There is a scene in the tv show Billions (season 5, episode 8) that I find both hilarious and, quite frankly, infuriating:

Three insufferable fund managers try to humiliate an artist who is dating one of their colleagues. They hover around and interrupt him while he’s measuring space for a commissioned mural at Axe Capital - 

“Do you own any art?” asks one smug banker to the other, while pointing dismissively in the general direction of the artist.

“I have a hand painted production cel from the movie Tron. With the young Bridges, not -.”

“Obviously,” the first banker handwaves the explanation. “I meant as an investment.” 

“Not yet, but I’ll start acquiring in the next 12 to 18 months.” 

The artist is rather miffed by this point and interjects, “Yeah? What do you like?”

“Ha, no f’ing idea. I don’t know anything about the underlying commodity.”

His colleague looks at him smugly. “You don’t need to. Just that it can go up in value.”

The banker nods. “It’s speculation. With an option for manipulation. I guess it isn’t different from any other asset we sell here.”

This is, of course, hilarious because art is NOT a commodity, and if you try to market and sell it like a commodity you will very quickly go bankrupt. 

And that’s actually why strategies that marketing experts typically use to market other products online (even high-end, luxury products) almost invariably backfire when you apply them to art.

So what strategies DO work?

Come join me on Monday, Nov 11 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time and find out. 

I’m teaching a free workshop called “Selling Online Like a Creative Genius”, and I will share my best tips from interviewing over 1000 artists, dealers, and heavyweight gallerists for Yale University Radio.

Here is my promise to you:

You will walk out of this training knowing exactly what it takes to make a sale and how some of the top artists are doing it today so that you can start generating sales online and build a base of collectors in the next 12 months.

If want to sell a painting a day, on autopilot, without leaving your studio... then click the link below to save your spot:

>>> You can register for the workshop here (just click the link, no opt in required) <<<

Courtesy reminder: You have less than 24 hours left to claim your free spot on this workshop. For full transparency: We currently have more people registered than space available in the live session. I suggest registering at the link above, and getting on at least 10 minutes early to secure your seat.

The webinar will only be recorded for artists that register, so click the link above even if you can’t make it to the live session. 

See you there!

Brainard

.

PS: You will be pleased to know that the artist gets his revenge an hour later by selling a worthless doodle to each of them for $3200 a piece…

… which goes to show that those fancy fund managers did not, in fact, understand what makes valuable art, or how the art market actually functions.