The Dynamics of the Artist-Dealer Relationship

Why do so many artists and dealers refer to their relationship as a marriage? As in romantic pairings, artists and dealers often claim to have met through friends, talk of handholding, of being listened to, and taken care of. They also invite each other to dinners, parties, or vacations, and when they break up, it's like a divorce. Supporting the entire affair is the sale of artwork.

Relationships bring artists and dealers together, and relationships (artist-collector or dealer-collector) sell works of art. Some artists try to avoid the business of making individual connections with people by blindly sending slides of their work to galleries around the country or setting up a Web site. Undoubtedly, there are success stories to be found through these methods. However, most artists discover that they need to establish a personal relationship with a dealer or collector to achieve artistic recognition and financial success.

Business and personal elements of the artist-dealer relationship are frequently entwined. Rhona Hoffman, an art dealer in Chicago, noted that conversations with artists she represents "may start out as strictly business but switch to personal things?restaurants, movies, families?then go back to business. It doesn't have to be clear what kind of relationship you are pursuing."

However, both artists and dealers need to outline their professional relationships clearly. How often and in what context will the artist's work be displayed? What sales commission will be paid to the dealer? How soon will an artist be paid following a sale? Who pays for framing, shipping, advertising, insurance, and catalogs? Is the dealer an exclusive agent for the artist? How long will this agreement be in effect? Understandings and handshakes must give way to sometimes-lengthy conversations and even legal contracts that detail how artists and dealers will work with one another.

When Jackson Pollock signed his first contract with collector and dealer Peggy Guggenheim in 1943, he was able to quit his job decorating ties to concentrate on painting. That first contract paid him a stipend of $150 per month, with guaranteed sales of $2,700 annually (if there were less than $2,700 in sales, Guggenheim would be paid the difference in paintings). His second contract with her two years later raised the stipend to $300 per month and gave Guggenheim ownership of Pollock's entire artistic output for the year with the exception of one painting that the artist could retain. Those terms might not satisfy artists nowadays, but it was beneficial to both Pollock and Guggenheim then, reflecting her trust in his talents and allowing him to work without financial constraints.

Yet few artists and their dealers use legal contracts. Instead, many have informal written agreements. "In my experience, a conversation followed by a handshake tends to work just as well as a legal contract," explains New York City dealer Nancy Hoffman, who has written consignment agreements with some of the artists she represents, depending upon the wishes of the individual artists. "If an artist I'm interested in wants a contract, we'll have a contract."

An artist-dealer relationship is frequently the outgrowth of other relationships, for instance, between a dealer and other artists he or she represents. "The artists whose work I'm most interested in seeing are those who are recommended by other artists I know and respect," admits New York City dealer Curt Marcus. Frequently, an artist in a gallery opens the door for other artists to be represented by the same dealer. Hugh Kepets and Harriet Shorr, both at New York City's Fischbach Gallery, spoke on behalf of artist Nancy Hagin, who credits her two friends with gaining her a dealer.

An artist's recommendation does not, however, ensure acceptance. The person's work must be suitable for the gallery, and a personal relationship needs to emerge between the artist and the dealer. Hagin recalls a meeting with a dealer that ended in disaster. "An artist friend of mine wrote a letter of introduction for me to a dealer," she explains. "When we met, we didn't get along, and he didn't really like my work. It was an embarrassment not only for me, but also for the artist who had written the letter."

There is no recognized etiquette for how artists and dealers select one another. Some dealers claim that they will not represent an artist who is currently taken by another dealer, while others regularly raid other galleries. Some artists will directly contact galleries in which they would like their work to be shown, while others believe it demeaning to ask a dealer. "Dealers have the right to ask an artist to join a gallery," one artist remarks. "When an artist asks a dealer, it puts the artist in a less-than-equal position."

At times, dealers learn about artists from collectors, critics, museum curators, and even other dealers whom they respect and trust. When sculptor Elyn Zimmerman brought an idea for an exhibition to her longtime friend Fred Hoffman, a dealer in Santa Monica, California, "he said his space wasn't really suited for what I had in mind." Hoffman, however, contacted a friend of his, New York and Los Angeles dealer Larry Gagosian, who agreed to exhibit Zimmerman's work. Zimmerman later joined Gagosian's gallery.

Jeffrey Bergen, the director of ACA Galleries in New York City, says that he first learned about painter Faith Ringgold through documentary filmmaker Linda Freeman, who "came to me about doing a film on Romare Bearden, an artist we represent," he explains. "I asked to see her previous work, which included two films on Faith." Bergen was very impressed with Ringgold's work and asked Freeman to introduce her to him.

Connections with gallery assistants can also lead to new relationships. These salespeople, many of whom are young and ambitious, sometimes start their own galleries devoted to younger artists working in a certain style.

Painter Mark Tansey noted that he was never completely at ease at the Grace Borgenicht Gallery in New York City because the dealer tended to work with artists closer to her age. "It was there that I met Curt Marcus, who was a gallery assistant," says Tansey. "He worked with the younger artists at the gallery and when he left to start his own gallery, it seemed only natural to go with him."

