A similar thing happened when I was running the Coagula Projects Gallery at the Brewery Art Colony in 1999. We had hung a solo show of Marion Lane’s work and people made appointments to buy art ahead of the opening. It was like a mini-gold rush.
So there is one on now for the Kenny Harris show here at Gallery C – many of his collectors have made appointments to seal the deal – to get an artwork before anyone else does, before the opening reception when we may likely sell out! Gold rush indeed. I put my money where my mouth was in penning the essay for Kenny’s catalog that accompanies the show. A realistic painter in these days is not a tough sell to collectors, but to cognoscenti who pledge allegiance to an alleged edge of where art may be going.
Duchamp’s best ideas are nearly a hundred years old and so may be the proposition that an advanced guard (avant garde) is leading the way toward where art and culture are aimed.
That is my attitude in the chaos of the art world’s democracy in denial.