I've been dealing with a situation over the past few days which has upset and disappointed me, and on top of that has taken a reasonable amount of my time to deal with (which, as I'm working to deadlines, is very precious at the moment). I thought long and hard about writing this blog, but I always strive to be honest about my life and to share with you some of the bad times as well as the good.
It's a situation I've never really had to deal with before and as I don't feel it's right to broadcast every detail over the internet, I am not going to be including any names in this blog post, so the people in question will remain anonymous. Maybe some of you will have experienced a similar problem. If so, I would love to hear from you. For others, it may demonstate that being a self-employed artist is certainly not easy sometimes, and that you will come across situations and problems that you perhaps didn't expect.
The Problem
Recently, I sent some work to a gallery I hadn't exhibited with before. They seemed very nice, the gallery itself looked lovely and the other work they exhibit is of a very high standard. It seemed like a great opportunity. To cut a long story short (and to stop myself from going into too much detail), the gallery in question returned some unsold work to me last week.
As I unpacked the box, my heart sank. The paintings were wrapped very badly - two were wrapped so incredibly tightly and pushed up against each other inside the box, causing the canvas on both pieces to be covered in large indentations, and it had also become very slack. I had delivered these paintings in perfect condition and so to see them in this state was upsetting, to say the least. The other two paintings were left to rattle around in the box against each other without any bubblewrap around them whatsoever, just a couple of rolled up pieces to stop them from touching the edges of the box. These two paintings hadn't suffered any indentations to the canvas, but three out of the total of four paintings had also become marked and scuffed across their surfaces while in the care of the gallery.
To say that I was astounded that such a respectable gallery would return work to me in this condition is an understatement. I was close to tears as I unpacked the paintings, and immediately set to work trying to repair the damage and make them perfect again - in other words, in the condition they had been delivered to the gallery in.
It was obvious that the indentations weren't going to come out naturally, so I used a little trick I know [if you don't know this, it may be useful to you] and used a clean, wet cloth to thoroughly dampen the back of each canvas with cold water. The canvases were wiped all over and left to dry naturally over the course of a few hours. Fortunately, this removed all of the indentations and made the canvases taut again rather than slack. So that was one problem solved! I was then able to wipe some of the scuff marks off the paintings with a damp cloth, but there were several small areas where the paint had been rubbed off or marked so much that it required re-painting instead. So I also spent several hours mixing up exactly the right shade of paint for each painting and touching up the areas I needed to.
I would like to make it clear that all of the damage was, thankfully, repairable. The paintings are now perfect again and I've made sure that they are in their original condition. Each one has now been wrapped carefully, and I can only say that I'm glad they're with me again, safely stored in my studio. At least I know they're not going to get damaged here. However, it took literally HOURS of my time to deal with this problem.
What surprised me even more than the state of the paintings was the gallery's reaction to the problem...
The Reaction from the Gallery
I felt so upset on the day I received the paintings that I spoke to my boyfriend first about the situation before contacting the gallery. He was as incensed and disappointed as I was, and we talked about what I should do. I decided to wait 24 hours before getting in touch with them as I wanted to feel a little calmer before discussing it with them.
The following day (Friday) I sent an email, explaining as reasonably as I could what had happened. I didn't get angry - I just told them the facts of the situation and that I was shocked to receive my work in this condition. I expected an email at some point during the afternoon, as whenever I've had any issues at all with galleries before (and I've exhibited with many over several years), they've always contacted me almost immediately to try to sort out the issue, and are invariably very apologetic and helpful if anything has gone wrong.
So I waited.
And waited.
Skip forward to Wednesday morning (yes, this morning) and I still hadn't heard anything from them. Five days had passed without even an acknowledgment of the email. So I sent another quick email asking whether they had received the first one.
This time I got a short reply, basically saying that because there were no images of the damage attached to the email that they "couldn't assess the problem".
Fair enough regarding the images, but if they wanted images why didn't they contact me as soon as they heard there was a problem and request some? Even without images, I'm trying to imagine in what type of situation is it acceptable to ignore an email telling you that some paintings you have personally packaged up and sent have been damaged? And also, at the most basic level, not to email in return to ask any further questions or even to send an apology?
It's actually this part that I can't understand. My disappointment with the treatment of my work aside, the very least I expected was an apology or some indication of where we go from here. A wall of silence is something I totally didn't expect from a gallery of this standing, and when they finally do reply (after being nudged into it), I didn't even receive an apology! Not once was the word 'sorry' mentioned in their email and it seemed that all they wanted to do was pass the blame on to me in various ways, or give excuses as to why they couldn't do anything about it.
I didn't want compensation, and as you can see I repaired the work myself as soon as I could. What I did want was enough respect for me and my work for the gallery to actually seem to care about what had happened and to apologise for it. If a similar situation occurred with one of my buyers, I would contact them immediately, assume responsibility, apologise and correct any mistake or damage. When I expressed surprise in my third email that they didn't even think that it was the right thing to contact me to apologise, or to request photographs, I finally received what amounts to a reluctant apology but little else.
I have decided to stop showing my work with the gallery in question, and I wouldn't even be writing about this now if the same situation had occurred but their response had been different. If they show such a lack of respect to the work in their care and indeed to the artists who show with them, then I wonder what real respect they have for their clients. I would hate to think that work purchased from them would arrive at a buyers house in a damaged condition, and from the evidence I've seen I couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't. I don't want to be associated with a gallery like that.
I'm fortunate to have the support of several other galleries who have never treated me, or my work, in this way and I will continue happily exhibiting with them, while looking for another gallery I feel I can have a good and respectful relationship with.
I guess the moral to this tale is that not every great opportunity turns out to be so great after all. It's a real shame, but I feel relieved to have discovered this sooner rather than later.
