CultureLabel.com today launches Art Store, a new online shop for contemporary art that makes buying original artwork affordable and accessible to everyone...
The idea is fairly simple... allow people to shop online purchase contemporary artwork from some "A-list" galleries and those lesser known ones too. The best part? Your art can be financed... without sounding like a infomerical it really ends up being £35.00 per month for 10 months... (depending on the the work of course)
So what does Londonista think about this? Well I have two thoughts. One is YES! Bring it on... it might allow for artists and galleries to really get their names out there globally. In addition, I am thinking what an amazing Christmas gift... People have given TEVO and subscriptions to magazines etc. so why not REALLY show up your family this year... and show up with a piece of posh contemporary art and really shake up the ham and turkey dinner covo.
However, once again here we go turning people of society into prisoners of their own homes. Yes I am being overly dramatic... but for a good reason. Many galleries are all ready have problems getting people to come to their spaces, their openings/private viewings etc. This could seriously hinder them even more. Why should someone take the time to get on the subway-tube-highway-sidewalk even to walk to your gallery if they can sit with their snugglies and look at the art online. Secondly, what about the importance of SEEING the art. I truly believe that in essence you could use most of your senses if not all to experience a work of art. When I asked a fellow Art Buiness Master's student, Julie Smith, she repIied: "I think that it might make people feel that they are no longer getting something unique if everyone will have the ability to look at a particular work on-line....it could end up lowering the overall value of the work."
Nonetheless, the galleries exhibiting include Whitechapel, Studio Voltaire, Bearspace and Royal Scottish Academy – with artists ranging from emerging talent like Jock Mooney and Kirsty Whiten, as well as established artists such as Peter Blake and Dan Baldwin…
Image:
Kirsty Whiten Hostage Readied for transit Lithograph and Screenprint, 2009 £350 (£35 per month with Own Art) Edinburgh Printmakers
Time will tell how Art Store and Own Art affect the auctions and other galleries... I am always up for using technology to better promote and run a business. I just get worried when in the end technology takes over.. and we are left without ever using our senses.
