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Time was, not so long
ago, that collecting art was the exclusive realm of a rarefied,
jet-setting elite. That’s still largely the case — see: Frieze New York,
a sprawling high-end art fair taking place this week where $50,000-plus
pieces are so many as to be generic — but the playing field has
leveled.
Between scrappy young galleries showcasing hungry up-and-comers and a growing field of low-price art fairs like this weekend’s Love Art
in Toronto, the casual hobbyist can get into the game with modest
investment and a little discretion. Even the auction realm, famous for
sky-high bidding wars, offers the occasional find, and its season starts
at the end of the month with the Heffel auction on May 28.
Toronto, in my
opinion, has never been better in its offering of art for sale, in
variety, price and, most importantly, quality. It still won’t be cheap,
but the sacrifices required to buy it — a new LED TV, or art? — are a
little more within the reach of the many.
So how to begin?
That’s what we’re here for. Herein, some helpful tips and things to see
on gallery walls over the city, right now, to get you started. But
first, some ground rules.
1. See a lot. And I mean a lot.
The only way to get a
handle on the kind of art on which you might want to shell out your
hard-earned money is to spend as much time as you can seeing out the art
you don’t want to buy. It’s a process of elimination: The more
you see, the closer you get to narrowing down the kind of things you
want to live with. So join the Art Gallery of Ontario, head down to the Power Plant, check out the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. Read the weekly gallery listings — canadianart.ca
is a good bet — and get out there. Absorb. Take notes: Painting,
photography, sculpture? Wander the better private galleries for a sense
of what’s happening at the upper end of the Canadian market.
2. Don’t worry about the experts.
I can tell you what to
buy. But don’t listen to me. Like anyone, I go with what I like, and
I’m the only one who truly knows what that is. The best advice is: Buy
it if you love it. This thing will be in your life for a long time —
ideally permanently. You should feel it in your bones.
3. Don’t buy art as an investment.
You’d have better luck
recouping your money by throwing it down a wishing well. The
international press overflows with astonishing auction results, sure,
but that’s at the far top end of a market that’s dominated by
billionaire hobbyists, many of whom have big enough holdings to
manipulate the market themselves. You’re not in that game. Decide what
you can afford, take a deep breath, and live with it.
4. Start small
Not that artists
necessarily price work by the square inch, but size matters. The bigger
the piece, the bigger the price, based strictly on everyday things like
labour and materials. In Toronto right now, Kelly Wallace’s show at Georgia Scherman Projects
starts at $4,500 for a hauntingly beautiful 9-by-14-inch piece, and
goes up to $16,000 for an intense work that’s 36-by-57 inches.
Similarly, at Diaz Contemporary, Elizabeth McIntosh’s paintings range from $7,000 for a 24-by-20-inch work to $16,000 for the remarkable piece, Girl, at 73-by-49 inches.
5. Don’t haggle.
Buying art isn’t like
buying a car. Most galleries will typically offer a small discount
without being asked, but don’t expect it. The best artists pour their
souls into their work, and buying one of their pieces, ideally, is the
start of a relationship between you and that artist. Don’t sour it at
the outset.
So now what? There are
plenty of places in Toronto to see art for sale of all kinds and price
ranges. Here are a few things happening right this very minute:
In this camp are Diaz Contemporary with its Elizabeth McIntosh show, and Georgia Scherman Projects with Kelly Wallace. Nicholas Metivier, who shows a number of name-brand photographers, is currently showing photos by legendary shooter Gordon Parks; a famous portrait of Muhammad Ali is $13,000.
At Jessica Bradley Projects,
one of the city’s pre-eminent dealers, a current show of photographic
works by Toronto artist (now Berlin-based) Jessica Eaton ranges from
$4,500 to $12,000. Susan Hobbs,
long one of the city’s best-known dealers for museum-quality works, a
current show of paintings by Shirley Wiitasalo range from $8,000 to
$18,000. Daniel Faria, who represents a range of both younger and
established artists, has a show by the up-and-comer Nadia Belerique
on right now that range from $1,800 to $5,000. It doesn’t sound like a
bargain, but on an international circuit where works of equal quality
and professionalism sell for three or four times as much in a heartbeat,
Toronto art is absolute steal. Take it to heart.
The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition
is a long-standing free-for-all of things like knitting and pottery,
and a surprising amount of interesting art. It takes place every July
long weekend in Nathan Philips Square. One of the better ones in recent
years was a booth from photographer Maureen O’Connor,
who’s showing at Alison Milne Gallery all of a sudden this month. In
any case, you can buy some of her prints at a site called Art Interiors
for as little as $150.
The outdoor art show every September in Trinity Bellwoods Park is part of the Queen West Art Crawl.
With the same mix in a smaller, nicely treed package, you’ll find
painting and sculpture amidst the foliage at sometimes surprising
prices. People move up from there, too. Nora Deacon, who made remarkable
facsimiles of child’s dresses from wax paper, started selling her
pieces for $800 here; now, they’re several thousand.
Wondereur:
An online project with the weight of the AGO and the Canadian Film
Centre behind it, Wondereur is an art magazine/online marketplace
particularly good at providing depth, selling emerging artists on the
strengths of their stories. And it looks great.
Art Bomb:
A daily email appears in your inbox with the work of the day, all of it
Canadian and most often in the highly affordable range. Occasionally a
piece will pass by your screen that crests the $2,000 mark, but under
$500 is a common price tag here.
Eye Buy Art:
The Toronto-based site helpfully offers price ranges on its front page,
at various tiers: $35, $60, $250, $500 and $1500, meaning you can
tailor your browsing to your budget. The rules still apply: Buy what you
love. But for 35 bucks, the break-up hurts a lot less.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/visualarts/2014/05/10/buying_art_in_toronto_a_beginners_guide.html
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/visualarts/2014/05/10/buying_art_in_toronto_a_beginners_guide.html
