Being an artist, I find it comforting to think that the baby boomers have now matured into a group that indulges itself by collecting art. (Ginger Adkins)
For centuries, the sanctuary of a unique art collection has been the secret beacon of endurance for important legacies concerned with posterity. For any legacy to endure, it must provide timeless beauty and continuous inspiration for future imaginations. For these reasons, today's art enthusiast must know that great art is founded upon the love of nature, tradition, innovation, and invention. To secure and honor his or her legacy, he or she should be represented by art that provides timeless beauty and continuous inspiration to all. (Samuel Adoquei)
Sometimes people who buy my art feel they are buying a piece of me – either buying my friendship or can make social demands on me, or they act as if buying my art has been mostly a charitable donation rather than a purchase of something that has value in itself. (Anonymous)
I'm just a temporary custodian of these works. (Michael Audain)
I started collecting art... simply because I wanted pictures to hang on the wall. I noticed what a difference a picture could make to the ambience of a room, and indeed how shifting work around could change a room's whole feeling. (Michael Audain)
- British Artist 1921-1975... Certainly, the history of my life and the works of art which have especially enriched it is precisely that: the depiction or incantation of a handful of metaphors whose spendour rests upon their intonation. (Michael Ayrton)
Very few people ever understand art. If you are lucky, they will buy it for the wrong reasons. (Darby Bannard)
- interview with Carol Crenna, December 15, 2012... My art collection is dominated by tribal art from Nigeria where I taught school, from New Guinea where we've travelled, and by Canadian Haida pieces. My own art is either on exhibition or owned by other people! (Robert Bateman)
Serious collectors that I know are focused on the art. They are not looking for a decorative item, or a good investment. There is some aspect of the work itself that has hooked them. (Eleanor Blair)
Collecting is not really about art, or Pez Dispensers, or whatever. Collecting is about collecting. (David Blanchard)
One of the almost peculiar characteristics of 20th century collecting is that some people succeeded in giving the appearance of being smart simply by purchasing dumb art. (Joe Joseph P. Blodgett)
Many people simply do not trust their own taste. Having someone else - other than the artist - tell them the work is good often gives them 'permission to buy.' (Kelly Borsheim)
-on collectors... Ruthless, greedy, tyrannical, disreputable... they have had one principle worth all the rest, the principle of delight! (Sir Kenneth Clark)
I feel a weight that is not a representation of weight, but of core reality – the heart of the matter, the pulse of process and creation. There is the aesthetic rapture that mystics pursue, that theologians and philosophers anatomize and speculate upon and translate for human kind so that it can make sense of much that is inexplicable or unbearable – the finiteness of life, the inexorable passage of time, endings. (Anonymous Art Collector)
When one buys some of my artwork I hope it is because they will wish to learn from it and not because they think it will match their drapes! (Christian Cardell Corbet)
To create is to relate. We trust in the artist in everybody to make his own connections, his own juxtapositions. (Sister Corita)
Dealers love me. I'm a shopaholic. (Dr. Jack Dalhousie)
In my career I have two different audiences that sometimes overlap. People respond to either the sense of light or the amount of information, the detail. (Donald Demers)
The longer you spend working on something – loving it into being, almost – the more you get attached. It's silly, but you do hope they go to good homes. (Anne Desmet)
You will quickly feel a loss of love for a work that you paid too much for. (Steve Diamond)
It has been my experience that people who buy my works demonstrate that they want to make a connection with the artist... And that this connection is an important part of the acquisition process. It seems to give the buyer something additional that is difficult to describe. It is also important to understand that many artists simply don't want to share and talk with buyers. This is the way it is. (Jack Dickerson)
To Own a piece of work done by an Artist / is to possess one of their facets / one of the windows of their life... (David Dory)
Collectors are buying a lifestyle. It gives them a connection to a dream. (Penny Duncklee)
