What Stops Us From Buying Art

Goda Smilingyte
3 min readOct 10, 2024

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Image from Canva.com

Ask anyone: “Do you like art?”

“Yes, of course!”, they will say.

So, why so few of us actually buy art, especially original?

Pricing is definately not an issue — the are tons of beautiful and affordable artworks available for sale these days.

I have been running my online art gallery for 7 years now and discussed the art buying bias with a lot of people — here’s what stops them from acquiring artworks, even if they love them.

1. People think they don’t understand art

The art market model made us believe that one need a degree, at least in art history, to be able to understand art.

This is because traditionally, art market was (and still is to some extent) ruled by the Gatekeepers (galleries, auctions, dealers) and impacted be the influencers of the art world — rich collectors and art influential art critics.

Although anyone can enter a gallery or a museum, definitely not everyone can understand why some artworks cost millions. And since rich and influential people pay these millions, we start to think that there is something wrong with us, because we don’t understand the value.

“I know nothing about art” most will say, when asked for an an opinion about certain piece.

This is a bias.

We are all different and we all like different things. Art is a result of human creativity, we all understand music, books and films, which are also art, so we definitely can understand whether we like a painting or not.

2. We think art is only for the rich

This one evolved with the help of mass media.

Artworks that make it to the top headlines are the ones that sell for millions. Media is interested who just spend ten million on the painting and nobody is cares if an ordinary person bought an amazing piece by emerging artist at the affordable art fair.

Unfortunately, that is how media works — it is not interested in average, ordinary people or deals, nor are we.

No, art is not just for the rich, it is for everyone. That’s the essence of it.

3. We are worried it might not match the colour of our sofa

There is nothing wrong with wanting an artwork to match your interior.

Somehow, most people think it is very difficult combining the artwork into their homes, which is not, especially if you have white walls.

If your sofa is green and your like a paining that is dominated by yellow it will match perfectly anyway. Besides, you can always buy some cushions of a matching colour and through it on your sofa to make the space feel moe unanimous and complete.

4. Is the price fair and is a good investment?

Original art is not cheap, because it is unique. You are buying the only piece that exists in the world and that makes your space exclusive too (and becomes a part of your identity).

Even so called affordable artworks will cost a thousand or two, so it is quite normal to spend some time considering whether it is worth spending such amoung of money on art and and if it will pay off in the future.

There is not straight answer to this question — you need to research the market, check if the artist sells and for how much.

Selling art with a profit in the secondary market is extremely difficult (unless it is created by celebrity artist), so the most the most important criteria when choosing an artwork — you have to love it!

You will never want to sell art that you love, because it will bring you aesthetic pleasure everytime you look at it.

If you are looking for classically contemporary artworks — visit my online gallery ArtGoda.com and feel free to reach out if somthing catches your eye!

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Goda Smilingyte
Goda Smilingyte

Written by Goda Smilingyte

I talk about creativity, art and self-improvement.

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