Saturday 24 January 2009

Planning an auction of work


This weekend we’re meeting to plan the auction that will take place at the Boo in Waterfoot in 3 weeks time. The idea is to combine giving an opportunity for Dave’s friends and colleagues to buy some of his work with raising money for the Dave Pearson Trust, which will look after his work and legacy.

John Spedding, one of Dave’s colleagues at Globe Art Studios will take the role of auctioneer. We need to work out the logistics of bidding and selling efficiently, as well as taking payments and giving receipts and such like. I’ve already selected about 60 pieces for the auction – a representative selection of prints, drawings and small paintings. The final choice will be to add another 10 or so pieces, probably slightly larger paintings, to make a really good range of work for the auction. We thought that 70 pieces would be enough, given that we don’t want the event to run longer than 90 minutes or so.

I’ll also be going over to the See Gallery to collect Dave’s paintings from their Christmas exhibition, which has now closed. Plus, I hope, a cheque for the work sold. Julian, from the See, telephoned last week to discuss the possibility of a small show of Dave’s work to coincide with the auction. It would be good to have an opportunity to see some of his larger pieces as well as the smaller work in the auction.

Thursday 15 January 2009

Jobs being done...


So, to summarise the main things we’ve done, or are doing, to help with the Estate:

a) Creating an inventory of Dave’s work. This is being done on Artlook software, and categorises every piece by its medium, gives a catalogue number, defines its condition and size, as well as including a photographic reference both as a thumbnail and a higher quality image. Of course, in the best of all worlds a painter would do something like this during their lifetime and bequeath their estate a catalogued inventory. I don’t think that happens very often.

b) Started the process of setting up a Trust. This means handing direct responsibility for the work to the Trust. The benefactor remains Dave’s son, but responsibility is shared by the trustees. This ensures a professional approach to managing the work and the process of protecting and advancing his reputation. There are a number of models for such Trusts and anybody interested in this approach should get legal advice.

c) I’ve created a websitehttp://www.dspearson.org/ – to show a selection of Dave’s work and contain some information about his life. This is not a place for selling the work, but a point of reference for anybody interested in finding out more.

d) We’re holding an auction of a selection of Dave’s work to raise money for the Trust. It’s mainly for Dave’s friends and colleagues, many of whom we believe would like to have a piece of his work. The money raised will pay for the website and domain name, for framing some of the work, and for helping with storage and the problems with the condition of the studio (see below).

e) Begun the process of writing a monograph on Dave’s life and work.

f) We’ve started looking at agents and galleries who could help us in this work. This is very much an on-going process.


Sunday 11 January 2009

Starting out...

Since Christmas we’ve formalised the agreement to set up the Dave Pearson Trust. Reading ‘Artists Estates: Reputations in Trust' by Magda Salvesen continues to be an inspiration. Several key things emerge in beginning the process of establishing an artist’s work. First, of course, it has to be genuinely interesting. Dave wasn’t well known – among his colleagues at Manchester University, at Globe Artist Studios, and among his students he had a wonderful reputation, but he never worked to interest dealers and galleries. As a result he died with the vast bulk of his work intact. This, surprisingly, is good news as there’s everything to play for.

Secondly dealers and galleries would prefer to deal with a Trust than with individual family members, as it legitimizes the process and militates against different heirs appearing with work for sale. Thirdly it’s vital to catalogue the work properly, so it’s managed well and, again, dealers can see a sense of order and discipline behind the estate management. Finally it’s useful to build up print and publications about the work.

Margaret has agreed to start preparing a monograph about Dave. Basically it means methodically tracing the development of the work, the influences, and what was going on around, and preparing it as a publication. Margaret estimates this will take her up to year to complete.

As for cataloguing the material I quickly discovered software that enables this to be done efficiently. There are several different packages on the market and I tried a few out. In the end I chose Artlook (http://www.artlooksoftware.com/) largely because it has been developed in the UK and thus its defaults are in £ rather than $, and is set up for a British tax regime. It’s very reasonably priced and the support seems very good. So far I’ve found it to be perfect for the job, and I’m really pleased that I discovered it before starting the process long-hand.

We’ve also been able to test things locally by exhibiting at the See Gallery http://www.seegallery.co.uk/, where Julian and Jackie have been very helpful. Their current mixed Christmas exhibition closes next weekend but we have, so far, sold several pieces by Dave.