Some collectors do not want the world to know that they have millions of dollars worth of art on their walls. Many collectors also seek anonymity when they sell a work of art. (Gil Edelson)
Collecting seems to bring out that primitive instinct for the hunt in some of its devotees, who stalk their prey with skill. (Alicia Craig Faxon)
The appeal of the esthetic is an important motive for most art collectors. Colour, texture and line evoke a response, and one wishes to own the picture and look at it often. (Alicia Craig Faxon)
Buy art because you like it and because it moves you, and because it enhances your life. (Dan Fear)
Buyers want to know about the journey an artist is on. (John Ferrie)
The collector attempts always to acquire the best, and his knowledge of what is best is always widening. His is the task of judging between degrees of perfection. (Arthur Davison Ficke)
Collecting at its best is very far from mere acquisitiveness; it may become one of the most humanistic of occupations, seeking to illustrate by the assembling of significant reliques, the march of the human spirit in its quest for beauty... (Arthur Davison Ficke)
However you feel and however you respond to a work of art is your way. There is no 'supposed to' when it comes to looking at art. (Jeanne Frank)
If you paint all over the spectrum, different subjects and styles, collectors become confused. I think they want to know what to think of you; what you are about, more than technical ability. (Nina Allen Freeman)
The brilliance of art as a collectible is that it has a way of reaching out on an emotional level. It touches on mystery, even spirituality. (Robert Genn)
Collectors are happy people. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
If possible, the new collector should take some classes in painting. This is to find out what the fundamentals are, so that they can be recognized in works that catch the eye. (Daniel E. Greene)
If Venice sinks, the collection should be preserved somewhere in the vicinity of Venice. (Peggy Guggenheim)
Buying art is the same thing as falling in love. (Nohra Haime)
The art one chooses to collect becomes a self-portrait. (Dennis Heckler)
Art collecting requires a bit of an investment. A painting may cost more than cheese puffs, but not necessarily more than a very good bottle of wine. (Glen Helfand)
The art piece you buy is something you'll experience repeatedly – it's worth considering why it speaks to you, and how long it might continue to do so. (Glen Helfand)
The man who has honesty, integrity, the love of inquiry, the desire to see beyond, is ready to appreciate good art. He needs no one to give him an 'Art Education'; he is already qualified. He needs but to see pictures with his active mind, look into them for the things that belong to him, and he will find soon enough in himself an art connoisseur and an art lover of the first order. (Robert Henri)
If the choice is between buying another building or a Pollock, I'd go for the Pollock every time. (Damien Hirst)
To appreciate a work of art, is it okay to like what you like, and the heck with the art critics and experts? Absolutely. (Thomas Hoving)
You must understand that I live with my art collection. (Elton John)
Cherished art becomes a portal through which we may enter the Universe... a glimpse, a sliver, a hint of our very own heaven. Artists are providing a personal journey to an emotional state of mind. Art is not a product, but a service. (David Rodman Johnson)
By securing and displaying the works of today's plein air painters, you collectors serve as the custodian of the 'book of art' for our time - and tomorrow's heritage of how this land once appeared. (L. Diane Johnson)
I think the collectors have made an enormous contribution, not only to the market but to painters themselves... These people that buy, that set standards, make everyone else itch to emulate. (Philip Johnson)
I don't approve of what Wall Street and the wealthy have done to this country, but they are the very ones buying my paintings. (Scott Kahn)
The consolation of art comes in many forms... For some it is making, for others it is having. (Michael Kimmelman)
Share your enthusiasm with the collector's enthusiasm for the work, and discover things together. Be nice and appreciative and at the same time give them the hint that you're a winner so they believe they've made a good investment. It's simple common sense... (Mark Kostabi)
Many artists and critics see collectors like kids see their parents: as the ones with money and power who just don't get it. Once they start to mingle with the collectors and learn that they are people who have achieved something who then expand into art, they change their minds. (Mark Kostabi)
If people only knew as much about painting as I do, they would never buy my pictures. (Edwin Landseer)
Artists want their work to have a good home because it makes their creative process worthwhile. Most artists put a lot of themselves into each piece they create. Your purchase reflects a subtle link between you and that artist. (Beverly Leesman)
One can live longest with the greys. (A. C. Leighton)
The collector walks with blinders on; he sees nothing but the prize. In fact, the acquisitive instinct is incompatible with the true appreciation of beauty. (Anne Morrow Lindbergh)
I'm attracted to artists like Frida Kahlo, because her work was her life, her questions, her outrage, her suffering, her pain. Everything is in her work. (Madonna)
To love a painting is to feel that this presence is... not an object but a voice. (Andre Malraux)
Why do certain people collect art in a certain culture at a certain time? (Catherine Jo Morgan)
To the generality of collectors, and even more so to dealers, the temptation to see the geese as swans is almost irresistible. (Peter Murray)
-collector... I will never deal with a living artist, again. (Walter Nelson-Reese)
Art buyers seem to have a growing taste for nostalgia, for what the world looked like before Wal-Mart and McDonald's moved in. (Nancy Newcomb)
Let's be grateful that people, with the resources to do so, spend some of their cash on the un-necessities of life - like art... they could have put their money into mutual funds, cars, their pets or other toys, but they chose art. (Brigitte Nowak)
Forming relationships with dealers, keeping up with your chosen genre, checking on what 'your' artists are creating - these are the hallmarks of the true collector. (Joan Oleck)
Marketing of art is, and to my mind has always been, trendy. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean there is any real long-term value. As an artist I do what I like. As a collector I collect what I like. (oliver)
People generally are more interested in my work when they get to know me. Serious collectors like to get not just a painting but a piece of the artist. (Toni Onley)
Each time you purchase a piece of art, you're investing in a piece of history and in another person's life. (Diane Overmyer)
When you are not rich, you buy either clothes that wear out or art that lasts forever. (Neal Patterson)
If I won $25 million I'd spend $30 million overnight on art work. (Edgar Paulik)
What is a collector? It's an innate trait. We start as children collecting leaves, or stamps or stones and, as we get older, teens collect friends, CDs and, as an adult, it can be anything. (Edgar Paulik)
I have yet to meet a collector who feels bad about his collection. Collection is also about the story – the story behind how someone found it and purchased it... (Edgar Paulik)
The true artist and the sane collector never will tolerate insincerity and impudence. (Walter J. Phillips)
-this quote is in dispute: apparently the interview with Italian author, Giovanni Papini, never really happened... The people no longer seek consolation in art. But the refined people, the rich, the idlers seek the new, the extraordinary, the extravagant, the scandalous. I have contented these people with all the many bizarre things that come into my head. And the less they understand, the more they admire it. By amusing myself with all these games, all this nonsense, all these picture puzzles, I became famous... I am only a public entertainer who has understood his time. (Pablo Picasso)
-collector of 19th century French academic art... I'm somewhat obsessive-compulsive with everything I do. I've scoured so many Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonham's catalogues! Every piece has become so important to us. (Craig Pickering)
-collector of 19th century French academic art... It makes it so much more exciting when you've educated yourself about the symbolism, the history, and the artists. (Denise Pickering)
If a patron buys from an artist who needs money, the patron then makes himself equal to the artist; he is building art into the world; he creates. (Ezra Pound)
The general collecting public has long preferred the conservative images. They haven't traditionally wanted too much mind stretching. (James Preston)
History shows that the artists and their spiritual colleagues – art dealers and art collectors – were always better keepers of public culture and morality than any Ministries of Culture. (Yaroslaw Rozputnyak)
I primarily buy art to show it off. (Charles Saatchi)
Art collectors are pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. What matters and survives is the art. (Charles Saatchi)
Nobody can give you advice after you've been collecting for a while. If you don't enjoy making your own decisions, you're never going to be much of a collector anyway. (Charles Saatchi)
Whatever reasons are behind a person's choice to buy, it is an unambiguous statement of desire fulfilled. (Carla Sanders)
True collectors are junkies in search of cultural value rather than a liquid asset. They will always look for new voices, not just the branded and easily consumable ones. (Magda Sawon)
It may be a point of great pride to have a Van Gogh on the living room wall, but the prospects of having Van Gogh himself in the living room would put a great many devoted art lovers to rout. (Ben Shahn)
Stand out from the crowd. Artists should be aware that there are reasons other than art that cause people to collect art. (John Simpson)
You can either buy clothes or buy pictures. (Gertrude Stein)
Looking back after forty years of collecting... it seems most of the great discoveries of quality art... are made in boutique galleries. The predominantly predatory and exclusivist single-show galleries use a form of condescending hype and intimidation to get to the client's wallet. (Richard Sutton)
Spend all you have for loveliness, / Buy it, and never count the cost; / For one white singing hour of peace / Count many a year of strife well lost. (Sara Teasdale)
Art should not be purchased to fill a space on a wall nor to match the color of your drapes, but to fill an emotional space in your heart. (Tommy Thompson)
Art is a living river that runs through our time and will run on as long as art is created and appreciated. To purchase a painting is to take a dipper full of the river home to constantly be refreshed with the energy of life. (Stewart Turcotte)
Every collector can collect something that is part of the continuum that is art and be able to say, without stretching the truth, that there is an element of immortality in what they have collected. (Stewart Turcotte)
There's some human instinct which makes a man treasure what he is not to make any use of, because everybody does not possess it. (Mark Twain)
It has been said of many buyers of fine art that they invest in the artist and that they do not just buy a work. (Chris Tyrell)
Art collectors should not throw envelopes whereout they received sellers' communication regarding their properties. It is a bigtime no-no in my book and you do not want to ask why. (Milos Vujasinovic)
-on Belgrade, Serbia... Cowards and illiterates buy 'the names only'; the brave ones select the best pieces from both known and unknown painters correcting the art history, putting and assorting the values back in their places. (Milos Vujasinovic)
Some collectors of art seem to have one of our most popular forms of craziness: greed. However, I have met some who are appreciators... of the artist's skill and success and most especially the contribution art makes to the owner's life. (Kitty Wallis)
-collector of traditional masterpieces... Don't be surprised if you find me sitting in one of the rooms with a cup of coffee, staring at a wall. I'm just looking at a picture, and I'm closer to heaven than I'll ever be in my life. (Jack Warner)
Collectors should buy from their hearts – what they love, not what decorators or salespeople say. (Diane Waterhouse)
Collectors are paying for our education by purchasing our art. (Jack White)
As a collector, you will discover that surrounding yourself with art can enrich not only your visual experiences, but instill a sense of vitality to your life and uplift your soul. (Sylvia White)
Meeting and talking to the artist adds a special element to collecting contemporary art that makes the work an irreplaceable treasure rather than just another possession. (Sylvia White)
You are symbol collectors. (Edgar A. Whitney)
There's something to be said about the art-industrial complex, the collectors who recognize that your work has some sort of future economic value. (Kehinde Wiley)
I feel that when you have a collection like this you have a responsibility to use it, not to hoard it. So that's why we loan and put shows out. We've produced books. It's a working collection. (Michael Wilson)
-to John Frederick Lewis, 1874... My belief is that very soon your chief works will be priceless; that is, they will all become established in first class collections where no money will be able to extract them. (Thomas Woolner)
Thousands of people who would never have Monteverde in their music collections will hang the visual equivalent on their walls. (Edwin H. Wordell)
I've never studied the Japanese. That's something that must have crept in there. But the Japanese are my biggest clients. They seem to like the elemental quality. (Andrew Wyeth)
Wherever I go, I collect sand. (Connie Zehr)
|