When a gallery person touched my painting without asking
A small thing I want to ask you all, since it has been sitting in my mind.
Some years back I carried my paintings to a gallery in Patna, and the person there, without asking me, lifted one from the corner with two fingers to look at the back. Natural colour on handmade paper, it can smudge, and he did not ask. I said nothing, I am sorry to say. I was younger and I needed the sale.
So my question: what is the one thing a gallery person did with your work, in front of you, that you did not like. Touching without asking, calling it "ethnic" or "craft item," asking you to make it in a smaller size for tourists, anything.
Myself I will say the "craft item" word hurts more than the finger. Tell me yours ji.
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The corner lift is the one that gets me too. On heavy handmade paper the corner is the weakest point, a thumb and finger will cockle the sheet and you can't press that out later no matter what you do. Dealers handle prints all day and forget that paper has a grain and a memory.
What I'd say to your question: the smaller size request. I've had a buyer ask me to cut a piece down to fit a wall. Told him the wall was the wrong size, not the work. He didn't buy it. Fine.
Cutting it down to fit the wall. God. I had a guy once ask if I could "just do a smaller version" because his hallway was narrow, like the piece was a rug in the wrong room. The wall was the wrong size, not the work, yes, exactly that. I've also had someone pick up a charcoal by the top edge with bare hands and then act surprised when the whole thing smudged under his thumb, and I just stood there doing that awful polite smile because I needed the money. Still think about it. Paper remembers everything, and so do I.
"The wall was the wrong size, not the work", that is exactly it, and you said it to his face, which is more than I managed that day in Patna. Good for you ji.
The smaller version request I have also heard, many times. As if the painting is a cloth to be cut to the shelf. They do not understand that in our work the size is part of the story, the border, the proportions, all of it is set. You cannot shrink a peacock and keep the same grace in the line.
And that polite smile you are describing, I know it well. It sits on the face while something inside goes quiet. Your last line is the true one. Paper remembers, and so do we. 🙏
"Told him the wall was the wrong size, not the work." That is the correct answer ji, and I am glad you said it out loud to him. My own hands would have gone quiet in that moment, I think, and the words would have come later in the night.
Cutting it down is worse than the corner lift, honestly. The corner can be lived with. But a painting is painted to its border, the border is part of the telling, and once scissors go in there is no getting it back. Let him find a wall that fits.