When it comes to understanding the way the artworld works, it is relatively easy to find basic information on most areas of the sector, from income and demographic information on artists, to discussion of the activities of public galleries. But the business of commercial galleries has been less frequently scrutinised. In the light of this paucity of information, a new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report, Commercial Art Galleries, makes interesting-if fairly dry-reading. In just eight pages the report provides information on sales of artworks, sources of gallery income and expenditure, and employment in commercial galleries for the 1996-1997 financial year. This is the first time the ABS has surveyed the commercial art gallery sector.
While quite a number of earlier reports do discuss the commercial gallery system, none seems as focused as this new report. One of the most extensive earlier examinations of this sector is included in Gary Prosser's study Visual and Craft Artists (1989), which estimates that there are close to 1 000 visual arts and craft outlets in Australia. Significantly, the new ABS study takes a more limited view, indicating that there are just 457 commercial galleries. This significant difference means that many of the new figures simply do not tally with the earlier studies-which makes it difficult to identify, with any confidence, changes over the last decade. The ABS study defines a commercial gallery as "a business whose primary activity is the display and sale of artworks". This means that sales through auction houses, art museums, department stores or craft shops are not included, nor are market-stall sales or other sales made directly by the artist. According to ABS estimates based on a recent Population... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline