An artist, as the maker and shower of their own works, expression, and mastery, should require themself to also strive to be their own gallery, that is, to be their own initial entity existing as a holding place of their work.
A gallery, which originates with the gallerist plus — the plus being the workers within the gallery space and their access to collectors — needs the artist to not entitize themself, that is to say, to not make oneself independent of, as that would result in the crumbling of the entire empire that the art world situates itself upon. This situation, as it stands, is one which leaves the artist perpetually dependent upon other entities outside of themself and their respective spaces to establish value and subsequent collections of the works that were made from the artist’s own minds and hands. Despite then, the intense labor demanded of the artist to first produce and then continue to be in production, the entities require tribute as means of maintaining the value that has been placed upon the artist’s own entity, and reaches further into the artist’s sovereignty over their works and expression by recommending what must be made to ensure the increase of said value. The gallery, as the first holder of the work, places the value not on the work itself but on the artist’s ability to continue to produce the same style of work over a significant period of time. This reproductive ability guarantees the artist’s value, because the gallery and their collectors can ensure that the future creations will be just as valuable as the ones preceding. Once an artist has decided to expand or shift their style, the gallery is threatened with uncertainty, unable to guarantee the same valued results. Not wanting to take risks, they impose upon the artist to maintain the preceding style of creation, even if it is detrimental to the artist’s growth as a creative being and equally detrimental to their career. Once an artist is deceased, if they have no estate, the gallery then is rewarded with the benefit of auctioning off the remaining values for prices far higher than could be attained while the artist is alive, as the number of works is now finite, whilst the value can increase exponentially in perpetuity due to the style of the work being fixed.
Thus, it is imperative, for our new world of art, to de-establish the value as related to the style of the work itself and fix it instead to the abstractions of the artist’s mind — that is to say, the ability for an artist to continue to expand should be valued more than a singular style of work.
follow the artist @reneeroyale