
Launch HN: Art in Res (YC W20) – Buy art directly from artists - JohnFriel
Hi HN,<p>I’m John Friel, cofounder of Art in Res (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;artinres.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;artinres.com</a>). Art in Res is an online marketplace where painters sell their art directly to buyers, instead of needing to work with an art gallery.<p>I studied art and moved to New York in 2008 dreaming of making it as an artist. It wasn’t easy. I lived in a maybe-legal warehouse space that doubled as a poorly-ventilated art studio. My first day job was stocking shelves at Trader Joe’s, which covered my rent and groceries but, at New York prices, not much else.<p>My best friend in NYC had a side hustle making artist websites by hacking them out on top of WordPress. He was great at it. Through that side-hustle, he got approached to make an online store for a small business. Shopify wasn’t wasn’t widely known back then and he needed help. So he proposed to me: “Hey John, I know you have a nerdy side. Do you think you could learn to program and we could make the website together?” I told him “No way! That’s crazy! It would take me years to learn to program!” But he said “Look, there’s this new thing called Ruby on Rails. At least just Google that before you say ‘no’”. So I did a Rails tutorial and thought “Hmm, maybe I _could_ do this.” We accepted the gig and I’ve been a happy coder ever since. (We did _not_ ship the site on time.)<p>I’m all in on coding now, but most of my artist friends are still making art, and still working day jobs. Their studios are full of amazing paintings that barely anyone gets to see. And for every one of my friends there are a thousand other artists out there, cranking out amazing work and not selling it because they don’t have galleries selling it for them.<p>A couple years ago, my cofounder John (we’re both named John) told me that he had bought a painting from an artist he’d met. He couldn’t believe how great the paintings were, how cool the artist was, how the artists’ studio was this cool warehouse space that was overflowing with unsold paintings. He knew me as a programmer – but wasn’t I a painter before that? He had the idea that we could put our experiences together and make a website where people could buy art from all the amazing but not-famous artists around them.<p>We started Art in Res as a nights-and-weekends project. We found lots of people who liked the idea of buying art – but we also realized that most people who aren’t hardcore art collectors think that paying over $100 for a painting is hard to swallow. The thing is though, that paintings are made by hand, often painstakingly over long periods of time, and so they don’t benefit from the economics of scale that create the prices that modern consumers expect.<p>We resolve that by having our buyers purchase art on _installment plans_, where each payment results in a payment to the artist. In normal circumstances, revenue for artists tends to be spiky and unpredictable. Once an artist on Art in Res gets a couple installment plans going, they have a nice, predictable revenue stream. And a buyer who is purchasing this way gets to live with a unique, hand-made painting for ~$30-60 per month. It works really well for both parties.<p>We’re working on Art in Res full-time now and our team has grown to 5 people (all creatives in some capacity or another.) We’re John, Dan, Noni, Emily and me. We think art should be affordable and artists should get paid. There’s so much amazing art out there, collecting dust in studios. It deserves to find loving homes. &lt;3<p>Thanks so much, and we can’t wait to hear your thoughts!<p>–<p>PS - I’ve been lurking HN for close to a decade and this is thrilling for me!
======
RickS
Edit: huge props to the team for shipping a fix for this in minutes.

\---

I want to love this idea, but I struggle to get past the lack of full price
when browsing. It says "$48 • 24 months" and expects me to intuit that the
product costs $1152.

Or rather, I worry that it expects me _not_ to intuit that. Breaking the
absolute price into a series of less frightening numbers to obscure the
magnitude of a purchase feels slimy when cell phone carriers use it to trick
people into buying new iPhones for "cheap". This seems like the same tactic.
Especially since the payback periods vary between paintings, so you can't even
compare apples to apples in terms of monthly dollar cost.

It's okay that paintings are expensive. It's less okay to undermine people's
ability to reason about the cost of things.

~~~
sushisource
Not to mention the fact that I suspect most people interested in purchasing
fine art aren't exactly the type who care to finance the purchase.

~~~
ForrestN
I think part of their idea is that the sometimes-alienating "fine art"
distinction, and the expectations around pricing that go with it, is keeping
available art from people who would get a lot of pleasure from living with it.
I think there's a type who thinks fine art isn't for them but will be shocked
and pleased to be able to get a real, individually made art work for such a
low monthly cost.

------
ethanappleby
John, this is an industry with a huge graveyard of failed startups doing the
same thing. And the only ones left - Artsy, just went through a huge firing
and recapping and I wouldnt give them long. Leaf group is trying to get rid of
Saatchi in a fire sale and ArtFinder is barely break even with a team less
than a dozen and making money from charging artists.

So given this idea does not seem different than the many before (and far from
the 10x YC talks about when the needed improvement of a product to win a
space), what am I missing?

Is there an underlying technology, unique community angle, or do you believe
the timing wasnt before from the time of Artix to 2019 but 2020 is the year.

I love artists and design, and am shocked this has not happened yet, so Im
rooting for you.

~~~
solomonb
Tagging onto this reply..

As someone with particular domain knowledge (I worked in the art world for
years and have many professional artist and gallerist friends), I don't I've
ever seen an online art sales platform that actually understand the purpose of
an art gallery--for both collectors and artists.

Galleries are not simply point of sale vendors for art. They establish a
scene, they contextualize the art and the artists, and they make strategic
decisions in how to cultivate the careers of their stable of artists via a
number of different tactics:

0) By organizing solo shows. It seems silly to say this, but actually putting
on shows is a critical element that is missing from these online sales
platforms. Shows allow the artist to present a body of work and establish a
narrative around it via reviews and and social scenes.

1) Connecting the artist, through sales or even social means, with relevant
collectors. Collectors have different status' in the art world, different
connections to other art world players, and have particular themes to their
collections. By placing art in the right collections, a gallerist can make a
significant impact on the career of an artist.

2) By organizing group shows, or using their influence to get their artists
into other's group shows, which will then associate their artists with a scene
or an institution.

3) Funding! A lot of art is _expensive_ to make. I have friends who have
literally calculated how much it costs them per square inch to make a painting
and it can be shocking. It is not uncommon for a gallerist to front a large
sum of money leading up to a solo show.

Not all galleries will do all--or even any--of these things. However, these
are the actions that define a good gallery. A good gallery is invested in an
artist, much like a good VC firm is invested in a startup.

If a startup wants to 'disrupt' the art world, I think the first step would be
to figure out how you are going to make a business that cultivates an artist's
career over the long term and which establishes a real art scene involving
both artists and collectors.

~~~
ramraj07
This just seems like a justification of what the art gallery does for the art
industry as it exists _now_, perhaps this isn't the best model anyway? I can
totally see myself buying a painting from this site if it resonates with me,
Im not particularly worried about how the single piece I buy forms a story
with other pieces that I'm not going to buy, all I care is what it says in my
room. In that regard the single biggest impediment is that I can see myself
buying art I want in my home without ever seeing it in person!

