Recently a new client asked me to look at a particular artwork that was being sold at a local gallery. I went to see the work and I had to admit that I was not enthused. It was being sold by the kind of chain gallery that you find in Mayfair, Marlow and Tunbridge Wells. The kind of gallery that caters for wealthy customers with walls to fill, and the work they sell is more luxury good than fine art. They’re interested in the sale rather than the quality of the art they sell.
The work I was being asked to review had no real artistic merit. The press release for the artist made outrageous claims, which would have been false if they’d made any art historical sense. But what surprised me most was that they were selling these relatively small paintings for thousands. For less you can buy elsewhere a beautiful piece by the likes of Prunella Clough or Neil Tait or Luca Bertolo - intelligent, thoughtful artists with institutional pedigree. Their work will repay time and thought and be a good or possibly excellent investment.
Low culture can be as relevant as high culture. If you want to read Mills & Boon that’s OK - it only costs a few pounds and is consumed and done. If you secretly quite like Little Mix’s latest album, that’s fine - it’s free with a Spotify subscription. But an artwork is expensive and lives with you and on your wall for years. It is a very different kind of cultural, emotional and public investment and you don’t need to pay thousands for some derivative “decoration” when you can take some time to think, learn or be guided towards work that will reward in all sorts of ways.
There are certain facts that I can highlight in order to show when a gallery, such as the one my client directed me to, is exaggerating the quality of their merchandise. In this case I was able to show the same artist’s work selling at auction only a few months earlier for a fifth of what was being asked for by the gallery. Of course resale value is not all that makes a work valuable, but outside the persuasive atmosphere of such high street ‘high end’ galleries, this work is worth very little in every sense. The experience begins and ends with the purchase.
Understandably most people don’t appreciate having their taste questioned, but you don’t expect to be able to speak another language without a few lessons, or master an instrument without years of practice, so you shouldn’t expect to be able to judge what constitutes great contemporary art without some guidance and education. The conversation around contemporary art has been expanding for decades and you can’t expect to jump in and immediately understand what is being discussed. Time and knowledge is required to be an astute collector. It is easy to make mistakes when there is so much art about and so many unscrupulous galleries pushing their wares.
At GRA, as an advisor with a background as an artist and a lecturer, I have no wares, no agenda and I give you time and knowledge. I present the art that I know to be critical and from artists of real merit. For those who do take those first steps into this art world, as collectors and investors, they find it is an endlessly fascinating and rewarding place.
