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Five years ago yesterday, Jen Bekman founded 20x200 on the belief that everyone should be able to collect art, and that the internet could help them do so. While neither the oldest nor the biggest place to buy prints online (art.com has been peddling prints for over a decade), her curated site, along with several other upstarts, represent a rapidly changing attitude and approach towards how art is marketed, bought and sold, a domain that Bekman says has lagged behind in its adoption of online retailing.
"Art as a business category remains one of the few industries that has largely been undisrupted by technology," says Bekman. "Now, a lot more people are comfortable both collecting art in general and also collecting art online, because of what we've done over the last several years."
Selling carefully selected prints at standardized prices — $24 for an 8x10, $1,200 for a 24x30, etc. — and introducing art to consumers who are new to the scene not only helped 20x200 push the industry, it helped the site grow at a respectable pace. It now has venture funding and almost 20 employees.
"We want everyone to buy art, that's sort of been the mission of the business since the start," she says, calling the smaller prints the "gateway drug of the art world." And with 180,000 pieces sold over the past five years, Bekman has done a good job giving plenty of newcomers a taste.
But 20x200 is far from alone. Art shopping sites have sprung up from galleries and grown out of sites designed for other purposes, like Etsy and Behance and, of course, Kickstarter.
Art on Etsy is a little different than 20x200; it's not curated. Artists sell their own art, with little interference from — and little commission taken by — the site itself. In this way, Etsy offers an even more free-market approach, says Matt Stinchcomb, vice president of brand and social responsibility.
"What you're seeing is a new model," Stinchcomb says. "Instead of having to go out there with your slides and try to get representation from a gallery ... you can go direct to consumers via the web."
But he agrees with Bekman that the online model has been slow in arriving.
"There's been major disruptions in so many other industries, in the music industry, in the publishing industry," he says, before forecasting the next segments due for an online overhaul. "I think soon in the book world, soon in education. But I think soon also in the art industry."
These internet art sellers have helped create opportunities, both for vendors and consumers. Artists are building brands and flexing their business savvy. And consumers benefit as the price comes down.
"It's less about brand name and more about personal style," Stinchcomb says. "When you look at Etsy and 20x200 and these other sites, it's creating opportunities for the collector who doesn't have $5,000 or $20,000 or $50,000 to spend, but wants to amass an art collection."
Online art sellers have also started combining some of their old-world methods with tactics gleaned from more successful e-commerce sites. They offer original art (not just prints), they host in-real-life shows, and they also experiment. Art.sy is playing with an algorithm to help curators match art to collectors based on interest — kind of like Pandora does for music — and 20x200's 16-Hour-Steal has introduced fine art to the deal-a-day flash sale concept.
Another online gallery, Tiny Showcase, offers only small-size prints to help keep prices down. Tiny Showcase's co-founder Shea'la Finch feels that the increase in access provided by the internet means more people can peruse galleries, privately, and see a greater breadth of content. But there's a flipside.
"Online dealers have new concerns," wrote Finch in an email. "The increase in access means an increase in supply. The most present concern on my mind is how to ensure Tiny Showcase continues to stand apart from the rest."
Whereas Tiny Showcase sells solely online, 20x200 is still associated with Bekman's physical gallery in New York City. It's important to retain a real-life community, where collectors can meet artists and see prints in person, Bekman says.
"It's not as straightforward as selling a camera or a television," she says. "It's more about a relationship, and it's more about helping people get comfortable before they potentially make a purchasing decision."
The other part of the relationship is the artists, and the new ways to sell art online has affected them as well. Brea Sounders, whose first work on 20x200 was released about a week ago, also sells through Uprise Art, a subscription-based, members only club where your $50 monthly fee goes toward paying off a piece of art.
"I personally feel empowered by it," she says, of selling online. "It helps artists support themselves and make a living, and reach a much broader audience."
But with so much art, it can be hard to tell what's good, she adds.
"I think that the downside is that we're all a bit oversaturated with images, in general, and sometimes it's difficult to tell who's serious and who isn't."