Beginning the work

Since Christmas we’ve formalised the agreement to set up the Dave Pearson Trust. Reading ‘Artists Estates: Reputations in Trust' by Magda Salvesen continues to be an inspiration. Several key things emerge in beginning the process of establishing an artist’s work. First, of course, it has to be genuinely interesting. Dave wasn’t well known – among his colleagues at Manchester University, at Globe Artist Studios, and among his students he had a wonderful reputation, but he never worked to interest dealers and galleries. As a result he died with the vast bulk of his work intact. This, surprisingly, is good news as there’s everything to play for.

Secondly dealers and galleries would prefer to deal with a Trust than with individual family members, as it legitimizes the process and militates against different heirs appearing with work for sale. Thirdly it’s vital to catalogue the work properly, so it’s managed well and, again, dealers can see a sense of order and discipline behind the estate management. Finally it’s useful to build up print and publications about the work.

Margaret has agreed to start preparing a monograph about Dave. Basically it means methodically tracing the development of the work, the influences, and what was going on around, and preparing it as a publication. Margaret estimates this will take her up to year to complete.

As for cataloguing the material I quickly discovered software that enables this to be done efficiently. There are several different packages on the market and I tried a few out. In the end I chose Artlook (http://www.artlooksoftware.com/) largely because it has been developed in the UK and thus its defaults are in £ rather than $, and is set up for a British tax regime. It’s very reasonably priced and the support seems very good. So far I’ve found it to be perfect for the job, and I’m really pleased that I discovered it before starting the process long-hand.

We’ve also been able to test things locally by exhibiting at the See Gallery http://www.seegallery.co.uk/, where Julian and Jackie have been very helpful. Their current mixed Christmas exhibition closes next weekend but we have, so far, sold several pieces by Dave.

Background

Dave died July 19th last year. He left his estate to his son Chris (as his wife Grace had died early in 2008). The estate involved his house and studio and, of course, his artwork. In the will Dave asked me to help Chris deal with the artwork as Chris had very little knowledge of this area.

From the beginning Chris and I have been supported by a number of Dave's friends, in particular Margaret Mytton, who has been a close friend of Daves for over 30 years. Dave made meticulous plans for his funeral and memorial service but did almost no planning with regard to the future of his work. As a result it has been a steep learning curve for the three of us and in the process we've discovered a lot that I think may be of use to other artists and their heirs. As a result I thought it would be a good idea to follow this journey through a blog.

January 09
Since December things have moved on. I discovered a book 'Artists Estates: Reputations in Trust' by Magda Salvesen published in 2005 by Rutgers University Press (ISBN-10: 0813536049/ISBN-13: 978-0813536040). Although an American book it has a lot to say about the situation we found ourselves in, and its interviews with the heirs of artists were both reassuring and helped provide us with an understanding of the (enormous) job we had taken on.

By now Chris, Margaret and I were having regular meetings about the Estate. I felt it was important to put things on a business-like footing and proposed to Chris that he made the work over to a Trust, and that the three of us made up the trustees. The ultimate beneficiary would remain Chris, but the need to develop Dave's reputation and maintain his work were our prime objectives. Chris thought this over, and we eventually consulted a solicitor. Ultimately we all felt this was a sensible course, protecting both the work itself and also the input of physical work being undertaken by Margaret and myself. The Dave Pearson Trust should be set up early in February.

December 08
5 months ago, after the shock of Dave's death, the reality of dealing with his creative legacy sank in quickly. The studio, where most of his work was stored, was a mess. Dave hoarded almost everything he ever created - and not only artwork but magazines, books, even medications from his illness. The studio wasn't heated, although he had double-glazed the windows a few years ago.

Most of all the place was crammed with his work, largely haphazardly and spilling into the stairwells and corridors. There were three levels - each with 3 or 4 rooms. For my own sanity as much as anything I began a basic inventory - room by room, listing and counting all the work without much regard for detail beyond measuring and listing the media. Even this took 3 months of sustained work, and by the end of the period I had logged about 14,000 pieces - oil paintings, drawings, prints, pastels.

Once this inventory was completed we started clearing out the rubbish. We filled three large skips over three days. The bad news was finding a serious infestation of dry-rot which had spread from the cellar to the ground floor. Anything potentially infected was burned and the affected rooms were quarantined. But we realised immediately that this discovery meant that the studio had, soon, to be treated. This not only meant finding money we didn't have, it meant finding somewhere else to house Dave's work. All 14,000 pieces of it.