The factors that support the architecture of the art market are many and complex. The value of art is determined by the relationship between culture and economics. Even the meaning of the value of a work is subject to interpretation depending on the relationships and understanding between the players (artists, dealers, galleries).
Although the theoretical ideas were interesting, they were much harder to concretely define and so the aspects of the physical differences between rooms and types of galleries are what attracted my attention the most. I was fascinated by the differences between the traditional and contemporary (or avant-garde) galleries in terms of their décor as well as their differing approaches to selling art.
The reading represents avant-garde versus traditional as being equivalent to taste with financial power versus financial power lacking taste. Surely this is not always the case but is a very interesting evaluation/judgment. The well lit, spare, bare floor minimalist style of contemporary galleries (at least in the front room), or "white cube" is a direct contrast to the dimly lit, furnished, and carpeted traditional galleries. Price is not displayed and money is not spoken of in the front room of the contemporary gallery while in the traditional gallery prices are often displayed and the overall experience is much more similar to other forms of retail. While it is impossible to separate art and commerce, contemporary galleries attempt to define a separation whether or not this is only symbolic.
Contemporary (avant-garde) gallery Traditional gallery
The contrast between primary and secondary art selling is also very interesting. Primary sales are more respectable than secondary, and the art is expected to sell itself in a sort of waiting game whereas secondary employs a much more active style of marketing and selling. Pricing has become a ranking device for artist, and the economic value of a work is very dependent on cultural and social beliefs and interactions. Dealers seem not only interested in the monetary side (although many all together deny any interest in it at all), but also in shaping the history of art by supporting famous artists and their work and in turn gaining a long-lasting reputation and renown for themselves (like the patrons of Renaissance art commissions).
Although dealers, galleries, and artists may deny it, art is definitely a business. It is a business that is carried out in a manner perhaps unlike any other in the way that it combines influences, relationships, and other factors specific to it in order to shape the monetary, cultural, and symbolic values of art. There is much emphasis on buying art for the right reasons and sales being "good matches" between a work of art and a patron, but the purchase of art for whatever reason affects the current and future value and history of the work and all parties involved are acutely aware of this. Art and money are inextricably linked whether visibly or not.