Eyeblog

Feature from Daily Mail Lifestyle section: Monday March 3, 2008

ART ATTACK

You don’t have to be a millionaire to bag a modern masterpiece. And here’s how to do it

Last week’s contemporary art sale at Sotheby’s smashed all European records, making a whopping £95million. Despite the shakiness of other markets, and gloom-mongers forecasting recession,the contemporary art market is booming - and it is not just serious
collectors who are buying into the trend. For fashionistas, buying a ‘hot’ artist’s work is much like obtaining the latest must-have Prada handbag or a couture dress: it is all about procuring something beautiful and rare which will be the envy of your friends, with the added benefit of being an investment piece.

’Iconic pictures by well-known artists are making more than ever’, says Henry Wyndham, chairman of Sotheby’s. ‘People see it as a more solid place to put their money.’

Indeed non-doms (wealthy foreigners who live in the UK but say their home, or domicile is eleswhere), Russians who made a killing on the energy industry and celebrities including Claudia Schiffer and Brangelina are all collecting like mad, buying into blue-chip names including Warhol, Freud and Bacon. The brilliantly marketed Young British Artists (YBAs) - Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Tracey Emin -
have all grown up, and so have their prices. But buying big-name contemporary art isn’t exclusively a rich man’s game.

....

Sotheby’s along with most major auction houses, has a dedicated print department catering for first-time buyers and people wanting to dip a small toe into contemporary art. They have twice-yearly sales and the next one’s on April 1.

’It wasn’t until the early 20th century that signing and limiting print editions became the ‘norm’’ says James Mackie, specialist in Modern and Contemporary Prints at Sotheby’s. ‘The trend was started by Matisse, Picasso and Braque, who considered their print work an important part of their oeuvre, so they wanted to cap the amount of prints put into the public domain. Now, buying prints is a great
entry level because you can acquire work by a leading artist and, relatively speaking, it can be quite affordable.’

Looking at it that way, buying generic images from Habitat (which, by the way, aren’t that cheap) is sinful. However, buying unique work from a young unknown artist can feel like throwing yourself into the hands of the gods. Which is why it feels safer buying a limited edition print by a famous artist.

....

My first crack at print buying was a total fluke. It was five years ago and I was wondering down Brick Lane on a sunny Saturday morning when a graffitti-style image in a furniture shop window caught my eye. I’d never heard of Banksy, but I liked the picture - Queen Victoria complete with sceptre, crown and suspenders, on a tomato soup colour background. The price was £50....it’s now worth between £4,000 and £6,000.

I’m thinking of flogging it to buy a couple of new prints. I’ve had a terrible art crush on the Chapman brothers ever since I first saw their work at the Sensation show at the Royal Academy in 1997, and last week I spotted a couple of great Chapman prints.... So, like a gambler who keeps putting his winnings back on the gee-gees, I’m going again.

The DOs and DON’Ts of BUYING ART

DON’T steam into buying your first print without doing some research. There are lots of fakes flying around.

DO check the edition of the print, i.e. how many prints have been made. The smaller the edition or print run, the more exclusive it is....

DO check that the print has been signed and numbered. Damien Hirst gets so bored with signing hundreds of prints that he has been known to sign off by drawing a penis instead of his name. Ridiculous as it sounds, this makes the print unique and worth more.

DO ask what sort of print you’re buying. ‘Print’ is a general term which covers etchings, engravings, drypoints, woodcuts, lithographs, lino cuts and silk-screen prints.

DO ask if you’re buying an ‘original print’. This means the image has been conceived as a print, rather than being a multiple of an original work, thus making it more attractive to buy.

DO look after your print as you would a painting. Use UV glass when framing, keep it away from sunlight and have it insured.

DON’T worry if each print in an edition is slightly different. They won’t all be identical because the prints aren’t machine-made. The human involvement in print-making means different levels of ink will have been used.

DON’T be startled if the print has ‘AP’ written on it instead of a number. This means Artist’s Proof and can number up to 10 per cent on top of an edition.

DO buy a print fairly quickly if you like it. Often, as the availability of the edition is reduced in number, the price goes up.

DON’T ever buy prints on eBay.

Excerpts from: Alice BB @ The Daily Mail, Monday March 3rd 2008



Featured Image: ‘Caracal’ by Olly and Suzi



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