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Is it Strictly Business?: Shifts in the Artist-Dealer Landscape

February 27, 2024

Mock-up draft of the Artist’s Contract by Seth Siegelaub (1971). Source: Museum of Modern Art.

By Patrick K. Lin

The relationship between gallery and artist has long been compared to that of a marriage. Historically, a single dealer nurtured an artist’s career. In exchange, the artist exclusively sold their work with that dealer. For instance, after art dealer Leo Castelli offered artist Jasper Johns his first solo exhibition in 1958, Johns continued to work exclusively with Castelli, even developing a close friendship that endured until Castelli’s passing in 1999.^{^[1]} Similarly, painter Wayne Thiebaud met and befriended dealer Allan Stone in 1961, becoming Thiebaud’s sole dealer until Stone’s death in 2006.^{^[2]}

However, this traditional power dynamic has been undergoing significant changes. Not only are artists today more promiscuous (that is, showing with multiple galleries), more and more artists are leaving behind gallery representation in favor of going independent or even owning and operating their own galleries.

This trend is perhaps best exemplified by the 2023 ArtReview Power 100 annual rankings, where the top ten positions are occupied exclusively by artists, including Nan Goldin and Simone Leigh, who both changed galleries in the past few years. Compare this with a decade ago, when mega-gallerists Larry Gagosian and David Zwirner competed for the top spot, and it clarifies just how much power in the art market has shifted from dealers to artists in recent years.

To be fair, it has been standard practice for artists to have different dealers in different markets, such as one for Los Angeles and one for New York. Moving from a small gallery to a larger one is also a common occurrence, particularly when an artist’s career advances. Nevertheless, the art world is always abuzz when an artist switches galleries.

In October 2023, Alicja Kwade left König Galerie after 15 years to join Pace Gallery, a mega-gallery whose roster of artists has expanded rapidly over the past few years. Although Kwade’s departure from controversial dealer Johann König made a splash in the press, the star sculptor of the Berlin art scene continues to be represented by New York’s 303 Gallery, Paris’s Mennour gallery, and Reykjavik’s i8 Gallery. Pace will stage a solo show of Kwade’s work at its Los Angeles gallery in May 2024.

David Diao was represented by Postmasters Gallery for nearly 40 years when he left to join Greene Naftali in April 2023. In November 2023, On Barnett Newman, 1991-2023 marked Diao’s debut exhibition at Greene Naftali. Like Kwade, Diao is represented by other dealers, including the Office Baroque gallery in Antwerp and Tanya Leighton in Los Angeles.

There are a multitude of reasons why an artist might change galleries: the appeal of more exposure, association with a different movement or group of artists, access to a different collector base, the list goes on. The reasons for changing galleries have mostly remained the same for decades.^{^[3]}

Greener Pastures: Money and Reach

Switching galleries—like jobs—is one of a few surefire ways to get a worthwhile increase in prices. The move often results in greater visibility too.

For example, Elizabeth Peyton, who had exhibited with Gladstone Gallery since 2007, left in March 2023 to join David Zwirner, where her solo exhibition Angel was presented from June to July. Given Peyton’s oil painting Nick with His Eyes Shut (2003) sold for a record-setting $2.5 million with buyer’s fees at Sotheby’s in 2022,^{^[4]} it is apparent the move was motivated by her market being on the rise.

In September 2023, sculptor Carol Bove ended her 12-year relationship with mega-gallery Zwirner to join competitor Gagosian for global representation. Commentators speculated that the move is in part motivated by Bove’s underwhelming secondary market track record. In 2022, a solo presentation of new works by Bove, “Carol Bove: Vase/Face,” opened at Zwirner’s Paris gallery just in time for Paris+ and reportedly sold out. Although Bove is considered a premier sculptor working today, her secondary market prices have not kept pace with her skyrocketing primary prices. Bove’s primary prices have jumped from less than $100,000 for a large sculpture in 2007, to about $400,000 a decade later, and not to $1.8 million. In contrast, according to Artnet Price Database, roughly one-third of her 66 lots failed to sell. The highest price Bove’s work has sold for in auction is $329,000 in 2008.^{^[5]}

After exhibiting with the Marian Goodman Gallery for five years, Nan Goldin left to join the Gagosian Gallery in March 2023. Despite the recognition and praise, Goldin said that prices for her photography have lagged behind those of her contemporaries. She told The New York Times she hopes a new gallery can increase her profile around the globe and expand her collector base. At the same time, Marian Goodman also withdrew from daily operations of her gallery, resulting in a new management team.^{^[6]} Leadership changes can be challenging at galleries, which rely on personal relationships between dealers and artists. Goldin has said her decision to join Gagosian was motivated in part by the move of Andrew Heyward, a former Goodman employee—who has known the artist for nearly 30 years—to the Gagosian Gallery.^{^[7]}

Reading the Fine Print: When Artist-Dealer Relations Sour

Although news coverage and media portrayals of the relationship between artists and their galleries are often emotional, the legal relationship between them is transactional: buyer-seller or consignor-consignee.

In a buyer-seller relationship, the gallery buys an artist’s work outright and resells it to its clients. Alternatively, in the consignment context, the artist gives permission to the gallery to take care of a work and retain full ownership of the work for exhibition and sale. In a consignment relationship, title typically remains with the artist until the gallery sells the work and the gallery assumes the role of an agent.

Disputes can arise from these relationships when there is, for example, confusion over ownership of the artwork or disagreement about profit and cost splitting.