Personnel changes at galleries not only create new opportunities, but also new tensions. Not all departures of employees result in new galleries, and galleries, new or old, are financially risky endeavors. When Aladar Marberger, the former director of Fischbach Gallery with whom Hagin had strong personal ties and "a more or less verbal understanding," died in 1988, there was a period of adjustment during which expectations needed to be realigned and renegotiated. "My understanding with Aladar was that work that the gallery had kept for a while and then returned to me was mine to use as I saw fit," she says. "After he died, I got in trouble for selling a work out of my studio." Hagin eventually ironed out her differences with Lawrence DiCarlo, Marberger's successor.

Different gallery employees may have principal responsibility for working with specific artists, raising questions about the nature of the artist-gallery relationship when these assistants leave. "At one point, I had a contemporary wing to the gallery, run by another director, and I had very little to do with it or with those artists," Bergen notes. "Then, that director left, and I took over the contemporary group. The transition wasn't easy. Some of the artists' work was more to my personal tastes, others less so. I remember saying to Leon Polk Smith, a minimalist?and I am not that interested in minimalism?'I respect what you do, but I'm not really passionate about your work. If I don't believe in it, I can't sell it effectively.' He left the gallery on amicable terms."

Some artists maintain an arm's-length relationship with their dealers and conversations do not veer far from business at hand. Most do strive for a much closer connection. "I have a friend who says, 'Dealers only exist to sell artwork,' but I think of them as friends and treat them as I would any other friend," says conceptual artist John Baldessari. At times, the personal relationship grows to be quite strong, entailing dinner parties and invitations to weekend homes. Hagin rented and eventually bought her dealer's upstate New York summer home, while Marcus notes that he has taken several vacations with the artists he represents.

To many artists, the warmth of the friendship may seem to be the measure of the artist's standing with the dealer, while dealers may view the social relationship as an opportunity to develop their contacts. "Every dealer wants you to be their friend," says sculptor William King. "Dealers want you to invite them to your house and your parties, so that they can be part of the milieu."

The number of telephone calls that dealers make to artists on a weekly or monthly basis often reveals the strength of the relationship. Ringgold says her dealer calls at least once a week, relaying information on prospective buyers, past collectors, a new show, or asking how her work is coming along.

Painter Richard Haas admits that the state of one's relationship with a dealer may be measured in the frequency of phone calls, as well as by who's calling whom. "The dealer is calling you most of the time when you're in favor," he explains. "When you find yourself calling the dealer most of the time, you're not in favor anymore. When there are not enough phone calls, not enough visits to your studio, and you don't get invited to dinner, you know you're at an end."

The relationship between artists and their dealers is deepened when cash advances or stipends are paid. Many dealers will take on the role of banker to their artists, providing money for the purchase of a house, the renovation of a studio, the purchase of expensive art materials, or even a medical emergency. Zimmerman's formal relationship with Gagosian began in 1991 after she made some models for gallery-sized work and was looking for someone who could help her fabricate them. "Larry agreed to pay for the fabrication and show the pieces, and the costs would be deducted from sales," remembers Zimmerman. "Larry has been my exclusive dealer ever since."

In most cases, these cash advances are applied directly to future sales, although the dealer may be repaid in actual artwork. Some dealers view it as advances on loans, for which interest may be charged, while other dealers consider them as part of the ongoing financial relationship. At times, artists repay the favor by deferring the payments for sales they are owed when their dealers are particularly strapped.

Stipends also tightly bind the two in the expectation of a long-term relationship. Dealers recognize that in order to recoup their money, they must make every effort to promote and sell the artists' work, and artists see the stipend as a commitment to their artistic vision. This area is one in which the professional and emotional sides of the artist-dealer relationship become intertwined. King's arrangement with New York City dealer Terry Dintenfass, for example, is a guaranteed $200,000 per year, "which has given me a very warm feeling about her," he says.

As the relationship between artists and their dealers develops over time, their assumptions about each other may also change. As an artist's career advances, promoting his or her work may grow from postcard and brochure announcements to newspaper and magazine advertisements, as well as the creation of a catalog to accompany a show. The dealer may be expected to develop private commissions and print deals, arrange exhibitions, and even place work in museum collections. Often, the relationship between artist and dealer sours when the artist believes that he or she has outgrown the dealer or when the dealer finds that the market for the artist's work (or the artist's work itself) has not advanced sufficiently to maintain the investment. The two may need to sever their relationship, untying the many financial and emotional commitments that have linked artist and dealer over the years.

One trend that emerged in the 1990s is for artists to reject an exclusive relationship with a particular dealer, opting instead for what painter Peter Halley called "a constellation of galleries that represent my work." Halley had exclusive relationships with the Sonnabend Gallery and Gagosian, but left both in part because dealers elsewhere did not want to share sales commissions with New York galleries, resulting in lost sales. "Seventy-five percent of my market is in Europe," the artist says. "My collectors are not likely to come to New York to buy. Dealers in Europe chafe under the requirement that they pay half of the commission they earn to my New York dealer. Europeans like to buy from dealers they know and trust and with whom they have a personal relationship."

