Start Collecting Art

Priorities

2009-10-25T22:47:00.003+01:00

Since September I've begun studying (partime)Art history.
This takes a lot of time.

Because of this I have set some priorities.
In the foreseeable future I will not contine this blog.

I will however continue my Dutch blog http://kunstverzamelaar.blogspot.com/ after I've updated it.
As native Dutch speaker writing Dutch cosst much less effort than writing in English and translating into Dutch.

My last buy was this picture from Erwin Olaf. It measures 60 x 80 cm.

holiday with internet

2009-08-04T15:19:00.002+02:00

I'm really overdue to write about the other graduation exhibitions in Amsterdam and Den Bosch. The last works I purchased and even Art Amsterdam.

But I expect this week some posts from me :-)

Graduation exhibitions Utrecht

2009-07-07T22:47:00.007+02:00

Last week I've been to three graduation exhibitions. At first I went to the exhibition in my own city Utrecht. This was divided between two buildings several kilometers apart from each other. The first day and for the first day I had an abundance of time to watch and to speak to the students.
A graduation exhibition usually lasts four days and the student artists are usually around and willing to talk about their art. The first day I talked to a few photography and illustration graduates. Two graduates peaked in my eyes. Natascha Boel made her graduation work around intensiveparenting (she has two childeren)She made beautiful drawings of childeren. You can see them on her website here. (Click on the lower part of the suitcase to see her "eindexamenproject" (graduation project))
In the section photography made her project about a less soft subject.
She photographed machines for slaughtering animals. Very clean stainless steel machines, which seem to have been used in a movie like Terminator.
You can see the pictures here

Soon I will blog about the graduation exhibiom from the Rietveld academy (Amsterdam)and AKV/St Joost (Den Bosch)

As I haven't bought yet from any graduation student this year and I usually only show pictures from works of art I own.

Below two pictures form Martine Derks I bought through an auction site. She graduated in 2008 from the Rietveld Academy.
She made an installation for the Naarden photography festival. This festival is world famous in the Netherlands. You can see yth installation on her site.

She will have her next exhibition in the Amsterdam center of photography.

Holiday

2009-06-16T08:08:00.002+02:00

I am on holiday. So for the next week no new posts.

Next pictures are two nice skies from Francine Steegs.

Tinkebell again

2009-06-10T22:17:00.002+02:00

I just read that the book "Dearest Tinkebell" has been sold out.
On the internet it is sold for 60 euros, the original price was 25 euros.

In a previous post I wrote I bought a copy. I actually bought more copies. Maybe I will sell one to cover my expenses. I don't know yet. One copy I want to give tot my art society in Utrecht "Kunstliefde" (Love for Art) they wil auction or sell it June 20th. Look here for more details.

I don't know yet what to do with my spare copies. I will keep one and probably give away the other ones.

My First art collection Foam

2009-06-09T00:49:00.009+02:00

Most readers know that I'm the student in an art collector's course.
This Saturday we went to FOAM (Photography Museum Amsterdam).

In there Willem Diepraam, a well-known Photographer, photo critic and licensed assessor for photographs showea part of his collection and told us whatever he found useful to know for starting photo collectors.

I remembered and will remember two things from his "speech".
1. The photo market is a buyer's market. Don't rush. There are so many photographs you can always buy good ones. I think this applies to the complete contemporary art world. There is so much art you can choose from you will always find something you like. So don't rush, tomorrow there is art too.

2. Do your homework. He explicitly recommended to "History of Photography" books I cannot remember. I started to collect books about fashion photography. It appears that I like the autonomous works from fashion photographers. So I bought a book with an overview of Duth fashion photography.

I will buy a book from Helmut Newton. He paved the path for many photographers after him.
From one of the I bought two large pictures. These ar from the series "Anonymous"
It shows nude female models in a position like they are sturdy men and with their face covered in such way they represent an action-hero and stay anonymous.

I bought these two pictures from Liselotte Schuppers.
Without Helmut Newton, she couldn't have made what she did. But we can enjoin.

I bought these whith size 120 x 80 cm which make them real impressive.

Hall of Art (Kunsthal)

2009-06-02T00:45:00.011+02:00

With my money spent, I need other ways to work on my art collection.
In Rotterdam exits the Kunsthall (Art Hall.) They held there the first day of June two exhibitions for the last day.

One was dedicated to the "Prix de Rome 200 years" the most distinguished award one can get in art in the Netherlands. It used to be a certain amount of money which had to be spent to make a journey to Rome. This started 200 years ago, when the Netherlands were occupied by the French, and the French King from the Netherlands, Lodewijk Napoleon, (a brother form emperor Napoleon) created the award following a French tradition.
Nowadays the award is biannual and the artist can do whatever she likes with it.

Also in the Kunsthal was an exhibition dedicated to the former owner of Torch gallery, who recently died from cancer. He owned the gallery for 25 years. So his artists are a cross section from 25 years contemporary art. He very much liked photography, he was one of the first to bring it into the contemporary art world.

Below some pictures:

This is a photo from Elpseth Diederix. She won the first prize of the Grand Prix de Rome 2002 photography.

This photo is from Inez van Lamsweerde who was supported by Torch gallery.

This is an overview from some Torch painters in which you get an idea from the architectural style the Kunsthall is built in.

These photographs are from Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm. If you think these are just pictures upside down. Then try this: click on the picture to enlarge it and turn your monitor 180 degrees. You will be surprised.

After Rotterdam I went to Amsterdam. The Fotoacademie (Photo Academy) had her graduation exhibition. I went there to scout for new talent. I found many of them. One I wll be certainly following, because I did not understand her work at all.

She is Sanne Thunissen. Her website is here
Her Artist's statement was put in a Haiku from Onitsura.
So they blossom,
and so I look, and so,
they drop down and so.

These pictures below are form her.

Trying to escape?

2009-05-29T23:22:00.004+02:00

This chicken belongs to the same series as in the previous post.
It's called "Trying to escape?"
More at saveachick.nl

I originally didn't buy this chick but I switched this chick for another photo with chicks. That's why this picture is later than the previous two.

budget and collecting 3

2009-05-25T01:13:00.000+02:00

Fact my budget has been spent more or less.

In a previous post I said I was in the process of narrowing down m choices . I somehow did.

1. Carla van de Puttelaar I actually decided to buy a photograph from her and I did this Friday. It will take a lot of paperwork to conclude an I need to make space it's 208 x 78 cm but bought is bought.
2. Liselotte Schuppers. A month ago I visited her house and selected two photographs from the Anonymous series. (Superman and Gladiator) She made me a good offer. I took the offer this Friday, but delivery will take place in December 2009. I need to save some money first.
3. Nicky Onderwater: I emailed her for a price query. Prices are stiff but fair, some discount for prints already printed for an exhibition. Hard to choose for these pictures. Result: alas next year she has a better chance. Not enough budget left.
4.Boukje Janssen: she has a group exhibition "...Expectations" during ArtAnsterdam with unknown work. That was not the work I really liked but in the previous post you saw that I did buy one work.
5. Any other artists on ArtAmsterdam I might encounter. I encountered many artists saw many works and bought one from Jantien Jongsma.
I will come back at her when discussing ArtAmsterdam.
6. Janneke Sprenkels: she will be on the Art & design sale at the TAC. Unknown to her she still has a trump card. One of her works is on my want list.
Unbelievable, but that work is still on my want list. I did buy three other (cheaper) works from her.
7. Marleen v/d Heuvel and Liselotte de Groot were also on the Art & design sale at the TAC. But no trump cards here. No trump cards, but their prices were so low I couldn't resist. I bought 3 works from Marleen and 2 from Liselotte.
8. Other artists on the Art & design sale: there was actually one I brought work from. Karlijn de Groot and her sister Liselotte de Groot were sharing a booth. I bought 5 photographs from her.
9. Merel van Beukering wasn't at the sale but I contacted her about some photographs and bought one photograph as stated a few days ago.
10. I found some more options to buy art I wasn't aware a month ago. To avoid more confusion I'll leave them out for now. I also did not use them, although they're very tempting. Maybe later I use them.

These were the original 10, but I found out some more works to buy.
11. I bought a photo through the photoq.nl auction see this post. and I've bid on two more which will end in a month or so. These weren't expected.
12. I bought two installations from Roos van der Heiden which wasn't the intention beforehand.
13. Amanda Besl is back in the picture her Gallery Aeroplastics made a smart move, they offered a payment in installments. Maybe they're reading this blog. :-)

I do have the inclination to buy the high end art and so more expensive work.
I actually did buy 1,2, 4, 5 with high end expensive work, but all with payment in installments or with a late delivery. In the lower end I bought a lot of works but most under 100 euros with a few exceptions. So I still can afford collecting art.
These installments will have effect on my budget for next year, but I thought the same thing last year and I still cope with it easily.

I bought three pictures from Janneke Sprenkels as I stated in #6, from these I publish two pictures with some humor in it:
First: A Game of Chess:

Second: Making eggs.

purchase #40 Boukje Janssen

2009-05-24T15:15:00.005+02:00

Sometimes coincidence needs a little help. This Friday I went to the atelier from Boukje Janssen to have a look at the installation Ensemble. I had seen it on her website and was seriously interested to buy it.

However the installation was too vulnerable for my taste. Considering I have a cat lingering in my house who likes strings to play with and likes to explore new places to lie in. The only thing I could have done was buy it and immediately stock it. Therefore buying wasn't a real option. I buy art to watch it not to stock it.

However next to the installation Boukje had hung a just finished painting. It had a similar theme and even a similar figure like "Ensemble".
Yesterday I bought it. Delivery will of course be later, that's quite common in Art.
One surprise is still left. The painting hasn't got a name yet... Yes it was that fresh.

Below a picture:

and a detail:

---
general remark about my blog:
The close watcher will have seen that I skipped a lot of numbers of my purchases.
The even more close watchers will have seen that about five artists moved from "watch list" to "in collection". I reveal later what I bought from whom.
And yes I will discuss ArtAmsterdam later.

Dearest Tinkebell,

2009-05-23T01:12:00.014+02:00

TINKEBELL. has a different view on the world than most of us. She wants to explore why our society is made like it is. Usually she is focused on our behaviour against animals. Why is it illegal to import cat's or dog's fur into the EU but breed thousands of minks in the Netherlands to make fur coats out of them?

In my blog I use her name often to distinguish between fairs which just show the easy art for above the couch(Primavera, Eindhoven) and fairs which also show more controversial art. (ArtAmsterdam , ArtRotterdam)

This is not without a reason in stead of just questioning she acts. Probably her most controversial project was killing her own cat and making a purse out of it.

An other one was saving 61 male-chickens out of the bio-industry, however threatening to put them into a shredder if the chickens weren't bought from her. about 10 were bought...
A third one was making a cat/dog from the fur of a cat and a dog. Inside out the dog became a cat and the other way around.

Mostly because of the first performance she got hate mail. About 100000 hate mails did she get. So what does a artist like TINKEBELL. with 100000 hate mails?
She makes a book out of them. Together with Coralie Vogelaar she took about thousand
of these mails and went looking for information about the ones who sent the on the Internet. Coralie described it as searching in "the armpit of the Internet"

The result is a 700 page book full of hate mail and pictures and texts from the ones who sent those e-mails which were picked from the Internet.
The question rises whether it's illegal to create a book with copyrighted hate mails, Internet based texts and photo's. Yes it probably is. No one mentioned in the book however tried to get the book out of the market by a court decision.

So you can still buy your own copy. Therefore look here.

And what was my action? I bought the book the first day it was published. I wasn't the only one. They were for sale in the booth at ArtAmsterdam from the Gallery representing her. It was sold out the same day. The following days people kept asking for the book both at the booth but also at the information desk of the fair.

Some remarks afterwards: Her cat she killed was maltreated by the previous owners and was behaving at least strange. Most people would have taken the cat to the vet to have it killed. TINKEBELL. isn't most people.
The male chickens' destination was the shredder before they were "rescued" by TINKEBELL. This happens all the time in the Netherlands.

Finally a link to a youtube movie about the Popple (the dog/cat). (In Dutch but pictures speak for themselves.)
A link to an English article from a Dutch paper.

budget purchase #23 Merel van Beukering

2009-05-22T22:03:00.009+02:00

Sometimes I collect according to plan. Coincidence or plain chance usually have the most influence in what I buy. This one was different. In the begin of this year I placed Merel van Beukering on my watch list. A few weeks ago I contacted her about her works. She mentioned what was for sale en for which price.

An other part of the plan was to contact Nicky Onderwater for her photography. Also she sent met pictures and her price. I liked her work, but won't buy it this year. To understand her work I want to buy two pictures, but that doesn't fit into my budget. They go on my want-list. I do not show her pictures because I usually just show what I bought.
But an other link is here.

I did buy one picture from Merel van Beukering. But also placed one of her works on my want list for next year.

The one I bought you can see below.

spare flies and bees

2009-05-20T18:54:00.003+02:00

I skip Art Amsterdam for now, but will come back later.

At my Art Club in Utrecht (kunstliefde) there is an exhibition from "Belofte 4" i.e. Promising 4.

In there was some amazing work from Roos van der Heiden. She makes installations with insects in them. They are mostly called "Worst case scenario #." I actually never saw an installation made around insects.

I bought "Worst case scenario 4" and #5. After e-mailing her she promised she would deliver some spare parts in the form of dead bees and flies.

The artists statement:
Bird's parch in backdoor gardens.
The driver searches for a spot to park his car.
A chicken wonders where her leg has gone.
Wood stacks in front of the house.

I buy a loaf of bread and pick up the parched bird
I watch the driver and the empty parking spot.
The chicken lays her last egg en I take my soldering iron.
Wood is in the wheelbarrow and will hang from the ceiling later on.

What would be the faith of a pigeon in a cage whose owner has died a few weeks ago?
Why are there so many recreational facilities and are we bored to death?
I would like to lure a mouse with a piece of chewing gum.

What I make has a trail of events from which I do not question the purpose or aimlessness.
In my thoughts I stroll from memory to experience and from materialisation to frustration.

And pictures:

purchase #19 Anouk Kruithof

2009-05-18T21:52:00.006+02:00

To avoid titles as "again another purchases" I started to number them.
This photo is my 19th purchase this year. I bought it from the auction website from photoq.nl.
The Artist is Anouk Kruithof, an ambitious and talented artist who goes from residency to residency. Nowadays she resides in Prague.
The photo I bought however is in Berlin. So I t will take some time before it will be delivered.
Below you can see it. It's called "There is ..." It's more in installation she made a photo of than a plain photo. Anouk usually makes installations and photographs.

You can view more work at www.anoukkruithof.nl -> works

Art Amsterdam

2009-05-15T22:28:00.004+02:00

I've been now twice to ArtAmsterdam this week. And I wil go Sunday as well.

Here are some pictures:

I took an option on this painting:
"Oeteldonk"(the name during Carnaval for the city 's Hertogenbosch") from Jantien Jongsma Gallery Smarius.

Erik Sep in the booth from Gist

In the front the South Terrace in the back the painting from Ayako Rokkaku (Gallery Delaive) she made during the first days of ArtAmsterdam.

Galerie 10 with Joris Kuipers

The huge paintings (3 meters high) from Annemarie Busschers in the booth from Gallery Mokum

Pigeon Exhibition in Oslo

2009-05-14T23:34:00.003+02:00

Sanneke Duijf has her MA graduation exhibtion in Oslo within a few weeks. This takes place from the June 4th to June 7th.

For the exhibition look here

Below you see Sanneke Duijf's artist's statement for her graduation work.
This site is related to the work.

Keep the change:
Visual Social Interaction in the Age of Digital Communication

Our fast society might need a different pace to engage oneself and another. People get more inventive when they are challenged and placed in unknown situations. Designed interventions in our daily life, could bring a pause & reflect.

What is happening now in the Design World, is that business is being exposed to art expressions and art is being commercialised; this creates new situations, interpretations and interfaces. I have chosen to use this occasion to design forms of social engagement.
I can’t change people and I can’t change behaviour. However, I can create places in space, and I can create exercises that convey learning moments, stimulate reflection and activate awareness. All of these, I hope will bring about positive behaviour and empowerment to the individual.

In times like these, when a worldwide economical crisis has suddenly emerged, it is an opportunity for us to open our eyes and genuinely see what is there; it is a chance to
reform, rather than hastily attempting to take control by way of old patterns. There is a reason why things accumulate – it is time for change.

If you're wondering about the title: Duijf means pigeon.

ethnic art and Liesje Reijskens

2009-05-12T22:50:00.011+02:00

My collector's class (MFAC) went a week ago into the old part of Amsterdam "De Jordaan". In that neighbourhood are dozens of galleries. Hidden behind dirty windows and a closed door is Gallery "native art". we were there to try to broaden our horizon in art. The gallery is loaded with hundreds to thousands pieces of ethnic art. They mostly come from Africa and Indonesia. As in all art works also in ethnic art the focus is on what is considered important. Felix de Rooy broke it down in three concepts. Rejuvenation often shown as a snake or lizard because these animals can renew there skin. Second: female fertility shown as women with large breasts, bellies, thighs and very clear vagina's. Third: male fertility usually shown as large penises.
We, the students, got the assignment to look for an object we liked most and then try to explain what we liked about it.
In the picture below Rob Aussen (the old man) is holding a ceremonial scepter I liked that object most because of the simple forms and the similarity. Really ethnic art is not my cup of tea.
The man with the cap is Felix de Roy. I am standing in the back wearing a red shirt.

There were also more extreme works of art like the bird/man in the following picture. That is too much ethnic art for me. It was chosen by Anita Frank who took the pictures.

After this we went to Gallery 23, which is in an open clean and spacey location. Completely the opposite. gallery 23 is focused on modern African art. This looked more like western art although the African influences were visible.
For example a chair form Mozambique completely built out of parts of Kalashnikov rifles. After the civil war there was an abundance of these.
An other artist used pieces of enamel form broken down commercial pictures. It somehow looked with a twist. That twist is Africa.

After this visit we had lunch and everyone went his or her way. I went back to the Jordaan to visit some galleries.
There I saw the in the Ververs gallery the exhibition from Liesje Reijskens. The works are orginal and good. But they somehow didn't end up on my want list.But maybe they will later. Liesje is a 24 year old Belgium photographer. She takes pictures from girls her own age and makes surrealistic or fairy tale like photo's.
Below a surrealistic one. Those are the ones I liked most.

narrowing down

2009-05-10T14:16:00.008+02:00

In the first post of my blog I wrote I wanted to find out what makes me collect? How do I make my collection. How do I want to get form a bunch of works of art to a collection.

My huge problem is, there is so much art. So I need guide lines for myself to restrict that amount I choose from.

In a previous post I mentioned my abcde list:
All the artists I have work from or a I am interested in are on one of these lists.

A stands for: I will buy every year
E stands for: You're on my list most probably because I once bought a piece of art from you. But it's unlikely it will happen again.
You can think out the other lists for yourself.

Who is on which list I keep for myself, although two artists will be revealed in this post if you read carefully.
The amount of artists on my lists are as follows
A: 2 & 0
B: 6 & 1
C: 9 & 0
D:15 & 5 undecided 1
E: 7 & 9

Sum 39 & 15 & 1

I made a simple split up in male and female artists. The female are on the left, the makes on the right. It's easy to see that I prefer the women.
Why do I prefer female artists? I don't know. It doesn't really matter.

5 minutes ago I made a decision.

I decided from now on I only collect female artists. For the current collection and the old artists on my watch list it doesn't really matter. Most of them were women. For seeking new artists it makes live much easier. 50% of the artists I can walk past without needing to remember them or to look for their website or make queries about them.

In the previous post about my decision time. In Category 10 there were 4 photographs from a male artist. They're not any more.

As for now I keep one exception. Matijs van de Kerkhof stays on my watch list. As I make the rules I can break them whenever I like :-)

The undecided artist is a duo. They also stay on my list. Check out their website. They create their own views on the world of today.
http://www.exactitudes.com/

budget and collecting 2

2009-05-08T00:28:00.012+02:00

Fact: in May I will spend the rest of my budget.

I'm in the process of narrowing down the opportunities:

1. Carla van de Puttelaar I actually decided to buy a photograph from her but as long as I haven't all options are open.
2. Liselotte Schuppers. This Monday I visited her house and selected two photographs from the Anonimous series. (Superman and Gladiator) She made me a good offer.
3. Nicky Onderwater: I emailed her for a price query. Prices are stiff but fair, some discount for prints already printed for an exhibition. Hard to choose for these pictures.
4.Boukje Janssen: she has a group exhibition "...Expectations" during ArtAnsterdam with unknown work.
5. Any other artists on ArtAmsterdam I might encounter
6. Janneke Sprenkels: she will be on the Art & design sale at the TAC. Unknown to her she has a trump card. One of her works is on my want list.
7. Marleen v/d Heuvel and Liselotte de Groot will also be on the Art & design sale at the TAC. But no trump cards here.
8. Other artists on the Art & design sale.
9. Merel van Beukering will not be at the sale but I contacted her about some photographs.
10. This Friday I found some more options I wasn't aware about Thursday. To avoid more confusion I'll leave them out for now.

Still a lot of narrowing down to do...

To make it more interesting a puzzle here.

For each artist I give the price-range for a work I like. All prices are in Euros. The order below is not rally random. With a little knowledge you can crack the code to match the letters with the numbers.

a 2250 to 4950 (want to buy one)
b 850 to 1500 (want to buy two)
c 550 to 975 (want to buy two)
d estimate 300 to 4000 (want to buy at least one)
e estimate 200 to 100000 (want to buy at least one)
f 55 to 425 (want to buy at least one)
g 100 to 200 (estimate)(want to buy at least one)
h more unknown usually under 100 (want to buy at least one)
i estimate 750 (want to buy two)
j 85 to 495 (want to buy two)

The sum is about 16000 euros. (I took some liberty to eliminate the more unlikely buys to create a realistic sum.)
From that amount I can postpone the payment of about 6000 euros to later years. (I know I can make some arrangements with galleries) So that leaves 10000 euros for this year. In my budget is just 3000 euros left...

How Am I gonna choose: First I will go to ArtAmsterdam to Tac and to the exhibition Expectations. There I will decide.

I do have the inclination to buy the high end art and so more expensive work. (i.e. #1,2,4) But that will come a the cost of many lower end and way cheaper works.

The outcome is still unknown.

I'll end the post with the first photograph I bought from Marije Arends in 2005. In the previous post I showed the last three works I bought from her.

fast purchase and delivery Marije Arends

2009-05-07T19:35:00.005+02:00

The last few weeks I've been busy to decide how to spend my last euros of budget. My challenge is that on one hand I like to chase for new artists and new art. On the other hand I want to keep a close eye to a few artists I've been collecting for one to more years. So while I was hunting for new works I decided instantly to buy some work which had been on my want list for at least a year. Because If I wouldn't I would.

I sent the e-mail Sunday night. This tuesday she brought the pictures. Must be a record.

The artist is Marije Arends. Anyone called "From the Eagle" (= Arends translated) should have an eagle's eye while creating art. Below you see the works I bought. They're part of a documentary series. She followed closely friends and family and took photographs from a very different perspective.
But see for yourselves.

budget and collecting

2009-05-01T18:54:00.000+02:00

Collecting is choosing. Every budget is limited, so is mine. May is the month I usually spend the most money on art. This has two main reasons. The second is ArtAmsterdam, that is the biggest art fair in the Netherlands. It's mainly Dutch but it has a sturdy international component. Quality is high, some art is within my budget. The last two times I bought art and I never intended too when I went.

The first reason is the art and design sale in the Tac in Eindhoven. That's the place I started to buy art in such quantities I started collecting. Since the first time year it's kept I go and buy. This year won't be different.
Janneke Sprenkels will be there and probably Marleen v/d Heuvel or Matthijs v/d Kerkhof. Merel van Beukering and Liselotte de Groot (both on my watch list) might be there as well.
Tac is short for Temporary Art Centre. It's situated in an old Philips building. (For the Football fans: the Philips stadium, home base for PSV,is right across the street. Philips was founded in Eindhoven.) Tac is meant for creating art. There are dozens of ateliers in the building and a small dozen of multi purpose spaces. Exhibitions parties, workshops and the Art and design sale are held here. Many artists from my buy or watch list will be there so I will leave Eindhoven with a trunk full of art and ann empty wallet.

That's the easy part. There are however artists who are high on my watch list, but I'm sure I won't meet on ArtAmsterdam or in the Tac. So I'm helping faith a little bit. I e-mailed Liselotte Schuppers for a price query on the photography and I will go tomorrow to an exhibition from Liesje Reijskens in Amsterdam. Next to this I received lists from gallery Aeroplastics for Amanda Besl and Shadi Ghadirian.

The problem gets obvious far too many artists and works and not enough budget. To make things worse I've already decided to buy one large work from Carla van de Puttelaar. My biggest buy ever considering size (205 x 78 cm) and price (twice the amount from my second largest buy.) Although I will pay this in 36 months it still creates a gap in my budget.

I alomst forgot the works from Boukje Janssen which came back from New York but are stuck now at customs.

So this month it's decision time.

The least likely to buy this year is the work from Amanda Besl.
She makes paintings on small panels depicting adolescent girls.
To compensate here her picture "a beautiful moustache"

Artist's Statement of Amanda Besl:

In my recent work I try to evoke an open-ended fiction while speaking of the documentary quality of photography, the language of fashion photography, the viscosity of oil paint, and the transient nature of memory. My paintings emerge from a cultural feminine perspective, exploring the complexities of an aesthetic that fetishizes youth. The images are a string of metaphors that build series of events. The paintings are small in size in order to allow a more intimate viewing experience and to recall their history as photographic images. They pop from the wall off beveled edges to create a staccato rhythm of frozen suggestive moments. My pieces are cinematic in nature. I link seemingly unrelated sensory images which inform each other as narrative moments. The subject matter balances on the fine line between the mundane and the obscure. To view these paintings is to partake in a visual eavesdropping on the secretive world that engulfs today's girl.

I focus upon metaphors of the transient nature of adolescence. Horses act as a suggestive counterpart in paintings which are mostly devoid of human males. The fetishistic quality of these pocket-sized worlds emphasizes the idea of obsessive crushes. I am interested in heroic transformations of ordinary events which exist both as dark psychological secrets and as adult fairy tales supplanting their predecessors. These paintings are not nostalgic, except as personal nostalgia. They are not apologetic or hedonistic and have any number of possible endings or possibly no ending—just a pause, a breath.

More housekeeping.

2009-04-27T15:15:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I installed my last piece of art I bought at ArtRotterdam. It's very fragile and really 3-d. So I had to find a spot. Where know one comes I don't know about, my cat cannot come, where there is no wind or draught.
So I placed it in my bedroom on eye level.
It consists of two small mirrors in an angle of 90 degrees and in between a transparent sheet with the text from a sermon on it, with as a subject: when does one actually exist.
The object is between two photographs, one from Isolde Woudstra on the left and one from Mery on the right.

Art Brussels 2009

2009-04-25T22:53:00.002+02:00

This Friday I went to ArtBrussels. I should have been we but my Mfac co-student was confused by the wrong house number and never reached my house.
Artbrussels is held in the Expo next to the Atomium. It is divided into two halls. I took the backdoor because of the parking lot I'd put my car for the incredible amount of 4 euros. (I expected 10.)

I walked in and the first thing I grabbed was the floor plan. ArtBrussels is large. 172 galleries are represented. (425 wanted in) I think 3 to 4 football matches could take place in this space now dedicated to art. The next thing I did was grabbing a lunch and looking at the plan looking for familiar galleries.

Off course I should go to Ronmandos the gallery I had the invite from. I actually saw their booth just 5 hours later. I started in Hall 3 and had my first good surprise within 15 minutes. Aeroplasctics Contemporary sold paintings from Amanda Besl. Her paintings are on the first picture. They're all small, very realistic made in high detail and all from young women. I own two from her paintings. I bought them at ArtAmsterdam two years ago, my first buy from a gallery.

They had more work, I liked Shadi Ghadirian as well. But I think her fame Will make her very fast too expensive for my taste. Good for her though.
I saw a wonderful video from Antoine Roegier and missed an other one. I strolled from booth to booth saw very nice works from artists who are very well known but I had never known them. Endless my stroll was, after two hours I was just halfway hall 1 and still had one and a half hall left.
My conclusion half way therefore was. ArtAmsterdam and ArtRotterdam may be nice, but this is a different cup of tea. The quality of the art is the same, but the quantity is way larger. Luckily there was also a bar which sold good an cold Belgian beer. In total I visited them twice in my 5,5 hours walking amongst art, to drench my thirst and to rest my feet. I saw some nice works from Marina Abramovic. I thought she just made performances jeopardizing her own life. But she also makes pictures from Chinese children sleeping with M-16's.

Guided tours were held twice a day, and I joined one of the. Together with just two other people. While being guided I found out that I thought I'd covered now three quearters of the exhibition. Bu it really makes a difference which way you go through an aisle. The aisles I'd covered form left to right we now went through from right to left and while walking that way I saw completely different art.
So I'd missed a lot.
The tour was very nice. It mentioned the sculpture from picture two below. Is seems to abstract but if you look well enough a face can be seen.

After the tour I scooted through the last aisles, vsited RonMandos, and started to collect the prices and other information I wanted from the artists I really liked an were probably within my budget. The Austrian artist Marc Aschenbrenner shown by gallery Olaf Stueber (Berlin) , is one of them.
I collected my data, didn't buy a thing and went home. Dead tired but content after a 5,5 hour walk between international works of art I headed for my car.

Final cononclusion: best art fair I ever visisted, from the point of quality and quantity
Below some more overview pictures:

collecting and connecting

2009-04-24T02:13:00.008+02:00

As a single and more living inside my head than outside it is often a lonely job being an art collector. My colleagues and friends are at least bewildered when they find out I pay as much as an inclusive two-week Holiday to Turkey for a few works of art I bought at ArtRotterdam and considered cheap.

I don;t have the budget to go with the crowd when buying, so I chase my own taste. I have no spouse or children who are dependent on me. So all the money I have left I can put in my art-budget and no one complains about it.

So I do have some urge to connect with fellow collectors who understand my problems like will I buy three photographs from Marije Arends or one from Hellen van Meene?

As an IT-consultant, to keep the headhunters away I will not specify my specialty, I have a profile on linkedin. I'm already connected to three different art groups.
The problem is however is that those artgroups are spammed by professionals in the art scene who want to sell their services, their own art work, or the art work they represent.

Somehow I was delighted when I was made aware of www.independent-collectors.com A networking site for collectors only. It's Germany based so most collectors are European. And for me an important German area as the Ruhr area is about a two hour drive by car. So very close.

The site is just starting so to start up they asked Tommi Brem to start a blog about starting collecting art. So he did here.
He is a really new not in collecting, he collected SF-books and records before this, but he is in art.

Although he is confronted with the same problems as I am. Many impressions, small budget, what to buy, why to buy. There also huge differences. He has a wife, who must be devoted to him and sometimes in complete denial of his actions. (She picked up a piece of art at German customs containing a drawing with a swastika, which is illegal in Germany.) So he cannot exceed his budget without getting up in a row with his wife. I can decide to enlarge my budget whenever I feel like it.
The other one and more important one is that I started to paddle in the sea of art by buying a painting somewhere in 1999 at a local second hand bookshop in Middelburg.
A picture of it, I show in this post. He really plunged in the deep. He has been to Art Basel with side shows and Art Basel Miami, these are fairs I've never been to.
He decided to collect. I somehow found out two years ago that I was collecting art when I had been buying for 8 years and collecting for two years.

The similarities are, we both blog and both collect and enjoy it.

Tomorrow I will go to my first foreign ArtFair. Art Brussels is just abroad, someone from my MFAC students will join me to the always surprising Belgians. Let's see what happens.

again housekeeping, with pictures

2009-04-22T18:51:00.009+02:00

In a previous post about housekeeping I promised pictures from the almost 3d-objects from Boukje Janssen.

Here they are. You really need to enlarge the to see the needles in the eye and the needle which keeps the "u" in place from. "Is there anything we..."
The last picture is the photograph on a standardized spot in my living room. usually the works of art which are hanging here are larger.

next purchase or dialogue

2009-04-21T00:03:00.008+02:00

The same day I went to AFH (see previous post) I had to go on in a high pace to Amsterdam. (where else) I'd got an invite from Isolde,(no Tristan around)who made an exhibit together with nine other artists who took a course as starting curator. As a curator you must be able to make exhibitions so they created this trial as their course-project. As artists they had plenty of art available. So they could concentrate on the exhibit itself.
All these artists are young, not long time away from the academy and eager to show their own taste of creation. The result was a very pioneering, hard to grasp, out-of the box art. The exhibition was not located, like AFH, in a hallway in an industrial zone kilometers far from the city centre. It was next to heart of the city centre of Amsterdam in a house which the inhabitant had transformed into an exhibition space. It couldn't be further from AFH metaphorically speaking.
The result I bought a picture. I had only a low resolution jpeg, but I replaced it by a better one. In the picture you see a frame. I actually bought the picture framed in the same frame which is in the picture. It shows that the picture isn't disconnected from the real life. The frame in the real world frames the picture and within the picture the same frame frames a piece of the picture. This inner outer world connection is enhanced by the socket which is just in the upper right corner of the picture. Off course this socket is there on purpose. It's easier to leave the socket out of the view than to show the socket in that precise corner. This creates a down-to-eart approach: Isolde created a picture from a woman lying in a pink dress under a frame flat on the ground, but keep in my mind this picture was taken in a place where sometimes people need a light or to hoover so there is also a socket in the wall.

Art Antiques Fair Den Bosch

2009-04-20T23:21:00.008+02:00

This Sunday I went to a fair I'd never gone before Art and Antiques Fair Den Bosch.

My conclusion: It wasn't a complete waste of time.

That is not a very positive remark. But I am not very positive. Art and Antiques Fair Den Bosch(in short AFH) is a pale shadow of a fair like Primavera. AFH is an old fair established in 1967 but its glance is fading. The antiques are now being replaced by contemporary art to attract younger visitors. As a young visitor (really 36 and still young) I skipped all Antiques, glanced a few times over the modern art and had a thorough look at the contemporary art. I actually saw four booths with nice art. None of them however had any pioneering art. No Tinkerbel here, this was art for the living room to replace the reproduction from Monet above the couch. Not boring, but not shocking either. As for the children's room of waiting room. Nice to look it, but in no way confronting or with a second layer. To see what I mean a nice picture from Willy Rojas. Very nice for a children's room who will enjoy it. But it cannot keep my mind busy for more than 10 seconds.

delivery twice

2009-04-19T22:39:00.013+02:00

About a week ago I blogged that I bought a painting from Irina Babiouk. This painting was delivered this Thursday by courier. Happily I unpacked it. For the major part it was as I expected.
However I saw one minute black streak of paint. Really minute, but it was an eye catcher and distracted me from the essence of the painting itself. No sulking for me however I sent an e-mail to Irina and explained the problem. A day later she offered to correct the painting and yesterday she did. So within two days the problem was over. Below you see twice the painting. One time with and one time without the black streak.

just another day at the office

2009-04-16T01:26:00.009+02:00

So what does a collector do on a quiet Wednesday. Due to circumstances I was early away from work. So I went to the inner city of Utrecht.
At first I bought the book Puur (pure) from Mery dedicated to her project of photographing Teenage mothers.
Next I bought some white gloves to handle my art more cautiously. Some works form Boukje Janssen I recently bought, require more subtlety on handling.
After that I went to Flatland gallery to see their exhibition. It was a nice exhibition in a very nice building. I'd actually never been to that gallery. They focus on photography which I like but their aim is a little bit too high for my budget. After that I went to a second hand bookshop and bought an old catalogue from Sotheby's "photographs from the Bert Hartkamp collection" It gives a nice overview for the contemporary photography.
Finally I got home and found a letter from gallery Smarius. They sent me a special guest badge for the fair Art Amsterdam, so I can enter the preview and enter during this fair whenever I like for free.

House keeping or After Sales 2

2009-04-13T18:12:00.007+02:00

So Easter is almost over. I used some time to add labels, probably too many, to all my posts. To the right you can see them all and search posts which have the label.

Next to housekeeping of my blog I did some house keeping of my works of art too. I hung two works of Boukje Janssen. These are some out of the ordinary. So I couldn't use my usual arrangements. One is a necklace with the text "is there something we should know" in mirror image. It is very light and very vulnerable. It needs three pins to hang it on the wall. So I put it on a place out of the way of draught. And a place I could hammer three pins in the wall. One letter the "u" turned 90 degrees so I had to keep it in place by a broken off pin.

The other one is mostly black velvet with black pins pointing outwards. It's almost impossible to see the pins because of the same color. So this one I had to put on a quiet spot where now one accidentally could be hurt. After all art belongs on eye height. And eyes and pins don't mix together. I put it in place by hammering 8 black pins around it. So now a a work of art mainly consisting of black velvet and black pins is kept in place by black pins.

The battery from my mobile phone is empty so I cannot take pictures. They will come later.

Lost and found

2009-04-11T21:16:00.006+02:00

In a previous post I was looking for the creator of a work of art from which I knew the first name. "Cathalijne"
That one was identified by Sanneke as a work from Cathalijne van Gent, which she confirmed.

Now it is more difficult. These works below I know nothing from except that I bought them on kunstveilingazie.nl. This was an online benefit auction for aiding the victims from the tsunami that struck the Asian coast in 2005.

Who recognises these? The cat is on canvas and about a square meter. The woman is about 40 x 50 centimeters.

Stop making sense

2009-04-10T00:28:00.001+02:00

Stop making sense is the title of an exhibition I got an invite for. The exhibition is just a weekend in place. And is of course in Amsterdam. I got the invite because I am in contact with one of the artists. Isolde Woudstra is a fashion photographer with autonomous traits or the other way around: an autonomous photographer with fashion traits. (As long as the clothes do not consist of leather or fur.)
Below you see the first photo I bought from her. "My favourite sweater"

I'm sorry for the Americans who read my blog. But at school in the Netherlands we learn the UK-version of English. So it is favourite not favorite.

After sales

2009-04-09T23:18:00.008+02:00

I have said earlier on this blog that most artists don't think commercially. So if anything happens that contradicts this believe I blog it.

Like I said earlier I bought 4 works from Boukje Janssen. I tried to hang one of them on my wall. But I missed the means to hang it from.
I had seen it hanging in Rotterdam and I saw no traces that anything was removed from the back. So I wrote an e-mail. Which said in short "Help I'm confused." Boukje replied that black pins had kept it in place and she offered to send some.

Below you see the intermediate results.

Nice feature. These same pins are also in the piece of art I want to hang on my wall. However in this case some are pointing out... Ouch!

PS I added Lilith and Liesje Reyskens to my watch list and removed Hellen van Meene like I feared I would.

Hear, hear... latest purchase

2009-04-06T20:00:00.008+02:00

Like I wrote in my previous post. Last week I purchased a small work of art.
This time I didn't buy it through a benefit auction. I bought it at a gallery. The gallery Artolive is physically based in the culture park "Westergasfabriek" in Amsterdam. However that is not really important. Its virtual base is far more important. It's an online gallery with over 60,000 pieces of art. I often use it as a kind of database. I estimate that about 30 percent from the less known Dutch artists can be found on Artolive. And sometimes I find pretty things. Although pretty is in this case not the right adjective. Eerie is more in place.
I bought this work from Irina Babiouk. She was born in Russia. Nowadays she lives in the Netherlands. She graduated this year from art school. (St. Joost)

The work is called "Ear" and this is her description:
"All of the human body are energy nodes. A paranormal woman once told me that the ear is comparable to the foetus. As vulnerable and as source... puncture this with piercings and the energy nodes are wounded which are vital for the foetus."

Amsterdam

2009-04-04T22:10:00.015+02:00

For 15 years I've been living in Eindhoven. There goes the proverb "The only good thing in Amsterdam is the train back to Eindhoven." Nowadays I live in Utrecht, which is 80 kilometers closer to Amsterdam. Utrecht even looks like Amsterdam. An overcrowded city center. Parking problems combined with huge parking costs. Entering the city center by car without a TomTom or ten years experience is impossible. On the positive side. Because of the crowd everything is always happening. There are beautiful canals. The ancient city center has lovely buildings. By foot or bike you can reach any destination within 10 minutes.
The main difference between Utrecht and Amsterdan is, that Amsterdam is about three times as large. Both city center and city.

I had a meeting in Amsterdam for "My first art collection" We discussed how a gallery owner makes his prices and how taxes mingle with art. The latter one was discussed with Sigrid Hemels lecturer at Leiden University. She wrote a Dutch book for non-tax lawyers about that subject.

After the meeting being in Amsterdam I decided to go to the Melkweg for the exposition Pure from Mery I previously wrote about.
The exposition was overwhelming. I usually don't see many pregnant women. I never see them nude and I never ever saw 75 together in one building. Most amazing was that Mery was capable of showing each woman as an individual. All pictures were really different. I am happy to own two of these pictures.
A print 140 x 90 cm is 1000 euros one size smaller is 650 euros and 40 x 55 cm is just 250 euros.

Walking from the gallery "Serieuze zaken" to the Melkweg I encountered about 4 galleries which I all entered and where I studied the works of art.

After that I went to gallery RonMandos at the Prinsengracht. I encountered again about 4 galleries which I entered and where I studied the art.
At Ronmandos I was amazed about the huge gallery, which was just exhibiting two artists. I had a nice chat with the two employees and the quality was pretty high although not my collector's taste.

Now it was rather late so I just visited two unplanned galleries and went to "Eduard Planting fine art photography"
I saw beautiful pictures there and two very scary pictures. Loretta Lux showed these two.
Have a close watch to see WHY they're so scary.

Then I finally got lost towards Koch en Bosch That gallery I bought my works form Marjo van den Boomen. (having a baby so not on the art mood right now) My remarks about this exposition won't do it justice. The artist "mijn schatje" is a girl and she is mainly bought by girls.
Have a look at the picture. In an edition of 70 it is just 95 euros, Which I consider a bargain. All other works are under 1000 euros as well. If you anywhere like this get your work of art.

I really have to admit. Amsterdam is amazing with regard to the amount and quality of galleries. Probably half of all the galleries in the Netherlands are in Amsterdam. I just walked through a part of Amsterdam and saw dozens of interesting galleries.
Content I took the train back to Utrecht. Not the only good thing but still the best.

PS I bought a work of art yesterday night and I am really content about it.
Close visitors have seen that I moved one artist from "watching" to "in collection"
More Later.

more lists

2009-04-03T11:37:00.005+02:00

In a previous post I wrote about my two lists of artists. The list with artists I own works from and the watch list. The latter consist of artists I think are interesting to buy work from, but I haven't done so. You can find those lists at the right hand side of my blog.
A few days ago I added a third list, the alas list. These are artists I like but won't buy work from. There are plenty of reasons I don't put them on my watch list. The main reason is I want to keep my watch list small. Because the supply of art is huge I can maintain a high standard. Because I have a third list I won't "lose" the artist but can still reconsider her position. The price is an important factor in my considerations. I just decided to put Erwin Olaf on my alas list. He was on my watch list, although in group E. I like his work, but he is way too expensive. I'm afraid Hellen van Meene and Carla van de Puttelaar will leave the same way. Remarkable is that they all are represented (or in stock) by the Utrecht-based Flatland gallery. For me the Gallery out priced itself. However there are many collector with much deeper pockets than mine. So Flatland won't need my purchases. While writing this I realised one of my guiding principles. Because I like collecting and buying art I don't want to spend my yearly budget for a few works. I want to buy many works and the only way to collect this way is by buying many cheaper works.
This finally takes me to my fifth list. (My fourth list is still work in progress)
On this list I put the specific works of art I want to buy. This is less intuitive way of buying art then I'm used to, but this is the only way to more or less structure my collecting. After 36 year I got to know myself. I like too many thins so must force myself to enforce my own collecting policy.
There are 6 works of art on my want list. Three of them are form Marije Arends (Arends means "from the eagle")I just own now one picture from her, which shows in this post.

Collecting

2009-04-02T01:41:00.001+02:00

Most of my art I bought on intuition. But I was soon aware that buying art from the same artists added value to my collection. (Although I wasn't aware I was collecting) That's why I sometimes bought works, which I would never have bought if they were single. The body of works of an artist sometimes demands to buy it too. This work is from Janneke Sprenkels from whom I own a lot of works. I wouldn't have bought it If wasn't part of the body of works. But now I own and sometimes display it. I've started to appreciate it more and more. Have a look for yourself and you could perhaps compare it with "feeling blue"

Catalogue (wip 2)

2009-04-01T00:17:00.006+02:00

I'm still trying to catalogue all my works of art. Before I collected art, I bought irregular but frequently. I jotted nothing down about the works I bought and that's a pity because now I have lots of difficulties to try to find out whom I bought work from and if I know from whom, who she is.

I've got two examples. The first one is Han Mol. I own a print of him. These prints were made to raise money for TAC (Temporary Art Centre)in Eindhoven. The print is clearly signed so I know his name. But that's really all I know. Googling had no real effect. So I'm gonna ask some people. Maybe they still have information.

In the Tac I really started to collect (at first without being aware of this) and that is where I bought this work (see picture) It's a picture in a small wooden box (15cm x 15cm) and signed "Cathalijne" That's all I know....
It can be worse, next week I'll show some works from someone I don't have a clue who he is.

Delivered Petri Barten

2009-03-31T01:12:00.002+02:00

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

2009-03-29T10:57:00.007+02:00

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

2009-03-25T00:02:00.007+01:00

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

2009-03-23T23:28:00.015+01:00

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)

2009-03-23T01:29:00.009+01:00

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

2009-03-22T17:04:00.007+01:00

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.

2009-03-20T00:53:00.007+01:00

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)

2009-03-17T02:21:00.007+01:00

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)

2009-03-16T00:00:00.010+01:00

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

2009-03-15T01:45:00.009+01:00

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

2009-03-15T01:29:00.010+01:00

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

2009-03-08T22:12:00.016+01:00

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

2009-03-02T14:53:00.014+01:00

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.

My first art collection

2009-02-27T20:56:00.004+01:00

Once upon a time I collected stickers together with my sister. Later on I collected footballpictures, sugarbags, chess clippings and finally books.

Now I'm collecting art. More than ten years ago I bought my first painting. That was in a second hand book shop offcourse. I actually han't been to any gallery or art fair. I wasn't really aware those existed. The painting was a nude with incredible long legs lying on a beet red couch with a dark blue wall behind it. I had become an art buyer.
Two years ago I had several dozens of art works and more art than walls. I had become an art collector. Realising this I had to make the next step. What art am I really collecting?

In this Blog I'm searching the answer to this question. I don't know the answer yet. But I'm going to find out.

(The picture is from Janneke Sprenkels. It's called Sunday Afternoon. I own a copy of it. )