Lessons I learned working at an art gallery • Hacker News Board

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#91

Post by llamaimperative » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 1:51 PM UTC

ValentinA23 wrote: post #78

krisoft wrote: post #38

The problem here is that I don’t trust the author on being able to tell who is the “best artist”. Clearly he has opinions. But for example in point 3, he says he can predict which exhibition will be great based on how easy it is to work with the artist. He predicts that some exhibition will be crap and he is right! Which sounds impressive until you notice that he is not measuring his judgement against something objec…

https://www.zmescience.com/science/physicist-shows-that-to-b... Albert-László Barabás, a physicist, created a network map that can predict an artist's future success based on their early network connections. His work outlines two key "laws of success": - Performance drives success, but when performance can’t be measured, networks drive success. This highlights the importance of networks when objective measures of qua…

> It turns out, however, that you can make it by starting from the outside. It’s not easy, but it can work. You have to go around and show your art as much as possible to as many people as possible.

I.e. some portion of “network success strategy” is actually downstream of talent success.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#92

Post by stronglikedan » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 1:51 PM UTC

Dylan16807 wrote: post #45

bleakenthusiasm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this as "answer within the hour when preparing an exhibition". If you are in full swing to get an exhibition up and running and this is the time you decide to throw yourself into deep focus work, you are probably hard to work with. I would also assume if some artist told the author "look I know we open on Tuesday, but this Friday we have my kid's birthday so from 4 to 8 I won't be easy to reach", this would pr…

How long does setting up an exhibition take, and what kind of hours are you expecting? 4-8 are workday hours? And what kind of question needs to be answered that fast, but wasn't important enough to be asked several days earlier? My feeling is that there should be very few such questions, few enough that each artist can safely take half a day if they get one.

If everyone is there to set up your exhibition at a certain agreed upon time, then you should be engaged and answering any questions immediately if not sooner, regardless of how long it takes to set up the exhibition.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#93

Post by llamaimperative » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 1:53 PM UTC

magicalhippo wrote: post #67

krisoft wrote: post #38

The problem here is that I don’t trust the author on being able to tell who is the “best artist”. Clearly he has opinions. But for example in point 3, he says he can predict which exhibition will be great based on how easy it is to work with the artist. He predicts that some exhibition will be crap and he is right! Which sounds impressive until you notice that he is not measuring his judgement against something objec…

> He writes “What you see in the biographies of great artists, great writers, great anything is that they are good at figuring out where the vectors align.” Which is just plainly and absolutely not true I take it the author means "great" as in "successful".

It is not true in that case either, or at least “successful” is still poorly defined.

It’s defined implicitly in this blog as commercially successful within the timeframe I had to sell their art. Which is a perfectly defensible definition, but should be explicit so people know what argument they’re hearing.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#94

Post by mwidell » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 1:53 PM UTC

p1nkpineapple wrote: post #22

Thanks for sharing. Henrik Karlsson is one of my favourite writers on the internet at the moment. His other piece called "Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process" [1] left such a big impression on me and I return to it frequently, highly recommend. 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20240816150009/https://www.henri...

Wow, that was a great essay. It describes the process I've been using for the past 10 years to design a happy life. I had no words to describe it in a good way, but now I have.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#95

Post by m0llusk » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 1:54 PM UTC

blitzar wrote: post #80

ValentinA23 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.zmescience.com/science/physicist-shows-that-to-b... Albert-László Barabás, a physicist, created a network map that can predict an artist's future success based on their early network connections. His work outlines two key "laws of success": - Performance drives success, but when performance can’t be measured, networks drive success. This highlights the importance of networks when objective measures of qua…

I guess this is why a sucessful genius can tape a banana to a wall while a run of the mill worker can only restore Notre Dame to its original state.

