As a rule of thumb, anything below 1,000 (one thousand) USD is considered “affordable” art, although some define it as anything under 10,000 USD.
Pricing is probably one of the biggest mysteries in the contemporary art world, so we will do our best to provide the biggest factors to consider when questioning the price of an artwork:
Is the artwork unique or of multiple editions? More editions = cheaper
How big is the artwork? Larger = more expensive
What materials or media did the artist use? Oil is more expensive than watercolor, was any gold leaf used?, etc.
How long did it take the artist to produce the artwork?
How well-established is the artist? Artists that have been creating and selling works for a long period of time usually have a consistent level of demand for their works, which helps dictate a fair market price as any given point in time through benchmarking. An emerging artist, on the other hand, doesn’t have a lot of brand equity, or sales history. We work with emerging artists to set fair asking prices based on the other factors mentioned above.
The following factors, while still valuable, are not as reliable when assessing the price of an artwork:
Were any of artist’s works featured in an auction recently? One-off and charity auctions should be used with a grain of salt and only for artworks that are very similar to the one being assessed.
How old is the artwork? Mostly if the artist has gone through several eras and one is considered more desirable than others.
Is there any secondary market data available? All artists go through a stage of establishing a secondary market for their works, where there is discrepancy from the gallery prices—and only a small number of artists really make it beyond this point.
Is this artist alive? Certain artists’ works appreciate in value when an artist is deceased & therefore supply of his/her works is limited, but this isn’t always the case.