A recent article in the New York times titled “Keith Haring’s Legacy Is Not Found at the Museum” got me thinking about the link between art and commerce.

I was living in New York during the 80’s when Haring’s now iconic humanoid figures started appearing on the sidewalks all over town. That was also the era when subway cars looked like your cousin’s tattoo sleeve gone wild.

I soon learned a lot more about Haring and his growing influence on the local 80's art scene, but what I didn’t know until now was the frustration he wrote about in his journal after visiting the Museum of Modern Art in 1988. He expressed his “sense of injustice” that contemporaries of his “were represented upstairs in the galleries, while he was confined to the lobby gift shop: ‘They have not even shown one of my pieces yet. In their eyes I don’t exist.’”

I began selling merchandise made from my art images last year. A lot of people told me it would devalue my art, but I see it from the opposite direction. Every piece I sell goes to live in someone’s home or closet and every time they use it, they are reminded of my art. 

My goal is to sell paintings. I work really hard to keep improving my skills and techniques and find new subject matter that people can relate to and/or find interesting. Since I’m just starting out, I realize it will take time to gain a reputation and a following among potential art buyers. Staying engaged with people who have seen my work is important.

Which gets me to the relationship between art and commerce. Are they really that different? Is it only “art” if it’s exclusive, expensive and unattainable? Isn’t a gallery really just a store where you buy art? Have to you been to a museum gift shop lately? Do you like your Van Gogh puzzle or your Picasso scarf? How about your Georgia O’Keefe calendar?

The hard fact is that in 2023, Sotheby’s posted art sales of $7.9 billion, almost a third of that total generated by luxury products 

In an editorial titled, In the Arts, Is It Breaking Big, or Selling Out? Frank Navari says, "The artists benefit financially (from selling branded merchandise) and raise their profiles, becoming known to wider and more global audiences. Yet depending on the frequency and the extent of the collaborations, there are credibility hazards: the risk of being perceived as selling out for money."    

On a related topic, Don Thompson, author of The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art puts it this way: “If you were to spend $25,000 on a handbag, your friends would consider it shocking and frivolous,” he said. “If you spent $25,000 on a work of art, you are a collector, you’re a patron of the arts.”                                                        

So, don't get me wrong, it would be great if you love my work enough to buy an original, but I’d also love it if you enjoy your morning coffee with my coffee mug.

Cheers.