The Anxiety of Acquisition

I received an email from a friend recently saying, “I hesitate to send this because you will probably say, ‘What a pilgrim this kid is!" it came with a lovely image of a watercolor he was interested in signed by the Dutch artist Aert Shouman (1710-1792) and titled “An Ocelot from Surinam”.

Why is this person concerned that I think him a Pilgrim? Why do we worry about what others think of what we collect? We all keep objects that belonged to those close to us or buy souvenirs on our travels and we do not worry what others think, so why this sensitivity when it comes to what we collect as art.

I might worry that I spent too much on a purchase but not what other people will think of it. My wife and I used to collect photograpy and European Art Nouveau but when we “discovered” the southwest of the United States we also discovered Native American Art and started collecting in that area. Our friends and colleagues of old may not have understood this new interest but we collected what we liked, not necessarily what they liked.

I was saddened to read in an Artnet survey that among the most common reasons for collecting art that 49% of currently active collectors believe it is an asset that they expect to gain value over time. That may turn out to be the case if you acquire works by the few artists who have already gained international recognition, or will in the future, and their work continues to have merit in the eyes of the world. I can only think of a handful of works of art we have collected by Native Americans that will even keep the value that we paid for them, no matter how the artists are currently recognized with awards at Indian Markets.

Do we fear being judged? Do we want to belong to a certain social circle? It seems we want validation of our choices. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a Missive called “Gone Too Far” illustrating a number of works of art that were considered bad or unacceptable in their time, and today are considered masterpieces. There were individuals who were willing to collect this “bad” art, that by circumstance, came to become acceptable and, by that fluke of fate, also gained in value. I doubt that is why they made the purchase in the first place.

Marcel Duchamp Fountain, 1950

I know someone who collects museum-worthy art. One of the well-known artists he collects paints pictures that are definitely R-rated, and some may go so far as to say they are X-rated. Friends and guests in their home may be surprised but they accept it because the artist is considered “important”. So why worry if you acquire R or X-rated material by an unknown artist if you believe it has artistic merit.

People come to art in different ways. Studying and observing a great deal of art in museums, at dealers and at auction can train your eye, make you a more knowledgeable collector, and give you more pleasure in what you have collected, but no one should be able to tell you what you like or don’t like.

Everyone will define art differently, but I think we can agree that art is something created to grab our interest or hit us on an emotional level strongly enough that we want to live with it. If you pick a life partner, that is no one else’s business and you don’t inspect who others have chosen before making your decision…I hope. So don’t worry about what others think of the art you collect.