Digital BW, The Print

The people who put prints in windows are your most important customers, they
are the art galleries where your work will be displayed and sold.  The
inability of gallery owners to display digital artwork because of the
humiliation of them fading right before everyone's eyes has led to severe
local marketing problems for digital artists.  Most students with digital
portfolios are now unable to even book coffeeshop shows in the art gallery
district.  
IMHO, the permanence issue is killing sales left and right.  Once the
customer has bought the art, permanence is the only issue.  can a gallery
owner afford to put your art in a quality frame job and have it turn brown
before they even get the bill for the framing?  From the customer's point of
view, is spending money on artwork a potential investment or a sure-fire
loss?  As an artist, is it acceptable to you for your work to be considered
disposable?

As far as marketing goes, the people who are making money with digital in
this area are the small print for $10-$25 crowd.  Business is very good for
them. If a digital print is priced at $10-$25 per print, galleries are
having no problem selling them, it is ok if they are made with disappearing
ink.   As far as large format prints go, there was a huge demand for them
last year, but that evaporated about five months ago.  I thought I was going
to have to close the archival printing part of my printing business, but
orders since then are back up to 2000 levels.  I attribute the 'comeback' in
archival fiber prints to be a reaction to a general fear of digital in the
marketplace.  Permanence is the only reason that digital is not doing better
as a medium in the marketplace today.  every disappointed customer will lead
to bad PR for digital artists every time the casual conversation turns to
art buying experiences.  It will be a long time before these buyers (or
their friends) get taken again.

Art gallery owners are loathe to have their reputation for integrity and
quality (which is their only real asset) hurt by digital art.  They are
better off selling sculpture, oil paintings, or archival fiber.  The way
things are going, that would be the most prudent choice for them to make
now. 

Tom Robinson

>> That's most interesting, as I have prints that are VERY faded...in fact,
>> every one that has been in the sun for more than a couple of weeks, has
>> severe fading.  Ones that haven't been in the direct sun, are "fine".
> 
> That's one of the points people are trying to make.  Who is going to
> display artwork in the direct sun and expect it not to fade!  I'm amazed
> that the ones I have in the window have only slightly warmed.  It's much
> better than I expected.