TAASA Review Issues

THE ROLE OF DEALER GALLERIES
Carl Andrew

We all understand fairly well the role of public museums and art galleries as collecting and exhibiting institutions and we all know what it is to collect objects privately because most of us, to a greater or lesser degree, selectively purchase art objects which we like. We also know that some people, with the means and the inclination, buy large numbers of art objects and so fall into that loosely defined category of “art-collectors”.

However, the role of the art dealer or commercial gallery owner is often little understood or appreciated. As in all trades and professions, there are practitioners with very diverse levels of knowledge, commitment and ethical standards. I want to pay tribute here to the contribution made by the best dealers to that edifice which we often refer to as “the art world”.

Museums collect for the enjoyment and education of the public, and they collect for posterity. Individual people collect for themselves and are fairly short-term custodians of objects which will probably change hands countless times again. Individuals usually buy art objects from dealers in shops or galleries, and in their early days of buying they find that certain dealers seem more knowledgeable and ethical than others. Relationships begin to develop and education of the buyer by the dealer is often an important part of these relationships.

Given the interests of readers of the TAASA Review, I will focus here on the role of dealers in Asian arts in Australia, and particularly Sydney which I know best. These dealers handle either the work of living artists, or fine or decorative arts of the past. In the former case they provide the essential link between the artist and the art buyer; in the latter case they search for, identify, authenticate and present art objects to those interested in their acquisition. I am not in a position to survey these dealers comprehensively, and will only mention individuals in order to illustrate aspects of the roles which dealers can play.

When I was growing up in Melbourne in the ‘fifties there were few dealers or galleries specializing in the arts of Asia, but the Joshua McClelland Print Room in Collins Street had, decades earlier, developed a  reputation as a place in which very good Chinese ceramics  could be found and purchased with confidence. After Joshua McClelland’s death, his wife Joan continued to run the gallery. Through their initiatives many collectors emerged who were then able to develop their enthusiasm, knowledge and connoisseurship by regular visits to the National Gallery of Victoria, where a superb collection of Chinese ceramics had grown through generous benefaction. A mutually beneficial relationship often develops between dealers, collectors and art museums. Dealers help to turn their customers into serious collectors; collectors look to dealers for advice on the purchases they make and look to art museums for access to high quality objects on display and to specialist curators for information; museums often buy from dealers and look to private collectors as benefactors of their public collections.

Specialist dealers have often started off as collectors and then developed a passion for their area of interest and the desire to work full-time with it. As dealers, people like Peter Lane and Raymond and Victoria Tregaskis are able to devote their whole lives to their passion (as can curators), while collectors usually earn their living in fields unrelated to their collecting.

Art museums can only exhibit a small part of their collections at any one time so, unless a specially focused exhibition is being presented, a limited number of, for example, Middle-Eastern carpets, Chinese ceramics or contemporary Japanese prints will be available on view. However, this resource of objects to view is enormously extended by the availability of the stock of dealer galleries. Anyone  who wants to see and learn about, for example, kilims, can visit at least half-a-dozen reputable dealers in both Sydney and Melbourne and find very fine pieces and helpful gallery owners who are very willing to share their expertise. Some dealers, Bill Evans at the Caspian Gallery, Sydney, among them, have developed excellent reference libraries which they are willing to make available to any seriously interested people.

Gallery owners are often prepared to invest a lot of money and effort into showing the work of artists who are not well known in Australia and whose exhibitions will almost certainly not be commercially successful until familiarity and confidence are developed among potential buyers. This applies particularly to the work of Asian artists whose reputations at home are not easily transferred to Australia. Even Masami Teraoka whose work is widely recognised and published in North America, Japan and Europe, failed to sell a major painting from his superb 1992 Macquarie Galleries show. But the best art dealers accept the fact that a buying public for such works has to be developed slowly and educated through exposure over many years.

Dealers often have a missionary zeal to share their knowledge and enthusiasm and it follows that, in doing so, they build an informed market for the objects they handle.

Some dealers run specialist lectures, lecture series or seminars in their galleries in 3 association with particular exhibitions.