Also nothing here says that I represent a viable customer segment either so
there's that.

~~~
solomonb
This is a description of what a gallery does now, not a justification for it.

Here is a justification:

I would say that generally selling art is not the goal of artists. Yes, they
want to be able to support themselves through making their art, but generally
speaking their goals are likely some kind of combination of obsession with
their craft and a desire to make it into the art canon and attain mass
exposure via museum exhibitions/acquisitions, inclusion in biennales,
inclusion in art history/theory texts, etc. Working with a good gallery helps
to promote the (artistic) career of the artist and establishes their art as
culturally significant.

------
itcrowd
I like the idea of making art more accessible by spacing out the payment.
Congratulations on the launch!

I won't comment on the art for sale, because I think it is too much in the eye
of the beholder but I will give some feedback on your website and concept.

\- Why fixed installments? Why not say "this piece costs 300$ buy now, or pay
10 installments of 35$ or 20x20$" (forget the numbers, just an example).

\- why are there so few pictures of the work? If I buy a piece of art I want
to look at it from all angles, get up close, see the structure, see it from
far, see the frame etc.

\- since _you_ got excited from seeing artists' workspace, why not show them
to us? Why not show those cool warehouses/storage containers/houses where the
art is piled floor to ceiling?

\- When I click on an artist's bio, the last thing I want to see is a full-
bleed picture of his face. I want to see where he works, how he is inspired or
how this piece was formed.

\- out of curiosity: how did you come up with the 30/70 split between
fees/artist's check? How do the artists respond? Have you had anyone say the
fees are too high?

~~~
my_green_book
The cut is too high for the platform. I guess you take this number from
Google/Apple store's commission.

The difference is software on Google's store has infinite leverage and takes
almost 0 to scale sales. Every piece of art takes lots of work and cannot
scale in the same way. Art works do not scale like software.

With this cut, I feel your platform is taking advantage of artists (they do
not know where to sell) rather than helping them.

Even auction commission is only between 12 & 25%.

~~~
solomonb
I worked in the art world for years. First as a studio assistant, then as an
art prep for large galleries, then eventually I ran my own art fabrication
business with a few employees.

A good gallery--emphasis on good--does a lot more then simply sell art to the
highest bidder. They strategically place artists into 'important' collections,
work with museum curators to bring the artists into a more critical narrative,
get the artist into group shows and fairs internationally to contextualize the
artist in a current scene or trend, collude with art critiques and magazines,
and generally help to promote the artist's career over the long term.

All of this sounds somewhat silly outside the art world, but you have to
remember that this is a very particular industry based around historicizing
high-brow cultural production. When a good collector buys a painting, they are
doing more then just buying a physical object they like. They are throwing
their own clout behind the artist and saying "I think what this person is
doing is important and I stand behind it."

All of this is done with the intention of increasing the profile of the artist
which benefits--each in their own way--gallery, the artist, and the collector
over the long term.

As far as the sales split between gallery and artist, standard split is
roughly 50% with some variance around material expenses and whatnot.

Note, everything I am saying is the sort of ideal story and there are a lot of
bad actors in the business. In reality I find the art world rather gross and
the premises it is built upon to be deeply flawed.

------
hlmencken
I really am not a fan of showing a price and then only finding out after
clicking into a piece of work that that price is not the price of the art but
of some monthly payment. On top of that not showing the ∆ between the monthly
payment price and the all at once price clearly is really maddening. Overall
I'm ok with the site and the idea but the pricing structure and display seems
to be designed to trick people.

~~~
orky56
One quick way to clean up the whole site is to have a toggle to show prices as
upfront or in installments. This way you remove the noise and cater to your
target demographic. UI becomes cleaner and both demographics feels like the
experience is adjusted for them.

~~~
JohnFriel
I love that idea!

------
tjwds
Through friends, I've become a little acquainted with the art industry and how
collections happen and get shown in the most general terms.

I feel like Etsy used to be a place where individual creators created things…
and now it's mostly used by industry professionals with a specific vibe or
aesthetic feel.

Is the thing that distinguishes Art in Res from something like Artsy that
you're buying directly from the artist? How do you all plan to deal with, for
example, galleries that might want to use or abuse this platform?

~~~
stevekemp
Etsy used to be full of actual creators, now it is full of drop-shippers who
sell premade junk.

There are outliers, but it's not unusual to see art being churned out by
factories, or shops full of stuff from AliExpress.

------
dbcurtis
I love what you are trying to do. My family has a few artists in it (none
full-time enough to pay the rent) so I have a visceral understanding of the
passion that drives your idea.

After looking at several paintings, I found it difficult to get excited about
any of them. Not because I didn't like them, but the web site just doesn't
give the art presence. I mainly looked at oils and acrylics, and I could not
get any idea of the brushwork, the texture. I just could not connect with any
of them across the intertubes.

So I love the idea, but to me it seems the challenge you face is how to
present the art. Sorry I don't really have any great suggestions -- more views
of each piece that allow for examining the technique? More careful lighting of
the photos in a way the best complements the art? It is a big challenge and I
don't have any great ideas.

But there is something about being there -- we have all seen Munch's "The
Scream" or Van Gogh's "Starry Night" a zillion times on the internet, on mouse
pads, in cartoon parodies -- but actually standing in front of those paintings
is an experience from another world. I want to get as close to that experience
as I can when I look at your artist's works.

I think you need to up the curation somehow -- maybe some comments from the
artist about the piece, or some very close images of exciting details.

Very sincerely best of luck, I hope you succeed for your artists.

~~~
JohnFriel
> So I love the idea, but to me it seems the challenge you face is how to
> present the art. Sorry I don't really have any great suggestions -- more
> views of each piece that allow for examining the technique? More careful
> lighting of the photos in a way the best complements the art? It is a big
> challenge and I don't have any great ideas.

I agree with you on this! We're planning to roll out detail shots and
installation shots soon, and I think those will go a long way to helping
viewers get a sense for the IRL presence of certain works.

Also, while we don't have a concrete plan for it yet, it's clear that some
artists need help photographing their work.

> Very sincerely best of luck, I hope you succeed for your artists.

Thank you!

~~~
lukevp
John,

I think this is a great idea! This is probably not a core competency in your
platform, but I can imagine a lot of artists don’t have a resource to get
decent photos taken ( not good camera, or understanding of composition, etc).
Would there be some way to partner with local photographers to have them come
out using your platform to either connect or maybe even pay for it? For
example, $50 for the trip out and to set up if within 30 miles, and then $20
per piece to digitize it with multiple angles and staging?

Either way, good luck with the platform and I’ve passed it along to my wife,
who is an artist.

~~~
stevekemp
I used to photograph large-pieces for a local gallery. I wouldn't even attempt
such a job for $50 + $20/piece.

Photographing large canvasses, color-balancing, processing, & etc. Is not a
quick process and requires both patience, experience, and a decent
camera/lens/lighting setup.

I've seen artists list their canvasses on websites using iphone photos, and
that does nothing to advertise their work.

------
anticsapp
This looks really great, I hope you are psyched this post hit the first page.
Everyone is fixated on pricing, I think the pricing is fine. Here are my
notes:

Vectorizing - I don't see anyway to share these creations with the world. Why
not have a Pinterest share button? The looky-loos who will never buy anything
can share these creations for you and generate free traffic for you. Put them
to work. Also, encourage artists to put their store URL as their Instagram bio
link.

Authority - You kind of have a Kickstarter problem. They launched with
thoughtful projects to fund so half the two sided marketplace was done. What
happens when you get a few customers who then want to become sellers? When
Aunt Marie wants to put her crappy poodle paintings on your site? How do you
let her down gracefully? If you don't, why would I as a customer stay on site
and sift through garbage?

Elitism - You are disrupting the gallery system but you are also accidentally
creating a gallery. How do you reconcile that contradiction? Galleries don't
make their money on selling out stock from the current show (this sometimes
happens), they make money from generating press, becoming authoritative, and
the wealthy go to the back room, where the great stuff is. Sometimes the
gallerist will say, no, a museum is considering buying this. Are you going to
do that? Say no to make more money later?

Lastly, you couldn't have picked a better time to launch. I would have to
imagine the gallery system is getting flattened right now.

