The post Buy What You Love, But... received a lot of comments. Most of the comments I received via email. In fact, I still recieve about one email per week about that post. I must have hit on one hot topic. Most of you disagreed with the post so I thought I'd follow up...
Just for the record, I have bought art simply because I loved it. I didn't check out the artist's c.v. or make sure that the gallery was reputable. I have collected a lot of art and feel pretty secure when going with my gut. When I meet people who are interested in putting together a contemporary art collection (and not simply decorating their home, but really investing in up and coming artists), most say that they feel pretty "stupid" when starting out. I am often asked to share some tips on how to make smarter decisions when purchasing those first few works of art. They have all been told to buy what they love, but some want to know more. That post was one tip. Just a suggestion. There are many ways to go about collecting art.
That post was also a little passive-aggressive. I believe that there is a lot of "bad" art being sold at "bad" galleries. Just my opinion, of course. I don't know, yet, how to explain it without naming names and pointing fingers, but I am working on it.
Glad to see you're back at it. With a 1-year-old in the house, I can certainly see how its tough to juggle everything.
The most interesting psychological aspect of this issue is why some people feel they need additional reasons for a purchase beyond their love for a piece. On first read of your post, iI took this to mean they want a rational underpinning for spending what is sometimes a significant amount of money. But after short reflection I got more generous and I think they also want ot expand their understand of why they love a piece of art, perhaps so that can find another that they love.
Posted by: Todd W. | February 10, 2006 at 09:37 PM
Todd, I also believe that there is an educational component to collecting art that differentiates it from decorating with art. In most cases, especially for new collectors, unless they are learning - about art, galleries, artists or whatever - while purchasing, then they may be simply purchasing wall decoration. There is nothing wrong with appraoching art as decoration, but some want to go deeper. Like wine collectors. I am a wine drinker...I don't know much about it, but I like to drink it. I am not a wine collector, even though at any given time I may have 10 to 20 bottles of wine in my house for entertaining purposes. Wine connoisseurs enjoy learning about wine and collecting bottles that they know a lot about - good years, good vintages, good vineyards, etc. This seperates them from the likes of me. I enjoy drinking it, not studying it. Make sense?
Posted by: Paige | February 15, 2006 at 08:46 PM
There is a really good website that has a very informative art buying guide on it. The site is www.buynewart.com
buynewart seem to have a really interesting approach to contemporary art collecting and I think the limited edition photography that they have not the site a wonderful.
Posted by: Elston Williams | February 20, 2006 at 04:17 PM