Alan Bamberger on building an art collection by Sandra Sider
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lan Bamberger, based in San Francisco, is a well-known independent arts consultant and writer. His many articles at ArtBusiness.com cover every aspect of collecting art, and Bamberger’s professional services include analyzing strategies for collecting and assisting artists in writing successful statements. In November he spoke with me via telephone and shared some of his insights. Using quilts as an example, Bamberger posed this very telling question to ask oneself when considering the purchase of a piece: “Why should I care? Yes, it’s a quilt, but it’s more — a work of art indicating the artist’s ability to materialize an artistic vision. And does it make me see life differently?” Bamberger recently published the second edition of his book The Art of Buying Art, which I can recommend to anyone in the process of building a collection. His advice is to the point and clearly written, as if he is talking to the reader. The book, which costs $24.95, is available at http:// artbusiness.com/bookorder.html.
This lecture is an abbreviated version of a speech originally given by Alan Bamberger to the Friends of the Mint at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The entire lecture is available at http://artbusiness.com/collectpro.html
How to collect art like a pro In order to collect art intelligently, you have to master two basic skills. The first is being able to effectively research, evaluate, and buy any single work of art that attracts you. The second is being able to choose each individual work in such a way as to form a meaningful grouping, a practice more commonly known as collecting. If you’re like most people, you know how to buy art on a pieceby-piece basis, but may not be all that accomplished at formulating a plan for making multiple acquisitions over the long haul, or in other words, building a collection. You can find art you like just about anywhere you look and in an incredible variety of subject matters, mediums, and price ranges, but that can be confusing as well as intimidating. So how do you wade through it all and decide what direction to go in? How do you relate one purchase to the next? How do you organize or group your art together? How do you present it? And most importantly, how do you do all these things well? This is what collecting is all about; it’s the ultimate case of controlled purposeful buying. What makes a great collector great is his or her ability to separate out specific works of art from the millions of pieces already in existence and assemble them in such a way as to increase or advance our understanding of that art in particular or of the evolution of art in general. In any mature collection, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts, the collector comes to be accepted as a respected authority and in exceptional cases, goes on to set the standards, determine the trends, and influence the future of collecting for everyone. Regardless of how you view your collecting, whether serious or recreational, there are techniques that you can use to maximize
34 | SAQA Art Quilt Collector