~~~
dang
This is a great comment but I need to reply to one mistaken assumption:

> _I hope you are psyched this post hit the first page_

It didn't hit the front page organically; we place "Launch HN" posts for YC
startups on HN's front page. This is one of three formal things that HN does
to give something back to YC in exchange for funding it. The other two are job
ads and displaying YC founder names in orange to other YC founders.

I'm sorry this wasn't clear. More explanation here:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22launch%20hn%22&sort=byDate&type=comment)

I'd like to open this feature to non-YC-startups in some way. It's not clear
yet how to do that. Also, it would be hard to scale: we do a lot of editing to
help founders write about their startup in a way that we think the community
will find interesting. That's time consuming and we don't have a lot of spare
resources.

That said, if anyone is planning to make a post like that which you would like
some feedback about, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and ask. Just
please understand that we can't reply right away—the inbox is constantly
piling up (and a bit higher each time it does).

~~~
anticsapp
dang, thanks for clarifying. I had a friend with a bed company years back with
no affiliation do a Show HN and it must have organically trended. I didn't
know you guys did that, and it makes sense that you do. I have no idea how you
would open it up because then it would be like Product Hunt on steroids with
1,000+ inbound requests a day.

~~~
dang
Just to be clear: there's a big difference between "Show HN" and "Launch HN".
Show HNs organically trend. Launch HNs are for YC companies only and we place
them on the front page.

------
cdubzzz
Hitting the back button after initial visit gives me a login prompt. That's
pretty annoying...

[https://imgur.com/605DZMN](https://imgur.com/605DZMN)

~~~
rhizome
At least on the front page, the site does a self-reload which breaks the back
button. This isn't merely annoying, or a dark pattern...it's just plain
obnoxious and something I thought was left back in the "stickiness" 2000s.

That a login page is tacked onto this is a new twist though, I'll hand them
that.

~~~
danmchugh
Thanks for bringing this bug to our attention. I'll make sure this is added to
the top of our bug-fix queue.

Were you a guest user or logged in when this happened?

~~~
cdubzzz
Guest -- just a first arrival from HN.

~~~
danmchugh
Just shipped a fix for this. Sorry for the frustration in the meantime. Again,
thanks so much for highlighting the bug.

~~~
cdubzzz
Confirmed fixed. Thanks!

------
protonimitate
The selection of work seems pretty high quality, but I'm curious - how does
the artist/art selection process work?

I come from a fine arts background and have always had issues with the
contemporary art scene for it's artist to curator/gallery process. In general,
social status and popularity seem to be the main currency for getting great
art visible to the public.

I would love to see a service like this that enables more "undiscovered" high
quality work to be shown, and for more unrecognized artists to get paid for
what they love, but at the same time opening it up too all work could lower
the overall quality of the available work.

Curation is hard - what system do you have in place for it?

~~~
cpach
Very good question. A quite tough challenge but probably not impossible.

IMO, bad curation is something that is very apparent on sites like Etsy and
Redbubble. So I do believe it’s worth it to try to find a good system for it.

------
gangstertim
Congrats on your launch! The site looks great—and it strikes a chord with me,
because I'm working on an art marketplace as well (albeit for prints, not
originals). Given we have adjacent, not competitive platforms, let me know if
you'd ever like to do some co-marketing! Our product is www.vsual.co

A few things I noticed when looking at your site: \- I like the detail views
you have on your pieces, but a the higher resolution, you may want to consider
a watermark—and it's possible it will help with artist trust, as well. \- The
"Apply as an Artist" link is kind of buried. It took me a while to find it.
Might be worth moving that up, if getting more artists on board is a primary
goal? \- As a buyer, I'm still interested in the total price, and it's a
little hard to comparison shop when both the base price and period for works
are different \- I actually really like the "message artist" functionality.
That's a great touch! I'm sure artists appreciate it too

~~~
changdizzle
Checked out the site - looks awesome! Is there any way to filter? It's cool at
first glance looking through the whole selection on the site but could see it
getting tedious the 2nd time+.

~~~
gangstertim
Thanks Changdizzle! There are a few ways to filter—you can filter by medium by
clicking the "Photography" "3D" or "Illustration" boxes, or you can filter by
artist by going to the Shops page in the top nav. Or, you can search prints
for tags. Did you have something else in mind?

~~~
changdizzle
I'm thinking more orientation / ratio - for example, right now the wall behind
my couch in the living room is bare and I would love a landscape print for it.
On VSUAL I have to manually scroll through to see the ones that have that
orientation. This is something that Art in Res has on their search function.

------
mstade
I love this idea and I'm sure you'll figure out the pricing stuff eventually.
I have to admit the whole focus on price kind of throws me off a bit. Whenever
I go looking for pretty things, be it art or furniture or decorative objects I
rarely start by looking at the price – I look at the thing itself and if it
strikes a nerve then I figure out things like "can I afford this?"

To that end, I'd like a view where the focus is the art itself. Not who made
it, not what it costs, not even the name of the piece. Let me discover that as
I go, show me full screen pictures I can swipe through on my screen, and tap
or click to learn more about the piece. Make the art the focus and put
everything else in the background, Not even showing it till I'm interested in
learning more. That's what I love about going to galleries – the art takes
center stage and if you want to learn more there's a tiny sign next to it, and
if you want more still you talk to whoever works there but the art comes
first. I feel like your site is trying a bit too hard to make a sale. I
absolutely agree that artists should be paid for their art, and I'm happy to
pay for art that I care for, but ultimately I just want pretty things. Show me
the pretty things first, then let's talk business when I find something I
like. I'm sorry if this comes off as too callous!

Also – and this is probably a really difficult problem to solve – I don't
really know what I'm looking for in art. I just know some things I like, but
probably not all. I love Monet and other impressionist painters, but I also
love old Japanese woodblock prints like the great wave. I'm also a huge fan of
cubism and I can't get enough of art nouveau. I'm not a huge fan of abstract
art, but I like some. I love evocative photography, especially in black and
white. I feel like maybe my taste profile fits a multi-spoke radar chart,
where each data point is a relative preference rather than a binary I like
this or that type tick box filter. I'm not exactly sure what I mean by all
this, just that your search does nothing to help me, and I'm probably not
gonna spend too much time looking at page after page of stuff that may or may
not be interesting to me. I would 100% subscribe to a feed that fits my
profile though, and especially so if it's smart enough to also understand
other types of art I don't know about, but perhaps might fit my profile
anyway. I guess what I'm saying is, if your site could be my personalized art
dealer, there's a good chance I'll spend more money then I probably should.

