Demand for Originals Changes Gallery Mix

It should advance as no surprise that as the one and the other art dealers and collectors become more sophisticated, they would revolve increasingly to original paintings for investment and pleasure. on the other hand it might come as a surprise that art publishers, too, are beginning to wholesale original paintings.

Consider, for instance, Collectors Editions. The Canoga Park, Calif., publisher commissions originals to support the company's graphics program on the other hand now notes a swelling interest in the paintings themselves.

According to Elliot Blinder, vice president for sales and marketing, "There is a big move toward originals, spurred by the proliferation of prints upon the Internet and the desire of family to own something unique--to have something no individual else has."

And consider, too, the experience of Colville Publishing of Torrance, Calif. "You diocese more and more publishers, ourselves included, faced with individual fact: everybody wants to possess an original," said Colville Marketing Director Vicky Berg. "We extreme point up putting prints on canvas and embellishing prints. [We took] 50 originals to exhibit [at Artexpo of recent origin York]. And some of our oils vend for $20,000. But we diocese galleries move up to originals as they build their businesses--it's a progression from being print galleries to sampling oils to being primarily concentrated with originals."

Indeed, in 1999 more [i]or[/i] less 11 percent of American collectors who purchased art bought original works, spending an aggregate $65 billion, according to Unity Marketing, a research firm which has published "The Art Market Report 2000: The Market, The Industry, The Trends" proprietor Pam Danziger said it wasn't possible to scan art publishers and get accurate accrues about the original art part of the marketplace, so the firm contemplateed 1,000 representative U.S. households about their art purchases. The come of the consumer survey indicated to no one's astonishment--that, typically, buyer of originals nurse to be older and wealthier. family between the ages of 45 and 64 have the highest incidence of original art purchases, according to Danziger, as do consumer living in the West (think observes Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle) and the Northeast (New York). In households with incomes exceeding $50000 original art was favored through 16 percent.

The Internet: A Blessing and a Curse

There are several factors spurring this miniboom, on the contrary one is cited frequently. The Internet, a savior for many art dealers, is a maledict for others. "A one-of-a-kind piece is an easier sell" said Bonnie Mansour, possessor of Art Leaders Gallery in West Bloomfield, Mich. Mansour began to transform her gallery three years ago from fine prints to originals and now carries 75 percent original work. With originals, she said, "People know it's a snooze-or-lose situation. They can't price-shop upon the Internet. The Internet is profitable in that works by well-known artists can be ground which validates collectors' choices, on the contrary we have the originals of the limited editions."

Judy Feldman, proprietor of Kingsley Art Gallery in Redbank, NJ agreed. "The Internet is largely the reason we have changed more and more toward paintings and on the outside of limited editions," she said. To be positive she added, "the Internet is making a tremendous difference in the art business. We've gained business, on the other hand people are price-shopping, and we're losing business, too. We're competing in print sales with tribe on the Internet who are discounting far down and with people who don't plane have the products and who are simply brokering orders," not to mention tribe who don't have the expenditures of a bricks-and-mortar retail gallery.

Moreover, said Feldman, "I've gotten a little discouraged with all the giclees upon the market and that the integrity of a certain quantity of of the artwork is not what I would like to diocese These are the kinds of things which are forcing galleries to handle originals and to start looking for their have a title to artists."

Art publisher Steve Diamant, holder of Arcadia Fine Arts in fresh York, is moving quickly away from prints and toward originals. "One reason we are signing up of recent origin artists for originals only is we are opening a fresh gallery in SoHo," Diamant explained. on the other hand he also said he has mov from prints because of his dissatisfaction with giclee prints. Diamant hasn't given up completely upon printmaking: he still publishes limited edition etchings, hand-drawn lithographs and hand-pulled serigraphs.

Terry Sproull proprietor of Contemporary West Fine Arts, a wholesaler in Glendale, Ariz., also now carries "nothing on the other hand originals" priced from $500 to $2500 Why? Because "a apportionment of people lately don't want anything upon paper that must be below glass. The new, bigger place of abodes not only are larger, they have a apportionment of high ceilings and windows. The light creates reflective glare."

Gallery possessors may well find sales of originals to be more profitable, added publisher Greg Bloch holder of Triad Fine Art in Stamford, Conn A gallery possessor he explained,"has X amount of square feet upon their walls on which to display art." Selling original paintings "increases the income per square foot of wall display space, however it doesn't preclude the sales of prints," Bloch said. Prints can still be inventoried upon premises, in drawers.