Artist Stephen Delaney lives in Portlaoise and exhibits his work in New York, London, Paris - everywhere, in fact, there is an Internet access point. Through his site, www.great-gallery.com, Delaney can harness the democratic power of the World Wide Web and bypass the elite gallery structures that can frustrate young and promising artists who find it difficult to get into the closed world of the more prestigious galleries.
Delaney, and many other artists like him, is doing in the visual arts what many young bands are doing in music. Why wait for the big record companies to give you a deal? Why not set up a site and sell your work directly to your audience? The democratic potential of the Web is well suited to the small or individual operator, allowing access to a market of millions with the minimum of technology and expense. It is a set-up that offers a business model tailor-made for the individual working artist.
The main advantage of direct selling is avoiding the hefty commission that galleries charge. For Delaney, that was one of the main motivations in setting up his own site. "If I sell through a gallery, I'm looking at 30 to 50 per cent commission for the gallery straight off. Selling directly through my website, the buyer and I avoid that commission. By cutting out the middleman, I can keep my prices down. That benefit passes directly on to the buyer in terms of cost," says Delaney.
While Delaney's operation is still small, he says that he has through the Web in the last few months. Not bad for a site that has yet to get an e-commerce engine, which would allow him to deal with credit card sales.
But what of the whole issue of selling art through the Web? If boo.com went to the wall because people felt uncomfortable buying clothes they couldn't try on first, then surely the Net is not the place to sell something as individual and personal as art. The Web is fine for selling mass-produced products like books - just look at the success of amazon.com - but what about the one-off work of art?
For painter Paki Smith, selling art online can never replace the face-to-face, up-close and intimate direct sale. "The tactile experience is important. You need to know the feel of a painting before you buy it. For me, buying art online is a bit like buying shoes through the Internet. I'd need to try them on first." However, Smith does agree that gallery commissions can be hefty, and that "whatever way you can sell your work and avoid the commission is cool". With galleries often getting up to 50 per cent from a painting's sale, it is not surprising that many artists look for a way to avoid that loss. But there are very specific problems for the artist who wants to set up a personal virtual gallery. As Tara Murphy, gallery director of the Solomon Gallery in Dublin, points out, scale is one of the more serious problems.
"The problem with displaying paintings online is that you lose the scale. The dimensions are usually given with an image of the work, but many people still can't imagine what the work looks like in reality. Another problem is that in painting, particularly with oils, you lose the texture of the paint in the online image. A virtual painting is no substitute for the real thing."
With prints, problems associated with the quality of the online image are less serious. For Sheelagh Mills, owner and director of the Original Print Gallery (www.originalprint.ie), in Temple Bar, Dublin, Internet selling doesn't create the same kind of problems for her online business. "Prints are ideal," she says, "because you're dealing with works on paper."
Although the Original Print Gallery deals in fine quality handmade prints rather than mass-produced prints, it is still easier to reproduce the image online, as the problems of scale and surface texture encountered with paintings are not as serious. Mills is adamant, however, that it is still better to see the actual image before purchasing. "Most clients still prefer that," she says.
ACCORDING to Tara Murphy of the Solomon Gallery, it is still a tiny percentage of clients who are prepared to purchase over the Net, especially when a client is spending a lot of money. However, she does see the advantage that the Internet offers as "a point of first contact", and the Solomon Gallery has invested in a Web presence with their site, www.solomongallery. com.
Another well-established Dublin gallery soon to have a Web presence is the Green on Red Gallery. According to Jerome O Drisceoil, owner of Green on Red, part of the problem with displaying art online is that it is limited to two-dimensions. "Especially with installations, it is vital to see them in three dimensions. You need to be able to walk through and around the piece," he says. As for the suggestion that the Internet heralds the end of the old-fashioned gallery, O Dris ceoil is sceptical: "Because the gallery works as an agent and manager, we have an important role. I am doubtful that artists would want to cut ties with galleries and switch solely to the Internet as a way of displaying and selling their work.
Galleries do a huge amount of behind the scenes work for their artists - publishing catalogues, getting shows abroad, introducing artists to collectors. There's a huge workload beyond just mounting exhibitions. It would be too much work for an artist on their own. The art would suffer." If you are an artist thinking of putting your work online, it is important to have your images scanned in to the highest quality. Particularly in painting, the colours on screen should be as close to the original colours on canvas as possible. Then there is the issue of handling payments. Without an e-commerce engine, it may prove cumbersome handling payments through more traditional means. Payment can be even more problematic when dealing with foreign currencies. Also important is the issue of shipping work. Not only are many works of art quite delicate, but they are also bulky. For any artist contemplating selling directly to their clients, it is important to have a good and reliable system of delivery.
Still, for Delaney, setting up his own virtual gallery has been a great success, and he is enthusiastic in recommending the step to other artists. "I designed and put up my site for only £200 or £300," he says. "True, I'm not getting as many hits as I would like because I'm not yet registered with some of the big search engines, but my sales have gone up since I went online. I'd recommend the move to anybody."
While it remains unlikely that artists will abandon the prestige, profile and expertise that galleries offer in favour of their own virtual galleries, it seems certain that the popularity of the online gallery will continue to grow. If poor old Van Gogh had online access, things might have worked out differently.