okay. so. basically. let’s say you’re a contemporary artist who is really hooked on modern art. and you want to make, say, five 40” x 40” inch paintings that are literally just painted solid white. here’s what that entails:
If you’re a serious fine artist, you’re probably building and stretching your own canvases. It takes time, sure, but it saves you a LOT of money.
Because of this, the amount of money you’ll be spending is pretty trivial, but it could take you eight or so hours of work.
You will also need to consider how it’s going to hang and attach the appropriate fasteners.
Big brush, acrylic paint, pretty cheap, takes you like two hours for all of them.
Luckily for you, you have a consignment agreement with a gallery in NYC, and you’re having a show there!
Now the paintings actually have to get there, which means you have to pack them. And they don’t sell 40” x 40” x 5”in crates that also keep the front of whatever’s inside from scraping against the wood. So you’re also going to make these yourself!
Each one needs to be wrapped 2mil - 4mil plastic drop cloths (which cost money), bubble wrap (costs money), given polyethylene bumpers to protect their corners (costs money), and then custom crates with hinges and brackets and a place to screw the paintings in and everything, taking even more time. And thank goodness the show is in the same country as you— otherwise you’d have to get the wood treated!
If you want to get it to the gallery in the proper way, you have to ship it by air to minimize the risk of damage.
Now, you live in Ohio. To ship 5 crates that size to NYC by air? And possibly have to bring them back home? That’s gonna run you uh… about $7,000. Yes, actually. But there’s a cheaper way:
Rent a U-haul, ratchet strap all your work in there, and bring the paintings to the gallery yourself.
It’s $20 + $0.99/mile after that to rent a U-haul truck. At 640 miles away, that’ll run you back $630. It needs gas, so that’ll be another $220. Oh! And you’ll probably need to bring some of your work back home as well, so just double everything I said! But $1,740 doesn’t sound too shabby now, does it?
Once your show hits NYC, the gallery will find buyers. If you have a REALLY cool gallery, they’ll let you keep 60% of the sale, but most will split the profits 50-50.
Let’s say three of your paintings sell at an asking price of $8,000 each.
Oh, and it’s actually customary to give buyers a 10% discount. So they’re actually selling for $7,200 each.
Museums and other institutions usually get a 20% discount. So they may even sell for $6,400 each. (But hey! Your art will be in a fucking museum! Hell yeah!)
Let’s say it’s a private buyer.
The three paintings sell for a total of $21,600, of which you get $10,800.
Subtract the cost of the canvas materials, the paint, the crates, and the shipping, and it comes out to around $8,800.
Also, you’re only going to be doing like, three or four shows a year, tops.
So your effective salary as an artist who makes nothing but “lazy” plain white paintings that sell for literal thousands? $26,400 - $35,200 a year. Just barely a living wage.
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