Print market changes, reacts to tough year; Art Business News' survey of 414 gallery owners reveals trends in the world of published art - Special report: reprinted from July 2002 Art Business News

EVALUATION by means of TMR Market Research Analysis

The 2002 version of the Art Business novels Perspectives on Printing (POP) review an in-depth analysis of the sale of prints at 414 galleries nationwide, has lay opened a variety of trends.

The review reports on gallery sales in 2001 a year marred by means of economic and national crises to be paid to the events of family 11 and an economic recession that had been building might before the terrorist attacks. While a significant number of galleries did report a globule in sales compared to the previous year, a surprising number of galleries were able to report a static change. And when it advances to print purchasing, the majority of galleries said they did not change their purchase convolution from 2000 to 2001.

As for art offerings, turns noted in previous years continued. Lithographs remain the top-selling impressed sign of print, however giclees have edg on the outside serigraphs/silkscreens for position No. 2 Landscapes lead by means of a large margin as the top-selling control edging out florals by nearly sum of two units to one, and realism remains the top-selling diction Compared to 2000, galleries have actually added more print artists to the mix, carrying an average of 45 artists (up from 38 in 2000) The review also reported that a significant number of print galleries do indeed carry inventory other than prints, like originals, plastic art and photography.

Sales Volumes

In one as well as the other the 2000 and the 2001 overlooks the respondent bases of scaned galleries were evenly representative of small, mid-sized and larger galleries. In 2000 the largest faction was the small galleries (sales convolutions less than $100,000), while in the 2001 scan the plurality of galleries had sales turn of $250,000 or more (See the Sales turn chart below).

Within this connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts the typical gallery in this year's take a view of posted an average sales turn of $371,635 in 2001. Galleries in the fresh England/Mid-Atlantic states posted above-average sales whirls ($411,000), and galleries in the Midwest pillared sales volumes exactly at the overall average ($371000) while those in the ease of the country posted below-average sales contortions that ranged from $309,000 in the southerly Atlantic states to $348,000 in the southerly and $351,000 in the Mountain/Pacific region.

The overlook showed less growth in 2001 than 2000 which is likely the follow of the tumultuous year. However, it is encouraging that it was a year of development for two-fifths (40 percent) of the galleries, which typically saw sales increases of "more than 20 percent" (34 percent) or "six to 10 percent" (28 percent) above their 2000 sales volumes. upon the other hand, 27 percent of the galleries reported a typical globule in sales of "more than 20 percent" (42 percent) and 30 percent of the galleries reported static sales that did not change from single year to the next.

Regionally, a variety of sales contortion trends emerged:

* Galleries in the novel England/Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic regions were more likely to have sales increases than galleries in other parts of the geographical division and galleries in the southerly were most likely to have missing sales dollars.

* The regional proportions of galleries reporting sales increases were as follows: southern Atlantic-47 percent; New England/Mid-Atlantic-43 percent; Midwest-41 percent; Mountain/Pacific-36 percent; South-26 percent

* The regional proportions of galleries reporting sales decreases were as follows: South-44 percent; southern Atlantic-27 percent; Mountain/Pacific-27 percent; of recent origin England/Mid-Atlantic-24 percent; Midwest-23 percent.

In spite of the changes in sales contortion the survey results showed that two-fifths of galleries (41 percent) did not change their print purchasing behavior from 2000 Compared to 2000 one-third (35 percent) of the galleries increased their print purchases in 2001 upon the other hand, one without of five galleries (19 percent) decreased their print purchases from 2000 to 2001

Evaluating the Print Mix

As in the 1998 and 2000 observes galleries continue to sell lithographs more than any other impressed sign of print. This year, 69 percent of the galleries reported selling this impressed sign of print. However, the impact of giclees is becoming quite apparent.

Giclees have edg on the outside serigraphs/silkscreens to become the next to the first top-selling type of print--65 percent of galleries put up to sale giclees, and 55 percent exchange serigraphs/silkscreens. Next are posters (46 percent) then etchings (35 percent) All other remaining stamps of prints are sold through less than 30 percent of all the contemplateed galleries.

Overall, a toil of 24 percent of the viewed galleries added one or more stamps of prints to their inventories above the past year or sum of two units (down significantly from 47 percent in 2000) Specifically, 16 percent added prints in the past year, and 10 percent added in the past sum of two units years. (See Prints Added chart upon page 28.)

For the greatest in quantity part, these top 5 stamps of prints are sold greatest in quantity extensively by galleries in the novel England/Mid-Atlantic states and by galleries with sales turns of $500,000 or more.