Wednesday 2 April 2008

Help, please?

Throwing the floor open: I have a question that I can't answer via Google (I know! quelle horreur!).

When did dealers start using a red pin to indicate works that had sold in a show? Who started it? Where does it come from?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the early 80's dealers used to use coloured stickers - then some bright spark must have decided that they were too "obvious" in the the white cube - a distraction to the work maybe - even though the map pins hurt your thumb when pushing them into a hard wall.

Anonymous said...

Can I be dumb and ask where the red 'dots' came from. It strikes me that pins might pre-date stickers?

Courtney Johnston said...

Red dot or red pin - the question stills holds.

Maybe pins replaced dots when the red dot became the symbol for 'discounted stock'.

Anonymous said...

There's still a mix of pins and stickers being used. I recently even came across a red felt-pen dot on the list of works.

Also interesting when a dealer does or doesn't utilise a full museum-style wall label. In most cases seem to opt for the less accessible A4 page left on the counter or pinned near the door...

Courtney Johnston said...

Kind of makes you wish someone would use gold stars, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

Absiltely - buying art should always be that little bit special!

Courtney Johnston said...

Yup - gold stars and a buy-10-get-1-free card