The insider’s guide to collecting art
by Jamie McCartney
Bare walls? Empty shelves? What to do, what to do? The art and nicknacks we have in our homes express our personalities just as our clothes and jewellery do. The irony is we spend ages agonising over paint colours and fabric swatches and even hire interior designers to guide the way but the art is often an afterthought. Perhaps because choosing it is ten times more complicated.
After all you can repaint the walls but you can’t repaint the painting. It’s difficult to know where to start. The entire process can be quite vexing, the jargon gets confusing and it can seem like an expensive hobby. It doesn’t have to be though. When I go to someone’s beautiful home and they just have crappy prints on the walls it makes me so mad. It’s like being invited for dinner and being served a ready meal. It lacks passion. We’re all passionate people and buying original art is a great way to express it.
So, helpful as ever, I’m going to try to demystify some of it and hopefully get you started in the right direction without breaking the bank. The most important thing to remember when collecting art is to buy what you like. You have to live with it so you better want it on your walls. Don’t concern yourself with whether it’s tipped as a good investment and blah blah blah. The value of art can go up and down just like shares but shares you don’t tend to hang on your wall for forty years and get pleasure from every day. That said, it can be a terrific investment. There are many collectable artists out there and many who will become so. Just don’t buy with that expectation. Anyway you’ll fall in love with the piece, never sell it and your kids will flog it when you’re dead and buy booze or foreign holidays or other unwise things.
So what should you look for? Well I think that the quality of work is important. The craftsmanship will always show through as will the quality of the materials. Look for things that you can tell the artist really cared about. Also look for art made with longevity in mind, which would mean traditional materials or things you know will last. So stuff made out of string, wax and pig’s blood, whilst all very avant garde, will look like shit in a week and fall apart soon after. I personally avoid anything with spray paint but suit yourself. Look for strong, well-made canvases rather than flimsy, cheap and wonky ones. Look for sculptures in stone or bronze or other metals or even fibreglass which is pretty stable. Think about how you will keep it, where it will live in your home and how often you move. A lovely, frilly ceramic piece probably isn’t a good idea if you have four young boys at home and move house every six months.
Look for prints and photos that mention they are ‘archival’ (made to last with proper inks on art papers) and not just squirted out of the office inkjet (those will fade). One last thing is to understand how many of that piece have been or will be produced. There is a huge difference between a unique piece and an edition. More on that later.
Galleries should be able to advise you but don’t necessarily trust them. They are there to sell. Buying directly from artists is a good idea if you trust your judgement because you’ll generally get a better deal and it’s nice to know who made it. People often begin to collect the works of certain artists and it’s more fun if you know them. You’ll also have a huge and direct impact on the life of that artist who probably really needs the sale. If you look at how long something takes to make versus what it costs, at the lower end of the market art is about the best value thing you will ever buy. Artists never charge enough.
So lets look at some jargon. Here are some common terms:
- Unique – as suggested it means there is only one such artwork and hence is more valuable than an edition.
- Limited Edition – means only a set number of that sculpture, print or photograph will ever be made. If you see 7/14 on an artwork it means that is the 7th out of only 14 that will ever be made. The lower the edition the better. Well-known artists produce larger editions because of demand. Editions often go up in price as they sell out so get in there early. Having said that buying the end of an edition means it was a popular piece and they tend to go up in value as soon as the edition has sold out.
- Giclée – is just an archival inkjet print. It does not mean it has any greater value. An unlimited print run is virtually worthless. It’s like printing money, every new note printed devalues the others. I personally hate giclée on canvas as they tend to be unlimited copies of paintings. Buy the original if you can.
- Cold Cast Bronze – otherwise known as ‘resin bronze’ is a common way now to reproduce sculptures. It is a mix of real bronze powder mixed with resin. The bronze content is very high and it polishes and colours like real bronze. They can look indistinguishable and are considerably cheaper. They are usually produced in limited editions but always check. Don’t get caught out either; if something says ‘bronze’ and appears very cheap, do find out if they mean foundry cast bronze or cold cast.
Finally here are some tips when dealing with artists. Never say “How much? It’s not worth that much.” Even if you just think it you are presupposing what an artist should earn. Trust me, for the majority it is not very much. Generally just pay the price they are asking unless you really love it but just can’t afford it. Then politely explain and ask if they can take a bit off or if you can pay in installments. Most artists are pretty open to making the sale somehow or other but don’t just go in expecting a discount for no reason.
In galleries you may be able to negotiate harder, especially if you buy a few pieces, as they are working on margin. They know how far they can go if they want to shift something. Also remember that art, especially sculptures, can be very expensive to produce and framing can cost a bomb. So if you see a bronze for say £4000 in a gallery it is more than likely the artist’s cut is less than a quarter of that with the rest going to the gallery, the foundry and possibly an agent. From the £1000 or so remaining there are the costs of materials, studio, packing, storing, transport and maybe model’s fees as well. Out of everyone the artist probably earned the least!
We do an awful lot of it for the love of it but you can’t eat love and you can’t live on plaudits. Buying original art can be lots of fun, a good investment and helps sustain our local economy. That one piece you buy really can encourage the artist to keep going. As a collector you actually control the market. You become a patron of the arts and are essential in supporting the lives, hopes, dreams and careers of passionate, hard working people. You could single-handedly be responsible for the development of a movement! What’s more you get to express your great taste and savvy to your friends and have beautiful things around you. What’s not to like?