Thursday 1st March 2018

Embrace your Inner Medici

Rather than an honorary radiating chapel dedicated to your family’s patron saint in a Tuscan cathedral, today a donor family name may be discreetly inked in gray high up on a museum’s wall. The practice remains similar, but its context has modernized. But not all of us are Guggenheims or Rubells (or Anonymous), and that does not mean that we cannot become collectors and patrons in our own right.

I like to think of approaching collecting like the 16th century Germans kept Wunderkammers. Essentially a proto-museum, a Wunderkammer, or Cabinet of Curiosity would be a nook or room in one’s home to collect artworks, oddities, ephemera – really anything the collector felt a passion for. Some were highly organized and catalogued, whereas others were more haphazard. Regardless, in observing a person’s Wunderkammer you knew the collector had an appetite to amass a special collection of personal importance.

Now, I’m not suggesting you become a hoarder. Tunneling through piled up junk and errant dead cats is not cute. So, it’s important to collect with a purpose. Your initial purpose can be (and in my opinion should be) to buy an artwork that you love and that speaks to you. Once you’ve found your first ideal piece and have had the chance to live with it for a bit, try to assess what about it draws your attention and what about it you find aesthetically or conceptually pleasing. Maybe it’s the color palate, the skill it took to create, or the subject matter. It could even just be a specific emotion the artwork evokes when you’re around it. Then pursue that characteristic as you continue to search for more artwork!

This is not to say that your collection should look uniform. A thematic approach to medium, concept, or visual aspects of art does not mean that each work that speaks to you will look identical, Take the West Collection in Philadelphia, for example. This corporate collection decided to only acquire works by emerging artists for less than $5,000 and has stuck with this mission for the last 20 years. They’ve helped further the careers of many local and national artists, and have a diverse grouping of artwork on view at any given time. Or the Deutsche Bank Art Collection, which focuses primarily on works on paper. They have amassed an incredible and diverse array of works on paper and photographs from the likes of Kara Walker, Marcel Dzama, Peter Doig, Wangechi Mutu and other rockstar artists. These collections are focused and with purpose, but definitely not uniform in the way they look and yours does not have to be either.

Finally, keep in mind that by buying art from an artist, gallery, or website you are benefitting that artist’s career and lifestyle. You gain a piece to live with and love, and the artist profits both monetarily and in exposure. Embrace your inner Medici, and begin with one piece. While yours probably will not be a commissioned portrait featuring sumptuous fabrics or trompe l’oeil, what you choose to love says something about you, as will your overall collection as it continues to develop.

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