\nfound herself in the position of representing too many artists whom she
\nfelt had not delivered on their early promise, one of the top reasons
\nshe closed her gallery was to avoid cleaning house. She loved all the
\nartists in her lineup but didn’t necessarily love what their work had
\nbecome.<\/p>\n
Closing for that reason is rare. Also rare is for
\ndealers to drop an artist for sales reasons if they continue to
\nappreciate the product. Bruce Nauman sold badly until fairly recently.
\nA dealer who let him go due to a paltry economic return (and I don’t
\nknow of one) would be covered in shame. If dealers think a particular
\nartist is top of the line, they hang in through the thin hoping to help
\ncreate the thick. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, if the artist’s rise proves
\nmeteoric, the loyal dealer might well be dumped in favor of one who couldn’t have cared less during the lean years. That’s a painful payoff, intolerable in other business
\ncontexts, but gallerists are more than business people. They can never
\nbe great if they keep both eyes on the bottom line. <\/p>\n
Enter the
\nrecession. Solid artists sell little or nothing. Trade that was once
\nbrisk has slowed to a trickle. Unless dealers have a trust fund or
\nrepresent at least a couple of recession-proof cash cows, the price of
\nmounting shows they couldn’t have sold in flush times becomes more of a
\nmental burden.<\/p>\n
Case in point: Seattle gallerist James Harris<\/a> recently dropped Glenn Rudolph<\/a>. In terms of Northwest art, it’s similar to a New York dealer dropping Nauman twenty years ago. <\/p>\n Rudolph is a poet of the post-apocalypse. He likes to photograph When Lisa Corrin was leaving the Seattle Art Museum<\/a>, Glenn Harris said the economy is the only reason he parted company from I Also missing from the gallery Web site is Patrick Holderfield<\/a>, but that omission may be temporary. Holderfield appears to be taking a vacation from making art. His personal Web site<\/a> Prior Artists come and go from galleries all the time. Usually, it’s the former dropping the latter. Artists either get better opportunities or they just can’t stand to work with their dealers a minute longer. Gallerists drop artists too, most frequently because the artists prove unreliable. They miss exhibition dates and leave the dealer hanging, sell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nbad news once the news value has faded and people are making the best
\nof their diminished circumstances. He favors those who live it up on
\nthe margins of society, in a bizarre social club (the Duct Tape
\nWarriors in the Kent Valley), the artificial splendor of a suburban
\nhousing development (Kent, again) and his own neighborhood in North
\nSeattle.<\/p>\n![\"glennrudolphcherry.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/glennrudolphcherry.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nHe photographs along the train routes from Portland to
\nVancouver and finds landscapes that are more like abandoned still
\nlifes, nature damaged by human folly.
\nOther photographers make dirges from such material, but Rudolph’s
\nversion of the down-and-out has a resilient edge, a zany comeback
\nquality, an exuberance that belies the facts.<\/p>\n
\nwhere she’d served as modern\/contemporary curator, she said Rudolph had
\ntaken her by surprise. In the age of global communications, she thought
\nit would be almost impossible for a major artist to fly under the
\nradar. After seeing Rudolph’s work, she realized it isn’t true.<\/p>\n
\nRudolph is enormously under-recognized. He deals with the subcultures
\nthat inhabit the Northwest and how the region’s social landscape is
\nchanging the natural one. (more<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nRudolph. <\/p>\n
\ntruly believe in Glenn’s work. He is a Seattle treasure and his
\nphotographs captures a NW sensibility like no one else. I wish I could
\nafford him the time and the backing that he deserves. If you look at
\nhis gelatin silver prints, both large and small scale you can see the
\nmastery in his printing technique. What a wonderful way to capture the
\nfantastic shades of gray of the NW. Unfortunately, it is too hard to do
\nshows and not make money, not only for me for for him. I feel honored
\nto have worked with him. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nno longer carries any of his work. If offers instead two words: NOW
\nWHAT? If Holderfield answers his own question with new work, Harris
\nsaid he’d be happy to return him to the fold, assuming he’d want to
\nreturn.<\/p>\n
\nto the recession, Harris would have given an artist of Holderfield’s
\nstature time to find a new direction. No longer. Behind the sleek
\nexterior of many important galleries around the country, there’s a
\ndesperate scramble going on. Although some critics claim a recession
\nfrees the art world from concentrating on money, I think the reverse is
\ntrue for galleries. Money buys time and funds the experimental. In its
\nabsence, the bottom line becomes the determining factor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"