~~~
JohnFriel
> To that end, I'd like a view where the focus is the art itself.

This is something we've been trying to figure out! If you have an account, you
can view this:
[https://artinres.com/recommendations](https://artinres.com/recommendations)
\-- you're randomly shown one work at a time and you can like, dislike or
skip. We use the data to recommend you additional artworks, and soon we're
going to roll out a digest / news feed of new recommendations for users.

> I don't really know what I'm looking for in art. I just know some things I
> like, but probably not all. I love Monet and other impressionist painters,
> but I also love old Japanese woodblock prints like the great wave. I'm also
> a huge fan of cubism and I can't get enough of art nouveau. I'm not a huge
> fan of abstract art, but I like some. I love evocative photography,
> especially in black and white. I feel like maybe my taste profile fits a
> multi-spoke radar chart, where each data point is a relative preference
> rather than a binary I like this or that type tick box filter.

I'm very much with you on this. In my experience, taste has less to do with
discrete, obviously-nameable qualities like a certain color or subject matter,
and much more to do with the way the parts fit together to make a cohesive yet
surprising whole. That said, we had to start somewhere -- and the filters have
been pretty useful to a portion of our users.

Like you mentioned, as more people use the site, we're building up the ability
to recommend art to people and we anticipate that being a rewarding way to
discover new art.

------
pavlov
I like it, and will definitely come back to see new works over time. I
occassionally buy art and enjoy browsing the well-known auction sites for
thrills (you never know if the next lot is a masterpiece or overpriced trash).

A few suggestions:

1) Structured artist bios. Right now it's all over the place: some of your
artists have a single paragraph, some a wall of text listing everything they
ever did and attended.

As a buyer, I'm looking for the usual reassuring signals: this artist went to
school X, exhibited at gallery Y that I've heard about, and their work was
purchased for collection Z that sounds fancy... Maybe make it easier for
artists to highlight those and even search by those criteria?

2) Generated preview images showing size of the work next to a human. I think
Sotheby's uses these on their site. It's super helpful to be able to see the
work on a simulated gallery wall next to a person.

If you need a beta tester, I'd be happy to help. My email is in the profile.

------
duxup
I like to go to the local art institute's sale for students.

I've found some amazing things there for ~$50 to $100.

Personally I would find it hard to spend a great deal more than that based on
a web view. The difference between 'meh' for me and 'amazing' is very subtle /
really shines when you see it in person.

Still a great idea.

~~~
danmchugh
We agree, displaying art on a website is very different to seeing it in-
person.

It's hard to replace seeing something in-person but we would love to bring
some of that experience to our site. We are currently working on ways to
display this better and give more context for the art.

------
ad31mar
Wow, as an artist and founder of a similar initiative [0], I have to admit
you've absolutely nailed it with Art in Res. Have you got any job openings? :)

[0] [https://binnedart.com](https://binnedart.com)

~~~
JohnFriel
This is so cool – and so flattering!

Hard to say when we'll be hiring next, but let's talk: jf@artinres.com

------
sergiotapia
I couldn't find a search anywhere, wanted to see if I could find some fanart
for some of my favorite horror games like Bloodborne or Dark Souls. I hope you
add it soon, I've been looking for a place to buy stuff like this.

~~~
coldpie
I'd be surprised to see video game stuff pop up here, but you may want to
check out Fangamer.com and iam8bit.com .

~~~
danmchugh
I would personally love to see more video game inspired art, there are so many
great styles we're yet to have applications for as we're still a relatively
new site. We carefully consider all styles of art when artists apply.

If you are interested we have an artist on the site currently that is
influenced by video games: [https://artinres.com/artists/lee-
mora](https://artinres.com/artists/lee-mora)

------
californical
This is a neat idea -- getting financing for art would feel really strange for
a lot of people visiting an art gallery. Your site makes the idea more
approachable!

Personally, I'd prefer to see a "total cost" comparison of the purchase price
vs financing rather than calculate it in my head anyways, but I'm not sure if
that would discourage sales at all for other people.

Quick semi-thought-out idea: you could have a "buy it now" price that is
higher than the financing price, and indicate that customers will save 5% by
financing, for example. This would add some more transparency, and maybe even
make people feel psychologically more into the idea of the payment plan. You
said one of your goals included creating a revenue stream for artists to
normalize their income a bit, so I thought this might help incentivize that
even more, while still giving the option to purchase outright (some people
will never want to finance). Personally, I try to never finance anything.
Probably still wouldn't for 10% off. But for 20% off I would be much more
tempted to finance rather than buy outright

------
smhinsey
I'm fine buying prints or other similar things online but with original art,
you need to see it in context and detail. I would love some sort of pseudo-VR
style experience to actually get a sense for texture and depth. For example,
this one taken at random* is almost $5k and on my 4k laptop screen the zoomed
in version isn't particularly crisp and I only have the one fixed zoom level.
I can imagine paying in that ballpark for art but not under these
circumstances. I can appreciate that there might be issues with having too
high res an image available, etc., but still... Maybe you could mitigate this
with similar return policies to the online mattress places. As is, the risk of
spending a lot and ending up with something that isn't quite what you expect
is just too high for the big ticket items.

* [https://artinres.com/artworks/rebecca-kaufman-pre-experience](https://artinres.com/artworks/rebecca-kaufman-pre-experience)

------
A4ET8a8uTh0
Overall, I like the selection and I hope it goes well. It is genuinely hard to
find something good that won't break your budget anywhere else. I am not sure
if it was intended by filters on left side are grayed out for me ( took a
while before I realized I could change them anyway ). Good luck!

edit: side note/question. Any plans for including sculptures?

~~~
JohnFriel
Thank you! This is great feedback. The filters are lower contrast because we
want the attention to stay on the art. But they might be _too_ low-contrast
and introduce usability problems.

We love sculpture and we're really excited to have it on the site. Sculpture
is tricky, though, because shipping is usually more expensive and it's
trickier to pack sculptures in a way that keeps them safe. That said, we're
gradually rolling it out. We have a tiny number of sculptures on the site
right now and we're going to add more as we get more confident in shipping
them.

------
ARothfusz
I really enjoyed making combinations on the filters to see what (I thought)
unlikely combinations existed, and I was happy with what I found (e.g. minimal
organic, architecture face). Does the artist apply the labels? Or is
classification part of your curation? In any case, nice work. I hope your
market finds you!

~~~
danmchugh
I'm happy you liked combining the filters, I'm always pleasantly surprised
what I discover when I use them. Currently we process and tag all of the
artworks as part of our curation.

Curation is a very important aspect of helping people find things that
resonate. We have more things in our roadmap to keep improving this for
people, and for artists to provide more details about their work.

------
owenversteeg
One thing I've always been curious about with art in this price range
($500-5000) is the resale value. Say your tastes change and you'd like to get
rid of one of these after a few years, how painful is it to sell? What are
your chances of getting 50% of the purchase price? 90%? 150%?

~~~
orky56
A rent the runway for art would be an amazing idea. It would require a large
deposit to cover the initial art piece but provide customers with a dynamic
art collection almost similar to how museums have visiting exhibits. I'd be
happy to work with someone on this.

