Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists

Tagging onto this reply..

As someone with particular domain knowledge (I worked in the art world for years and have many professional artist and gallerist friends), I don't I've ever seen an online art sales platform that actually understand the purpose of an art gallery--for both collectors and artists.

Galleries are not simply point of sale vendors for art. They establish a scene, they contextualize the art and the artists, and they make strategic decisions in how to cultivate the careers of their stable of artists via a number of different tactics:

0) By organizing solo shows. It seems silly to say this, but actually putting on shows is a critical element that is missing from these online sales platforms. Shows allow the artist to present a body of work and establish a narrative around it via reviews and and social scenes.

1) Connecting the artist, through sales or even social means, with relevant collectors. Collectors have different status' in the art world, different connections to other art world players, and have particular themes to their collections. By placing art in the right collections, a gallerist can make a significant impact on the career of an artist.

2) By organizing group shows, or using their influence to get their artists into other's group shows, which will then associate their artists with a scene or an institution.

3) Funding! A lot of art is _expensive_ to make. I have friends who have literally calculated how much it costs them per square inch to make a painting and it can be shocking. It is not uncommon for a gallerist to front a large sum of money leading up to a solo show.

Not all galleries will do all--or even any--of these things. However, these are the actions that define a good gallery. A good gallery is invested in an artist, much like a good VC firm is invested in a startup.

If a startup wants to 'disrupt' the art world, I think the first step would be to figure out how you are going to make a business that cultivates an artist's career over the long term and which establishes a real art scene involving both artists and collectors.

Congrats on the launch!

Interestingly, me and my team developed and launched a very similar service early last year - https://goldcanvas.com/artworks

One of our core ideas is that if the artwork gets flipped by collectors and it changes hands multiple times, the artist gets a royalty (which is often not the case in the offline world).

I like your concept of monthly payments.

From the research that we did, it was surprising to us how much the artwork marketplace works offline and how opaque this entire world of Collectors and Curators is. There's definitely space to disrupt here.

How do you guys ensure that the art is not a copy of another popular art work? Could customers flag an artwork saying it is pirated with information about original?

Your filters are broken. No matter what I pick I get the same paintints

I see this differently. Buyers are given a choice. Choose what works best for you. It's similar to buying an annual subscription vs. monthly installments. Overall, I like the product... much needed.