The Art Business

When I went to the Ronnie Layden Fine Arts gallery to take a photo of the huge horse sculpture in the courtyard, a man sitting on a bench nearby mentioned that it was one of the largest equestrian sculptures in the world. He explained that the bust was a replica of one of the biggest equestrian bronze statues in the world. The complete statue by John Sherill Houser is a depiction of Juan de Oñate astride a horse on its hind legs. Layden invited me into the gallery to look at photos of the full statue, which is located in El Paso, Texas, towering over the artist.

Unfamiliar with Layden’s work, I took a look around the gallery. His paintings were both abstract and stylized, but his landscapes were atypical for paintings of Southwestern scenes. They have a very structured style with a strong sense of depth, and each feature has character. Each cloud seemed to have its own personality. When he mentioned that he was formerly an architect, the influences on his art style became more apparent.

Photo courtesy of Ronnie Layden Fine Art

Though he has made his career centered on being an artist, Layden had a much different outlook on his trade than David Vigil did in my previous post.

“It’s a curse,” Layden said, shaking his head.

If I learned how artists could be romantic and optimistic before, I learned the other side of the art business while talking to Ronnie Layden. Though he doesn’t fit the picture of a tortured-starving-artist, he certainly is one who had to tackle the delicate balance of owning a business, finding time to be an artist, and finding time away from all of that.

Layden quit being an architect when he realized how much money and credit larger companies were making as a result of his designs, and how it wasn’t reflective in his own life. He did a lot of travelling in Europe, amassing a large collection of black and white photography, and he and his brother opened the gallery on Canyon Road.

Santa Fe takes in millions of dollars per year from the hundreds of galleries around the city. It is no stranger to high-class buyers and paintings priced at numbers a college student like me would find absurd. What isn’t always at the forefront of the idea of art is the fact that, yes, art is beautiful and expressive, but it is a business nonetheless. For an artist to run a gallery as well as produce art to put in the gallery, it requires a lot of time and energy. Layden’s gallery, like most galleries in Santa Fe, is open seven days a week.

“I was thinking about closing the gallery for a while so I would have time to paint,” he said.

Layden said he likes to paint on location and by observation – an activity that involves making large blocks of time. Since photography hadn’t been attracting as many buyers as paintings do, he said he wants to have more paintings in his gallery. It is, after all, a business he has to survive on.

Photo courtesy of Ronnie Layden Fine Art

Beneath the practicalities of being an artist, Layden has a deep love for the New Mexican culture and land. He said seeing art in everything around him can be difficult and tiring, but that he has been to a lot of different cities, and Santa Fe has an aesthetic like no other. It is a 400-year-old city, and in some ways the art was here long before the artists.