Where You Buy Your Art Does Make a Difference
If you are expecting any kind of investment appreciation with your purchase, don't' buy a painting in a shopping mall store, on the Internet or in a framing gallery store. The Internet where most of the crooks go to sell bogus paintings so don't even consider buying on any Internet auction web sites.
Virtually all the original paintings sold at mall stores are painted in what I call "crank" factories. These are literally factories in China (and some in the US) where they crank out painting after painting copying what they think is selling well in our country. What you are buying is a $2,800 painting that cost $12 plus paint and canvas to produce. There is no history to these paintings, and consequently no opportunity for any appreciation. The appreciation from $20 to $2,800 was experienced by the store owner. Recently I went into one of the mall "galleries" and saw a lot of large paintings selling in the thousands of dollars price range. The store owner even went so far to set up a mock up artist studio in the corner to give you the impression that the artists was painting in the store. Now I cannot be sure that that is not true, but I don't know many artist who would be seen by their peers painting in this store and ever have any hope to being shown in a real art gallery. Here is a good hint. Most gallery owners seek the lowest possible rent for their gallery space and that does not include large expensive stores in the major shopping malls. This is why a lot of your good Atlanta galleries are located at Bennett Street, Miami Circle and in the Castleberry Hill Art district locations.
The less experienced buyer is going to see a painting similar to the work of a popular American artist priced at a fraction of what they see in a real art gallery. They may think they a saving 50% on the painting at the mall store, but in fact they are literally throwing $2,800 away since no museum or auction house would even look at those copies and hence your painting is literally worthless. Why not pay $2,800 for the real art work of an artist who does have a chance of their paintings appreciating in value over time.
The only chance you have for any type of appreciation on your painting purchase is when you buy a painting from a respected art gallery or art dealer. The next suggestion is to only buy the works of artists that are on move up in terms of their painting prices. Buy as much as your budget will allow. If your budget is strained, then save up for three or six months and buy one quality painting. You shouldn't worry about spending $3,000 on a painting that may sell at auction for $20,000 to $80,000 in ten to twenty years. I underscore the word may since good collectors have developed an "eye" for art that indeed does appriciate in these terms. You can develope the same "eye" by learning to spot quality art which always appreciates since there is a small supply and a large demand for quality art. The demand for the art is a more important factor than the price of the art.
Then there is the collector's dream of buying the work of a hot emerging artist with a serious drug problem. A classic example was New York painter Jean Michel Basquiat whose prices quickly went into the higher price regions for his primative paintings.
To better understand what type of artist you are looking for is to look back in time for a moment and consider what a Warhol screen-print (not painting) is selling for today. Consider this Warhol silkscreen being sold at Christies.
Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Diamond Dust Shoes
Silkscreen on canvas, 90 - 70 inch executed 1980 - 1981
Estimate: £250,000-350,000 or $457,324 - $640,254.
Typically Warhol's silkscreen prints came in editions of 250 screen-prints and maybe 25 - 50 trial proofs. Had you purchased these in the early eighties, your appreciation in your art investment would have put all other investment vehicles to shame.
Another example is the art of one of Warhol's New York friends Keith Haring, who died of aids.
Keith Haring (1958-1990)
Untitled, 1987
Acrylic on canvas
Estimate: £90,000-120,000 or $164,636 - $219,515.
Like the Warhol silkscreen you could have purchased the Haring painting at a price that would have made any Wall Street professional smile.
The trick is to identify the new Warhol or Haring before their prices start on their continuous upward price spiral. You could have purchased art in the eighties by an artist whose work did not appreciate in value. This will be the subject for another article.
One sure fact is that the only ways you can possibly have a chance of any of your purchased paintings appreciate significantly in value over the next 10 or 20 years is to buy them from a real art gallery or respected art dealer.
John Rapp
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