Art in Situ

A rather random sampling of some of my favourite spaces. You must admit - they wouldn't be quite as well dressed without their Art!

More Useful Hints for Starting or Building an Art Collection

1. You absolutely do not need a vast disposable income to begin or continue collecting art. If you don't believe me, try googling my heroes Herb and Dorothy Vogel!

"Approximately 85 per cent of art sold in Canada at auction sells for less than $5,000," So says Raphaela Dunlap, the Canadian arts specialist with Joyner Waddington's Fine Art Auction House in Toronto. If you dedicate yourself to collecting art from emerging talent, you could get away with spending half that amount on each acquisition.


2. Do your research. Join the collector's circle of your local museum. Ask questions. Get the help of a good consultant-advisor. Ask a friend whose collection or aesthetic you admire for guidance or to accompany you on gallery hops. Visit galleries and museums, take notes and ask to be added to their mailing lists. Visit auction websites and sign up for their newsletters.




3. Have a mission. It helps at the planning stages to formulate and out down in words some sort of goal or mission statement. Don't worry, it will evolve and rewrite itself with the passage of time. Whether you want to concentrate on art of a particular region, a medium, photography, abstracts, or simply find a piece to enhance and improve each room I your home or office, try to ask yourself each time you consider buying something whether and how the potential buy will contribute to the collection as a whole. You don't necessarily have to have a steadfast policy on what and not to buy, but it will help in the long term cohesiveness of your collecting to decide what you want to concentrate on.


4. Visit the graduation shows of graduation exhibitions of local colleges and universities. Go to the openings of local collectives. You don't necessarily need to buy something at every visit, but do keep notes of artists whose work you admire.


5. Buy a piece annually. Most of us spend upwards of $3,000 every year on vacations, so you might put yours off this year in order to buy a piece to kickstart your collecting in the right direction. Consider taking along a second pair of eyes, either to advise you, hold your wallet if you are a spendthrift or play devil's advocate. There doesn't necessarily need to be anything impulsive about your early purchases.


6. Go against the grain. Photography is still an affordable option if you want to collect and stay within your budget. You can find some incredible bargains at Toronto's CONTACT, touted as the largest photography festival in the world.


7. Never, ever, under any circumstances buy what a dealer, gallerist or website tells you is a good investment opportunity. Just look at how many would-be collectors and so-called art investors lost in buying fake and forged works by Picasso, Miro, Dali, Chagall, Erte, Rockwell and others. There really should be only one guideline when it comes to what you buy. If upon seeing something for the first time your heart skips a beat or you think you can't live without seeing it every day, it's a good chance that you are making the right decision. Buy it because you think it will make you happy every time you walk past it and thus enhance your life; not because you think that it will appreciate.

8. Never attempt to negotiate unless you know what you are doing and really want to make a purchase on the spot. You also never want to circumvent a dealer, gallery or consultant as nothing will get you blacklisted faster.


9. Subscribe to a good contemporary art magazine; consult your public or reference library for books on areas that you engage with.


10. Consider collecting against the grain. What this means is that you will get more art for your dollar if you buy what is not currently in vogue, whether it be folk art, quilts or textile art, decorative pieces that aren't fashionable right now, outside art or the work of self taught artists.


11. Don't forget about sculpture, ceramics, pottery and glass art. They play a huge role in enhancing the interior world, especially art glass.


12. Unless you know precisely what you're buying (or have hired someone who does) think twice before buying antiquities, especially Egyptian, Greek and Roman pieces as you may not be the legal owner of the piece, regardless of how much you paid!

13. Enjoy yourself and carry cash!


Below are some contemporary artists who are still relatively affordable, collectible and highly desirable:

Jon Barlow Hudson

Marlene Siff

Anita Ayres

Barbara McGivern

Bendel Hydes

Brian Marion

Bruno Cote

C. Kent

Catto Houghton

Dale Chihuly

David Thai

Drasko Bogdanovic

Edward Burtinsky

Gideon Tomaschoff

Gord Smith

Helen Frankenthaler

James Fowler

James Huctwith

Joanie Gagnon san Chirico

Jules Olitski

Julian Opie

Kent Monkman

Manya Fox

Marie-Danielle Leblanc

Mark Acetelli

Mattia Biagi

Olga Beskoff

Paul Fournier

Richard Roblin

Robin Larson

Simon Jensen

Sonja Hidas

Stanley Feldman

Sue Rusk

Tom Gardner

Wes Hunting

Ye Rin Mok

Ken Monkman



Finally, some useful websites:


www.artcrime.info

www.ago.net

www.artbrokerage.com

www.broadartfoundation.org

www.artnet.com

www.artprice.com

www.shelleylambefineart.com

www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk

www.gallery.ca

www.nationalgallery.org.ky

www.phillipsdepury.com

www.heffel.com

www.viewoncanadianart.com

The Power of Art...

