I don't think you comment diminished the role of galleries at all and I TOTALLY agree that artists must take responsibility to market and promote their own work like never before.
While I understand that galleries have expensive overhead costs that partially justify their 50 or 60 percent commissions what concerns me are galleries that do little to nothing to promote their artists, and believe me I have seen this frequently.
I hate to think that we are getting to the point of galleries only taking artists if they can guarantee a following because the gallery will do nothing, or worse can't do anything because they have no contacts or regular collectors to connect their artists with to make sales.
When and if that ever happens on a large scale the fine old tradition of art galleries is dead and they simply become landlords renting space.
The artist/gallery relationship is definitely a partnership. At the moment I think it's a little unbalanced with many artists taking the lead via websites,blogs,social media etc. in promoting their work and connecting with collectors while many galleries still need to get up to speed with the 21st century.
While I understand that galleries have expensive overhead costs that partially justify their 50 or 60 percent commissions what concerns me are galleries that do little to nothing to promote their artists, and believe me I have seen this frequently.
I hate to think that we are getting to the point of galleries only taking artists if they can guarantee a following because the gallery will do nothing, or worse can't do anything because they have no contacts or regular collectors to connect their artists with to make sales.
When and if that ever happens on a large scale the fine old tradition of art galleries is dead and they simply become landlords renting space.
The artist/gallery relationship is definitely a partnership. At the moment I think it's a little unbalanced with many artists taking the lead via websites,blogs,social media etc. in promoting their work and connecting with collectors while many galleries still need to get up to speed with the 21st century.