~~~
acomjean
Decodova Museum loans art to its corporate members.

[https://decordova.org/join-give/corporate-
membership](https://decordova.org/join-give/corporate-membership)

They rotate the art through the year. Its DeCordova so the quality is highly
variable, but its kind or decent. The artists don't get a lot out of it,
membership and publicity...

[https://decordova.org/join-give/corporate-art-
loan](https://decordova.org/join-give/corporate-art-loan)

------
jenniferpattee
John, I'm hearing a lot of great feedback re startups who have tried and
failed at this. That does not mean you won't be the ones who succeed. There is
no clear winner in this space. You could be the founders who figure it out.
There are so many obstacles to entering the art market. It's unnecessarily
complicated to start collecting and supporting artists. For instance, I would
pay to "virtually" attend the Venice / Whitney Biennele. The Headlands Center
for the Arts has a great auction that only a handful of people know about.
Same for Creativity Explored - an amazing way to build an art collection if
you are new to collecting. There are a million possible ways to disrupt this
industry. I am cheering you guys on.

------
dataminded
Thanks for sharing.

I'm interested to see how your pricing hypothesis plays out. I say this as
someone who enjoys art and owns a couple of pieces.

 _how the artists’ studio was this cool warehouse space that was overflowing
with unsold paintings_

 _There’s so much amazing art out there, collecting dust in studios._

It could be that people want payment plans, or that artists need better
marketing tools.

My hypothesis is that a lot of art is priced significantly above what the
market considers acceptable. The alternative to buying one-off art from an
artist is Pier1, Target or posters.com not an art gallery. How does the
typical consumer justify a X00% markup?

If artists priced their goods at a price-point that drove sales, would there
be an increase in renown that would allow them to sell at higher prices later?

------
bing_dai
Congratulations, John! What a great initiative. I am in the artistic community
(classical music) as well, so it's very inspiring to see you launching a
project for the community.

I have a suggestion and a question.

Suggestion: your site does not have an About page of some sort to talk about
the story behind the creation of the company and the experience of the co-
founders. You have truly remarkable story, as I read in this post. So please
include it to your site!

Question: I am curious about how COVID-19 has impacted the art community? My
classical musician friends are certainly suffering financially and mentally
because all of the concerts are suspended. I wonder how are artists doing in
the pandemic.

Thank you and keep up with the great work!! Wishing you all the success.

------
mNovak
Nice concept. I definitely feel tempted--I otherwise only buy art at the local
street fairs.

FYI filters don't seem to to do anything for me (Brave, desktop)

~~~
jypepin
same for me on firefox. filters reload the page but nothing changes

------
DrNuke
To be fair, the art market is just as flooded as the apps market these days.
Moreover, art as a social endeavor still works as a ladder, so that you need
to build credibility and authority day after day, before getting any pricetag
on your works. The problem is not works collecting dust in studios, it is
serious artists not being recognized because of the great great number of more
vocal, self-aware and extrovert amateurs making all the noise. So my question
is: are you just offering just another platform to everybody or are you aiming
at a novel social discourse or movement while promoting your own artists in a
coherent manner?

------
asenna
Congrats on the launch!

Interestingly, me and my team developed and launched a very similar service
early last year -
[https://goldcanvas.com/artworks](https://goldcanvas.com/artworks)

One of our core ideas is that if the artwork gets flipped by collectors and it
changes hands multiple times, the artist gets a royalty (which is often not
the case in the offline world).

I like your concept of monthly payments.

From the research that we did, it was surprising to us how much the artwork
marketplace works offline and how opaque this entire world of Collectors and
Curators is. There's definitely space to disrupt here.

------
acomjean
I like the site. I've been helping with Somerville Open Studios and we
struggle to make a nice browser art listing for our 350 member artists. We
came up with "Itineraries" of studios to visit. (Or struggle to get some of
our artists in larger studio buildings to upload there art).

We have canceled our open studios event for May. We're always looking for ways
to help our Artist's sell (being a non-profit we don't have the resources to
broker the transactions.)

If you don't mind I have questions: Do the artists have their own portal? Is
the art Currated? Are you handling delivery and payments?

------
BossingAround
I really love the idea. I'd use it if this included artists from Europe
(purely due to shipping costs that is, not that I have anything against US
artists of course).

Maybe in the future, you could expand into the EU market..?

~~~
danmchugh
We see a lot of great artists from the EU, and other parts of the world (I'm
from Europe!) As soon as we figure out international shipping and taxes we're
excited to start onboarding artists in those regions.

------
caiobegotti
Congrats on the launch, folks! It looks really nice and I loved the idea! The
first thing I thought was "hey, maybe NOW this is an incentive to put my
paintings somewhere trustworthy and see if it's commercially viable" regarding
the stuff I do with acrylic and spatulas but then the whole artist application
page felt... very unwelcoming... is it only for "real" artists with detailed
portfolios and studio addresses? I didn't want to leave the application page
feeling I'll be only allowed in Etsy-like places and be happy about it.

------
ForrestN
I've had the pleasure of purchasing a work via Art in Res and seeing the
platform develop, and I can't wait to watch it continue to grow. Both sides of
this market place—artists with serious art practices but no commercial gallery
representation, people who love art but can't afford to buy from
galleries—will get so much out of being connected to each other.

If you haven't ever lived with art made by people who care deeply about making
it, I suggest you set down $30 and try it! You'll be surprised how much it can
enrich your life.

------
codingdave
This is a good idea - not 100% original, but the installments is a new spin,
so I wish you well on the effort.

But - let us suppose this does take off and you end up with a large community
of artists and buyers. How do you plan on letting artists get seen in what is
now a crowded space? Many of your competitors frustrate artists because it
becomes about marketing just to get visibility on the sites. Or it turns into
a curated site, which puts the artists right back where they are with the
galleries.

Any plans for how to scale this while avoiding such problems?

------
101008
Hi John. I don't buy or sell art, but I am a book collector, so this touches
me tangential because I participate in a lot of auctions (auction houses,
often, they sell all tpyes of art in the same auction, including books).

I loved your website, and I would find myself using it or sharing it with
friends if I would be in the US. By the way, I will check your job openings
from time to time because this is one of the startups that I would be
passionate to work on! Kudos and best of luck!

------
hello_asdf
Looks great, what's the advantage over SaatchiArt? Is it just a competing
service?

Couple things that I'd like to have:

1\. Filter by full pricing

2\. Filter by canvas / wood / etc.

3\. Filter by oil / acrylic / etc.

------
alphagrep12345
Probably a noob question - but how do I know that I'm not being overcharged?
As a matter of fact, how do I even know what's the right price for a piece of
artwork?

