09 Nov Getting On
Selling your paintings is a lot like busking, a word that derives from the Italian buscare, meaning to “get.”
Painters, like buskers, sell their art not in hopes of getting rich, but in hopes of getting on, as in “I’ll leave you to get on with your work.”
We painters crave validation—and, in the form of income, just enough validation to offset our expenses and let us continue to paint.
Only the too-precious art aficionado or the faint-hearted artiste fails to see there’s a necessary link between painting and selling.
Leonardo da Vinci—salesman par excellence—certainly saw it. Just read the resume he sent to the Duke of Milan.
And so did Marcel Duchamp, who sold replicas of his art from a suitcase by going door-to-door; Constantin Brâncuşi, who used his studio as his showroom; Claes Oldenburg, who opened “The Store” in Greenwich Village; Keith Haring, who operated the “Pop-Shop” in Soho;” and Takashi Murakami, who decorated Louis Vuitton outlets and merchandise worldwide.
Andy Warhol, who aptly named his studio “The Factory,” once said, “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.”
And with that in mind I ask: Please visit my store.