Interior Decorating & Art Collecting Info Corner

We would love to assist you in purchasing an exceptional
piece of art to add warmth and beauty to your collection.
Please call Chasen Galleries at 800-524-2736 (US),
804-204-1048 (International).

Fortunately, the beginning private collector need not worry about who should be encouraged and who should be discouraged. The criteria for collecting is fairly straightforward: Does this art speak to me?

In essence we believe that it is really quite simple, but it might be helpful to discuss collecting as the development of three basic attributes: commitment, aesthetic judgment and knowledge. These are not suggested in order of priority; one follows quite naturally from the other.

None of these attributes is, or needs to be, fully developed in order to begin collecting. In fact, the novice usually begins with interest only — and without highly developed aesthetic judgment or knowledge. Once the first choices are made, the collector has already begun to turn an interest into a commitment. From this small step begins a process of personal development that will parallel the development of the collection.

The collector's visual perception and aesthetic responses are challenged by every choice of art or sculpture. The development of aesthetic judgment can be hastened by studying art and cultural history, visiting galleries and museums, acquiring and reading books and traveling.

Ideally, a collection should be open-minded; it should develop as the collector develops. To be unique, a collection should reflect the personality of its owner. Only then will a collection become more than the sum of its parts. Then it will add something new to the art world — a new perception, a new approach, a new cultural or educational understanding.

The act of collecting inevitably involves risks. Both collector and artist are vulnerable to outside evaluations and criticisms. But, without those risks, there never can be that very special piece of artwork or that very special personal collection.

Collecting is an intellectual and emotional exercise, of course, but it should be a tactile one as well. Artist Beniamino Bufano once said "Artwork should be inviting to the touch as well as the eyes. Rubbing your hands over the artist's medium provides a most pleasant introduction into the work." To the learned eye and hand, the texture can tell a most wonderful story of the components, age, geology and source. The artwork itself contributes immensely to the subject of the work and enhances it symbolism. Although there are many reasons for starting to collect, in the end, it must be a labor of Love.

We should always collect for pleasure and not because something is strange or rare or a good investment. After all, we have to live with the collection. Many collectors never dream that after acquiring their first painting or sculpture, they would acquire more. In fact, they acquired their first piece of artwork on the spur of the moment. However, as they live with their art, they find themselves seduced by its aesthetic and spiritual qualities. Some are so profoundly moved by their paintings or sculpture they later find themselves collecting more.

Anyone who collects art knows the feeling of walking into a roomful of art, only to b e drawn to one particular piece. Some collectors tell us that their artwork called to them. As the Shona say, each work of art finds its way home to its predestined owner. For whatever reason, that does seem to be true. Once the artwork does find its way home, the collectors often feel they have become, in some way, part of the extended artist family. Perhaps that is because the artwork evokes those feelings of harmoney and peacefulness that earn the blessings of the ancestors and reminds them of our closer global family.

We are often asked by collectors... "What is a Limited Edition Giclée and what are the types of reproduction prints."

A Giclée is a art print produced with continuous ink jet technology. In French, Giclée means "sprayed, jetted or spurted." That reflects how the Iris print engine deposits ink on canvas, paper or other materials that artists and printmakers favor. Giclées have been a viable fine art print since 1987 and the invention of the Iris printer. Iris's patented method of forming an image out of microscopically small droplets supports a wide range of visual effects, from photo realistic to painterly, so there's virtually no limit to the artistic styles the Giclée can accommodate. Moreover, even printmakers with decades of experience in traditional methods state that the well-made Giclée offers depth, detail, and lushness that set it apart from Serigraphy and offset Lithography. Many museums in the US and abroad have taken an interest in Giclées, having either mounted exhibitions or purchased them for their permanent collections. These include The Metropolitan Museum in New York, The Guggenheim in New York, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, The Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum, The Philadelphia Museum, The Smithsonian Institution Libraries, National Museum of Mexico and the San Jose Museum. The Giclée is a unique medium that offers unique properties-economic and creative-that other media don't. Giclées offer artists,publishers,galleries, and printmakers a unique medium in which to display long-lasting fine art quality prints.