ABSTRACT
The transition of the support structure for the arts from one of patronage to a primarily market-based environment provided an opportunity for art connoisseurs to establish private commercial art galleries. With the growth of the art market, the gallery system has developed into the primary enterprise for distributing art, as well as the dominant venue for introducing and presenting new art. Art galleries reflect the diversity in the art world and are similarly differentiated in terms of high and low, popular and elitist, avant-garde, and commercial. This entry defines the ideal-typical art gallery and describes its operations and role in the distribution of art. The qualities that distinguish galleries are situated within the cultural hierarchies of the art world as a way to better understand the various roles of art galleries within an integrated, but stratified system for the production and consumption of art.
