Buying and Selling Art: Control Mechanisms during Interaction

In using the Bakhtinian dialogic approach, this paper examines the microscopic interaction of three artists, two art buyers and one gallery sales executive in Singapore. The importance of galleries, as go-betweens for artists and art buyers is acknowledged in art world research. This paper however looks at the interactional levels and identifies social mechanisms that shape art buying and selling behavior. Despite the possibility of skipping galleries in acquiring art, the commercial art gallery absorbs the “emotional costs” of buying and selling art. Commercial art galleries create and maintain glamourized image of the artist; this image can be destroyed when art buyers go back stage and visit the artist. The clashes of expectations and social contexts when artists and art buyers transact can be avoided when the transaction is done through the commercial gallery.