If you are here, you must have some affiliation with, interest in, or love for art. This write up is an attempt to consolidate thoughts that I have had for the longest time about the need for degrowing the art world, by embracing the notion of a ‘collector unknown’.

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THEORY

 

Art can save us. It is a premise, if not a likely outcome. As long as art exists, we know that we – are. As long as it is created and experienced, we affirm our agency to wonder, query, relate. Art asserts an intimate conversation between the creator’s ingenuity, vulnerability and technique, and the receiver’s willingness to be astonished, afraid, enchanted or raged. It finds a direct way to appeal to the receiver’s senses and sensibilities. A gesture from a dear friend or a complete stranger uttered to reach us, it is intrinsically stripped of any need to be brokered by a third-party.

 

To collect is to transcend this handshake into a relationship. It is to extend the conversation by holding onto the art piece. Whether an artist conquers demons or professes joy, a collector accepts their postulate and rewards their labor. The latter rewards the former with a nod: ‘I am a space for you.‘ In return, the former replies: ‘I will live in your space and we will continue our conversation‘. 

 

Everyone was innocent once. Then the (art) market happened. Unless gifted to us, to obtain art a monetary exchange must take place. The word ‘purchase‘ enters the picture and in most cases proxies are inevitable. They confuse the space between the pure ends – creation and reception. With time, we have expanded the string of proxies and furnished the space around them with cravings, identities and delusions that mediate our relationship with art.

 

With little remorse, we have invigorated what should have remained peripheral. As the world of art exchange is constructed today, there is little that serves lovers of art in an affirmative way. It has become a closed system of micropolitics and brokers that control access to resources. Intermediaries who pledged open guidance have erected walled gardens of preference. Receivers have turned from art curatorship to opportunity hoarding. Artists have become doubly vulnerable victims of the art world: tempted by the status of millionaires in waiting while systematically disenfranchised from its spoils. A hypocritical sibling to a sport league or tour, the art world cashes checks one tournament (art fair, auction) at a time under the pretext of being cultured.

 

Commoditization is to blame, but a subpoena will be served to all of us. We call to arms to denounce the wealth inequality and emphasize the importance of art, but never miss a beat when mentioning ‘affordable art’ and ‘$50,000’ in one sentence.

 

The artist I ask: Why did you accept that large gallery representation? Do you really want to be consumed only by the wealthy? Do you need your painting to sell for $100,000? Do you think it’s right?

 

The museum I ask: will you resist the dictate and agenda of a wealthy board member and the temptation of a market-pronounced art darling?

 

The gallerist, dealer, advisor I ask: would you rather engage with a collector who can afford one modest work a year and cherish the moment they finalize the buy, or one who owns a hangar of art?

 

Myself I ask: do I hoard opportunities, or do I love art?

 

We all participate in the madness of self-expansion to be someone, while the common sense intuition seems to point toward degrowing into an original admirer devoid of external impulses. A true art collector is one that nobody heard of – the enthusiast in you prior to a label. A collector unknown. An art lover devoid of stock portfolio, ego trip and social rite burdens. Are you one? Were you one? Do they exist? What role do they play in demystifying & decommodifying the art world? Can they save it?

 

I call for a discourse among collectors, artists, museums, gallerists, dealers and advisors on degrowing the art world. The notion of a collector unknown can support practical mechanisms to drive this shift. A collector unknown displays two traits: they are not burdened by the aforementioned impulses and they don’t necessarily have significant financial means. Paradoxically, collectors with modest budgets, who buy rarely but genuinely and are encouraged to become returning customers by appropriately motivated gallerists, dealers, and advisers, are what artists and museums need, to detach themselves not only from the market inequalities and temptations, but also, and more importantly, from social and economic inequities. The art world can be degrown by catering to and building an accommodating experience for a collector unknown.

 

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PRACTICE

 

What I ask for is an art world system that supports me. What I get now is a suspicious look when I inquire about the price. I don’t want to have to be wealthy in order to have access to information. I don’t want to have to be in on a secret in order to be able to visit an artist’s studio. I need art in my life. There is nothing more intimidating and discouraging about the art world than to be ignored for not wanting to belong to its coterie.

 

Here are some conversation starters to degrow the art world:

 

• Eliminate the words ‘competition’ and ‘power’ from the discourse about art. Apply ‘power’ only in art-descriptive capacity, never in monetary or authoritative context.

 

• Eliminate any ‘100 most powerful collectors’ list. Speak of collections instead of people, connoisseurship and curatorship instead of might. Speak of the role art can play in daily lives of ordinary people. Provide examples and stories.

 

• Never use the phrase ‘affordable art‘ and [insert any x-thousand dollar figure] in the same sentence. By doing this you manufacture reality categorically dissimilar to the common lived reality. Art remains one of the most non-participatory, exclusive hobbies in the world, available for the very few. Such phrasing compounds the art world’s belief in a manufactured world, including artists.

 

• If you are a museum, your product is designed in abstraction from the user you should serve. The wealthy and privileged on your board will never fully comprehend the art experience and the art’s role in the perspectives and lives of your daily visitors. The person who passes the turnstile is your board member. 

 

• If you are an artist, a museum may not be the ultimate answer for the longevity of your vision and work. Consider that curatorship by a collector unknown may be more important to your artistry than by a museum. Aside from the fact that your work will never or rarely leave the latter’s storage, for all I know in fifty years a contemporary art museum may be an amalgamation of the Museum of Ice Cream and a vintage sneaker store. 

 

• If you are a gallerist, dealer, advisor, you are the first line of defence. Expand your base of genuinely motivated, financially modest, but lifelong clients. Degrow the art world by finding and engaging collectors unknown. It means that you will have to work harder. But with every new such client you’ll be saving the art world. Build on great communication and interpersonal skills. ‘Friendly and accommodating experience‘ is your mantra.

 

• If you are a collector, buy one work annually by an artist who is completely unknown. If it is below $100, all the better. Support the artist unknown.

 

• If you are an artist and care how the money that buys your art was made – call it out. If you don’t care – don’t pretend that you do.

 

• A difficult-to-enforce resale clause is better than no resale clause. A culture of commitment to no resale is better than unenforceable legislation.

 

• Consider an artist resale royalty cut off point above some price level, thus discouraging the race for permanent monetary growth. Artist resale royalties are just as problematic as the system they attempt to repair. There is no need for another mechanism that focuses only on privileging the most privileged (i.e. successful artists, and arguably if your work is on the secondary market, you are a successful artist). Artist royalties must be embedded in the art transactional world but they must work and be designed in conjunction with support mechanisms for those unable or unwilling to benefit from the art market.

 

• If you use “art world” and “art market” interchangeably – you’re fine, it's the same thing.​