Just how powerful is Art?
Can it feel like love, or grief?
Can it change your life?
Can it change the world?

So begins this episode of Simon Shama's inspiring and educational series from the BBC. Highly recommended!

New Arrivals: Olga Beskoff

Olga Beskoff was born in Russia in 1953. She completed her primary and secondary education at the Moscow School of Art for Youth. During this time she participated in a variety of art competitions, winning numerous prizes and garnering favourable reviews in the Soviet press. From 1973 to 1979 she studied and painted in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Moscow with a faculty of only fourteen including fellows Misha Roshal and Maxim Kantor. She immigrated to Canada in 1980, initially residing in Vancouver where she painted and exhibited frequently at Heffel's. In 1987 she moved to Toronto where she met the Chilean-Canadian novelist and scholar Helios Murialdo. They were married in 1997 and now divide their time between Toronto, Santiago and their home in a remote canyon in the Costal Mountain Range in Central Chile where Olga has her studio. Olga Beskoff is represented in North America and the Caribbean by Arch & Company Fine Arts.

New Arrivals: Sue Rusk

Sue Rusk works and lives in Montreal where she has taught drawing and painting since 1975. Rusk has participated in numerous solo exhibitions in Canada and the USA and has been part of countless group shows in Canada, Europe, ISA, Israel and Brazil. Her works are found in many major corporate, public and private collections nationally and internationally.

Rusk’s paintings are about her personal surroundings and her response to them. The spirit of her work portrays the gentle balance between the exterior and the interior worlds.

In Rusk’s lyrical new Sonate series, she combines collage, paint , oil stick, pastel on her own hand-made paper. She delves into an interior history by layering materials, combining gestural marks with vibrant and subtle fields of colour

Selected Collections

ALCAN
Bell Canda

Canadian Pacific

Centre Culturel Pointe-Claire

City of Jerusalem

Collection Lavalin

Esso

Gaz Metropolitain

Investor’s Group

Mississauga Library

Musee du Quebec

Oregon University

Pratt & Whitney

Royal Bank

Sony Music (New York)

Standard Life

Lisa Kirk: My Latest Muse

Lisa Kirk

Humanity, The Most Savage of Species, 2006-2009

Silk-screened aluminum, enamel with bullet holes

48 x 60 inches

Edition 3/4 (each unique)

THIS MUCH!

Barbara McGivern (with new heels and new hair) descends upon Edmonton tomorrow (lucky them)!

New Arrivals from C. Kent (Yay!)

After many years of deeply appreciating art in its many forms and absorbing the lessons of the masters, C. KENT has refined his own strong mode of expression.
From his art studios in Toronto and Provence (France) the Toronto native has emerged as one of the most tantalizing exponents of abstract colour and form seen in some time.
In approaching his work, C. KENT applies the diligence and discipline honed in his years as a most successful entrepreneur in the printing industry. Through C. Kent's initial career in the graphic arts and design industry, he is said to have been a pioneer in bringing the bloom of true colour to the cheeks of lithography.
In these early years, colour entralled him: but now he is its master. In his hands, the brush is not simply an applicator: but rather a scalpel that cuts directly to the soul of his vision. And yet his work is anything but surgically pristine. "Others see colour as an element to be disciplined" says Kent, "I see colour as a glorious personification to be seduced." In describing his work, Kent continues, "It is really my approach to an ageless yin and yang: - the tension to control and the freedom to express. These disciplines of form are forced to surrender to the primeval powers of pigment."
C. KENT's abstracts are not timid of intellect or fearful of addressing their own secretly volumptuous emotions. They are at once enigmatic and decidedly evocative. His heightened sense of composition and powerful colour are almost embarrassingly sensual: an assault on the senses.
Recently C. Kent has collaberated with Miller Harding ( a realist ) in producing the Jean Charles Series; combining abstract and contemporary realism. The results are extordinarily effective and unique. C. KENT's works has found pride of place throughout the world. Followings have begun in private collections and galleries in such disparate locations as the United Kingdom (London, Brighton), France (St. Tropez, Marseille, St Maxime), United States (Houston, New York, Los Angeles etc.), Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Calgary) and the Far East (Indonesia, Hong Kong, Australia).
C. KENT has shown recently at the International Art Fair in Toronto and is showing presently in six locations in Provence. His works can be seen at galleries in Toronto, Atlanta, London, Marseille, Saint Tropez and Calgary.