Being a Collector

MFAH receives major collection of decorative and experimental craft art

Combined with the MFAH's sizable Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection of design objects, blossoming Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, emergence of award-winning furniture designer Michael Garman and a nascent program in industrial design at the University of Houston, the Eagle Collection should substantiate Houston's reputation as a preeminent axis for exhibiting and producing influential contemporary design.

via culturemap.com

Lessons from master collectors

To a certain extent, collecting is about learning, and we are often drawn to works of art that intrigue us. We may not understand them at first, but they make us want to understand.

CultureMap Houston: Insider information on the contemporary art world: Tips to become a smart collector, 2010-May-25, by Steven Thomson

Although the evening circled around the contemporary art scene White proffered the historic wisdom of Dominique de Menil on the notion of balancing art consumption with creating a smart curatorial eye:

"In the 1940s John de Menil brought back a Cézanne watercolor from a New York auction for $2 000. Dominique said that when she saw it she didn t like it; she didn t understand it there was too little paint. But she didn t know how to see it. She had to learn how to see it. And from there she went on to appreciate the masterpieces of spiritual abstraction. What they were always aware of in their discussion is that it s a process of learning. The de Menils would surround themselves with curators, visionaries, artists. They set forth a really inspiring model for collectors today."

New place to observe art in the blogosphere

Artist and art theorist Mira Schor recently published A Decade of Negative Thinking. Now she's received a grant to spend a year blogging about 'positive thinking.' This project is shaping up to be a treasure trove of art observations. She doesn't look at art as a collector, but she observes it as a party who has something deeply at stake. And she has some amazing things to say.

A Year of Positive Thinking by Mira Schor

I speak out when I think other people are just drinking the Kool-Aid. I apply feminism’s willingness to identify and critique power structures to wider fields of inquiry in the hope that at the very least what I can bring to contemporary culture is the ability to disbelieve. I assert the value of a grain of salt: a healthy dash of negativity about present appearances can’t hurt.

But as I finished the decade of negative thinking, I could see the outlines of the “positive” criticism I could have written during the same time period. A Year of Positive Thinking poses the challenge to myself to find contemporary art that I love. I will also write about significant artworks, films, and political actions and speech from the near and the deep past that have given me the courage to become and continue to be an artist and an activist.

Thoughts from the other side of the table

WACdesignstudio: "I Love It, But Not For $3,000." Our Thoughts When Selling Furniture, 2010-May-2

It’s really hard to actually get what an object is worth to produce. How long it takes to make or how many design failures happen before arriving at the finished product are arbitrary factors determining the price. It could be totally fair to price an object at 3,000 dollars, but if it isn’t perceived to be $3,000 by the consumer, then it is actually worth less. The question then becomes for us, “is this object really worth making?”

Why it's great to have a major art museum in Houston: fresh view of Impressionism this fall at MFAH

Exhibitions of Impressionists paintings usually make me yawn, not because they aren't lovely but because I've had so many opportunties. Now the MFAH is bringing something fresh to the experience.

ArtDaily: German Impressionism Presented at the MFA Houston September 2010, 2010-Apr-26

"While Impressionism is considered a fundamentally French development, it naturally spread to neighboring countries, and German Impressionist Landscape Painting focuses on the greatest works by these leading German visionaries," said Dr. Peter C. Marzio, MFAH director. "Liebermann, Corinth, and Slevogt are rarely exhibited in the United States, as their works are generally not in American museum collections, and the MFAH exhibition will be the first time that works by the so-called ´Triumvirate of German Impressionism´ will be shown together."

"German Impressionist Landscape Painting presents a wonderful opportunity to explore why it took nearly 20 years for Impressionism to make its way from Paris to Germany," added Dr. Helga Aurisch, MFAH associate curator of European art and co-organizer of the exhibition. "By looking at the greatest German Impressionist painters—presenting their works to the American public for the first time—we are able to better understand an important chapter of art history and the complex relationship between the art world and world events."

Max Liebermann, Blumenstauden am Gärtnerhäuschen nach Norden, 1922,  56 x 75 cm. Private Collection

How to think about art and its role in our culture

Today we have two fabulous art blog posts that help us think critically about what art is, and its role in our society. I agree with both of them! Art serves various roles and lives in gardens and in  museums. Our society is richer overall because art serves many roles.

The BIG IMPORTANT art world of New York museums:

Modern Art Notes: If you care about today's art, you care about 'Skin Fruit,' 2010-Apr-14, by Tyler Green

The LESS IMPORTANT BUT RELEVANT TO MORE PEOPLE artists at a festival in Houston:

The Great God Pan is Dead: The Bayou City Art Festival, 2010-Apr-14, by Robert Boyd

Paddy Johnson says the contemporary art scene has weathered the recession well

Still, looking around Chelsea, the contemporary gallery scene looks much the same as it did during the boom. We may be in a recession, but only a few spaces have folded, and if my latest trip through Manhattan's gallery epicenter is any indication, there's still a fair amount of big production-value art being made.

via www.thelmagazine.com

The L Magazine: If It's in the Art Market, It's Art, 2010-Apr-1, by Paddy Johnson of www.ArtFagCity.com.

Paddy notes that it's more difficult for dealers to mark up work in the secondary market, and that may actually be driving dealers to market more emerging artists.

Art Handling Olympics coming soon to a city near you

You have to read the whole story. This activity is bound to spread like wildfire around the country. Just need to find a good MC.

Art Fag City: The First Art Handling Olympics A Huge Success!, 2010-Mar-22, by Paddy Johnson

I don’t issue effusive praise too much, but the Art Handling Olympics deserves it. It’s without a doubt the best art event I’ve been to all year, in part because the competitors took the AHO games so seriously. Also, it was a total riot. Founder and MC Shane Caffrey did a brilliant job hosting the games, ensuring no part of the event ever felt tedious or boring. When audiences weren’t yelling at the competitors or judges, they were laughing at Caffrey, a comedian in his own right

Inside the Mind of a Collector + see the collection at HCP by April 25

In this month's issue of SPOT magazine from the Houston Center for Photography, Joerg Colberg interviews W. M. Hunt who shares some amazing insights into the collector's mind. I'm linking here to the extended version of the interview on Colberg's web site. The Houston exhibit from W.M. Hunt's collection is called RE: groups and runs through April 25, 2010 at the Houston Center for Photography.

Conscientious Extended: A Conversation with Bill Hunt.2010-Mar-15, by Joerg Colberg

There is increasing recognition for collectors as artists when they demonstrate a unique ability to gather together disparate works into a coherent grouping. The National Gallery and the Met have both done exhibitions of vernacular - snapshot - collections belonging to private individuals. Apparently Steichen did one at the Modern in the 1950’s well before the Szarkowski regime. My collecting really has had no agenda beyond the visceral. I saw it, I liked it, and (if I could) I bought it. As a dealer, the idea of stroking the collector through a purchase was initially completely foreign to me. I have never brought any sense of investing to this either. (This is colossally ironic because the collection is probably my annuity.)

We just bought a painting by Holly Wilson

My husband and I have made a purchase from Holly Wilson's recent show at the Goldesberry Gallery. "Paper Hat Portrait" is an encaustic painting only 5 inches by 5 inches, but it's very representative of the show's theme. We're very excited to be hanging it in our foyer. Holly has added pictures of art from the show to her web site.