How To Price Your Art — Career Advice for Artists: 8 Common Mistakes & How To Fix Them (4/8)

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CAI is the abbreviation of 'Contemporary Art Issue,' a hybrid platform for contemporary art including:

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Julien Delagrange is an art historian, contemporary artist, and the founder and director of CAI. Delagrange studied Science of Arts at Ghent University, Belgium, and worked for the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, the Jan Vercruysse Foundation, the Ghent University Library, and has contributed to the international contemporary art scene as an art critic, lecturer, curator, gallery director, consultant, advisor, and as an artist. As an artist, he is represented by Galerie Sabine Bayasli in Paris, France, and Gallery Space60 in Antwerp, Belgium.

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→ To empower artists by providing adequate and industry-approved advice for artists for long-term success in the highest realms of the art world, sharing inside information and proven strategies based on real-life experiences in the art world.
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Table of contents:
00:00 — Web series Introduction: 8 Crucial Career Advice Videos
00:29 — Video Introduction: Vision & Consistency Explained
01:23 — Major Career Mistake 4: Inconsistent Pricing
01:35 — How To Price Your Art
04:39 — How To Price Your Paintings
08:26 — Where To Discover More Information
09:04 — Outro

[contemporaryartissue]

The series continues... Four more coming up weekly! I have been unable to answer your comments the past few weeks. It has been incredible busy the past few weeks but I promise I will find the time in the coming weeks to respond to all comments. So chat soon! All my best, Julien

[VinnyOlimpio]

Thank you so much for everything. This channel has been my art guru, giving me so much peace of mind and allowing me to continue creating and navigating my art career. After 8 months of recovering from an accident and a surgery, I am now three weeks back on track and fully inspired once again. I am grateful for your dedication to serving our generation of artists. Blessings. Vinny Olimpio

[kunaldeoskar]

This is an amazing series! I have greatly benefitted from it and hope to put it to good use for my art career!

[chrislethbridge]

I think there’s some fantastic advice in here. One thing you didn’t mention however was whether gallery or agency commission was included or excluded in your pricing guidance. I always tell artists they should never undercut galleries representing them by charging minus the value of commission when selling privately - even if that’s on a ‘one off’ basis. On another note, I find it incredibly frustrating when tutors at art schools encourage their students to charge unrealistic prices, when they have no track record of professional endorsement, thus excluding both ‘big’ collectors and people who (like myself) love art but only have modest disposable incomes with which to buy. Early career is the point when we can afford them and by keeping work affordable and cultivating us, a young artist can establish their marketability. Lastly, I’d always counsel artists to ‘love their buyers’ by maintaining contact and keeping them informed about developments in their careers, be this via social media or more formal means. Unfortunately many artists are terrible at this and the result can be that as a buyer, you don’t feel valued. However, the artist has no idea when the person who purchased a drawing for €200 isn’t going to turn into someone who goes on to spend far more as their own career and income develops. Essentially a good buyer should go on a journey with the artists they admire.

[ZadenZane]

4:54 either there's something wrong with my arithmetic or the amounts you're saying just don't add up. An 80x100cm canvas is 8000 square cm. If you multiply that by 5 (5c per sq cm?) you get 400 and multiplying by 10 gives 800. So where does the $900-$1800 figure come from?

[nicoantuna]

This is a great series! This video is particularly helpful to understanding the different phases in the development of a professional artist. Thank you for breaking that down, most will only speak about entry level or mega gallery level representation with no explanation of the development in between.

[stojanovich]

Some great advice here, a lot of people dont know of the existence of the artist index number and just put random prices on paintings. A big hello from a painter ;)

[mhxxd]

This price formula breaks down at larger sizes. Many of my customers are looking to cover large walls, so I prefer per sq inch/cm instead of adding them together

[judebeee]

Thank you! I am working my way through this series and it has been extraordinarily practical! I have followed the square inch rule here in the US. I find it problematic in many ways. I am at about $1 to $1.50 per sq. inch. It really works well for moderate sized works but getting down to the small works or much larger works it seems to return unreasonably high or unreasonably low prices and I find myself always adjusting. So I am going to try the "index" method. I have 3 questions: 1) how do you add in framing? I do a lot of works on paper and generally frame and glass them which can be costly at times. I have begun to display them unframed in some shows using small unobtrusive magnetic tacks. I have also begun to standardize using only thin black metal frames which has kept my framing more reasonable 2) In determining you index, does one include being accepted into juried shows as part of the determination? 3) How does my curation of group shows fit into the index would that be a consideration of a higher index?

[rcw]

The most informative pricing guide for a upcoming artist. I have ever heard in my life. Thank you so much, and thank the algorithms. And the spirits and the ancesthere's an God for guiding me to this. Video.

[KaizerMayhem]

Very helpful for me who's just starting out, thank you.

[hermitcrabbot]

'Market Standards' are modern art standards. They don't work for serious realist salon painters that spend years on each painting. The prevailing pricing system, set up to accommodate quickly-made contemporary art, breaks down for salon art. Also, the current system makes sales the standard of 'success', not artistic merit. The alternative for the salon painter is to find other means to support himself first, and then establish his reputation through art contests and exhibitions for years, finally employing an art appraisal service to establish a price.

[loriwakefield]

thank you this has been a big stumbling block in my art career. keep up the good work

[thomasdekade]

Over 99% of artists that are practically unknown will be lucky to get over $1000 for any painting, no matter how good. It happens, but it's incredibly rare. Telling beginners they can get that much sets unrealistic expectations.

[ruby]

Great content, thank you - very clear and and informative.

[jarretttcamp]

I have to say this is a great video. It seems very right and excepable. I really like this video.

[GustavoFloering]

Hello! These videos are helping me a lot to understand the art world and how things work. But I have a question: what we, independent artists, who creates our collector's base mostly online should do about being discreet? I mean, my passion is to create art since I was a kid and now I'm growing as an independent artist and being able to support my poetic craft full-time. But realistically, we artists need to sell our work if we don't want a side job or have a rich family to support us - specially if we didn't have a gallery invitation yet.

How do you see this perspective and is it possible to mix both needs together? I like how I work now but I'd like to expand to exhibitions and galleries without needing to "hide" my online art sales or feel ashamed for showing my available works. Thank you so much!

[GeoGemIJewellers]

Thank you so much, what a great series. 😀

[jvivant]

Hello. Thanks for such valuable information. And how do the artist index numbers continue for mid-career and established artists?

[amareshpereira]

Dr. Julian thank you for sharing this valuable insightful to the point info!
Wanted to also ask if the pricing (apart from the expression and ethos of the artist being present) would it also depend on the materials used for the paintings preservation ??... (ex. Linen as opposed to cotton canvas or the non-use of zink white or use of quality oil paint that would preserve well)