Can an Artist Destroy Their Own Career?

Throughout the art world, it is a well-known concept that an artist can indeed devastate their own career with a variety of actions and behaviors. The delicate balance between artistic integrity, professional growth, and marketability can be challenging to maintain. Here are some common ways that an artist can undermine their own success.

Selling Out of the Studio Instead of the Gallery

In many cases, artists who directly sell their work to the public through their studio rather than through galleries or art fairs can encounter significant repercussions. Galleries provide several crucial advantages for artists:

Networking and connections with other artists, curators, and collectors. Advocacy and promotion of the artist’s work. Placing the work in a professional setting, thereby enhancing its credibility and value. Exposure to a wider audience through exhibitions and events.

When an artist opts to sell their work directly, they may miss out on these valuable benefits and impact their professional reputation. Direct sales can often seem less polished and less curated, which can detract from the artist’s overall public image.

Failing to Follow Through with Promised Work

Artists who make promises to clients, galleries, or supporters and fail to deliver on these commitments risk damaging their credibility and trustworthiness. Failing to produce work on time or not delivering on the quality required can lead to:

Loss of trust from clients and future buyers. Reputational damage that can hinder future sales and opportunities. Decreased faith from galleries and collaborators, potentially ending collaborative endeavors.

Consistency in delivering on promises is key to maintaining a positive professional reputation and ensuring long-term success in the art world.

Behaving as an über Diva

Exhibiting behaviors that many in the art world consider unacceptable can quickly erode an artist’s standing. These behaviors can include:

Insulting other artists. Being overly demanding or entitled in negotiations and collaborations. Showboating or seeking personal attention at the expense of other artists or the work.

Such behavior can alienate peers, art critics, curators, and potential buyers, leading to a negative public image and loss of job opportunities. The art world is often a tight-knit community, and negative interactions can have far-reaching consequences.

Insulting Other Artists, Gallerists, Museum People

Verbal or written insults, whether they are directed towards other artists, gallerists, museum professionals, or anyone else in the art community, can quickly tarnish an artist’s reputation and credibility. Such incidents often make news and can be spread quickly via social media, further damaging an artist’s image:

Loss of respect from colleagues and industry professionals. Misplaced social media posts or tweets that can be detrimental to future collaborations and opportunities. Damage to relationships with galleries, who often rely on artists maintaining good public relations to secure future exhibitions.

Humility and respect go a long way in the art world, and failing to demonstrate these qualities can have lasting negative impacts on an artist’s career.

Not Producing Work

The most basic factor in an artist's career is their creative output. Producing new work is essential to maintaining interest and relevance in the eyes of collectors, galleries, and art critics:

Consistent creation shows a commitment to their art and inspires confidence in collectors. Galleries often expect regular contributions to maintain the artist's profile. Without new work, an artist’s visual language and message may become stale, leading to a decline in interest.

Artists who do not produce work struggle to keep their relevance, and galleries and collectors may eventually turn to other emerging artists who are more active and prolific.

Conclusion

While these behaviors can easily and significantly damage an artist's career, the good news is that many of these issues can be addressed and reversed with effort and self-reflection. Artists who take steps to improve their professional integrity, build relationships, and produce high-quality work can often regain their footing and continue to succeed in the competitive world of art.