Richard Monro

Almost every year I do a survey of art pricing to determine how my art should be priced. Over the years that I have been doing this, I have discovered that art prices have a common denominator that holds true regardless of the type of art being sold. Portrait, figurative, landscape, abstract and virtually any other category of art is (knowingly or unwittingly) priced by the square inch. The range of prices per square inch tends to reflect the quality of the art and in the higher price ranges an artist’s reputation.

My survey is now limited to the Southwest galleries as I have also found that this pricing holds true in all of the major art markets such as New York, Santa Fe, San Francisco, etc..
The survey is also limited to legitimate fine art that any of us would recognize as accomplished and respectable. The latest survey is comprised of 141 individual pieces of all realistic categories from more than 120 artists. Here are the results:

Quartile Pricing Ranges
25% of artists priced their work at $8.50 or less per square inch.
25% priced between $8.51 and $12.15 per square inch
25% priced between $12.16 and $18.23 per square inch
25% priced between $18.24 and $58.00 per square inch

The median price as noted was $12.15 and the average of the lot was $14.75

What does this analysis show?

Those artists priced in the lower quartile (less than $8.50 per square inch) either are inexperienced with the business of art pricing or lack the confidence to price higher. One gallery owner said that he tried convincing one artist (who appeared to me to be way under priced for the quality of the art produced) to double his price because the owner could easily move all his art at the higher price. The artist refused because he lacked confidence to price higher.

Artists in the upper quartile (prices greater than $18.24 per square inch) are in most cases well established artists with known reputations in the collecting community. What is equally interesting is that there are a few artists in this group who are relatively new but who have the guts to price higher AND THIR ART IS SELLING!

Where should most of us pick our price point? It should be around the median range of $12.15 per square inch. Stronger pieces would be priced higher toward the $18.25 end while weaker pieces would sell downward toward the $8.51 end of the range.

Additional information to help in pricing:

1) The above information is for gallery pricing. Anyone already in galleries MUST MAINTAIN GALLERY PRICING to avoid undercutting the established pricing range for your art. (It also avoids really angering gallery owners.) Gallery pricing is shown as the list price for which a 40 to 50% commission must be paid. Our take home money will therefore be 50 or 60% of the list price.

2) Art Expo pricing usually carries a much lower commission such as 20%. Therefore pricing in these forums should be 72% of the median price for gallery pricing, (UNLESS WE ARE ALREADY SELLING THROUGH A GALLERY. See number 1 above for reason.) Our take home pay is still the same compared to a gallery sale.

3) Street sales and private commissions can be sold at 50 to 60% of gallery pricing. (UNLESS WE ARE ALREADY SELLING THROUGH A GALLERY. See number 1 above for reason.). Again our take home pay is the same compared to a gallery sale.

Usually we will only be selling through one of the above art markets. However, if we are in a gallery and selling through any other market such as commission work, don’t break rule number 1.

Hope this helps all who are struggling with pricing their art. Be bold in your pricing. At least be in the middle of the pack or above.

Michele Rushworth

This is fascinating, Richard. Thanks for posting it.

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Michele Rushworth
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Claudemir Bonfim

Very nice research Richard, thanks for sharing.

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Bonfim
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Garth Herrick

Thanks Richard for your research. I should adjust some prices now.

Garth

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Richard Monro

Garth,
Based on my observations of the market, you should be in the upper quartile. i know that is a rarefied zone to be in, but your work is certainly worthy of that placement.

Tony Pro
i hope you see this posting as some of the work you have at the Heritage Gallery is in my list. Great Stuff!

Mary Smith

Thank you so much for posting this Richard.

I, unfortunately, fall in the category of the artist described that was scared to raise his prices. I'm coming around slowly though.

Enzie Shahmiri

Richard,

This information is great and I thank you as well for sharing it with us. Have you observed what the trend is for charging for additional people in a portrait and weather or not pet portraits command the same per square inch ?

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Enzie Shahmiri
Professional Portrait Artist
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Richard Monro

Enzie,
When i first started this statistical market analysis many years ago, i tried many different ways of analyzing the raw data. The amazing conclusion of the analysis is that art pricing displays a direct correlation to price per square inch regardless of the subject matter. There is also a direct correlation to perceived reputation but virtually no correlation to any other factors.

Now to answer your questions:
1) With portraits or figurative art there seems to be a 10 to 20% boost in price for each additional figure. However, this is not a hard and fast rule. Some artists don't show any price change.

2) Animal or pet art commands the same price as all other types of art.

Michele Rushworth

You can get further information about portrait pricing by looking at the work of the many artists on the SOG site.

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Michele Rushworth
www.michelerushworth.com
mdrushworth@comcast.net

Alexandra Tyng

Thanks for posting this, Richard. It's very clearly stated and makes a lot of sense no matter how you sell work, whether you are in a gallery or not.

My work is in three galleries, and in addition to that, I often have shows in other venues. Things get a little complicated. Usually the gallery is willing to split their commission. In this kind of situation I never expect to get more than 50%, my usual commission, if it is piece that was in a gallery to begin with. If you are honest and make sure the gallery gets their part of the commission even if it is a piece that the gallery sent back because it wasn't sold, it helps promote good artist-gallery relations. I never sell anything or negotiate without consulting the manager of my primary gallery.

I'd be interested to hear how others manage this sort of situation.