11. Representation Contracts

A S Tad Crawford noresin the fourthelicon of his book Businesand Legal Forms
for Fine Artists, "Many artists who sell their work through galleries rely on trust instead of contracts." He also notes, "Trust is fine when everything is going smoothly, but it is of little value after disputes arise and neither party is truly certain what contractual terms originally bound the artist and gallery together." Today, many dealers might add that trust is also of little reliability when things are evolving so quickly in the art market.
The template for the representation contract we discuss in this chapter comes from "Form 7: Artist-Gallery Contract with Record of Consignment and Statement of Account" in Crawford's book and is used here with his kind permission. He also very kindly includes access to a digital template of this contract with purchase of his book.
Here we should note that Crawford's book is a truly great resource, but it is written for artists, and focuses primarily on their concerns. We are glad that it does. His book needs to exist. But with the rising threat of poaching and corresponding potential loss of paid production costs or framing costs, a lack of clarity on online promotion per-missions, and increasingly complicated global market issues, representation contracts should be reconsidered with a focus on the dealer's evolving concerns. Then again, we found very little to disagree with in the template below. The comments we do offer are mostly in anticipation of potential changes we see coming in the contemporary art market (as well as a few issues dealers might disagree on).