Career: I'm an artist - how will I be discovered?

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Photo: Niels Blaesi / DER SPIEGEL

Maja, painter, 45 years old, asks: »After my training at a well-known art academy, things are going so-so, for years I have been able to make a living from my paintings rather poorly.

Everyone here in my small hometown knows me, exhibiting in cafes, participating in community art activities.

Unfortunately there is no gallery here.

who discovers me

One thing is certain: the career tips that you otherwise present here do not apply to me.

Different rules apply to art.

What can I do but hope?”

Dear Maya,

this romantic notion, "One day they will see how good I am," persists.

It is an omnipotence fantasy that has nothing to do with reality.

Your subconscious says: "Until I'm discovered, I can stay in my comfort zone." Being an artist is a calling and only becomes a profession when you meet the requirements that come with a job – otherwise it remains a hobby.

Your great talent, your work, that's the basis, nothing more.

Achieving excellence and making a career are two completely different systems.

Successful artists have understood this.

From Michelangelo to Frida Kahlo to Yayoi Kusama, successful artists draw attention to themselves, sometimes for decades.

They spend more than half of their time doing this – more like 70 percent.

The sudden discovery never happened, they always gave everything to win over people who would take note of them, recommend them, and support them.

Not once, not twice, constantly, so that years later they are "discovered" as if by chance.

In art it is like in any other professional field: Our evaluations of hundreds of conversations with very successful people result in the same as those of success researchers like Albert-László Barabási or scientists who deal with the emergence of influence, like Dacher Keltner.

These are principles that apply to every career in every discipline, but which sometimes sound implausible to those who are not yet successful.

How should I act?

“I don't know anyone who acts like that” – maybe that's the problem.

For you as an artist in the art market, a global industry, these are your tasks if you want to be successful:

Keep getting better

Learn from the best

Visit master classes, get close to successful artists.

Instead of giving painting courses that make you feel better than others - than the hobby painters - apply for calls for applications and scholarships.

The highest demands are just high enough.

Be part of it

Be there where many successful artists, art lovers, collectors, journalists, etc. are: in galleries, at museum events, vernissages, at art initiatives or in art associations.

Admire, promote, recommend and celebrate successful artists, buyers, patrons, gallerists because you need many warm connections with the most influential.

This is the only reason why you receive inquiries, invitations and recommendations.

Please leave.

In the art market, many people need to know about you in order to get your career moving.

Do you sell

Many freelancers and artists would like to hide this aspect.

You are also responsible for sales.

A lot of people need to see your pictures before they buy one.

Very few people buy serious modern art for serious money, and even fewer buy purposefully.

In your small hometown is that maybe 10, 20, 30 people?

Move to an art metropolis.

Where there is a lot of art, a lot of art is bought.

Be visible

Showcase your art on Instagram and on your website.

Continuously updated.

Publicly like and positively comment on the work of others.

It's not easy, because you want to be known yourself... but that's how it works.

post is not enough.

Your abundance takes you further

You hardly have any money, no encouragement, only your mother, father and little sister believe in you?

It's tough, but feelings of lack don't make anyone successful.

Cultivate your eye for how other people are promoting you and your art and how positively they are speaking about you.

You register every little attention, it can even be in the form of a negative decision, which may contain a hidden but valuable tip for you.

The most shabbily treated people by artists are gallerists and journalists who gave them a chance or reported on them – it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t worded right, the hanging was wrong, the printing too…

Instead: They show themselves in abundance.

Those who support you will receive gifts.

With a nice picture, not of the rest ramp, but one that you are particularly proud of.

You cultivate your abundance because you have your art.

They woo gallery owners, they don't stalk you, and they don't inundate you with requests and requests.

They speak positively about the art that is on display there.

All the people who have sponsored or recommended you, who have bought something, are invited to a studio party and treated to appreciation, likes, and greetings cards.

Dear Maja, if you study from now on how artists became known and successful - then look at the underlying dynamics and you will see: It is hard work to appear, to cultivate connections, to value others.

Do the same.

Don't live below your means.

Unleash your potential.