The Only Way You'll EVER Sell Art

People buy art for all kinds of reasons, but in the end, all of them boil down to wants. If someone doesn't want to buy your art - they won't.

Wants can be created in a variety of ways. Sometimes a want is a result of wanting to avoid something else. Let's take an extreme example: You could hold a gun to someone's head and demand he buy your art...he WOULD want to do it . . . at least at that particular moment.

More realistically, I don't want my wife to be unhappy. If SHE loves a particular artwork, then I WANT to get it for her because I want to avoid the unpleasant state of affairs that exists in my life when she is unhappy. (Hint for artists - if you want to sell me a painting - get my wife to love it first).

What else makes people WANT to buy your art?

They might want to support YOU.
They want to impress their friends.
They want the feeling that a particular artwork gives them.
They want to cover a blank space on their wall.
They want to "invest" in something of value.
The feeling of having "discovered" an artist
The feeling of having your "best" artwork

If we back up further and examine the "root" wants, we can catagorize nearly all of our wants/desires in a few general categories (generally in order of importance):

1. The desire for health/survival
2. The desire for satisfaction/happiness
3. The desire to be great/important


Don't underestimate people's desire to be important. In How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Mr. Carnegie discusses American philosopher John Dewey.

He writes:

Dr. Dewey said that the deepest urge in human nature is "the desire to be important." Remember that phrase...it is significant.

People buy art primarily for reasons 2 and 3.

Some people, who are deeply moved by art, who possibly "suffer" from Stendhal Syndrome, buy art to satisfy their soul...to fulfill their desire for satisfaction and happiness. Other people buy art to fulfill their desire to be important...to feel like they have a good "eye", to show their art to their friends, to be "in" with the hottest new artist, etc. And some people (most people) are a complex combination of both desires.
Your job as an artist or as an art marketer to to figure out how to satisfy these desires. A good place to start is to put yourself in the other person's shows and ask "What's in it for me?"


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