Holos Gallery of San Francisco, founded by the author, first opened its doors to the public in February, 1979. Modelled after a "conventional" art gallery, its mission was to display and sell holographic art works via an ongoing program of four group or individual exhibitions per year.
After seeing my first holograms in 1977 at Burton-Holmes' small shop on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, my enthusiasm and intrigue were such that I soon thereafter travelled to New York to visit the Museum of Holography. In June, 1978, I moved from Los Angeles back to my home town of San Francisco and realized there was no retail space in the entire Bay Area where the public could go to see (or buy) a hologram. I perceived a market niche and decided to start a business to fill the void. It was my goal to bring to the public this fabulous new medium which I found so fascinating, exciting, and glamorously "high tech."
In retrospect, "naivete" could best describe my initial business plan and expectations. After my first year, it was painfully obvious that I could not sell enough holographic art to survive. To insure viability, I transformed Holos Gallery into a "full service" operation, offering not only holographic art but also holographic gifts and novelties, a world-wide wholesale distribution service, some limited manufacturing, retail mail order via our own catalog, and custom production of holograms in all types and formats. This approach allowed the Holos Gallery to survive, but I always regretted seeing sales of holographic art comprise a smaller and smaller percentage of our total annual sales.
By 1990, I had built a fairly large organization with worldwide sales of approximately $1,000,000 annually. However, the business had completely lost touch with its original goals (to sell holographic art), and I felt I might just as well be selling computers or socks as the often tacky holographic novelties and gifts we were selling in huge quantities. In September, 1990, as a result of growing disenchantment and frustration, I sold Holos Gallery and all its assets and operations to A.H. Prismatic of Brighton, England.
I believe a number of factors led to Holos' failure to sell significant quantities of holographic art. One of the biggest problems in the '70's and early '80's was the public's lack of familiarity with holograms. During those early days, almost all visitors to my gallery were seeing holograms for the first time. While many were astonished and enthused, just as many walked away scratching their heads in disbelief. To them, holography seemed at best a "trick" or "fad." There was no way for them to relate to what they had seen based on any prior experiences.
Further compounding this problem was the popular notion that art should be bought as an investment. I had no historical basis, no auction house price records, and no market data with which to convince potential buyers that they were making a "good" investment. It was not possible to predict future increases in value and quite impossible to guaranty any kind of liquidity with regards to reselling their purchase at a later date. Even in the last few years, I found most purchasers were buying the more expensive holographic art works because they liked them and could afford them, not primarily as investments.
Another major issue was the simple lack of good quality holographic art works and artists. The technical constraints were (and still are) most formidable and the equipment extremely rare and expensive. It was a time when a "good" hologram was simply a hologram that was bright and decent quality. Too often a hologram's only raison d'etre was the novelty of the three dimensional image with no regards to aesthetics.
As the years passed, there was an increase in both the numbers of art works sold and the prices they commanded. However, Holos' art sales never attained a volume adequate to sustain the business. Even today, I know of no hologram art galleries in the world that survive without augmenting their income, either through sales of related products and services or by the receipt of government and/or private foundation funding. At the time, however, I took solace in the upward trend and maintained a degree of cautious optimism.
A number of factors contributed to the growth of holographic art sales. The appearance of holograms on the covers of National Geographics and on major credit cards introduced millions and millions of people to holography and, at least sub-consciously, began to make people more comfortable with the medium. With the ability to recite a growing list of accomplishments in the commercial realm, it became possible to "validate" holography more easily in the minds of potential art buyers.
Furthermore, the laudable increase in the availability of and improvements in holographic education, equipment, facilities, and techniques, allowed more and more artists to make holograms. The result was holograms that were (and continue to become) brighter, larger, more colorful, more varied, and of greater aesthetic value. The seller of holographic art gained access to a finer and more varied inventory, resulting in a much better chance of finding a piece that could satisfy a customer's needs, tastes, and budget.
Though it may seem a trivial concern, the availability of better and less expensive illumination sources for holography also made a big difference. A good piece of holographic art must have a good light source to be properly seen and appreciated. The advent of small, inexpensive quartz halogen light bulbs and fixtures made it much easier to overcome customers' worries about properly displaying holographic art in their homes.
The most important thing to me, however, is that over the past ten years the holography community has come to accept that a high quality, very bright holographic image does not equate to "good art." Only by shedding reliance on the medium's novelty can the art form itself evolve. Holography must be able to compete on the same generally accepted guidelines used to judge other fine art: form, content, aesthetics, execution, communication, and inspiration. As holography matures, the blending of these traditional elements with holography's exceptional ability to project and focus light will assure its long range viability and success.
I've often characterized growth in the market for holographic art as "slow but steady." In the recessionary times of the early 1990's, however, I observed too much "slow" and not enough "steady." Freed from the constant demands of Holos Gallery's distribution business, I wanted to devote some of my newly found time to once again promoting pure holographic art. The question was how to do it and how to make more than just a regional impact.
The answer began to form when I found myself hired on a number of occasions to appraise holographic art. People wishing to sell or donate single pieces or collections needed appraised values, and I seemed to be one of the few people qualified to make such appraisals. However, I had to rely solely on my own extensive experience and business records to derive representative values.
Earlier, I mentioned my difficulties selling holographic art in an informational vacuum. I realized that ten years later the vacuum was as great as ever. There were still no public records to which I could refer to augment my own knowledge of holographic art values. I decided to address this problem as my personal approach to helping the holographic art medium on a world-wide basis.
Thus was born "Holart Report," the first journal of international holographic art sales. Holart Report collects comprehensive information about individual sales of holographic art works. The information is provided by galleries, museums, agents, and artists themselves, who mail or fax me a completed "Sales Report Form" when a sale is made. Every three months, all of the sales information received is published. For the first time, a public record is created of the world-wide sales prices for holographic art. All facts are maintained in a computerized data base, allowing comprehensive statistical analysis.
Holart Report should help in many ways. First, it demonstrates to professionals and collectors in all fields of art that there is true demand for holography. It shows that holographic art commands values in line with those paid for other forms of fine art, and a mechanism is finally provided for tracking appreciations in value through time. With these factors in place, businesses and individuals that were cautious about interacting with holography can overcome their doubts and participate in the field. When they see that the art sells in the first place, re-sells at appreciated values, and that there is sufficient activity to offer liquidity of investment, many of their objections to participation will be mitigated.
Holart Report released its first issue in May, 1992, and listed over $110,000 in art sales activity. While this was a great start, it is still too early to tell if Holart Report can fulfill the goals to which it is dedicated. I believe that if all involved in selling holographic art will participate in this project, it will succeed to everyone's ultimate benefit.
Numerous reasons can be rationalized for not participating: time filling out forms, fear of disclosing information, and costs of subscribing are some of them. However, if we continue to let minor obstacles interfere and stubbornly insist on carrying on our activities in a vacuum, "slow" and "slower" may well become the best adjectives available to describe future growth in the holographic art market.
In closing, I remain enthusiastic. We continue to see more and more fantastic and beautiful works of holographic art being produced by more and more exceptionally talented and dedicated artists. Such perseverance is vital to this medium's long term acceptance as a fine art form. Holography will take its place, alongside painting, sculpture, photography, and musical composition, as a valid and valuable means of artistic expression. How long this process will take remains unanswered.
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