Sustainable Investing | since 1999 | LUMAS
LUMAS And The Democratization of Art
How two internet founders made photo art accessible for all
Their idea was as simple as it was radical in a world full of elitist barriers: by producing editions with a slightly higher print run, two German serial entrepreneurs should follow Keith Haring’s steps and made photo art available for everyone, everywhere, on every budget. Their worldwide gallery network LUMAS is meanwhile a leading online retailer for contemporary photo art, offering curated, hand-signed editions of renown and emerging artists to a growing global customer base.
‘Art-for-all’ — Inspired by NYC’s wunderkind of Pop Art
When he opened the doors of his Pop Shop in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, Keith Haring was already an international rockstar and street art legend. While his pulsating hieroglyphs were snapped up for tens of thousands of dollars, the gift shop was meant as a corrective: items baring his work and that of contemporaries like Kenny Scharf or Jean-Michel Basquiat were available for prices starting at 50 cents.
Encouraged by his hero and close friend Andy Warhol, Haring’s intention of this ahead-of-the-curve experiment in retail-as-art was to continue the same sort of communication as he proclaimed with his subway drawings. He wanted to create an opportunity for people to buy art for the money they could spend. His goal was to make his art accessible for everybody, not swallowed up into the elitist world of museum curators and billionaire art collectors.
One decade after Keith Haring’s Pop Shop vernissage and within a stone’s throw away, a young couple of two German entrepreneurs opened the door to the colorful world of photo art.
Stefanie Harig and Marc-Alexander Ullrich just moved to New York City. In her early twenties, Stefanie had established her own PR agency and landed several big corporate clients, while Marc — one of Germany’s early internet entrepreneurs (e.g. co-founder of STRATO AG), who started his first online company at the age of 18 — already thought about his next project.
In 1997, both strolled over an East Village antiques market, looking for something special to decorate the bare walls of their new NYC flat, when they met John, a private dealer of vintage photographs. Soon, Stefanie and Marc were proud owners of their first pieces of photo art.
Bringing an idea to life
In the following years, the two New Yorkers at heart got more and more intrigued by the world of fine art photography. They visited vernissages, galleries and art fares, spoke to countless artists and promising talents in their ateliers. As their private collection grew and their friends and family became interested as well, they soon realized that only few venues offered affordable artwork for amateur collectors.
“Art sales revolved mainly shrouded in secrecy around high-profile auctions and blue-chip gallery sales.”
“We were looking for a way to address art enthusiasts, who felt alienated by this world, new collectors, too intimidated to step into an auction house or gallery,” Stefanie Harig recalls.
So, in 2004, the duo founded Avenso, and launched its direct-to-consumer flagship brand LUMAS. Their idea was as simple as it was radical in a world full of exclusivity and elitist barriers: producing editions with a slightly higher print run to make limited and authentic photo art affordable.
Breaking down barriers
The LUMAS idea was against all rules of the entrenched art market. “Traditional gallerists tend to offer large-format, one-off pieces or limited editions of three to five prints,” explains Marc. “This increases prices and only attracts experienced collectors, institutions and museums. Before we started with LUMAS, the so-called art experts argued, there’s only little demand and therefore artworks must be rare and expensive,” he remembers. “They used this self-fulfilling prophecy to keep ‘their market’ small and exclusive.”
“But we were merchants, not gallerists,” Marc laughs. Offering prints by greats such as Helmut Newton, Man Ray, Gavin Evans or Will McBride as well as from rising newcomers in hand-signed, mostly limited editions from 75 to 150 prints, LUMAS catered to the demands of an increasingly international target group.
“The encounter with art should be fun.”
But accessibility in the art world is not just about price — it’s about breaking down barriers in all senses.“No one needs to be an expert to enjoy art — you just need to trust your instincts. With LUMAS we used the internet as a platform to render art available to a new audience,” says Stefanie. LUMAS’ on- and offline galleries allowed art lovers to develop a collector’s mindset without a large disposable income.
A perfect fit in business and in private life
“There was a big gap in the market,” remembers Christoph Braun, Managing Partner at European VC investor Acton Capital. “Art enthusiasts who have outgrown industrial mass-production, but without any links to a nearly mystified world of elite art circles.” Christoph learned about Avenso and LUMAS by a mutual friend, who told him about a young couple, making photo art affordable through an online platform. Early 2005, one year after Stefanie and Marc had opened the first LUMAS Edition Gallery in Berlin, they met Christoph in a by-road of the Kurfürstendamm. “They were a perfect team both in business and in private life,” remembers the investor. “They told me about their vision and showed me the location, where they wanted to open a pop-up gallery soon.” Fascinated by their ideas and intrigued by a discussion about the eternal conflict of art vs. commerce, Christoph even missed his flight back to Munich.
In spring 2006, after the investment between the Acton team and Avenso/LUMAS founders was signed, everything developed at rapid pace: new LUMAS galleries opened throughout Germany and — most surprising for the internet investors — every opening of an offline gallery also lead to an increase of online revenues in the specific region. The young company quickly expanded to international markets, with photo art galleries in Paris, London and — finally — in New York City.
Double-digit growth, the exit & a final buy-back
“Besides their exciting portfolio, Avenso’s success driver was the premium-quality execution of their LUMAS artwork prints,” Christoph recalls. Since launch, the company worked exclusively with WhiteWall Lab, a specialized online photo laboratory near Cologne, to print and frame their art editions at museum-quality. WhiteWall’s CEO Alexander Nieswandt soon recognized the future potential of this cooperation. Together with the Avenso-team, the lab developed different state-of-the-art print and framing techniques to ensure highest quality and flexibility in sizes, formats and resolutions of the individual LUMAS artworks.
Meanwhile, LUMAS’ and WhiteWall’s online businesses showed high double-digit growth. The company expanded into the US, UK and the rest of Europe. In September 2013, six years after Acton Capital’s initial investment, the Swedish PE group EQT acquired a majority stake of Avenso AG. In 2019, the Stefanie Harig and Marc-Alexander Ullrich announced the successful management buy-back of their company from EQT, while the WhiteWall business was acquired by the CEWE-group. Today, the global online art market comprises nearly $6 billion in total — still growing at a fast pace, while LUMAS is a respected dealer of museum-grade curated photo art.
The demystification of art sales
With nearly 30 offline galleries around the world, including stores in New York, London, Paris, Milan, Melbourne and Toronto, Avenso/LUMAS is creating more than 400 jobs in the art industry worldwide. At the same time, the LUMAS online store is offering young artists a platform to reach a new group of art lovers. Despite its size, the company is still maintaining a close relationship with artists and enjoying a unique position in its field.
“The demystification of art sales was necessary. That clubby handshake business within elite circles and a lack of pricing transparency has been replaced by an open digital market. Now everyone around the world can find and enjoy the right piece of art for any budget,” LUMAS investor Christoph Braun sums up. “Online platforms like LUMAS are making, and will continue to make, the art industry more open and thoughtful.”
30 years after the far too early death of the wunderkind of Pop Art, Keith Haring’s ‘art for all’-vision becomes a little bit more reality.