May be a long term thing, but I also think you should focus on expanding and
growing your market size. Create blog posts, and videos on art, artists, art
appreciation and advertize them. Educate audiance and get more people
interested in it. That might percolate to making your business bigger.

~~~
JohnFriel
Not a noob question! It's a deep and interesting question. :)

Pricing art is harder than pricing most other things since artworks are, by
definition, non-fungible / unique. This makes it hard for there to be a
"correct" price. For the most part, we address this by letting our artists set
their own prices (they have more information than we do.) Other factors that
play in are the cost of materials and labor (often hundreds of dollars per
painting) and the potential for the artwork to go up in price some day, like a
stock.

------
bcbrown
Nice launch! Here's some feedback:

At first I found it hard to find the "next" arrow at the bottom. After
scrolling through the first page, I gave up trying to find the next arrow and
moved on to looking at the filters. Because all the text was greyed out, at
first I thought they were unavailable, like perhaps you have to first sign up
for an account before you can use the filters.

I would have liked the "size" filters to be multiple-selection; I wanted to
see all medium and large art, but couldn't select both.

One suggestion: add the ability for some people to create curations. I know
I'm not going to like a majority of the art that's listed, so being able to
find a couple people with similar taste and browsing their selections would
make it more likely I'd stay more engaged with the platform.

But perhaps I'm just not the target audience, too. I'm an art collector with a
couple dozen pieces, in the $X00 to $X000 range. I prefer galleries to online
marketplaces, because the curation provides real value to me; I consistently
patronize the couple of galleries that match my preferences, and the limited
selection in each exhibition reduces decision fatigue while providing reasons
to come back consistently over time.

Good luck!

~~~
JohnFriel
> At first I found it hard to find the "next" arrow at the bottom. After
> scrolling through the first page, I gave up trying to find the next arrow
> and moved on to looking at the filters. Because all the text was greyed out,
> at first I thought they were unavailable, like perhaps you have to first
> sign up for an account before you can use the filters. > I would have liked
> the "size" filters to be multiple-selection; I wanted to see all medium and
> large art, but couldn't select both.

Thank you, this is super helpful! We'll find a way to make it more clear that
those UI components are there and should be used.

> One suggestion: add the ability for some people to create curations. I know
> I'm not going to like a majority of the art that's listed, so being able to
> find a couple people with similar taste and browsing their selections would
> make it more likely I'd stay more engaged with the platform.

This is in the works!

> But perhaps I'm just not the target audience, too. I'm an art collector with
> a couple dozen pieces, in the $X00 to $X000 range. I prefer galleries to
> online marketplaces, because the curation provides real value to me; I
> consistently patronize the couple of galleries that match my preferences,
> and the limited selection in each exhibition reduces decision fatigue while
> providing reasons to come back consistently over time.

You seem like the target audience to me! This is insightful and helpful
feedback and I'd love to talk more if you want: jf@artinres.com

------
koevet
Great idea and execution. I love art and I buy once in a while from galleries,
but I'm often turned down by the steep prices. Any plan to expand to Europe?

------
rodonn
I really like the idea and your implementation. One request: I wish I could
search for art by artists who are women or underrepresented minorities.

------
thecupisblue
Oh wow!

I can't thank you enough for this - as an artist it's something I personally
want and I know many of my friends need - would love it if you'd put the
artist application button somewhere more visible, people are gonna look for
it.

This makes me jittery, I hope I fell ready to submit an application soon.

Any chance you expand beyond paintings?

Thank you and keep up the great work!

~~~
danmchugh
We'll take a look at making the link more visible, agree it's a little less
prominent right now.

We're excited to move into more types of art other than paintings. We
currently have a small number of sculptures on the site, and have been taking
baby steps towards other types such as limited prints.

Whenever you're ready to submit an application we would love to read it!

------
travisjungroth
Someone in YC made Artix! (I kid)

~~~
JohnFriel
What's that?

~~~
travisjungroth
The failed startup Paul Graham did before the one that took off. It was
putting art galleries online. Obviously you’re different, but it was close
enough to make me laugh. Someone replied to me with the story.

~~~
dang
Looks like you've made the first Artix reference on HN in 7 years:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22artix%22%20-linux%20-fpga%20-artixlinux%20-hardware%20-fpgas%20-6502%20-chip%20-board%20-boards%20-roadmap%20-vhdl%20-kintex%20-dsps%20-adventurequest&sort=byDate&type=comment)

(The name has since been used for a Linux distro and a FPGA board, but HN
Search supports omitting terms.)

A revived link to the site made pg go "Holy shit." in 2007. That doesn't
happen often either:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46411)

Whilst searching, I ran across another Artix ("In 2002 I created the original
AdventureQuest"). Also cool!

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21245308](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21245308)

~~~
travisjungroth
That’s nuts. I would have taken 50 to 1 odds that it wasn’t that long.

To me, this proves that HN isn’t really full of pg fanboys. It’s like knowing
the flop album an artist released before their first hit.

------
jcmontx
I like the concept. It looks like, though, your business is not art but
financing. Very interesting twist.

Do you charge a fixed fee or a %?

~~~
JohnFriel
We take a percentage. For a given sale, 70% goes to the artist and 30% goes to
the platform.

~~~
chickenpotpie
That's a pretty large cut. What stops a user from just messaging the artist
directly and buying the work from them directly for a lower price?

~~~
ChefboyOG
This is a pretty common pushback on marketplaces in general, but in my
experience working on several, this only happens in specific situations. I
doubt it would be much of a problem for Art in Res, namely because:

1\. With higher price points, the security and financial services of the
platform become more valuable. Installment payments, for instance, would
likely be beyond the abilities of many artists to orchestrate. The platform
also likely provides some guarantee on the buyer side that all that money
won't go missing and that the product will be delivered as expected.

2\. The platform will usually have some language in their agreement that makes
off-platform contracts with people you discovered in-platform punishable. If
you've ever used a hiring platform like Hired or A-List, you'll know that
these fees are persuasive.

With cheaper platforms like UpWork, I'm sure this kind of thing is common, but
on more expensive market places it isn't as pervasive as one might think.

------
siegfried-en
Love the idea! Just some small feedback on your website: When I try to go back
from your website, it keeps asking me to login. It's probably due to the fact
that it automatically sends me to the /artworks page and when I try to go back
it sends me to the / one, triggering the login popup. Anyway, good luck!

~~~
danmchugh
Thanks for letting us know about this bug. We just shipped a fix for it.
Hopefully you won't be interrupted while browsing now :)

------
csomar
\- I don't really care much about the Covid-19 relief. If you are donating
then good for you and for helping the community. But I do _actually_ avoid
websites/services that try to advertise donations as a selling point. I can
donate myself if I want to.

\- Also, do not penalize artists who do not want to donate to Covid-19. That's
their business. They might be giving more, through other ways, to the
community. They might be tight with money. Whatever. But the way the website
is presenting it is that these guys are the _generous guys_.

\- I don't know how New York is but this photo is NSFW and probably not so for
families: [https://artinres.com/artworks/marika-wagle-
day-13-2020](https://artinres.com/artworks/marika-wagle-day-13-2020) You might
want to have a filter for that.

~~~
gergles
In addition to being NSFW, it's also a print, and I would be annoyed if I got
it and didn't realize that. I think it's very easy to skip the line that says
"limited edition print" especially given the material description being the
original materials.

~~~
JohnFriel
This is a great catch! Thank you for pointing that out.

------
lazzlazzlazz
Very cool project — the site is gorgeous. I've long thought there should be a
way to expand artists' reach outside the expensive, laborious, and dated
gallery system, while preserving the dignity, quality, and price of the work.

I'd love to understand the differences between Art in Res and Saatchi Art.

------
kleinishere
Tech stack question -

Incredible website that is both feature rich and succinct to the content. As
far as marketplaces go, there are some known platforms (e.g. ShareTribe) and
payment options (e.g. Stripe Connect) - did you all "build" from the ground up
or "buy" in putting this together?

