Pricing your artwork: how much is it worth?
Setting a price on your work can be a gruelling task. Many artists tend to undervalue their work, with the belief that their careers haven’t measured up to the criteria necessary to justify charging higher prices; or by a fear that, by setting prices that compensate them fairly, their work will not sell. When artists set low prices on their artwork, it is a public declaration of their insecurities and lack of confidence.
Some artists sell their work at low prices because they have come to believe that the only buyer for their work is the buyer who makes himself or herself known at that given time. A primary concern of many dealers is to move work quickly, and, unfortunately, low prices are correlated with making a fast buck. The pricing policies of the majority of dealers basically reflect the amount of money they think their constituencies will spend on art. Few dealers understand that they could sell more work, at higher prices, if they took the time to help the public understand an artist’s vision and the multilayered process and rigorous discipline involved in creating fine art-from conceptualisation to actualisation.
More often than not, artists heed a dealer’s self-serving pricing advice, erroneously believing that dealers know best.
Setting a price on artwork necessitates homework. You need to consider and integrate three factors: pragmatic pricing, understanding how much it is really costing you to create a work of art; market value considerations, and confidence in the price you set. Self-confidence is of a paramount importance if you hope to get what want and negotiate with strength.
Art pricing fundamentals:
Step 1: Where do you sell your art? Do you sell locally, regionally, nationally or internationally? The art, artists and prices in your market are the ones you should pay the most attention to.
Step 2: Define your type of art. What kind of art do you make? What are its physical characteristics? In what ways is it similar to other art? How do you categorise it? If you paint abstracts, for example, what kind of abstracts, how would you describe them? This is the type of art that you want to generally focus on for comparison purposes.
Step 3: Determine which artists make art similar to yours either by researching online or visiting galleries, open studios or other venues and seeing their work in person. Pay particular attention to those artists who also have career accomplishments similar to yours, who’ve been making art about as long as you have, showing about as long as you have, selling about as long as you have and so on.
Step 4: See how much these similar artists charge for their art. Their prices will be good initial estimates of the prices you should charge for your art.
Imperatively, be versed in defending your prices with cogent facts. When someone asks you about a price, do exactly what the galleries do. Show that you’ve been regularly selling comparable art for amounts comparable to what you’re charging for the art they’re asking about. Talk about sales you’ve made through dealers, galleries, online or straight out of your studio. The more such sales you can talk about, the better your chances of convincing that person that £2,000 is a fair price to pay for that art.
People want evidence; they want to feel confident about spending however much money they’re about to spend. They want to understand what they’re getting in exchange and feel like they have some degree of control over the situation. This is especially true for buyers on the fence who don’t know your work that well or who haven’t bought a lot of art and are just starting out. So support your prices with facts. People care about how they spend their money — they want to feel like they’re spending it wisely. So show them that they’re doing the right thing, that your art is worth what you’re selling it for, that other people buy it, and that its okay for them to buy it too.
Protect ya neck (with a contract)
Art commission is a client requesting and paying for a specific piece of art for an artist to produce for them. If you take on any commissioned work is vital to protect your rights with a contract before beginning any work.
Most visual artists shy from the use of contracts. Performing artists and writers use contracts as regular parts of their professional lives. Why are visual artists reticent about using contracts?
Some artists are averse to the use of contracts because they naively believe that people who sell, buy, and exhibit are good, kind, and trustworthy by virtue of their involvement with art. However, most artists who resist using contracts are struggling with the issue of psychological leverage and erroneously believe that they have not achieved a level of recognition or success that permits them to ask for what they want.
Requiring art dealers, art consultants, exhibition sponsors, and clients to use contracts is not a sign of mistrust. Rather, it shows that you take yourself and your work seriously, and you are demonstrating good faith in wanting to maintain a smooth working relationship by ironing out in advance any possible conflicts or misunderstandings.
If an art dealer, art consultant, exhibition sponsor, or client is opposed to using a contract, it usually indicates either that the individual is extremely naive and unenlightened in professional business practices, or that he or she is engaged in unethical business practices and does not want anything in writing that could be used against him or her in court. Another reason dealers and art consultants resist using contracts isthat they prefer to see themselves as mentors rather than business professionals, and they find that the use of contracts is not in keeping with their self-image.
Secure contracts should be comprehensive and farsighted. Be sure to protect yourself and your artwork by using contracts when you deal with galleries, art consultants, collectors, exhibition sponsors, and clients.
