art’, the selection of ‘the wheat from the chaff’ is carried out by artists’ peers. Networks of art world professionals, including academics, curators, dealers, critics, artists and buyers, provide advocacy and endorsement for an artist’s work through exhibitions, critical appraisal and private and public purchases.”
“Artists who aspire to move through the subscription system are encouraged to rely on dealers to manage their career path, and to maximise [sic] the degree of subscription that they can achieve and sustain.”
This legitimization process has a direct impact on the artist who has benefited from it. “The value of an artist’s work increases in direct proportion to the subscription it attracts and sustains,” the report states. “This process is reflected in artists’ CVs and is explained by dealers to potential buyers, but to most people it is an opaque and insular activity.”
So, to the general public, this process may seem like inside baseball, but it’s not something an artist can ignore. It is something that can affect the artist’s bottom line, the opportunities available to them, and even how their work is perceived by the wider public despite the public’s unawareness. Researcher have described causal chains of behavior in the art market, described in the literature as “information cascades,” that begin with those very same art world professionals who decide the legitimacy of an artist’s work. Subscription is simply the first step in a process that leads to wider acceptance by investors, wealthy collectors, and the general public. In short, artists looking to follow a traditional model in their careers must be legitimized in this way, otherwise their prospects are much restricted.
However, in this modern era, it has become possible for artists to completely bypass the traditional path. Today, artists can work directly with an art agent or distributor to release their work at scale in craft retail stores. They can self-promote and sell their work online, such as on websites like Etsy or through platforms like Patreon. They can host their own exhibitions, such as at a local warehouse or empty retail space. The options are endless, and the sky’s the limit.
But what do these independent efforts mean for legitimization?
It appears, according to the Morris Hargreaves McIntyre report, that when artists take their own initiative and deal directly with the public, legitimization suffers. “When artists sell their own work they can be viewed, by those in the subscription system, as circumventing the due process,” the report states emphatically.
In other words, those artists suffer because they didn’t pay their dues. (Presumably this is why the process of legitimization is called ‘subscription.’ Similar to any service you subscribe to, you pay your dues and then you’re given the goods.) The choice seems to be a stark one: work your way through the subscription system and risk being overlooked and unrewarded, or try to make your own way and subvert any chance of becoming legitimized by the traditional system.
Lovely.
As calls for art industry reform increase and measures to reduce inequity in the system overall are introduced, this stark choice may not be as binary as it has been in the past. Indeed, some artists who’ve followed nontraditional paths have recently seen legitimization in the form of critical acclaim or highly-publicized sales at well-established art auction houses (one recent example of this is Beeple’s $69 million sale of a digital artwork at Christie’s.) So all hope is not lost for those looking to fashion their own paths. The possibility remains that legitimacy may find you no matter how you approach your career.
It just may not be as easy as you hoped.
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Nick Thornburg is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. Subscribe to his mailing list to keep up-to-date with upcoming features and other news.
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