~~~
JohnFriel
Thank you! We're makers, so we built it.

Here's the stack:

\- React & redux on the front end

\- Rails on the back end

\- Postgres & redis for persistence

\- Stripe (including Connect) for payments

(edited for line breaks)

~~~
kleinishere
The bespoke nature shines through in all the best ways. Thanks!

------
werber
I’m struggling between considering these home decor or investment pieces. It
doesn’t seem like any (that I’ve checked) are coming up on artnet, so when you
say unknown do you mean like even to the art world? Also when filtering for
large items in getting things as small as 6x8”.

~~~
jvln
That is an interesting question. I would like to buy a nice painting or a
sculpture but how can I distinguish a piece that is worth considering.

------
leephillips
Do you have any interest in brokering digital art, as well? (Great idea and
well executed, by the way.)

------
habosa
Congrats on a very cool idea that seems well executed. I rarely buy anything
on an installment plan (never done it for a phone, etc) but for art it's for
some reason very appealing to me. I think I will buy something from here.

If I am paying $XXXX for my apartment each month, $XXXX + $50 to have a
beatiful piece of art in it seems like a good idea.

I bought my first piece of real art last year from a gallery and it was a good
and bad experience. Good because I was able to see the art in person next to
other pieces and actually meet the artist. Bad because the gallery owner was
somewhat rushing me and even when I pulled the trigger I didn't get the piece
until a few weeks later when the show ended.

------
vector_spaces
My main qualm is the hijacking of the browser back button. I despise when
sites do this, and I know I'm not alone.

Other than that the design is excellent. I like that you list SKUs on the main
page and that there isn't a lot of cruft or excessive negative space.

~~~
JohnFriel
Totally with you on this. It's super annoying! We're working on a fix.

~~~
danmchugh
We have shipped a fix for this now. Apologies for the frustration it caused.

------
stereo
How do you make sure the buyers will keep paying even after receiving the
artwork? You don't keep the money in escrow or anything like that, do you?

Is there a way, as a buyer, to figure out how much shipping would cost?

~~~
JohnFriel
If someone stops paying, they're required to return their artwork (we even
used to frame the relationship as a "rental"). In the case of a truly bad
actor that stops paying and goes MIA, we make sure the artist gets paid, even
if it's a loss for us.

For now, we charge a flat price for domestic shipping (with two tiers based on
parcel size.) A near/medium-term goal is to integrate with shipping APIs for
more nuanced shipping prices.

~~~
superhuzza
Be careful with insurance as they may consider this voluntary parting as
opposed to theft if someone refuses to pay and refuses to return the painting

------
pinky1417
I hope the won’t-pay-$100-for-a-painting (or $100 per installment) crowd is
large enough to make your business worthwhile. It’d be amazing to
simultaneously fund new artists, bring regular Joes/Janes into the art world,
and have a sustainable business at the same time.

But that little MBA demon on my shoulder is whispering that targeting low
willingness-to-spend consumers will result in, at best, strongly limiting
growth and, at worst, a perpetually money losing business. I’m just
speculating since I don’t know your financials, so if you’re already in the
black, my apologies. If you’re both in the black _and_ don’t care about
growth, apologies again.

But assuming you want to grow and/or aspire to be profitable, you’ll either
need to grow the size of the art market (hard) or sell to wealthier (or at
least, people who spend more of their money on art) consumers (less hard).
Social proof is a huge factor for buyers of substantial art, to the point that
a handful of people/galleries/etc get to define what constitutes great - and
therefore very expensive - art (there was a great Adam Ruins Everything
episode on this
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dw5kme5Q_Yo](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dw5kme5Q_Yo)).
My mom is very involved with the main art museum in my city, going on trips
with other benefactors to buy art for the museum. She also buys art herself -
not crazy expensive super known pieces like Damien Hurst’s shark, but still
high-end pieces from up-and-coming artists (to put it another way, she buys
pieces that aren’t in the $1 million+ range). She uses her own sensibilities
primarily, but to find the art itself and ensure the price she’s paying isn’t
for a dumpster, she relies on people in the art world.

So, I’m just suggesting you consider two characters of art consumers: (1)
social proof drives their decisions and (2) there are often wealthier. Your
creative juices might find something really innovative for the social proof
component; I don’t have any specific suggestions at the moment. But on (2),
consider targeting people in between Steven A Cohen (bought Hurst’s shark for
$8-$12 million) and the <$100 art buyer. Given the success (until recently) of
Restoration Hardware, I believe you could find people willing to pay
$1,000-$10,000 for art. People pay thousands of dollars for a sofa, why not
the art that’s on display in their homes? You could imagine quite a few
professional, internet savvy DINCs (dual income no children) in their 30s or
40s being interested in having a substantial art piece. They may be
intimidated by galleries and not know what to select. Just something to think
about to boost your margins.

------
lberkowiz1
As an artist on the site, I think it is fantastic. It is different from Artsy
and other Sites because of their personal attention and commitment to their
artists and customers. Linda

------
throwaway1777
Why is there an application process for artists? I have some art but I doubt I
would be accepted because there are loads of more famous and highly
credentialed artists in my area.

~~~
danmchugh
Great question. We have an application process for a few reasons:

1\. Because curation is important to us

2\. So we can learn about the artist and how best to help them

3\. So we can take time to help onboard artists and show them how best to make
use of Art in Res

We built Art in Res so that anyone can apply, and we take our time to consider
every application.

------
ajhurliman
Very cool, but I'd like to see the difference between the monthly and one-time
total payments. The scale of the art is also difficult to perceive. Everything
looks the same size and you have to look at the numbers on the bottom to see
the size, but it's still hard to capture at a glance. I know there's probably
some strategy to get highly normalized images of the art, but it's not very
immersive.

Otherwise, good luck with the project; I love the concept!

------
TenJack
This is cool! One small UI recommendation would be to make the pagination (1
of 92) in the bottom right bigger and more prominent. I almost couldn't find
it.

