What's needed to get your artwork into MoMA's collection
showcase an installation on the MET rooftop, and auction your art for over half a million dollars?
This past month I looked at the career trajectories of three very different artists and what it took for them to hit crucial, enviable milestones in their careers. Instead of writing about yet another artist, this post will find parallels among these artist’s careers. The goal is to look for elements that might be attributed to luck and others that could serve as practical insights for artists seeking to apply similar strategies in their own artistic practices.
Here are the defining moments of Halsey, Anadol, and Nava’s career, or the one thing that people would remember about them:
Halsey’s MET rooftop commission
Anadol MoMA exhibit and acquisition
Nava’s Philips London auction record of 717,008 USD
The stair step approach
While there could be a lot of luck involved in these accomplishments, there is also a pattern. A pattern of producing high impact work for extended period of time. According to a research paper on Success and Luck in Creative Careers,1 the people with the most consistent skills and abilities are the ones who are likely to come out on top in careers where success fluctuates a lot, like art, music, movies, even science. Seth Godin explains it the best in the Indie Hackers podcast.2 Rewritten for clarity.
Facing resistance is a genuine challenge. Take a moment to jot down the toughest thing you can think of – that one obstacle where overcoming it would significantly boost your project. Now, figure out the steps needed to tackle that challenge.
For example, in a podcasting workshop I ran with Alex DePalma, participants often expressed a desire for their podcast to excel if they could get someone like Michelle Obama as a guest. However, it's unrealistic to think she would agree immediately. So, work backward: consider someone more accessible, like your next-door neighbor, as your initial guest. Gradually, as you build credibility, you might find your 12th or 100th guest to be someone of Michelle Obama's stature.
It's essential to avoid relying on wishful thinking and instead, focus on a strategic approach to achieve your goals.
This stair step approach of slowly climbing to the top by applying to bigger and better schools, residencies, and galleries, has been key to Halsey and Anadol getting into MET and the MoMA. Their individual ability is the main driver here and not luck. They intentionally or unintentionally worked backwards from these defining milestones.
Telling your story skillfully
Nava's artistic success is more challenging to quantify compared to Halsey and Anadol. While Halsey and Anadol tackle intricate installations with robust narratives, drawing from experiences like growing up in South Central LA and reshaping art in the age of AI and machine learning, Nava's work appears simpler, resembling a drawing by a six-year-old. Additionally, being a white man from Chicago, his background may not immediately capture attention or seem as inherently interesting at first glance.
In my view, Nava would be considered in the 'high luck' category if it weren't for the compelling narrative he weaves into his pieces. Despite having a prestigious background—having attended Yale and earned an undergraduate degree in art—his art, initially not characterized by its raw, naive style, took inspiration from his gritty Bushwick neighborhood and favorite artists like Huma Bhabha. However, he gained significant attention only when he loosened his hold on his career, embraced enjoyment, and leveraged additional platforms, particularly Instagram, where he was discovered.
Nava actively reduced the luck factor by making himself more discoverable through various mediums. Concurrently, he continued to showcase his work while working as a truck driver to support himself. While Halsey and Anadol's careers resemble the strategic journeys of architects or graphic designers, Nava's path epitomizes the narrative of a struggling artist—a story of redemption and inspiration. The description of his work on a gallery website resonates with me, making me highly inclined to invest in his art if I had the means :
Nava’s distinctive visual language is highly personal. It is culled from a myriad of sources that range from ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, and Mayan art, and prehistoric cave paintings, to the powerfully symbolic mandala and such tropes of popular culture as gaming imagery and fantasy genre movies.
Network effects
The ability to make a living from your art is closely tied to how much collectors or institutions are willing to pay for your work, measuring success through external recognition. Albert-László Barabási, a renowned physicist, explains the challenge of gauging the quality of contemporary art in a Big Think video3. He talks about how difficult it is measure how good a piece of contemporary art is. There is no chronometer or measuring tape. It all depends on a complex network around the artist - who is the artist, where they have exhibited before, who owns it, and how these multiple links connect to the art history canon. In this case we can map these dependencies.
As it turns out, the most central nodes are also the most powerful art institutions like MoMA, Tate, Gagosian, etc. Barabási goes on to say that if you give him the first 5 exhibitions for an artist, he could predict where the artist would be in 15 to 20 years from now. While this does seem to be a bit of an exaggeration, one can see where he is going with this. Art market is dependent on institutional gatekeepers and the network of how the gatekeepers are connected determines your access to the art market. Artists like Nava, Halsey, and Anadol strategically showcased their work widely to navigate and establish themselves within these influential networks. Understanding and engaging with the networks surrounding their art is crucial for artists seeking recognition and success.
