I remember sitting in my back office in 2004, staring at a ledger and feeling a profound sense of guilt as I calculated the cut I was taking from a young painter’s first major sale. The industry loves to shroud the math in a certain kind of prestige, acting as if the numbers are some […]
Most people think that learning how to develop taste requires a private jet to Basel or a postgraduate degree in semiotics, but that is a lie sold to you by people who want your commission. They want you to believe that discernment is a high-altitude, intellectual performance, something reserved for the velvet-roped elite who spend […]
I remember sitting in the back of a dusty studio in 1994, watching a young painter spend three hundred pounds on “professional grade” pigments only to have the entire surface crack and delaminate within six months because he hadn’t grasped the most basic mechanics of the medium. Most art schools will feed you a romanticized, […]
I remember sitting in a drafty studio in 2004, watching a young painter cry because a local gallery owner had just told him his work was “too precious” for the market. The owner hadn’t even looked at the canvas; he was just looking at the artist’s lack of a price list. People love to shroud […]
Stop standing in front of a canvas with your hands clasped behind your back, nodding solemnly as if you’re deciphering a dead language. Most people think knowing how to look at a painting requires a PhD in semiotics or a deep understanding of the artist’s childhood trauma, but that is mostly performative nonsense designed to […]
Forget everything the glossy, high-end auction catalogues have told you about needing a private wealth manager or a degree in aesthetics just to hang something meaningful on your wall. Most people approach the question of how to start collecting art as if they are preparing to enter a high-stakes poker game where everyone else already […]
Most people think a “complete guide to buying art” involves studying provenance, learning the nuances of Post-Impressionism, or having a certain level of social grace to navigate a vernissage. They think it’s about prestige. It isn’t. After twenty-six years behind a gallery desk, I can tell you that most collectors are walking into a minefield […]
Stop waiting for a patron to descend from the heavens or for some prestigious academy to hand you a certificate of legitimacy. Most people think that learning how to start painting seriously involves buying the most expensive linen canvases or finding a mentor who will whisper sweet nothings about your “vision.” That is absolute nonsense. […]