~~~
danmchugh
Thanks for the suggestion. We'll definitely add it to our considerations. Just
curious, were you on computer or mobile device?

~~~
TenJack
I was on a laptop/desktop.

------
chickenpotpie
I get paying artists in monthly installments, but I have zero interest in
doing that as a consumer. Art is a luxury good and those that can afford it
are trained to avoid financing things they don't need. I would charge the
users the full upfront cost and pay artists in monthly installments. Maybe
instead of taking a cut off the profits you can invest the money that hasn't
been distributed to the artist yet like RobinHood.

------
milofeynman
When I look for art I almost exclusively look for watercolor (or a specific
style of realistic western oil). Some more filters based on medium would be
useful.

------
aswihart
Congrats on the launch! Beautiful site. I'd like more info about how you ship
the art before buying. I found your FAQ after a little digging, but it didn't
really give me comfort that you ship using a method that is particularly
suited to fine art. Also, I noticed a few listings say that they come framed.
For these I'd want to see the frame, they vary so much in style and size.

------
itronitron
Can you elaborate on what 'take' and 'total payout' are, and how they relate
to each other and the total price of an artwork?

------
NaOH
Looks fantastic and I hope this does well. Congratulations. And thank you.

Suggestion: Maybe move the pricing filters on the left side to the bottom of
the filtering choices, just as a way to emphasize the works over the dollars.

Bug?: No matter which filters I select, or how many (even none), I'm shown
there are 92 pages of results.

Best wishes with this.

------
stevenjgarner
The "Tap below to copy your invite link:" on your invite page does not appear
to work? (Google Chrome on macOS)

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sherlock_h
Cool idea. I wish if I send links to friends (via iMessages, Whatsapp, FB)
that the link preview populates with the images of the page in question and
not a general image. For the artist page, I would like it to show an image
from the artist and for the link of an individual painting I would like it to
show the painting in question

------
elorant
This could work well for companies that could lease art for exhibiting it in
their offices. The artist gains recognition and a steady income, the company
raises their prestige and can change artwork every couple of years, and
everyone is happy. It has been tried before and failed, I hope you guys make
it.

------
Tarrosion
I like this idea! Any plans to expand to types of art which are not paintings?
e.g. I love colorful geometric glass art, and to the extent I collect art [I
have definitely noticed the "I should buy some art" urge growing as my age and
salary grow], that's where I expect to spend my dollars.

------
hhs
This is amazing!

Have you thought about adding details about what materials the artists used
besides noting the basic supplies like “canvas” and “oil stick”?

As a buyer, some may be interested specifically on what colour name / brand of
materials the artists used. And if ambitious, why they used those items over
others?

~~~
danmchugh
This is a great idea. It's definitely something we will look into. I love the
idea of being able to explore more of these details in detail.

~~~
hhs
Thanks for the update. Might be an interesting differentiating factor - always
wondered why galleries like White Cube to auction sites like Christie’s lacked
that granularity.

------
ZoomZoomZoom
At this stage of the Art Market evolution, I applaud anything, that's not
churning out pretty pictures from "art" farms in the third world (no offence
here, pure economics, someone's just using low quality of life in these
countries).

------
DenisM
Are you interested in resellers? Like, retail chains?

Also, no contact information on your site. Boo.

------
philfrasty
Is this US only? Didn't find any mention on this in the FAQ or signup page.

~~~
JohnFriel
It's US only for now, but once we figure out shipping and taxes we're excited
to open up internationally.

------
simonrobb
Spectacular! Well done on shipping a product/service which I've wanted for a
long time. In particular the financing option will enable me to take the leap
into the world of fine art for the first time.

------
subpixel
I have painter friends. They do not want to sell me their art an any price.
They would rather pay to have it in the right gallery show.

In other words, artists who are trying to build their career are demand, not
supply.

------
tomatoman
Your filters are broken. No matter what I pick I get the same paintints

------
aaronbrethorst
Very cool. I'd love to see this extended to photography. good luck!

------
carstenhag
The price filter does not seem to work (maybe the minimalist one neither, but
not totally sure). I selected <1200$, saved it, the page says <1200$ but I see
7000$+ paintings.

------
cheriot
Since we're all commenting on the price display, I'd be really curious about
my own behavior if it was not visible on the gallery view.

(I really want to find a less expensive one that I like)

------
paul_milovanov
Question for founder: who takes on credit risk, the artist or Art in Res? Who
does buyer credit check and determines interest rate? What does "responsible
for damages" mean?

------
elymar
This is a great idea! I've browsed for quite a bit now. My only suggestion is
that the thumbnails are a bit small, so it's hard to see the image without
clicking on it.

------
pletsch
The site looks great, love the scale feature! What's your target demographic?
I could see interior designers/companies who stage houses being a huge market
for you.

------
the_arun
How do you guys ensure that the art is not a copy of another popular art work?
Could customers flag an artwork saying it is pirated with information about
original?

------
Kique
Love the site, and honestly not unreasonable prices compared to galleries in
my area (Chicago). Love the banana for scale feature!

------
idrisser
Really nice website, best of luck in the launch!

~~~
JohnFriel
Thank you!

------
richardfontana
Would you consider working with visual artists other than painters (I have a
good friend who is a textile/fabric artist)?

------
davidajackson
Cool but have to do math in my head while reading the page initially, can you
add total price.

Idea: sell some AI generated art for charity.

------
brandnamehq
What happens if a customer stops making monthly payments?

Does the financing model work by offloading all risk to the artist?

Are there some protections?

~~~
JohnFriel
We take on the risk (it's one of the main reasons for our commission). If
someone stops paying, either they send their artwork back to the artist or, in
the worst case scenario, we pay the artist their full cut at a loss to us.

------
couchdb_ouchdb
I love when you press the 'Show Size' button it puts a picture of a banana on
the painting for comparison.

~~~
danmchugh
We love it too. We hope to have some more ways for you to visualize the art in
the near future that provide more context.

------
joering2
Inability to hit back button is a killer to me. Instantly got into panic mode
and scared to visit again :(

~~~
danmchugh
Thanks for highlighting this bug. Sorry it made you panic! We're adding it to
our bug-fix queue as high priority.

~~~
danmchugh
We've shipped a fix for this bug now. Thanks again for letting us know about
it. Hopefully you can continue browsing un-hindered!

------
earlyriser
Is this open for Canada based artists?

------
chadlavi
Heads up, with adblockers turned on in iOS Safari, every product image on your
site is missing.

------
masahiko
whats your business model? margins are slim and one would assume repeat
purchases will be few?

------
TaylorGood
Is there somewhere on the website to express interest in becoming a featured
artist?

------
colejoh
This is really awesome! Love browsing the artists and seeing their different
styles.

------
irl_zebra
I really like it! I am a millennial with a lot of disposal income because of
SWE and companies like FAANG. I've been to art galleries and openings but
never purchased, and always feel like there's some low grade grift going on. I
don't know.

This is the first Show HN I've sent the link to friends! Found several things
already, like it.

One word of caution, we launched things years ago with a Show HN and took all
the suggestions into account and total failure. HN isn't the average crowd and
their preferences aren't the usual preferences. It's like how the whole
internet seemed to support Bernie Sanders but he ended up flopping bad (not
getting political, just am observation). HN, Reddit, Twitter aren't the real
world, take all advice and popularity from said sources with a grain of salt.

That said, my partner and I are looking at art on your site now and will
likely be spending thousands this week via the site. Love it!

------
queercode
a lil bit of website feedback: on route change, please scroll the page to the
top.

if i scroll to the end of the home page, then go to "how it works", i'd expect
not to be at the end of that page.

love it, though!

~~~
danmchugh
Great find. I'm adding it to our bug-queue now. Thanks so much, I'm glad you
like it despite our glitches!

------
WFHRenaissance
Isn't this literally Paul Graham's first startup?

~~~
dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22824654](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22824654)

------
have_faith
The lead is

> Art should be affordable, and artists should get paid.

Why is this?

------
tigerlily
Hi John, any plans to expand outside the USA?

------
ksj2114
Awesome idea and execution. Congrats :)

------
baby_wipe
Very cool, but too expensive for me.

------
Rauchg
Awesome

------
jes5199
_wow_ those paintings are bland

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sherlock_h
This is

------
jes5199
etsy but expensive

