Information exchange
Collectors sometimes exchange information among themselves.
This is a story about one such exchange that took place behind closed doors. Proper names are withheld, but the content is a true story.
Through my own connections, I had been exchanging online messages with a collector I will call “Mr. A,” a person with sharp instincts and excellent taste.
The works Mr. A owns are shown publicly online, and his lineup — from pieces by prominent artists to eye-catching works by younger artists chosen by his own eye — had caught my attention.
The messages we exchanged sometimes involved inquiries about the artists behind the works he owns, and in the reverse direction I received similar questions from him as well.
At one point in these exchanges, I learned that Mr. A seemed to be interested in the artist behind a work I own. That artist has been steadily increasing his international presence and name recognition, making his works quite difficult to acquire and pushing prices ever higher.
Since Mr. A had shared valuable information with me on another matter, I passed along the tip that a work by a certain artist was sitting quietly at a regional gallery. Being on close terms with that gallery’s owner, I happened to know that a piece exhibited at a previous solo show was still being kept at the gallery. I even had a photograph of the work, which I sent along.
A few days later I was surprised by how quickly he shot off from Tokyo to that distant spot — but I was in for an even bigger surprise.
The gallery’s hidden card
Mr. A’s next message included not only a report of his visit to the gallery but also news that he had purchased two works.
But when I saw the images of the works he had bought, I was startled: they were different from the piece I had imagined.
Why did this happen? Was the work he purchased perhaps a newly arrived piece…?
To cut to the chase, the works were pieces owned by the gallery’s owner personally. Apparently they had been unsold from a group show held prior to the solo exhibition, and had been kept by the owner as part of his personal collection. Ah, so that was it — it all made sense.
How unsold works from an exhibition are handled
Come to think of it, I once heard the following from a gallerist I know well.
On the final day of a solo show for one of his artists, he said, “I’m thinking of buying a few of the unsold works myself to add to the gallery’s collection.”
So there may be a background involving the relationship between the gallery and its artists.
It seems that a gallery representing an artist may have surprising works quietly stored away.
Summary
There may be many treasures hidden inside a gallery.
Beyond works officially owned by the gallery, gallerists are the ones who engage with the works at the closest possible distance to the artists. It would not be at all surprising if they owned some hidden works themselves.
By the way, I once received a direct message from a certain contemporary artist and was able to have an artist proof (AP = artist proof) piece transferred to me. The main reason may have been that I had been sending out clear signals of wanting that work for some time. I’ll come back to this story another time.
If there is a work you want, perhaps what’s needed is the attitude and action of pursuing it hungrily, without giving up.
