Guide to start a contemporary art collection (2/2)

Buying a work of art is still a basic concept to understand and to visualize for most people. Collecting art, on the other hand, is a completely different and much more complex affair. Making your own contemporary art collection is not only based on taste or in an impulse, it needs long term commitment.

The idea is to buy what you like, but a collection has to be unique and it should reflect your personality, it demands a minimum planification and different elements have to be taken into account. But no worries, thinking about you and your needs Artsper has created a guide, you just have to follow the guide in order to learn how to do it.

Here is the second part of the guide made in two parts. Once the first steps of the first part of the guide are put in practice, it is important to follow the next ones in order to make a collection with a real artistic line.

5. Historical References

Starting a collection of contemporary art involves a certain commitment which includes taking a closer look at art history and its main and most important events.

You do not need deep knowledge about all the artistic periods and movements listed to date in the history of art, you could for example only read a book, like “History of Art” which was written by Ernst Gombrich, where he addresses the main subjects and events of the history of art from the primitive period to the present day in a simple and clear way.

6. Coherence

Coherence in a collection is acquired most of the time with the passage of time, almost in a natural way. By habituating the “eye” and with practice, you will succeed in noticing a certain relation between the works of art that you have acquired and those that you are attracted to.

But before time has an effect, it is important to start planning your next purchase right now. Try to mentally place the piece that you like besides the pieces that you already have. Without comparing them or focusing your interest on the pieces that resemble your latest acquisition, try to simply understand the mechanism of your tastes and impulses in order to learn from them and understand the cause of it.

7. Taking your Budget into Account

Do not hesitate to get interested in a specific artist and in his work even if your budget does not initially allows you to acquire it.

Indeed, some mediums are more affordable than others, specially the editions in the form of serigraphs. Not necessarily meaning they are of less quality, a lithography or a painting, even if done by the same artist may not have a similar price.

It is the unique aspect of painting that counts, even though a lithography remains a unique piece due to the digital process behind it (see our explanatory text about serigraphy).

Integrating a piece of an artist whose work you appreciate to your collection can start with the acquisition of an edition before you can acquire a larger unique piece later on.

8. Do not Give in your False Impulses

Being reasonable is not the goal when buying artwork, on the contrary. An art collection reflects your own taste more than any other sort of collection.

Buying a work of art often comes from an emotional impulse, a feeling. But sometimes that impulse is influenced by an outside opinion and that is what we must learn how to deal with.

Without falling in a psychological analysis, a collection is personal and it is important that it retains its singularity and its uniqueness in order to not resemble any other collection.