The Art of Collecting: A Spectator Sport

Much as been written about the art of collecting through the centuries; and, the one thing that remains constant throughout it all is that there is no one formula which we all can agree on.

There is no algorithm of what the right artwork is to collect, nor what the wrong artwork is to not to collect. There is no algebraic equation. There is no cancelling of units. It is at best a heuristic approach based on one thing and one thing alone: and that is appeal.

Georges Braque, aptly conveyed that, “There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain.”

In essence, this value is found only in the eye of the beholder.

During the nineteenth century, about forty years before the birth of the Monsieur Braque, there lived a brilliant linear artist and critic by the name of John Ruskin.

In his famous discourse, entitled, “Modern Painters“, this is what he wrote: “I do not say therefore that the art is greatest which gives the most pleasure, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to teach and not to please. I do not say the art is greatest which teaches the most, because perhaps there is some art whose end it is to please and not teach. I do not say the art is greatest which imitates best, because perhaps there is some art whose end is to create and not imitate. But I say that the art is the greatest which conveys to the mind of the spectator, by any means whatsoever, the greatest number of the greatest ideas…If this then be the definition of great art, that of a great artist naturally follows. He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.”

As for myself, I believe that you know you have mastered the art of collecting, as you dole out your payments and check you bank account and you feel richer for it.

You have become the consummate spectator and, for whatever your reasons for collecting, there is no feeling like it when you enter this arena!

Excuse My Self-Cultivation

It is difficult to promote or self-cultivate. At least for me, it is.

It is one thing to pontificate the significance and the beauty of one so deserving as Albrecht Durer; or, any number of masters through the ages. But it is quite another to take a step back from what I truly love to do and promote a new offering on Durerpost that I believe will do nothing less than enhance an art lover’s appreciation of art even more.

At least, that is how I justify it to myself.

I have often said that an artist spends a lifetime creating an oeuvre that will be admired through time. But it takes a scholar or enthusiast another lifetime documenting that oeuvre in tomes called, catalogues raisonnnes.

These exhaustive studies are just as important to the collector as they are to the art itself.

There are to date, approximately 1400 catalogues raisonnes in existence and most are housed in an incredible institution called the Wildenstein Institute or indexed on-line at Print Council of America by the artist surname.

The list that is compiled on Durerpost is not as vast, but it is just as informative (and free via opt-in). It is based on the graphic oeuvre of my most favorite artists, including: Durer, Rembrandt, Goya, Whistler, Sisley, Pissaro, Cezanne, Manet, Icart, Gauguin, Maillol, Lautrec, Escher, Vlaminck, Matisse, Renoir, Villon, Erte, Dali, Chagall, Picasso, Braque, Miro, as well as those raisonnes dedicated to watermarks and collectors stamps.

Again, forgive this moment of self-promotion. I do this, so I can return to the matter at hand: to cultivate and promulgate the beauty and mystery of that discipline we call art.