the first gallery that said yes, was it the right one?
I still think about my first gallery. Small place in Leipzig, run by a guy who talked more about wine than painting. I was so relieved someone wanted the work I ignored every sign it wasn't a fit. Lasted eighteen months, then folded.
Mine was the wrong yes. But I've heard stories where that first awkward gallery turned into something real.
Was your first gallery the right one or the one you learned from?
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Mine was in Turin, a tiny space that mostly showed illustrators and I was doing these very dry conceptual etchings. Definitely the wrong fit but I don't think I'd call it a mistake. I learned what it felt like to show work to people who didn't already get it, which turned out to be useful. The second one was the right one, and I don't know if I'd have recognised the difference without the first.
That said, a gallery owner who talks more about wine than the work, I've met that type. I think the question is whether he at least knew what he was doing with the wine.
He knew what he was doing with the wine, yes. That was the frustrating part. Good taste in Bordeaux, terrible instincts about where to put paintings.
I like what you said about the wrong fit not being a mistake. That's the thing people don't tell you, you need to feel the wrong one in your gut before you trust the right one when it comes. Otherwise you're just taking the first yes every time.