When we talk about the art market, we often think of major auctions in London or New York, but too often we forget a fundamental player in the market and even in the history of art: the art gallery.

An art gallery is a public or private place in which works of art are highlighted in order to present them and especially to sell them.

A first distinction must be made between first and second market galleries. The first market concerns works that have never been sold and the second for works that have already had an owner.

In the first case, the gallery owner represents artists and maintains a real working relationship with them. The gallery owner has access to the workshop and selects the pieces that interest him and exhibits it according to his program. Prime market galleries may choose to defend very young artists, sometimes unknown, and other galleries will work with emerging or established artists.

In the second case, several scenarios are possible:

• First of all, they may be the former first-market galleries. Collectors wishing to part with their work will naturally head to the artist's historic gallery.

• In another case, galleries can recover the “estate”: the artist's estate management - it becomes the reference gallery for this artist working with the artist's rights holders. Thus, it values the artist as would first-market galleries.
• Finally, galleries can act like dealers and buy and sell works based on market opportunities. He presents for sale works that he does not necessarily represent but that his collectors may wish to acquire.

These categories are obviously not fixed and first-market galleries also work with second-market works.

Galleries play a key role in the career and recognition of an artist or even an entire movement. Can we imagine Impressionists without Duran Ruel, Cubists in Daniel Henry Kahnweiler, or minimal art without Léo Castelli?

This promotion can be through their participation in major fairs such as Art Basel, Frieze Master or TEFAF to place their artists in major collections. But gallery owners can be more institutional by working with institutions to give extra weight to their artists. Galleries organize exhibitions or place their proteges in museum collections. Some gallery owners go so far as to create their own institution such as Ernst Beyeler and his eponymous foundation. Finally, galleries have a publishing policy to produce a wealth of literature on the artists they exhibit.

In short, an art gallery is much more than just an exhibition space. It is an essential player that shapes the art market but contemporary art itself.

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