The gallery facing influence networks: when prescribers change

01The former model: institutional prescription

For decades, the mechanics of prescription in the contemporary art world followed a relatively predictable path. An artist would be spotted by an independent curator or an influential critic who wrote a text in a specialist journal. This text attracted the attention of a gallery owner who proposed a first exhibition. The success of this exhibition, measured by sales, attendance and critical coverage, could lead to an invitation to a biennial or fair, then to an acquisition by a museum or foundation. Each stage of this journey was validated by institutional actors whose legitimacy rested on their expertise, their network and their ability to build consensus within the professional milieu.

This model has not disappeared. Curators at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam continue to wield considerable influence over the market by including artists in their collections or exhibitions. Artistic directors of Documenta, the Venice Biennale and Manifesta launch careers and establish reputations. Art critics writing in Artforum, Frieze Magazine and Les Cahiers du Musee national d'art moderne continue to shape discourse on contemporary art and direct collector attention towards certain artists rather than others.

However, this vertical and institutional prescription circuit now coexists with parallel influence networks whose functioning obeys different logics and whose market impact has become impossible to ignore.

02Social media and new digital prescribers

The irruption of social media into the field of contemporary art has created a horizontal prescription layer that complements and sometimes competes with traditional institutional prescription. Instagram, despite recurring debates about the superficiality of the aesthetic experience it offers, has become a discovery and validation tool for millions of art enthusiasts worldwide. Accounts such as that of curator and critic Katy Hessel, whose project The Great Women Artists reached a considerable audience, demonstrate that social media can serve as legitimate and influential vectors of cultural prescription.

Artists themselves have become prescribers through the visibility their social media presence confers. An artist who shares a colleague's work with their followers exercises a form of peer recommendation that can reach a far wider audience than a review published in a specialist journal. Collectors who document their acquisitions on social media also play a prescribing role by making their choices visible to a circle of followers that can extend well beyond their immediate circle.

The gallery owner observing these dynamics must integrate them into their strategy without abandoning traditional prescription channels. Perrotin gallery understood early on the importance of social media and developed an online presence contributing to the reputation of its artists and the attractiveness of its programme among a young, connected audience. Almine Rech gallery also invested in sophisticated digital communication extending and amplifying the impact of its physical exhibitions. These examples show that the best-performing galleries are those combining institutional prescription and digital visibility without sacrificing one to the other.

03Collector-prescribers: growing influence

The influence of major collectors on the art market is not a new phenomenon. Charles Saatchi's purchases in the 1990s helped launch the Young British Artists movement, and the opening of the Pinault Foundation in Venice then Paris consecrated the artists represented in his collection. What is new, however, is the multiplication of collectors who wield public influence over the market, no longer solely through their acquisitions but through the communication they make around them.

Private foundations open to the public have multiplied across all European capitals. The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the Fondazione Prada in Milan, the Fondation Beyeler in Basel and the Fundacion Helga de Alvear in Caceres are all exhibition venues whose programming directs public and market attention towards the artists presented there. The gallery owner representing an artist whose work enters a collection of this calibre benefits from an institutional validation effect that translates directly into sales and rising market values.

Intermediate collectors, less visible than the big names but equally influential within their circle, play a recommendation-based prescription role often underestimated by gallery owners. A collector who recommends an artist to their professional network, lends works for an exhibition or invites friends to an opening exercises a discreet but effective influence that can prove decisive for an artist's career. The gallery owner who cultivates relationships with these intermediate collectors and mobilises them as ambassadors for their artists has access to a proximity prescription network of inestimable value.

04Independent curators and alternative platforms

The curatorial field has expanded considerably over the past two decades, with the emergence of independent curators whose influence operates outside traditional institutional circuits. These professionals, working freelance or within associative structures, organise exhibitions in alternative spaces, industrial wastelands, private apartments or public venues diverted from their primary function. Their work, often more experimental and more engaged than that of institutions, attracts a young and adventurous collector audience seeking artistic proposals beyond the beaten track.

Spaces such as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, which functions as a contemporary art centre without a permanent collection, and the Kunsthalle Zurich have demonstrated that the alternative curatorial model can achieve visibility and influence comparable to that of traditional museums. Curators programming these spaces are prescribers sought by gallery owners, as their selection is perceived as a guarantee of artistic quality independent of the market's commercial logics.

The gallery owner maintaining regular relationships with these independent curators and facilitating their artists' participation in alternative curatorial projects invests in a prescription network whose returns can be considerable, both in terms of visibility and professional credibility.

05Specialist media in transformation

The specialist contemporary art press is undergoing a profound transformation directly affecting the prescriptive role it long exercised. Traditional print magazines, confronting declining sales and the migration of advertising to digital, have had to adapt their editorial model by developing online content, podcasts, newsletters and events complementing or replacing print publication. Digital-native media such as market data platforms, specialist online platforms and Hyperallergic have acquired an influence rivalling that of historic journals, reaching a younger and more geographically diverse audience.

The gallery owner must adapt their press relations strategy to this new media landscape. Sending a press release to a handful of influential critics is no longer sufficient to ensure exhibition visibility. It is now necessary to combine relationships with critics and specialist journalists with a digital communication strategy encompassing social media, newsletters, video content and collaborations with content creators whose audience can complement that of traditional media.

06Building your own influence: the gallery as prescriber

Faced with the fragmentation of prescription networks, the gallery owner can choose to become a prescriber whose voice counts in the contemporary art landscape. Publishing rigorous exhibition catalogues, organising conferences and panel discussions, producing quality editorial content and engaging in public debate on contemporary art issues are all means by which the gallery owner can build an intellectual authority that strengthens their position as prescriber.

Marian Goodman gallery, which publishes reference works on its artists, and Galerie Lelong, which regularly organises reflection events on contemporary art, illustrate this strategy of building influence through quality of discourse and depth of intellectual engagement. The gallery owner investing in this editorial and intellectual dimension of their activity no longer merely follows prescribers: they become an actor of prescription whose voice is anticipated and heeded.

For Artedusa partner galleries, the platform offers a visibility space amplifying each gallery owner's voice and enabling them to reach an international audience of collectors and professionals. By presenting works accompanied by mediation texts, artist biographies and curatorial content, the gallery builds on Artedusa an online presence that directly contributes to their influence as a prescriber in the contemporary art landscape.