One
definition, as it relates to the visual arts, is the practice of curating a display of visual
art. Thus:Curatage: (syn. curatorship, curating): In the visual arts, the act of using a curator to remove or prevent the propagation of
art material that does not properly commodify or monetize. In an ideal world curatage is performed by a trained and competent aesthetician, but the ballooning academicism, obscurantism and insularity of the high
art world and the common currency of terms such as “gatekeeper”, “gallerist” or “
sheep” attest to the fact that this is not always the
case. Indeed, with the decline of traditional media, brick and mortar marketing and the dilution of academic and professional credentials the traditional reliance on curatage in some areas of the visual arts may be waning.
The gallery director'
s curatage, informed by entrepreneurial instinct and
natural salesmanship, avoided the near disaster of displaying a collection of one-off pieces that lacked sufficient fungibility to
support successful marketing and promotion.