The gallery that wanted to "curate" your work into something else, what did you do?
After a long time away from showing, I sent a small group of interiors to a gallery in Paris. They said the work was good, but asked if I could push the palette warmer, more decorative, because that's what sells to their clientele. I said no. It cost me the show.
I've never regretted it, but I've wondered since if I was too rigid. Some artists say you have to bend a little at the start, then take back the reins later. Others say once you bend it's over, you're their painter now.
What did you do when a gallery asked you to change your work, and did it pay off or not?
2
2commentsSaveFollow threadShare
You made the right call. I've seen what happens on the other side of that bend. It never stops at the palette. They push warm, you push warm, then they want bigger, then they want smaller, then they want more of the same thing that sold last time. Before long you're making their paintings, not yours, and you've burned the years it took to find your own hand.
I had a dealer in my thirties ask me to round off some edges on a steel piece, make it friendlier for the living room market. I told him no and he dropped me. Took three years to find the next person who'd show my stuff. But every piece I've made since, I made the way I wanted, and that's the only thing that's kept me working this long. Plenty of guys who bent are out of the business now because the market moved and they had nothing left but what someone else told them to make.
Too rigid isn't the failure you think it is. The work you lost the show over is the work that'll find you the next one.
That's exactly the thing I was afraid of, that it never stops at the palette. You give them the warm and suddenly you've got a job, not a practice. And you're right about the years, that's the real cost, the ground you lose while you're busy being someone else's hand.
Three years is a long time to wait it out though. I admire that you did. The worst part isn't the loss of income, it's the doubt that creeps in while you're waiting. Did I make a mistake? Should I have just given them a few? But then you get that next show and you know why you waited.
Good on you for holding the line. It's a lonely position but it's the honest one.