IT was a motley group that gathered two months ago on, a wet Saturday afternoon in Dublin well heeled connoisseurs, collectors, critics, impecunious art lovers and generally gregarious types, who trailed through the streets on a gallery crawl. And, before you mutter "ah yes, anything for a free drink," be reassured that the conversation was well informed and focused on what these enthusiasts had come to see new work by contemporary artists.
The Irish Contemporary Art Gallery Association had organised its first Open Day, encouraging people to drop in, have a drink and ask as many questions as they liked about the work on the walls. The fact that the six private galleries in the recently formed association are all within strolling distance means that the event was only formalising what is already a custom for many Dubliners on Saturday afternoons.
All very nice and cosy, of course, but what happens on Monday mornings when the party's over? Who supports these small commercial galleries, how do they survive, and negotiate the line between the management, of a gallery as a resource for artists as well as a showcase for work that will attract buyers? Three of the more recently opened are the Rubicon, the Hallward and the Green on Red galleries which, together with the longer established Taylor, Kerlin and Solomon, form the association. At a time, in the late 1980s when buying art did not appear to be anybodys priority, it took a certain amount of chutzpah to venture into the business.
Youth and inexperience helped, according to 28 year old Josephine Kelliher, who with fellow business management graduate, Peter McKenna, took out a bank loan and opened the Rubicon Gallery in Mount Street in 1990. "Six months out of college, you aren't conscious of the risk, because you don't know the business and the complexity of it." Over five years later, in the gallery's new premises in St Stephen's Green, Kelliher, now the sole director, hosts about 17 shows per year.
"From the start we were very serious about what we did," she says. "We targeted people who are were important museum collectors, curators, critics. We selected artists who had credibility." Like Mary Tuohy, co director of the Hallward and Jerome O Drisceoil of the Green on Red, she is reluctant to be prescriptive, about the selection criteria of the gallery but talks about the importance of excellence in the work chosen. "Something that's good stands on its own it just sticks out a mile. It doesn't take a genius to spot it work that is less but has interest and originality? "Through the process of dialogue with the artist, you can often see that he or she is on a path. Obviously my instincts have evolved and the gallery is still evolving.
"It's not true that a gallery like ours shows safe work. The careers of most interesting artists begin in the private galleries where they are nurtured and Protected The integrity of the artist is what's important. Our investment in an artist is long term and informed collectors will buy idiosyncratic pieces by an artist whose work is developing."
Private collectors are the bread and butter of the gallery, she says, though she also targets corporate clients through an extensive mailing list, as well as through dinners held in the gallery to generate interest and to thank regular buyers for their support. Of course, it is extremely difficult to assess the effectiveness of this kind of promotional activity.
Mary Tuohy of the Hallward" Gallery is concerned about the recent decline in corporate spending on art. "A lot of the major corporate collections e.g the banks" are full, so we have to try and target smaller companies." She is all too aware of the risks attached to running a commercial gallery, having experienced the financial difficulties, with fellow director Brid Dukes of the River run Gallery and cafe in Dame Street, for which they are still paying off debts. With an average of 16 exhibitions a year in the Hallward, which is housed in a basement in Merrion Square, they concentrate on mounting solo shows for young, Irish artists regularly talent spotting at the art college degree shows.
"Brid and I have different tastes but we do agree on a certain standard. In general we don't favour installation work and the gallery space doesn't lend itself to it nor do we show decorative work. It has to be commercial, in the broadest sense.
"It's an extremely unpredictable market," she says. "While have a fairly regular number of buyers, who will refer friends and relatives to us, you can only sell so much to individuals. We are depending on companies. But visual arts education is so bad in this country that awareness of what's going on just does not seem to have reached these potential buyers.
For Jerome O Drisceoil, art historian, the hallmark of his Green on Red Gallery in Fitzwilliam Square is its commitment to "cutting edge work of the highest quality. Working with younger artists, you are always taking a risk. I have to strike a fine balance between my own pre formed, ideas and the impact of the work. I have a penchant for well formed work that challenges the more conventional notions of what an" art object is."
Having just returned from his" first art fair in London, where he was promoting the work of two of the gallery's artists, he sees the penetration of the international market as crucial to the gallery's development. The Rubicon is also keen to follow the Kerlin Gallery into the European arena, making the most of the current interest in Irish artists abroad, to which Kathy Prendergast's award at last year's Venice Biennale has contributed, as well as the reputation of IMMA and the general perception of Dublin as "a happening art scene". Mary Tuohy is conscious of the high costs of promoting artists abroad and the need to cultivate an international profile through advertising in art magazines, for example in order to break into that circuit.
IT'S a huge investment to go to one of the big fairs, Josephine Kelliher says, somewhere between £10,000 and £20,000." The Arts Council helps through the provision of its free Arts Flights, though Jerome O Drisceoil thinks that it could give a lot more assistance to the private galleries and that there should be more dialogue. In some cases the Arts Council also provides a publication grant directly to the artist, since the commercial galleries cannot afford to produce catalogues, which are becoming increasingly important as records of an artist's work, calling cards, and disseminators of the catalogue essays which often appear to be competing for attention with the art itself.
Mary Tuohy and Josephine Kelliher are both convinced that some kind of tax break to encourage corporate investment in contemporary art would be extremely beneficial. "We would be appealing to those with money to make an investment in culture," says Kelliher. Rather than seeking pots of money from the Arts Council, we should be trying to get investors to become involved, the way the film industry uses Section 35. The visual arts always' seem to be the poor cousin."
This is certainly not the most obvious route to financial reward. While these galleries take a commission of, on average, 40-50 per cent of sales of an artist's work, this is the sole source of income and must cover all the overheads. It's unglamorous, often physicals labour, hauling canvasses about and dealing with copious paperwork, the results of which are frequently intangible and at best long term.
For Oliver Dempsey, who has just opened Waterford's first commercial gallery, The Dyehouse, with his wife Elizabeth McCoy, the prime motivation is "to get art out into people's houses and get a good dialogue going. I'm more interested in making friends than making money." An architect in private practice, he has designed the gallery himself, as an extension to his house, which minimises the overheads.
"As a result we have kept our commission down to 25 per cent of sales and if we can get local companies to sponsor shows in the future, by paying for the opening night reception, for example, this would reduce the commission further."
"We're not parasites, you know," Mary Tuohy says, "What the commercial galleries are doing is essential to our visual culture, for the encouragement and continuing education of people, about art."
