The Path to Becoming a Successful Visual Artist Selling Work for Thousands, or Even Millions of Dollars

I'm calling this, 'Stand Up Comedian'.
Image by Leonardo.ai and TET.

I consider myself to be a successful working artist. I use the term 'working' quite loosely but basically what I mean is I work for myself, I earn money from my art or knowledge, and most of my time I can create art that interests me.

I've never been motivated to be a 'career' artist. By that I mean, an artist whose work is displayed in all the top galleries, and that the super rich buy as more of an investment for wealth, than a love of art. Which is not to say these investors don't love art but when you're buying a single artwork for thousands, or even millions, of dollars, you're generally looking for a return on that investment too.

That said, I'm not opposed to artists who want that kind of recognition. Certainly, if you're prepared to do the work, in countries like Australia, you can earn a nice passive income off the secondary market. Which means each time your work is sold to a new collector you collect a portion of that sale.

If you're doing things right, and the value of your works is increasing (which is what investors are hoping will happen) then you're earning a bigger royalty each sale too.

There are artists out there who think the whole prestige gallery recognition/investment art route is a con based entirely on who you know. If you're not an 'insider' you never will be, because you don't know who they know to get million dollar price tags.

'Comedian'
Original work: Maurizio Cattelan
Depiction: Sarah Cascone

And let's face it, if you're a visual artist with even the most basic qualification of people who know you 'draw and paint stuff', you've probably seen an artwork in a prestige gallery and said to yourself "I could do that". 

All of us could duct tape a banna to a wall and call it art, right? Why is that particular banana duct taped to a wall worth 6.2 million dollars?

It must be all a big con, right? Especially since the person who paid 6.2 million for that banana later ate it. Do you think it tasted like 6.2 million dollars?

It's not. Surprising, in some cases, what not only passes for art but also how much that art is sold for, but it's not a con.

It's not that different to you, as the righteous artist, who isn't going to support all that elitist nonsense, slowly raising the price of your artwork for no other reason than you feel you've improved, and the quality of your work is getting better... and that last piece you sold was the highest priced yet, so let's bump prices a little more, so you can finally get prices that reflect what you're worth (in your approximation).

The only difference is you don't have the prestige of being shown in, or being a part of the collection of, one of those elitist galleries.

If you've just assumed your art could never get to the level of selling for millions in the elite 'club' (it's not a club, all kinds of people with money invest in art) the path to getting there is not as complicated as you think - but you still have to do the work and bring something exceptional to the fore front with your art. You can't just tape a banana to a wall and think galleries will be falling all over themselves to see how much better your banana sticks!

Finding the path is not dissimilar to playing six degrees of Kevin Bacon. It's all about finding out how galleries are connected. Does your local gallery have connections to a gallery in a bigger town or city? If yes, does that gallery have connections to a bigger, more prestige gallery in their city or another bigger city further away?

You just keep joining the dots of galleries until you find out who is connected to your nearest 'elite' gallery that does buy and sell works to investors. From there you want to follow the path, exhibiting at each gallery, working with that gallery's network as you do.

In a video from YouTube Channel Big Think, Why Do Some Artists Become Famous? | Albert-László Barabási, this idea is explained in a way that makes sense, and lays out a pathway for those just getting started as a career artist.

The pathway concept is explained toward the end of the video however the whole video is worth a watch for context. It does note that there are some artists that think all this networking is not within their realm or job description.

I also wanted to finish this post out with a couple of other helpful videos I came across. The first is Artpatico's Top 12 Contemporary Painters Living Today, many of whom you may not have heard of, but I want you to pay attention to the galleries they are known to be associated with to kick start your research.

Artpatico also has a Top 100 Contemporary Painters Living Today video but that video is particularly long. Could still be good research though.

If indeed you do want to be a career artists I thought this video, Habits of Successful Artists: 10 Commandments For Success, by Contemporary Art Issue gave some particularly good insight on how a career artist should be thinking. An item that particularly resonated with me was 'good art does not just fit in the trunk of your car'.