Workers are required to follow the orders they are given which are typically specified such that it is the people paying them that get to exercise aesthetic judgement. That is why Notre Dame was restored to a modernized design that is visibly different from its original state.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#96

Post by krisoft » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:02 PM UTC

jonnycomputer wrote: post #83

krisoft wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While the author doesn't explicitly define what is "great", I 100% believed that what it is defined as. I understand that is his definition, but then talk about that. Instead of saying that the exhibition ended up "mediocre" say that "ticket sales were lower than expected" or "sold less paintings than we hoped for", or "didn't bring in anybody". Because as is he just writes "after weeks of this you end up with some…

Yes, this is the situation we are left in. I don't really know of course (and presumably nor do you) whether he was a good employee or made substantive improvements or whatever. It would have helped if he was more specific and concrete in his descriptions. The biggest failing here is a failing of clear and compelling writing.

> I don't really know of course (and presumably nor do you) whether he was a good employee or made substantive improvements or whatever.

Yes, absolutely. I don't know anything about him outside of this article. I assume he is a good employee, or they were mostly happy with him (for the simple reason that they kept employing him). Just wrote that part to illustrate that the same facts from his own pen can be also interpreted in a negative light.

> It would have helped if he was more specific and concrete in his descriptions.

I totally agree with that.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#97

Post by tmilard » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:04 PM UTC

This essai reminds me of someone a few years back telling me that Artists and Startups where very similar. - "What ?" I replied confused. - "Yes ! We work for nothing, crafting a unique skills and hoping to find Product Market Fit. Of either an original Software or an special Sculpture. The economic is for both an economic of big incertinity.

Galleries bet on a few Artists among many just like YCombinator bets on a few startups every years hoping for the best.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#98

Post by zcw100 » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:05 PM UTC

blitzar wrote: post #80

ValentinA23 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.zmescience.com/science/physicist-shows-that-to-b... Albert-László Barabás, a physicist, created a network map that can predict an artist's future success based on their early network connections. His work outlines two key "laws of success": - Performance drives success, but when performance can’t be measured, networks drive success. This highlights the importance of networks when objective measures of qua…

I guess this is why a sucessful genius can tape a banana to a wall while a run of the mill worker can only restore Notre Dame to its original state.

Money laundering is probably what makes a banana taped to a wall successful.

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#99

Post by lupire » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:09 PM UTC

freefaler wrote: post #40

Kiro wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it's one of those hacks that makes your look like a superhuman. I hate it but obsessively answering emails and messages as soon as possible has given me so many opportunities that it feels like a cheat code. It's nothing reasonable about it but it's just the way things are.

So how does that work, can you elaborate? What is the difference if you answer in 10 minutes, 6 hours or 24 hours? Are you competing on time of response so if you're fast you're getting the deal?

I remember one event vividly.

Exec asked for some business information information while traveling.

I replied promptly, sending a link to a webpage, within the proper process for secure data sharing according to company policy. This required exec to visit our internal website to view the information.

A teammate emailed the information directly, violating policy and good data stewardship.

CEO replied to teammate's email with a big group thank you for "emailing the information quickly".

Re: Lessons I learned working at an art gallery

#100

Post by wslh » Tue, Dec 03, 2024, 2:14 PM UTC

I grew up immersed in the art world—my father is an artist, and my sister is a curator working on exhibitions for institutions like MoMA and the Reina Sofia Museum, and linked to a known dead artist. Based on my lifelong experience in this environment, here are my thoughts:

Art as a Business: Selling art is predominantly a business, and, frankly, quality often doesn't play the leading role. Market dynamics, branding, and influence have a much stronger impact on an artist’s commercial success. Many buyers lack a refined taste for art but are guided by curators, galleries, or social trends to invest in one artist over another. This is particularly true outside the realm of blue-chip artists like Picasso, van Gogh, or Bacon, where established market signals guide decisions.

Theory and Practice: while I love the theoretical discussions around art (e.g. Walter Benjamin) I find these ideas largely irrelevant to the business side of the art market. Theory has its place in academia and criticism, but it often feels disconnected from the pragmatic realities of selling and promoting art.

If you're interested in understanding how the art world operates, I highly recommend visiting Art Basel or similar art fairs. These events showcase the intersection of commerce, curation, and culture, providing a fascinating snapshot of the art market's priorities and trends. I personally did my own art intervention with technology and received known artists who wanted to participated in the experiment and beyond the project originality it would not work in other contexts without some validation (being in a space in Wynwood [1]).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynwood