TASTE in ART?

Taste: Do you have it? Is yours good, bad, classic, contemporary, funky, in sync with today’s popular culture or intensely idiosyncratic?

Art appraisers know that art is not about good or bad taste, but that art appraisals are often all about taste – and not the individual appraiser’s particular affinity for one style or another. It’s the art market’s preference for particular styles at particular points in time.

Taste can get to be a thorny issue with clients. Too often their art education really begins with making a very common mistake: believing that art, especially art in their possession, will only appreciate in value.

My favorite client bought a very large and beautiful painting thirty years ago for more than $20,000. The artist was considered “hot” and his work was a perfect fit for the interior design of his newly built, then-very contemporary house. Both art and home referred to the Southwestern United States.

Over the years the client received updated appraisals from the gallery which sold him the work. These appraisals were for insurance coverage, and it the painting’s value seemed to grow until it more than doubled.

Recently this client built a new house in the large-scale Mediterranean-style popular now in this part of the country. That once-perfect painting no longer works in its new surroundings and my client would like to sell it. Unfortunately, there is no market for it, even at its original selling price. There is nothing wrong with this painting – it is in pristine condition, with a beautiful paint surface and impressive technique. It’s just out of fashion.

How can the art lover minimize the probability that he will purchase art that does not decline in value over the short run?

1. Be prepared to make mistakes; just try to make them early in your collecting career when the works you are buying are not so costly. That’s why it is so important to look, look and look some more before you purchase. As for buying expensive art on vacation in Hawaii, Santa Fe or some other exotic place – don’t hand over your MasterCard while you are still in a state of euphoria over being away from the office in a glamorous setting. Get photos from gallery, along with information on the artist. Go home, get back into your routine and see if you just miss that painting so much you can’t stand it. I’ll bet it will still be there.

2. Do not think that your financial and professional successes automatically make you bullet-proof when it comes to buying art, especially works being produced now. Working with an experienced art consultant or appraiser who knows the market could help you make a more informed decision on whether to purchase a work at a given price.

3. Your artwork will most likely go through an out-of-fashion period, and may not realize higher prices in the market until well after you have been laid to rest. Don’t take it personally. Your grandchildren may profit handsomely, if they don’t donate your collection to Goodwill before it has had time to become fashionable again. Fingers crossed.

Submitted by, Judy T. Nelson, ISA AM
for Guernsey, Nelson, Kolker and Associates