The urge to acquire and own art is a time-honoured one. From the grand patronage of Renaissance popes and princes (not to mention de Medici), to eighteenth-century British aristocrats, or the bulk buying of Europe’s cultural heritage by America’s J. Paul Getty, over the centuries art has been amassed for purposes of propaganda, prestige, intellectual enlightenment and sheer pleasure. Few activities run the gamut of human impulses more comprehensively than the acquisition of art. Yet, however lofty or ignoble the underlying motivation, the cultural significance of art collecting has always extended beyond individual desire. The choices made by the collector affect not only the monetary value of art, but also its cultural status. Collectors …show more content…
After all, why are art galleries and gallerists busy spending time and energy on a near-perfect display of art? Who are they all (the gallerist as well as the artist) trying to lure? Why is it important for the artist to know, swagger and often strut around whose collection his/her artwork has landed into? Why does the art gallery (and/or the artist) that manages sell-out shows, havea chip on its shoulder? The speedy dissemination of information and the ease of international travel offer the collector unrestricted access to an art world. From being a strictly specialist subject catering for a small elite, contemporary art has entered the cultural mainstream in an unprecedented way. This is, perhaps, where one can draw a line between ‘collecting art’ and simply ‘buying art’. Regardless of the motivation, a collector has a serious, eclectic and discernible approach to accumulating art whereas, in comparison, a plain buyer is a sporadic customer for who the value of art may not be the prime consideration while picking up art arbitrarily. Artists are given celebrity status, and in New York City it is a widely quoted fact that more people visited Imran Qureshi’s in situ artwork on the Met’s rooftop than attended Michael Jackson’s concert at Madison Square Garden. As the worldwide proliferation of museum buildings and the ever more congested calendar of international biennales and triennales testify (let alone private art galleries and art fairs), contemporary art is now a key sector of the leisure industry and a powerful force in urban and national