Showing items tagged "Contracts"
Tracing Work
Listen to me baby Wherever you may be I’m beggin’ over the radio Please come back to me – I’ve got a mind To move on down the line. * Many artists and galleries find great difficulty in…
Dealing in Fakes
Since the criminal prosecution of the late and celebrated Tom Keating in the 80s, the UK has not experienced serious allegations of sales of forged or counterfeit artworks although there was in recent years an allegation made…
Paper Promises, part 2
Part I last month began to deal with exhibition and selling work, one off and generally, responding to five questions posed by a newly established gallery administrator. Part II concludes by giving check lists of points…
After Sales
The last two articles in this series have dealt with selling work: the use of some written form of agreement was shown to be essential and of considerable advantage to artists and buyers. If the suggested Artist's Contract…
Gallery Agreements
Artists – grateful for the offer of a ‘gallery deal’ – are understandably reluctant to request the use of a written agreement during negotiations, since this might jeopardise their chances. In this column during the past months, the…
Commercial gallery relationships
Commercial galleries are businesses that aim to sell art. It’s important to understand their motivations, their staff and practices. This will help negotiate a mutually beneficial agreement. Reflection Before you begin your hunt for a gallery reflect…
Mum’s the Word
Artworks are sometimes conceived which deliberately incorporate the law as an intrinsic element in the piece or its exposition: Christo’s Running Fence could only be realised by the artist successfully negotiating the right to place his fence…
Contracts as easy as ABC: A Users Guide
This article provides simple and useful information on how to use Contracts. AGREEMENT Often the word agreement is used loosely to mean a contract. However, an agreement will only be a legally…
Contracts with Galleries
Artists leave works with galleries under the most flimsy and informal arrangements. Rarely are written agreements used to tell both sides where they stand, and as a result serious problems can and do arise: work is sold…
An Inspector Calls
A Metropolitan Police Inspector called upon the Saatchi Gallery in North London last month, ordered the removal of two artworks and a publication related to the exhibition ‘I am a Camera’, and threatened prosecution for failure to…
Nightmare of Planning Laws: Westminster City Council V Time Life
Westminster City Council and publishers Time Life are currently heading towards a unique legal dispute over artworks at the Time Life building in New Bond Street, London. It involves a…
Disclaimers
An artist recently raised an important question about leaving work with a gallery who had insisted on disclaiming liability for taking care of the work whilst in their possession. You say you never compromise With the mystery tramp but…
Importance of contracts in commissions
Projects for public spaces can involve so many different partners. This makes contracts vital, for artist and commissioner. A contract is what both the artist and the commissioner agree that you as the artist will deliver. You…
Doing a Deal: Part 2
Last month’s column explored the basics of UK contract law and good practices for artists and galleries conducting negotiations with a view to arriving at a gallery deal. This month we look in more detail…
Artists Bearing Gifts: Revisited
Gifts of work by artists to public institutions are an important and valuable method of promoting wider interest in and access to work, and of acquiring critical endorsement. During the past year, several correspondents have raised…
Selling is Easy
Selling work is easy: give it to the buyer and take the money. However, many artists and buyers care about what might happen to the work in the future: buyers are often concerned about originality, size of edition…
Conservation, Restoration and Replication of Modern Sculpture
Tate Modern will host a colloquium, Inherent Vice: the replica and its implications in Modern Sculpture, this month. With the support of by The Andrew W Mellon Foundation, 40 specialists from a range…
Private Commissions and the Law, part 1
The thirteenth year of these columns starts with a re examination of one of the first and most fundamental areas of art practice, private commissions, because it has posed perennial problems, for artists…