Finding your people
Art customers have diverse tastes and preferences. In essence, the more someone knows about a specific artist, the greater satisfaction they derive from consuming that artist's work. This insight suggests that individuals who are more acquainted with a particular artist are likely to make more purchases from that artist compared to others. This conclusion is drawn from a research paper exploring the impact of gallery and artist reputation on prices in the art market.4
In this context, local networks play a crucial role. Halsey's visibility in the LA art scene, Anadol's connection with niche art and tech communities, and Nava's presence in the ultra-contemporary art scene in NYC are instrumental. As highlighted by Seth Godin in the previously mentioned podcast, consistently showing up in the same place is key. This underscores the importance of sustained presence and engagement within specific networks for artists seeking recognition and success.
“So when I was in the book business, I had nothing for a year, and then people started returning my call, then they would go to lunch with me, because I kept showing up, and so by the time I did the Stanley Kaplan test prep books, they paid a silly amount of money for them, because they trusted me because I had been showing up for 4 years, whereas when I briefly showed up in the film industry, they were like, we got people fly by here all the time, check back in when you’ve failed 40 times.”
Art collectors like any other consumer, don’t want to incur switching costs, so finding your niche and developing trust is key.
Revenue Streams
Apart from earning through commissions and selling art, Halsey engages in brand collaborations, such as the one with Nike, while Anadol uses his art as a backdrop for events like the Grammies. Personally, I have mixed feelings about these income-generating activities, but they are common practices among artists. Many artists, for instance, put their art on items like cups and t-shirts, selling them on platforms like Red Bubble.
Barabási emphasizes the distinction between the long game and the short game in the art world. Just like scientists, relevant artists leave a lasting legacy for future generations. The question arises: do these artists sustain themselves through their art, or do they struggle financially only to be recognized posthumously? In such a scenario, selling t-shirts until achieving widespread recognition doesn't seem like a bad idea after all.
Ramen profitability
This concept is well-known in the startup world, where founders aim to reach a point of self-sustainability as their primary goal. This principle is applicable in the art world too. Take Nava, for instance; he both lives and works in the same space, eliminating the need for a separate studio and reducing costs. Additionally, he supported himself by driving trucks for 6-7 years. Halsey, on the other hand, operated from her Grandma's garage well into her career and still relies on support from family and friends for her creative endeavors. By adopting a frugal lifestyle, they extended their financial runway, enabling them to create more art and increase their chances of success through continued exposure.
Conclusion
In summary, the key findings emphasize the importance of sustained skill development, intentional narrative crafting, strategic network engagement, niche identification, and diversified revenue streams for artists navigating the complex landscape of a creative career. These insights are drawn from the collective experiences of Halsey, Anadol, and Nava, offering a roadmap for aspiring artists.
Consistent High-Impact Work: Success correlates with consistently producing high-impact work over time.
Stair Step Approach: Gradual career progression through education and opportunities is crucial.
Narrative and Discoverability: Crafted narratives and strategic use of platforms reduce reliance on luck.
Strategic Network Engagement: Success depends on external recognition, emphasizing the importance of influential networks.
Hyper-Local Networks and Trust: Building trust within specific networks, like local art scenes, is vital.
Diversified Revenue Streams: Exploring alternative revenue sources, beyond traditional avenues, is common.
Ramen Profitability and Frugal Living: Living frugally and managing resources strategically increase the likelihood of artistic success. This is could be challenging for artists who have children and families to support.
While some of the above are obvious, they can be challenging to put in action, especially with a day job and/or children. I’ll look into strategies that other artists have used to apply the above into their practices, so stay tuned.
Another thing - over the past 10 years I have written a few winning grants. If you refer Science of Art to friends, you will receive a PDF of one of the winning grants over email. If you are the grant applying types, hope these example grant applications would be helpful to you and would persuade you to refer some friends.
Otherwise please share this post with friends.
Until next time,
Shagun
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xd4u5vbmnw47aa3lwegzp/1909.07956.pdf?rlkey=eq6iwo3uusvigrocc2pq0lfsi&dl=0
https://podcasts.google.com/search/Indie%20Hackers
https://bigthink.com/videos/
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/m53d20jd3mc4zdv894wuy/document.pdf?rlkey=6mhn4b9ews6yrqo2hnl1qnj1c&dl=0
Hi Shagun, As you know, I always enjoy your thoughtful, well researched, insightful writing. This article is no exception. I appreciate practical insights in here. Thank you. Will share.
Hi shagun, very useful information. I’ve seen the big think too. Was wondering has it been identified what those first 5 exhibitions should be? I’m around nyc/nj and want to approach this strategically.