Personal Art Ed P146,147,148,150,151_1-1015772115.e$S:23oct
Abigail Asher of Guggenheim, Asher Associates (top): “It’s about understanding who are the great artists of our time”
29/11/07
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How to collect Usually, Schwartzman believes, the things that we are attracted to, especially when we don’t know much
Thea Westreich of Thea Westreich Art Advisory Services (bottom): “We look for is what we feel will engage the client within their aesthetic and emotional sensibility”
about art, tend to be the things that don’t have as much staying power. And often the things that last are the things that we couldn’t see at first, or even the things that we find most abrasive or most difficult to like. “I learned a valuable lesson when I started working in the art field,” Schwartzman remembers. “There was an exhibition of Gilbert and George in New York around 1980. I really found the work objectionable. After about a week I had spent telling people what I disliked about it I realized that that was interesting work, that if I had such a strong reaction there was something meaningful going on there and I should pay attention to it.” Goldman shares a similar experience. “When I came to the United States from Russia, I hadn’t seen works by [German Expressionist painter] Max Beckmann. Seeing his work for the first time, I almost hated it. It made me uncomfortable and I couldn’t stop talking about how much I despised it. God knows why I persuaded myself to go a second time. But I understood there was something going on with me – I’ve never been that kind of disturbed by art. I went a third time and it was like someone took away the dark glasses from my face… I started immensely enjoying his work.” All our advisors agree that an ‘instant’ collection will not be interesting in the long run. Collecting, as Schwartzman points out, should be a lifetime pursuit. His typical clients, he says, are people who explore their own identities through the art of other people. Naturally, this takes time. What makes a collection interesting is how people specifically collect artists, and how they combine them with other artists’ works. “To me,” says Schwartzman, “it’s really not about who are the top ten artists. It’s obviously about collecting great artists, but it’s about collecting specific, meaningful works and works by different artists that resonate with one another.” A good example is Gerhardt Richter. Some collectors are interested in his representational work; others focus on the abstract pieces; others may combine both
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100 Thousand Club