In May 2022, Marianne Boesky Gallery lost a lawsuit brought against one of its former artists, sculptor Diana Al-Hadid, whom it alleged owed a “six-figure” amount to the gallery for “fabrication costs, rent for defendant’s studio, framing costs, and crating costs.” Art Works, Inc., the entity that owns the gallery, brought the lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court. The subject of the lawsuit was a bronze sculpture, which the gallery claimed it had an ownership interest in because it had advanced money for its fabrication. The court issued a ruling in favor of Al-Hadid in large part because of the “unambiguous contractual language of the parties’ agreement,” which was an agreement for consignment; not a transfer of ownership.

However, contracts between artists and dealers are not always so clear cut. Disputes can arise when an agreement does not clearly outline terms related to payment and costs. In May 2023, Jeffrey Gibson, the solo artist set to represent the United States at the 2024 Venice Biennale, sued his former gallery, Kavi Gupta, alleging that it withheld nearly $640,000. According to Gibson’s complaint, in 2018, Gupta and Gibson came to an agreement in which both parties would retain a 50-50 split of the sale of each artwork on consignment; however, “at some point the Gallery fell behind and failed to timely remit Gibson’s full share of sales proceeds.” According to Gupta’s affidavit, Gibson began claiming he was owed money in 2022. The gallery and the artist appear to disagree on which expenses would be reimbursed. Gibson claims he only agreed to repay framing costs to the gallery for unframed works on consignment. On the other hand, Gupta claims the gallery expected to recoup additional costs, such as vendor costs and production expenses, including $57,000 the gallery spent on Gibson’s Aspen Art Museum exhibition, which opened in November 2023.^{^[8]}

An Emerging Trend: Artists Striking Out on Their Own—Together

2023 saw an increasing number of artists trading gallery representation for more flexible approaches to creating, marketing, and selling their art. For instance, in February 2023, the now gallery-free Peter Doig left international dealer Michael Werner after 23 years to work independently. Some speculate that Doig was spurred to leave Michael Werner due to “a series of financial slights inflicted by the gallery that he felt constituted breaches of their relationship.” Doig’s wife, Parinaz Mogadassi, who founded and runs Tramps Gallery in New York, confirmed the move to The Art Newspaper, adding, “Ultimately, from an artist’s perspective, the best way to be assured transparency in all dealings, is to be the one directly leading the conversations surrounding one’s work and life.”

The emergence of artist agents have also started to encroach on the dealer market. United Talent Agency (UTA), one of the major talent agencies in the United States, launched its fine arts division in 2015. UTA Fine Arts quickly signed acclaimed artists like Judy Chicago, Isaac Julien, and Billy Al Bengston. Rival entertainment agencies WME (part of Frieze’s parent company, Endeavor) and Creative Artists Agency (CAA) have since built up their own roster of fine artists. Dealers argue they already provide professional representation as well as specialized knowledge of the art world and connections with museums and private collectors. However, as the art world becomes increasingly intertwined with luxury retail, fashion, TV, film, and music, more and more artists may partner with talent agencies.^{^[9]}

It is far from a guarantee for an artist to find a foothold in the gallery scene. Alternatively, some artists opt to cultivate a more distinct outsider status in the art world that does not fit the mold of traditional galleries or mainstream art establishments.

Enter artist-led spaces. Galleries owned and operated by artists were first and foremost designed for visibility. Secret Project Robot, an art space co-founded by artists turned gallerists Rachel Nelson and Erik Zajaceskowski, started off as a “D.I.Y. party venue” in the late 1990s, where parties were thrown to encourage people to stay and look at artwork.^{^[10]} Today, Secret Project Robot is located in a small house with a storefront converted from a garage, featuring sculptures and paintings. “We’re slightly reformed rebels,” Nelson aptly told The New York Times. “Our first 15 years, we were balking the system but, to be an artist, you can’t reject the art world.”

Other artist-led spaces have also gained popularity, particularly in Europe, Africa, and Asia. In the past several years, artists established institutes and residences in response to cuts to public funding as well as collective desires to create art beyond the demands of mainstream art institutions. Faced with extremely limited public and private support for the arts in their home countries, African and African diaspora artists have had to take matters into their own hands. Established artists like Kaloki Nyamai and Aïda Muluneh launched artist residency programs and online platforms to cultivate a younger generation of artists while connecting their work to a more global audience.^{^[11]}

Conclusion

Given the musical-chairs nature of artists changing galleries in 2023, the year ahead will see many of those artists showcase their work at debut exhibitions and gallery shows.

A gallery’s roster of artists and estates is only one barometer of success. It is also the most publicized aspect of commercial galleries. Sales, physical expansion, and staff size are rarely made public but have an impact on the financial health of a gallery as well. Artists also have far more options than ever for showing their work to the world: today’s galleries are taking on more artists; artists have more power to make the jump to other galleries; and artists are reaching a more global audience with online platforms and communities made for and by artists.

2023 ended with what many would consider a shake-up of the status quo. How will the artist-dealer dynamic shake out in 2024?

About the Author

Patrick K. Lin is the Center for Art Law’s 2023-2024 Judith Bresler Fellow and author of Machine See, Machine Do, a book about how public institutions use technology to surveil, police, and make decisions about the public, as well as the historical biases that impact that technology. Patrick is interested in legal issues that exist at the intersection of art and technology, particularly involving artificial intelligence, data privacy, and copyright law.

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