Today, there are many online means of promoting and selling artwork,
and many collectors go online before they head to their nearest gallery.
by Daniel Grant
It
is not uncommon for successful artists to have assistants, but there is
no uniform job description for them. An artist’s business involves
billing, bookkeeping, photographic documentation, recordkeeping, sales,
promotion and marketing, shipping, inventory, website development,
grant writing, purchasing office and art supplies, as well as the
design and production of items to be sold. In some or all of these
realms, assistants may be needed.
Artist Susan Schwalb has been attempting to keep a computer
inventory of every work of art she has created as a
professional—including title, medium, dimensions, framing, signature,
exhibitions, sale information, and current location, as well as an
image. “I’m creating my own catalogue raisonné, which may be very
useful in planning exhibitions,” she says. Because of her relative lack
of computer knowledge, however, Schwalb has chosen to hire assistants
to help her with this task. In addition to the computer work, Schwalb’s
assistants have helped frame her canvases and crate them for shipping,
but she hasn’t had them work on the surfaces of her paintings. Other
artists, however, require assistants to have advanced degrees or to
demonstrate competence at painting because they work directly on the
artists’ canvases.
There are various benefits to working as an artist’s assistant, but
for most the chief attraction is the potential entrée to the
professional art world that it offers younger artists. Schwalb’s
assistants learn how to organize a career; others might share in the
artistic process; all assistants have the opportunity to meet the
people who come into the studio (collectors, critics, curators,
dealers, and other artists). And while conversations with visitors
rarely result in the exhibition and sale of their work, the assistants
do learn something about the business of art.
On the down side, the pay isn’t good and job benefits like
healthcare are nonexistent. Assistants don’t receive credit for
contributing to the artist’s work, and those with bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in art may find it demeaning to sweep the floor or
fetch the mail. A studio assistant’s tenure ranges from a few months to
a few years, depending on what the artist needs and how long someone is
willing to work in a role in which promotions, raises, and industry
recognition are unlikely to occur.
“Tom wants the highest skills for the lowest wage,” says Liz Ensz,
who worked for sculptor Tom Sachs for one year (starting at $15 per
hour, ending at $17 per hour), creating various components for a lunar
module installation based on photographs provided by the artist.
Although working for Sachs provided interesting rewards—such as the
opportunity to perform as an astronaut in his demonstration of the
lunar landing—when Sachs’ artwork was exhibited at the Gagosian
Gallery, in Los Angeles, in 2007, Ensz and the other assistants came to
the opening but all the applause was for Sachs. Although this can be
disheartening for some, Ensz was not offended. “I don’t feel weird
about that at all,” she says. “I’m actually grateful for the
experience. I learned more in Tom’s studio than I did in art school.”
Even if you don’t mind not getting credit, the studio assistant’s
job can prove difficult for an aspiring artist. “It ends up becoming
your whole life; it just consumes you,” says Claire Taylor, who worked
for sculptor Tara Donovan for nine months, helping with a large project
the artist was developing. “It is very hard after eight hours of
constant labor in another artist’s studio to come home and push
yourself to do your own work.”
There are a variety of ways to find out if an artist needs an
assistant. The artist’s principal dealer can be a good source of
information, and other artists often know which studios are more likely
to hire assistants, perhaps offering a reference or an introduction.
Some advertise jobs on the New York Foundation for the Arts website or
on Craigslist.com. Artists sometimes contact art schools when they need
help, and these institutions may arrange internships and assistantships
for current students and alumni. As Katharine Schutta, the assistant
dean and director of career development at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago, notes, “During an interview it’s important that
you know and express excitement about the artist’s work, as well as
bring up the skills you have to offer.”
On occasion, a studio assistant learns something that leads to an
unexpected career. Carmella Saraceno, for example, discovered her real
calling while working with sculptor Alice Aycock. Having heard that
Aycock needed a sculpture unloaded from a truck, she spent the day at
the artist’s Manhattan studio, directing the process of maneuvering
large-scale pieces in and out of the freight elevator. “At the end of
the day Alice asked me to work for her,” Saraceno recalls.
The work was varied, to say the least. “I answered the phone, went
to the bank, and moved the car before it was towed,” she says. More
importantly, she ordered materials, coordinated crews, and figured out
how to put together and install the public sculptures for which Aycock
provided designs. In 1990 Saraceno started her own business in Chicago,
called Methods & Materials, which helps artists, art galleries,
corporations, museums, and public-arts agencies assemble, install,
deinstall, and relocate large-scale artworks. Her business currently
employs nine artists, who are afforded health insurance and 401(k)
pension plans. “Now my job is managing a team of experts who figure out
solutions for all types of three-dimensional installations,” she says.
And she wouldn’t be doing it if she hadn’t been an artist’s assistant.