Working with more than one dealer is certainly a complicating factor in an artist's life and career. Each relationship requires its own recordkeeping to track both sales and where one's art is. It also requires an artist to be prolific enough to supply work for more than one gallery. Baldessari prefers working under an exclusive arrangement as it means that "they do the business, I make art." The benefit to nonexclusive artist-dealer relationships is flexibility and the ability of the artist to be in charge of his or her career decisions. Gallery owners exhibiting work by artists under an exclusive arrangement with another dealer may not have much or any personal contact with these artists, resulting in a less-than-ardent pursuit of sales. Furthermore, these galleries may also not receive the artist's best work.

Like Halley, painter and collage artist Nancy Spero, whose work is represented by five galleries around the country, notes that not having an exclusive relationship has led to more sales of her work. "When galleries know that they can earn all of the commission rather than share it," she says, "they will work harder to generate sales. Why work so hard just to pay some New York dealer half?" For her, the main drawback to working with so many galleries is that "it's not easy dealing with all these different personalities," says Spero. "Dealers can be as temperamental as artists."

A written agreement does not solve all of the problems that may arise between an artist and a dealer, but it clarifies the nature of their relationship and possibly offers a mechanism to settle disputes amicably. A good agreement is dependent upon a sound understanding of the pertinent law and what both artists and dealers are looking to do. If problems begin to emerge in the relationship and an artist decides to leave the dealer, the break should take place over time and in an agreeable manner.

The discussion between artist and dealer should specify a number of points:

? Term, or the length of this agreement. Artists generally prefer a fixed period of two or three years in order to see how well the gallery markets work and lives up to its word. If, after a few years, the artist's work has risen to higher esteem and prices, he or she may want a new agreement that reflects that stature or the opportunity to find another gallery. Artists should not be locked into a contract that they have long outgrown. Some artist-dealer contracts have a termination clause, detailing the way in which the relationship will be severed.

? Nature of the agreement (exclusive or nonexclusive). A gallery may exclusively represent an artist's work in its entirety or for just a particular geographic area (Pacific Rim states or North America), leaving the artist free to contract with other galleries for territories not covered in the agreement. A gallery may represent an artist's paintings exclusively in one city but not the artist's prints or sculpture. The artist may reserve the right to make studio sales or not pay a commission on sales at art fairs where the artist mans a booth. The agreement might also signify whether the artist's works are placed on consignment with the gallery or purchased outright.

? Commissions, usually ranging from 40 percent to 60 percent.

? Discounts for certain or all collectors. Some range as low as 5 percent and as high as 25 percent or even 50 percent, in the case of a major museum. The artist should make the decision on discounts.

? Pricing, which should be established by the artist in consultation with the gallery owner. There is no inherent value to artwork, only prices that collectors are willing to pay. Complicated equations have been offered to artists on how to fix the price of their work (based on the cost of materials, the number of hours spent creating the work multiplied by some hourly rate, plus some amount representing return on investment). At the start of their careers, artists will be paid less than their art is worth, but when they become better known, they can raise their prices to well above what the equation would have them charge. The basis for setting prices is what other artists of similar experience and acclaim receive for similar types of work.

? Responsibilities of both artist and dealer, such as the types of promotional efforts that will be made for shows, including flyers, advertisements, and catalogs, and if there are any costs, who will pay for them. The cost and responsibility of framing, shipping, and insuring artwork should also be outlined. In the past, dealers covered most of these expenses but that is not as common now.

? Frequency and nature of exhibitions (one-person, group shows, once a year or less often, when in the year, how the work will be shown).

? Periodic accounting, detailing who bought which works and how much was paid for them. Artists should receive payment (less commission and any other expenses, such as framing or stipends) within 30 days, certainly no more than 60 to 90 days. Thirty states around the country?Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin?and the District of Columbia, have enacted artist-consignment laws that protect an artist's works from being seized by creditors in the event of a gallery going bankrupt. Even artists whose dealers are in states other than those covered by artist-consignment laws may receive many of the same protections by filing a UCC-1 form for works on consignment (available in the county clerk's office, requiring a nominal filing fee). The form stipulates that the artist has a prior lien on his or her own works if the gallery declares bankruptcy.

? An exact accounting of all works consigned to the gallery. Each work should have its own consignment sheet listing the title, size, medium, and price. Too often, artists inquire about certain consigned works that their dealers claim they never received. A consignment sheet, signed or initialed by both artist and dealer, eliminates the question of who is responsible for the particular work.

Daniel Grant is the author of The Fine Artist's Career Guide, How to Start and Succeed as an Artist and The Artist's Resource Handbook (all Allworth Press, New York, New York), among other books and magazine and newspaper articles. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.