Anybody got some spare change?

Howdy!

In reading today's Le Devoir, Frederique Doyon writes about how commercial galleries in town are crying poverty. Specifically she quotes Elena Lee, Frederic Brown, and Eric Devlin. Well, I'm glad to read that the Canada Council gave Ms. Lee and Mr. Devlin $10,000 each, and that the city gave Mr. Devlin another $37,700 via the organization of which he is president the Association des galeries d'art contemporain. Then, as Ms. Doyon quotes some figures from Tourism Quebec I am fairly certain that they would've kicked in some funding as well.

Now, there's nothing wrong with getting cash from the government (full disclosure: Zeke's Gallery is line to get a cool $5K from the same Canada Council program as Mr. Devlin and Ms. Lee) but then complaining to the press? C'mon! What about spending some time hustling?

On the web site for Eric Devlin's Gallery he lists the following artists: Andre-Pierre Arnal, Louis-Pierre Bougie, John Brown, Michele Delisle, Richard Deschenes, Oliver Dorfer, Marbod Fritsch, Francois Jeune, Sophie Lanctot, Francois-Xavier Marange, Jean-Marie Martin, Guido Molinari, Marc-Antoine Nadeau, Dominique Paul, Denis Pellerin, Leopold Plotek, Thibaut de Reimpré, Martin-Muller Reinhart, Marcel Saint-Pierre, Horacio Sapere, Francine Simonin, Marc-Andre Soucy, and Ariane Theze.

Now here's the same list with price ranges for their art (where I could find 'em):
Andre-Pierre Arnal, $8K to $15K
Michele Delisle, $3K to $5K
Oliver Dorfer, $4K to $6K
Marbod Fritsch, $2.5K
Francois Jeune, $1,500
Sophie Lanctot, $4K to $5K
Francois-Xavier Marange, $1,700 to $5K
Jean-Marie Martin, $2.5 to $5.5
Marc-Antoine Nadeau, $3.5K to $11.5K
Martin-Muller Reinhart, $900 to $3.5K
Marcel Saint-Pierre, $4.5K to $40K
Marc-Andre Soucy, $1.3K to $5K

Now there's an auction of Important Canadian Art being done by Sotheby's in Association with Ritchies in Toronto at the end of the month.

Some of the pre-auction estimates:
A.Y. Jackson - $3K to $4K
Armand Tatossian - $4.5K to $5.5K
Claude Tousignant - $4K to $6K
Rita Letendre - $2.5K to $3.5K
Marc-Aurele De Foy Suzor-Cote - $2.5K to $3.5K
Tony Scherman - $4K to $6K

Now to be fair, I am comparing apples to oranges. The media ain't the same, in the selection from the auction, I'm picking smaller pieces. But as Health Canada says, you gotta eat 5 to 10 servings of fruit and vegetables every day. But, my point is this; if "important" Canadian Art by artists who are in museums is available for chump change, then how is Mr. Devlin gonna convince the heathens that they should pay more for artists who aren't "important?" My guess is that his business model needs to be fixed if he is complaining about not making enough money.

Then, just so I can get it off my "to-do" list. Today is a significant day! Quebecor (Le Journal de Montréal and TVA) actually had an article about Art on their website. Unfortunately it wasn't about un gars de chez nous, it was about an Alan Goldsworthy installation at the Met in NYC. Looks like somebody else needed to rationalize their trip to the Big Apple (can't forget them fruits!).