What's more important for selling art - the quality of the work or the artist's story?

While quality matters, the artist’s story and personality are arguably more important than most people think - possibly 60-70% of the equation versus 30-40% for quality. People like doing business with people they like. Who you are as a person - whether you’re a dog or cat person, a parent, where you live, what you have in common with potential buyers - creates the emotional connection that drives sales. Art sales are not fundamentally a meritocracy based purely on technical quality. The relationship and connection buyers feel with you as an artist is critically important.

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Asked by creative team with diverse revenue streams · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2025-11-21