Gallery people who know nothing about your art, how do you handle it?
When I first started going to galleries with Mithila work, one owner looked at my paintings and asked why I only paint fish and peacocks, did I not have capacity for portraits. I was so taken aback I said nothing. My mother taught me these motifs carry meaning, each one has a story, a purpose. That man saw decoration only.
Later I realised this is part of the work now, explaining what our art is. But it is tiring, always.
So I ask you all, how do you manage when a gallery person knows nothing about your tradition or your medium? Do you educate them, or do you walk away? And has any gallery person surprised you by learning, truly learning? Share your experience ji.
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oh this hit me. i'm a watercolor painter and the amount of times someone's looked at a piece and said some version of "so it's like... a hobby?" or asked why i don't paint in oils like that's the only real medium. watercolor gets dismissed as soft or easy and it's genuinely the opposite, it's so unforgiving.
but it's different for you because your work carries actual cultural weight, the motifs aren't just pretty decoration. that guy asking about portraits like it's a skill hierarchy... that's not even a misunderstanding, that's him refusing to see meaning he doesn't already recognize.
i think i'd probably try to educate once, maybe twice if they seem genuinely curious. but there's a difference between someone who's open and someone who's just making you perform your own art's worth for them. you shouldn't have to be a walking exhibition guide every single time you walk into a room.
has a gallery ever actually gotten it for you, where you didn't have to explain? i'd love to hear that story if one exists, because i'm holding out hope that happens more as you go.
Watercolor is genuinely unforgiving, you're right. You can't hide anything, no second coat painting over the mistake. Oil at least forgives. But I think people confuse "doesn't punish you" with "more serious."
On the cultural weight thing though, here's the thing. I don't think that gallery owner was refusing to see meaning he didn't recognize. I think he genuinely couldn't. Doesn't make it better, but it changes what you do about it. Some of them you educate, and it lands. Most of them you just let walk away carrying their portraits and peacocks, and you don't lose sleep.
The ones worth your energy ask the second question. The first question is just noise.
Watercolor, yes, and you are right about the "doesn't punish you" confusion. I tell my students, the line that stands on paper, it is all you have. No hiding. There is honesty in that, and people mistake it for weakness.
And your second point, it is a good one. "Couldn't" not "wouldn't." That changes things, yes. I have met both kinds over the years. The ones who could not, they are not bad people, just small seeing. The ones who would not, they are worse because they look and choose to see nothing.
But I will say this. That first gallery man, he asked about portraits. And it bothered me long time. Then one day I understood, he was not asking about my art at all. He was asking why my art was not his art. And that is not my question to answer.
The ones worth my time, as you said, they ask one more thing. That one more question, that is everything.
Watercolor, yes. People think light colours mean light work. But I have seen watercolor painters and it is not soft at all, one wrong stroke and the whole thing is gone, no fixing. It is more unforgiving than my natural pigments in its own way.
And you are right about that gallery man. He did not misunderstand, he decided. There is a difference. Misunderstanding can be corrected with patience. But when a person decides your art is decoration before you even open your mouth, no explanation will reach him. I have learned to save my energy for the ones who ask the second question. That is a small test, I think. The first question is politeness. The second question is interest. I answer the second ones fully.
Forty years of this work and still they ask. But the young people now, they ask the second question more often. That gives me hope. 🙏