the gallery that took 40% and acted like they were doing me the favour, what's the worst split you've ever signed?

First gallery I ever showed with took 40% and made me pay for the wine at the opening. Forty percent, and still acted like I owed them thanks. I was green as grass and just smiled and paid for the merlot. Should've been the first clue.

I know splits vary, sure, some places are worth it, but what's the worst deal you ever signed off on? And was it worth it in the end or did you learn the hard way like the rest of us?

6comments

Add your reply to this discussion…

6 comments

Kasia Nowak·3h

The wine thing would've been the final straw for me too. Paying out 40% is one thing, but making you fund the party they're throwing to sell your work is something else entirely.

I've never signed a gallery contract, I'm still too green and honestly too scared of exactly this. I sell direct and on commission sites where the cut is lower but you don't get the wall space, the eyes. I keep hearing from other pastel artists that the bad splits are almost always early, when you don't know you can negotiate. I'd love to think I'd push back now, but I'm not sure I would. I hate that.

Did you ever find out whether that gallery was treating every artist that way, or were they just picking the new ones off?

Gloria Mae Jackson·2h

Lord, honey, that wine part would've lit my fuse too. Forty percent is one thing, but making you pour the merlot for the folks they're trying to sell you to? That's salt in the wound.

But listen, don't be so hard on yourself about whether you'd push back. None of us knew to push back the first time. I was sewing for forty years before anybody in a gallery paid me a dime, and the first one that did, I signed whatever they put in front of me because I was just grateful somebody finally saw it as worth hanging. That's how they get you, baby. It ain't weakness, it's being green, and green is how everybody starts.

The ones who come along later and act like they'd have known better, mm-mm, they didn't know better either. They just got lucky and somebody told them before the first time. You'll get your chance to say no, and when it comes you'll be ready because you already know the score now. That's the lesson. The wine was the tuition.

Niall DohertyOP·1h

Forty years sewing and the first gallery that came calling, and you just sign the yoke whatever's on the page. I know that feeling to me bones, honestly. There's a terror in the first one, isn't there, that if you quibble they'll take the work down off the wall and you'll never see a wall again. So you swallow it and you smile and you pour the merlot and you tell yourself it's grand.

And it's not weakness at all, you're right there. It's just you don't know yet that the wall needs you as much as you need the wall. Took me two more shows and a fella who wanted 50% before the penny properly dropped. And even then I was rude to him in a way I'm not entirely proud of, but sure, he had it coming.

The green is how they get you, but the green is also how you learn the next one better. That's the bit I try to hold onto. Was there ever one after that first one where you got to tell yourself no? Do tell me there was.

Niall DohertyOP·2h

Ah the green bit is the killer, isn't it. You don't know yet what you can push back on and what you can't, so you just take the whole thing square in the face and smile. I was the same, I'd have signed away me firstborn for a wall in a real gallery, never mind negotiate.

But here's the thing I'd tell me younger self, and you too if you're listening: the wall space is only worth what it actually does. I had a show in a gallery that took 40% and the crowd was mostly their mates and people there for the free wine, of which I'd paid. Meanwhile me best sales that year were off a trestle table at a market in Clifden where the only commission was the man's handshake.

And you're dead right that the bad ones come early. The good ones, the ones worth every cent, they don't need to hustle you for the wine money. That tells you all you need to know about who you're dealing with.

Don't be so hard on yourself about whether you'd push back now. We all think we'd be braver with hindsight. The sign of it is, you're asking the question before you've signed anything. That's already more than I did.

Ananya Iyer·3h

40% and they made you pay for the wine, that's genuinely insulting. The wine part would've got me more than the percentage, honestly.

I'm going to say something slightly controversial, I think a bad split is sometimes worth it once, for the first show, if it gets you in front of the right people. You learn the game, you see how the place operates, you get some eyes on your work. But you take that lesson and never do it again. The problem is the galleries that take 30-40% and give you nothing back for it, no promotion, no proper hanging, no serious collectors coming through. That's when it's just theft with a nice sign on the door.

My own hard way was smaller scale, I've mostly kept to urban sketching, commissions, that world, where the percentage is less of a thing. But I've seen enough friends sign bad deals out of just wanting to be taken seriously. It's that desperate little voice that says "any gallery is better than none" and it's a lie. One bad show can set you back more than no show at all.

Hope you didn't let the merlot thing define your next few years. First lessons are expensive, that's all. 🙂

Niall DohertyOP·2h

Ah you're dead right about the wine, that was the bit that stuck in me craw for years after. The percentage I could rationalise, sure, first show, learning the ropes, all that. But funding me own bloody opening and them taking the credit for it... that's not a business arrangement, that's a confidence trick with a cheese board.

And look, I hear you on the first-show argument. I've said the same meself, many's the time. You need the eyes, you need the room, and if you've no name yet you're buying your way in one way or another. That's fair. The line I'd draw is the one you drew, 30-40% and they're doing something for it. Hanging it proper, pushing it out to their list, getting the right bodies in the door. That's a partnership. Money for nothing's a different game entirely.

The one that near finished me was a place that took their cut AND sat on the cheques for four months. Four months, and I had to ring them every week like I was chasing a fella for a debt. I was nearly shaking with rage every time I dialled. Learned more about meself than about the art world, let me tell you.

But sure, the bright side, if there is one, you never sign the second one of them. That first bad deal's the education. Costly enough, but you only pay it once.