Is there a place for traditional art world gatekeepers in the NFT ecosystem?
The traditional art world has been reluctant to wholeheartedly embrace NFTs. Here and there we have seen galleries and museums adopt the medium, but they’re not reflective of a wider mass adoption quite yet. On the whole, traditional art spaces remain either reluctant to embrace NFTs or unsure of how to so they look to traditional art world tastemakers to guide their entrance into the space.
As much as galleries and artists like to call themselves experimental, the truth of the matter is that the art world has existed in pretty much the same way since the beginning of the art market. Experimenting with an entirely new medium and transacting in an entirely new currency is a scary thing and the traditional art world hasn’t had to evolve like this before.
As someone who used to work in the traditional art world, I have a pretty vast network of connections with gallerists, museum workers, curators, traditional artists, and collectors. I’ve asked them all about their thoughts on NFTs.
Here’s what I’ve learned from them:
Even within the NFT space, artists, independent curators, emerging galleries, and the like still crave recognition from the art world elite.
Not all collectors exist on equal footing. When a renowned collector purchases your NFT, it is more valuable than when a faceless/ anonymous collector purchases your NFT. Anonymous collectors are a very common feature of the NFT space.
But a thousand dollars is a thousand dollars no matter where it comes from — right? It’s more complicated than that. There is value in where an artwork “hangs.” If it exists within a collection containing other high profile artists, that positioning elevates the status of the artist by mere proximity. It opens doors.
There is value in where the artwork is shown. If a high profile collector or art institution collects the artwork, the chances of it being shown and shared with other high profile individuals is tenfold what it would be if it was collected by a random, nameless, crypto-wealthy individual who only planned to store it in their wallet. The former benefits artists in a number of ways beyond just putting money in their pocket.
A part of me really hates to acknowledge this truth. Many of the artists I’ve spoken with feel the same way. To acknowledge this truth feels like I’m implicitly accepting the elitism, like I’m signing my name to the status quo.
At the end of the day, why does some people’s money carry more value than others? There are complex socio-economic factors at play here and they tie in to a long history of art world elitism.
To give you a better sense of just how elitist the traditional art world can be, here’s an anecdote that illustrates a very common situation. A friend of mine worked as a curatorial fellow at a major art museum in NYC. Though it wasn’t technically listed as a prerequisite on the application, it basically required an M.A. in art history. The pay? Around $40k a year. In New York City. The result? Only people who could supplement their pay with family wealth could afford to hold the position. This is not a one-off; it is a trend in the art world. These positions lead to status within the art world, they open doors to museum boards, to curatorial positions, etc. They open the door to becoming a tastemaker in the art world.
Suddenly, all the voices that we’re hearing come from a very specific, very elite, and very white realm. These people become the gatekeepers. They get to decide what art is good, what art deserves to be written about, which artists get exhibitions, etc.
I crave an art world that isn’t as elitist—it’s why I turned my attention and professional aspirations toward the NFT space. I see it as an equalizer. Artists, if they want to, can choose to dedicate their time to building online communities and gaining popularity without need for validation from the gatekeepers of the traditional art world.
What I’ve learned from my time working in the NFT space, however, is that this path isn’t for everyone. Social media can be exhausting and can drain creativity. Not every artist wants to be in marketing and they shouldn’t have to be. But the alternative is to seek a path within the NFT space that is more in line with the current traditional art world system.
There’s a tension within professional artists — to crave acceptance and to gain recognition from these art world elites, while simultaneously detesting the current systems that have created these gatekeepers. This tension exists within me, to be sure, but I’m not sure I have a plausible suggestion for a satisfying alternative.
For fine art NFTs to be accepted en masse, is it necessary to bend to the existing structure? I think so — at least a little bit. We can’t deny how much Sotheby’s and Christie’s NFT sales have helped the space gain recognition and validation on a wider scale. Without that nearly $69M Beeple sale, I highly doubt NFTs would have catapulted into the mainstream art scene with such flare.
I also think that we must maintain our commitment to being better, to being more accessible, and to creating an avenue for artists who reject the traditional system to have new pathways for success.
We don’t have to choose one or the other, as long as we remain committed to providing artists with tools for empowerment within each avenue. If artists want to pursue a traditional art world path within the NFT space because they find the online community building of Web3 to be overwhelming, who are we to deny them that option? The opposite is also true. If artists detest the current system set up in the traditional art world, Web3 and NFTs should be available for them to create something new.
Isn’t that the beauty of the NFT space? It isn’t limited to being just one thing. It’s whatever you make it.
