#3: What Kind of Art Can I Collect?
On Tuesday evening, I unwrapped a new painting that we recently purchased from Shaheen Gallery’s exhibition of new work by Antwoine Washington. Maybe they have been groomed or maybe their excitement is genuine, but my sons love it when new art arrives. They have opinions on where it should go and why; and, it is the most fun to hear all about what they are thinking. After we settled on the fact that the painting really aligns most closely with my younger son and that it should hang in his room, we took it in there to figure out which wall. There is a lot of bright art in his room and this particular painting is also bright. I held it up and my older son declared, “That does not excite my eyes.” He is 7 and he was exactly right. When I asked him why it does not excite his eyes, giddy with glee that he had articulated his opinion so clearly and concisely. He observed that the colors in the new painting are too similar to the other work on the wall and so it all just gets lost.
The best way to start discovering what kind of art you like is to look at art – a lot of art. But I imagine you already know that, and the prospect of starting this endeavor on your own sounded so overwhelming and time-consuming that you figured it would be easier to just hire me. And you would be right about that. However, I am not a mind-reader, and I cannot predict what you will like without a smidge of guidance. So, we will start with baby steps.
In this lesson, I will introduce you to six general media categories: paintings, sculpture, prints, photographs, drawings, and digital art. From spatial and storage concerns to budget and taste, objective and subjective reasons will likely drive your decisions for what type of media you want to acquire. Whatever the case may be, I always encourage clients to build diverse collections since having a variety of artwork by different artists will help you build a more sophisticated and intriguing collection. Through discussion, exploration, open-mindedness, and perhaps a small dose of risk, I can help you define your vision and build a strong collection identity. Read on and take the survey to complete the next step in your collecting journey.
Thanks for being here!
Air kisses (because we’re art people now), Casey
5 Kinds of Art to Consider
Paintings
Paintings are perhaps the first type of artwork that comes to mind when thinking of art. The elements of painting (shapes, lines, colors, tones, and textures) produce a visual language that communicates sensations of volume, space, movement, and light on a flat surface. An artist may use a single medium or a combination of media, including tempera, fresco, oil, acrylic, watercolor, ink, gouache, encaustic, or casein, which may be applied to a variety of bases such as canvas, wood or composite panel, paper, metal, or glass.
Sculptures
The two most important elements of sculptural art are mass and space. Sculpture can take the form “in the round” (freestanding objects) or “in relief” (3D elements on a background). A huge variety of media may be used, including clay, wax, stone, metal, fabric, glass, wood, plaster, rubber, and “found” objects. Materials may be carved, modeled, molded, cast, wrought, welded, sewn, or assembled.
Prints
Printmaking is the production of images (usually on paper) through various multiplication techniques. The resulting “prints” are considered original works of art, even though they exist in multiples. Printmaking consists of three major processes (relief, intaglio, and surface), with many artists using a combination of processes in their work. Common techniques include etching, woodcut, engraving, lithography, and screenprinting.
Photographs
In its early history, photography was considered “merely” a mechanical art due to its dependence on technology. However, the medium has developed into a creative and visionary art form. Established genres now include portraiture, photojournalism, landscape, architectural, social, and fashion, and the medium offers a wide variety of subject matters, sub-genres, and techniques from Modern to Contemporary photography.
Drawings
As another medium historically considered subordinate to other arts, drawing was originally intended for instrumental purposes (studying, sketching, drafting). Today, drawing is an “expanded field,” moving beyond traditional tools like pencils and pens to include techniques such as burning, cutting, scratching, sticking, writing, and sewing. No longer considered only a preparatory step in art making, drawing has become a celebrated primary medium that is reinventing the idea of representation.
Digital Arts
Digital art refers to any artistic work or practice that is created with or is presented using digital technology. Emerging in the 1980s, digital art now includes animations, photographs, illustrations, videos, digital paintings, or any other art made using software, computers, or other electronic devices. Previously used primarily in commercial settings, digital art is moving into the fine art collector space, in part thanks to the emergence of Crypto art, a digital asset tracked in a blockchain and verified using non-fungible tokens (NFTs).