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599 NINTH STREET NORTH SUITE 309 | NAPLES, FL 34102 | 239.261.2637
ASK THE ARTSPERTS PROLIFIC ARTISTS www.harmonmeek.com
by Juliana Meek and Kristine Meek also produce thousands
of works, heightened
Dear Artspert: by the print medium’s
multiple editions and
I noticed at an artist’s gallery exhibition that he had created a lot of paintings yet all of their works still
in the past year. Should I be concerned about his apparent prolific style? sell to those collectors
interested in their
Signed, respective imagery.
Mo’ Paintings Mo’ Problems Some artists may
appear to have produced
Dear Mo, a lot of works of art in a
specific year but perhaps
The number of works of art an artist produces will only have a negative effect a significant percentage
on his values if the works do not sell year after year and the artist ends up with were actually started in
too many unsold works. But the fact that many internationally known artists previous years and happened to be finished and dated
have produced tens of thousands of works of art without much concern on the in one year leading up to an exhibition. Some artists will
buying public should serve to show that for the most part it is a myth that fewer mark on the back of a painting when a particular work was
works equals more value. started and completed but many artists simply mark when
it was finished.
When Andy Warhol was alive he had over one hundred “assistants” creating Robert Vickrey’s annual exhibitions with our gallery
works with the “Warhol” name on them. He called his studio “The Factory” and from 1981 to 2011 would often bring a chorus of statements
when he died he left an estate of more than 94,000 paintings and prints with like “He sure did paint a lot of work this past year”. If one
his name on them. Add to this the thousands of works he sold during his life were to more closely examine the wall description labels
and one might think there couldn’t possibly be enough people interested in his they might see that the dates were from different years
work to sustain his price level, which often reaches into the millions of dollars as our gallery often would include unsold paintings from
for major creations. previous shows, or from other galleries representing him,
or works which had come back on resale. Since he painted
Other artists such as Damien Hirst,Marc Kostobi,Jeff Koons and Peter Max with the difficult egg tempera medium it only allowed
him to paint about thirty paintings a year, of which he
would typically sell twenty. When Vickrey died in 2012
he left an estate of only 80 finished paintings.
The popularity of an artist and the volume of sales
should only be of concern if it is not balanced with critical
acclaim and museum representation – as long as the artist
is selling, being talked about, and achieving critical praise
the value of the artist’s work will be maintained.
Sincerely,
The Artsperts
Left: Robert Vickrey memorial exhibition at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art Life in Naples | March 2016
Right: Hunt Slonem in his studio working on paintings at various stages of completion
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