Delivered Petri Barten

In the post latest purchases (3) or Benefit Aution (2)
I said I would show the pictures of the works I bought.

Here are the drawings made from syberian chalk on paper.
Which are all from Petri Barten.

Delivered Boukje Janssen

In law school one learns that there is a huge difference between sale and delivery. In the art world it happens all the time. It seldom happens that the moment I buy a work, I instantly can take it away.

This Friday and Saturday I got 6 works delivered. Friday morning I went to the atelier from Boukje Janssen. I had a nice chat saw some interesting work and collected 4 works of art I had bought earlier during ArtRotterdam.

I have two pictures which do some justice to the works.



As the title says: both works ar from Boukje Janssen

My second Art collection

Collecting art should be more than buying a bunch of works of art.

The question is: what defines "more" ?

Of course I do have my own taste in art. And all the works I collected are a reflection of my taste. But I want my collection to be more than an bunch of works of art representng my taste. I want my collection to represent the time I live in. Better the development in art of the time I live in.

That's why I am collecting in two fields of art: Collecting artists and collecting art.

I've been trying to find out which artists I'm collecting. So I made a list. Every artist I have a work of art from and every artist I'm interested in is on that list. There are now 54 names on that list.
Within the list I made groups. Group A to group E. I'm more likely to buy art from someone in teh A-group than the E- group.

To get high on the list the artist must make: likable, available and affordable work.
There are 42 artists in my collection: divided as:
A: 2, B: 4, C: 6, D: 15, E: 15

There are 12 artists on my watch list: divided as:
A; 0, B: 3, C:1, D: 7, E, 1.


So what do A to E stand for. I'm actually not sure. The outer groups A and E are the easiest to distinguish how I'm going to act towards them. From these two groups I've been working to the other groups.

Group A: I really like your work and think you have great potential. I will buy art from you at least every year.
Group B: I'm closely watching you, if possible I buy art from you.
Group C: I like your work but luck or good marketing must help to buy art from you.
Group D: I like your work, I try to watch you , but don't expect anything.
Group E: You're on my list most probably because I once bought a piece of at from you. But it's unlikely it will happen again.

Marijan Gluhak is in my E-group. I own several pictures from him. One is shown at the right. I still like his pictures. But his availability is low. I met him in Dubrovnik (Croatia) on my holiday and that was probably the last time I have ever seen him.

Please be aware these groups are the means to structure my thoughts about artists. I first liked or bought the artist. Later on I made the groups and connected my actions to them.

There is another thing: I do not limit my buying to these artists, if I really like a work of art. I buy it and will add artist 55 to my list.
The huge amount of artists in my D and E-group shows that has happened many times in the last years.

That's why I seem to have two art collections. My first following the artists and my second following my guts.

Spring is in the air

There are three kind of artists. One kind is bad in marketing the second kind is even worse.

I once sent a message to an artist and her gallery that I was interested in purchasing her work. The gallery answered my e-mail late but within a few days. The artist answered just after a month by asking if her gallery had allready answered my query. I bought two of her pictures I get stll invites from the Gallery, but never heard of the artist again.

Most Artists I buy work from are without gallery. So you would expect they would try to contact me once in a while. Some of them now contact me when the're having an exposition like Matijs van de Kerkhof.

Last Friday I received an exception.
Marleen van de Heuvel sent me this Spring-card.
Why? I don't know, I don't care. It might have been marketing, it might have been an art project, it might have been a spontaneous act. I liked it.


What happened is that I answered her card and so next time I see her the chance of ignoring her booth will be much less likely.


The hint I got from Marleen was to go to the Spring is in the air market in Amsterdam. I reckon she will be there too.

I own seven works of art from her:
But I post her Spring wish:

"Het is lente, geniet ervan." meaning "It's Spring, Enjoy.

The lesson learned for collectors is: artists make art. Marketing or sales are unknown territories to them. Don't expect them to call you, call or e-mail them!


I said there are 3 kinds of artists, I mentioned two kinds. The 3rd kind is Damien Hirst.

latest purchases (3) or Benefit Aution (2)

The "cacaofabriek" isn't funded any more by the province. And the city council doesn't provide any means too. So the people from the cacaofabriek held an auction to raise money for their exhibition space.

The artist who once exhibited were asked to (partially) donate a piece of art. And the result was remarkable good. I am low on budget so I could afford just two bids.

The result of the auction was that 48 lots were sold and I bought 2 of them. While the auction was in progress, I was having dinner in Maastricht after trips to Tefaf and Marres. I'd made a written bid and just made it within my limit.

The lots are both drawings from "Petri Barten" I actually don't have a picture from them but I will provide it as soon as possible in this post.

Tefaf

The European Fine Art Fair is by lengths, the largest art fair in the Netherlands. I was there Saturday with my group from My First Art Collection (MFAC). Tefaf is situated in Maastricht, which is by far the most European city in the Netherlands because it's very close to our neighbours Belgium and Germany and very far from most of the Netherlands. The Maastricht Treaty is also well known adding an other European feature to this city.

When you're at Tefaf. You can see the most expensive painting for sale in the Netherlands, a 26 milion euro Van Gogh. You're standing in a space about as large as ArtRotterdam and ArtAmsterdam combined. You have paid 55 euro's for a ticket which is 3 times the price for the ticket of ArtAmsterdam and probably the catalogue which is 4 times as expensie as ArtAmsterdam's , but also 8 times as heavy.

The variety of art is massive. Jewellery, pottery, furniture, paintings through the last 4 ages but also ancient weaponry and suits of armour.

My taste is more the contemporary art. And with a football field to choose from I had more than enough to watch. Very remarkable was this a life-size sculpture by Duane Hanson It looked very scarily real. It was bought by the Scheringa museum. Not all the banks seem to bothered by the credit crisis.

There were also dozens of Fontana's, Richters, Picabia's, Magritte's. The sales of these kind of works of art I usually just read about in books. And now you can go ask for the price. The price you cannot afford.
A member form the Rotterdam of Mfac asked for the price of a painting she was drooling over. The Marlene Dumas was 120.000 euro's. About ten times as much she could afford...

For our group it wasn't buying just watching. But sometimes you don't need to buy art to enjoy it.

Exhibition in the Melkweg, Amsterdam.

Yesterday I got an invite for the opening of the exhibition: Puur Trotse Tienermoeders. (Pure, Proud Teenage Moms.) Exhibited are pictures (photography) from nude teenage moms either high pregnant either with a fresh baby.

Actually I own 2 of those pictures which are presented in th huge size of 140 X 90 cm. They're hanging in my bedroom (whether pictures of baby's and pregnant women are an incentive or a warning in my bedroom I leave to your own imagination)

The exhibition is in the Melkweg in Amsterdam and starts 2nd of April to 3rd of May.
You can find more info about the exhibition here.

For those who cannot afford a picture there is also books on sale from these exhibition for just 20 euro's.

At the right hand side the picture (Jilanka with Zion) I own which will also be exhibited.
Check the Mery's webisite for more pictures and info.

Catalogue (wip 1)

The more and longer I'm collecting the more and more I'm wondering what or who am I collecting.

I thought I was collecting artists. However I seem to be collecting a plethora of different works and styles. I really thought I was trying to collect in depth. But that doesn't seem to be true.

Trying to grasp the meaning out of those works I'm starting to catalogue them. First step is to get to know all the names of the artists I've collected so far.
Today I had found 36 people I collected work from. I was really amazed by the huge amount I thought it to be 20 to 25 but there seem to be more than 40.

There are at least 4 more which I haven't identified yet.
I will continue to search and gradually I will start cataloguing the works themselves.
How many works of art I own I don't know but my estimate is 93.

Most artists I have only one work from. Janneke Sprenkels is a huge exception. I own more than 10 works from her.
Below you see "Feeling Blue"

Latest purchase (2)

Yesterday I blogged that I had made a written bid for one lot.
I won the bid !

Including mark-up it just cost me 135 euros while my limit was 180 inlclusive mark- up. The lot consisted of 3 silk-screens from the same artist Hans Vanhorck which also make a fine series.
A nice feature from 2 out of three is that part of the picture is outside the designated area. Not something you would expect from these works found at a regional auction.
But have a look for yourself:

Benefit Auctions

About a dozen of works I own did I get by buying them at benefit auctions.

Sometimes I must try to find out about those auctions myself. Sometimes an artist reminds me that his or her work is about to be sold over there.

Matijs van de Kerkhof was the smart one today so tomorrow I'm off to Helmond, to have a look at at the exposition of the art to be auctioned.
You can find the website for the auction here. (Dutch only)


While I'm there at an other auction I left a bid at three screensprints. The auction master will process my bid. So maybe I will be looking at art in Helmond and buying art at the same time but 100 kilometres further in Utrecht.

Below a work from Matijs I bought last year.

Latest purchase

For reasons I will disclose later I instantly decided to buy three works of art.

All are from Sanneke Duijf . Originally these were meant for a competition. However they were not selected as a win.
I liked them and although I knew the works for 8 months, I just bought them a few days ago.

It will take a few more months to deliver because Sanneke mostly lives in Oslo which is rather far from Utrecht.

Below are the works I bought.

Really looking at art

Since February I've been attending the course My first art Collection. The course is aimed to help the student create an real art collection.

One part of the Course was last Saturday. We went to the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (Municipal museum The Hague)
There we were welcomed by the curator contemporary art
Doede Hardeman and Professor Kitty Zijlmans. (lecturing contemporary art)

This day we would enter the depot of the museum. (This seldom happens to non-museum co-workers. ) There we would watch some 19 paintings and photo's, from which had to select five objects in couples.

I couldn't say the depot was awesome, but impressive it was. On the racks were the Mondriaans (largest collection in the world) and many many other works of art. About a football field filled with racks which had art attached to it.

The aim was to be more aware of our norms we had for liking art. We had a homework assignment to describe a work of art and to argument why we liked the work.

Below here I translated my home work to English and made some additions which I was made aware during the course.

"Boom van een kerel” "Men Tree" (2006) by Sanneke Duijf

The work is mostly a painting which has a 3-D addition made of wire. The painting depicts the upper half of man which transfigures at the neck to a leafless tree. In the background there are some other trees. The wire forms the branches of the tree which come forward out of the painting towards the viewer.

In the all paintings four colors are being used, black white, light grey and dark grey. The most part of the painting the forms are sturdy. However details are visible the man's white shirt has got detailed button and collar. The highest and smallest branches form the tree are detailed pictured too.

What really stands out is the sturdy composition. This combined withe the title (which is in Dutch an expression) makes quite clear what the painting want to express. The man tree figure stands big in the middle of painting. The size about 80 x 90 centimeters makes that the figure is as large as in life.

The black and white part, the jacket and the shirt are treated with varnish, that's why these parts shine and make the man part stand out of the tree part. One could also say that the varnished part is just the clothing of the man tree.

The wire comes about 40 centimetres forward and is part of the tree. It will create shadows on the branches making extra branches when spotlight is directed to the painting.

I like the painting because of the good execution of the simple concept man tree (boom van een kerel) The concept has been worked out clearly with simple means (colors and large areas) The distinction between man and tree is made extra by varnishing the shirt and jacket. Next to this the extra wire literally gives another dimension.

The concept man tree stands central. Some details were added. The trees in the back, the detailed shirt. These make the painting more real and vivid. The tree seems part of a forest and you can unbutton the shirt.

back to the workshop

The question which was posed during the workshop was why is a piece of art beautiful. If you have strong emotion for a piece of art you have that feeling for a purpose. Feelings are short-cuts to make us act fast, because something important happens. Every emotion has a reason. I you find out, what created the emotion you are better able to select art of your liking and you are aware why you like the particular works of art.

Some findings of my own. At must be unusual, must make me think or amaze. I also like craftsmanship and a good concept. Both should be present in art.

At the end of the workshop we were asks which work we would buy from the 19. Strangely I chose a work not in the selection of 5 we chose as a couple and which one was not my favorite.

Why? More about this in my post: my second art collection. (coming this Tuesday)

Primavera Art Fair

Last Saturday I went to the Primavera Antiques and Art Fair in Rotterdam. I hadn't been there before so I was wondering what kind of fair this was.

The entrance fee was 10 euro's, but I had a discount and paid half . The parking ticket for my car was 10 euro's. So a parking place near the center of Rotterdam is twice as exclusive as a ticket to Primavera.

When I entered the first piece of art I saw was Balance of Destiny by Robert Heindel. It had a price tag of 120,000 euro's.

That was a mixed signal. It had a price tag. It costs 120.000 euro's, I could buy my half house for that amount. So on the one side the precence of a price tag which means middle or low end, but 120,00 euro's is a huge amount.

If you go to the Dutch high end Art Fairs like ArtRotterdam or ArtAmsterdam price tags are considered tacky. I don't know why: Everyone who has a booth on those fairs wants to make money. But it should be hidden as long as possible. I very soon found out that the painting was with some other paintings from Robert Heindel the only objects this expensive.

So I found out the fair had mainly middle class Dutch art. Most of it was figurative some abstract works. 99% under 10,000 euro's.
I'm only interested in contemporary art. There were about 40 booths with that kind of work. Next to this, jewellery, old instruments, icons and other art from previous centuries.

I like fairs because these are the only places you can compare so many various works of art in a very short time. And all the art is for sale.

This Fair was very Dutch. The art displayed ready tame. No place for Tinkerbel here. Strangely there wasn't much photography either.
An amazing kind of craftmanship I saw in the works from David Begbie. It is a sculpure from steelwire. When behind it a spotlight is placed, the shadow from the scuplture makes a briljant "drawing" from a nude.

At the end of the fair I was wondering if I would buy a work. Before the fair I had intended not to buy anything. My budget for this year has already been depleted. (more about the works I've bought this year later) And there is one fair I allways buy is at Whitsun in Eindhoven so all the money I've got left I will spend there. However the flesh is weak.
I was choosing between a work from Marianne Venderbosch "Mood"
and a work from Oskar (Spierenburg) "haarlem"

Finally I was wise and just bought a bottle like this It was painted by Douke van der Ploeg.

What did I learn: price tags are really handy. I can control myself by not buying art and I still like figurative art but I'm not swept of my feet by it.