The Art of Collecting Art

The Gallery Experience
Don’t feel intimidated by spending time in a gallery. Look for a gallery whose reputation is for offering their clients the best they can - without compromising for market trends. A good painting has a timeless quality and will resonate with viewers in any decade and will never seem dated. Don't hesitate to ask your dealer to justify the pricing. (Note: avoid the mall and “production art.” Quality art is original and can't be mass-produced for multiple retail locations)

Trust yourself
I find most people have a better instinct for art than they realize. Everyone's response to a work of art is equal, because it's your response. Reading about art is great, but just looking and looking and then looking some more is a sure way to gain appreciation - you're contributing to your visual memory and mentally cataloging layers of comparisons.

Art is an investment in quality of life
The best gallery owners and curators won't tout art as an “investment” per se. Art is for enjoyment, and for adding layers of culture, for fun.

Start small
This is a good way to test yourself and your instincts without breaking the bank. You can collect wonderful pieces that aren't necessarily expensive. I've seen some exciting pieces by high school students - if you can get their parents to part with it. Also, keep an eye on your own children, they may produce something frame-worthy.

Collect living artists
You're supporting the artists and enabling them to continue doing what they do. Also, this way you'll never wind up with a fake. In the secondary market, the artist receives not a penny.

Read the artist resume
It helps to read the artist statement and relate to what you are looking at and to the price you're paying.

On Approval
Any reputable gallery will want you to try the painting at home on approval and experience it for a few days. (That includes that great palm frond piece in neon that you saw in Hawaii. Like the flowered shirt, it may not be really you when you get it back home.)

Art and the power of placement
Art and the Power of Placement is the title of a new book, touted as definitive, about placing art. Yes, we do joke about the "over the sofa" quote to painting; however, then you can enhance or detract from the power or the enjoyment of a piece. (This was demonstrated by the recent flap over a Pollack that was hung in the huge canyon of a space in the new MOMA where much of its impact was lost.) So yes, it's logical to ask yourself where you're going to put it, but if you are madly in love with it -- it won't matter.

Politics and art don't mix
This is a standard directive for any fine arts discipline. Good art is not politically motivated.

Questions to ask
· Does this painting have an emotional content?
· Does this work express successfully what it was meant to express?
· Does it “grow on you”- increases in stature every day and intrigue you every time you look at it?

Have fun
The experience of visiting galleries and museums is something of a sanctuary from everyday concerns. The end result could be the joy of seeing an art work that you admired enough to bring home, grow into a regular “family member”.