Mass Confusion

I left the MassArt Benefit Auction on Saturday night a little bewildered. It wasn't because of the art, it was because of the attendees. Whatever I thought I knew about the market, went totally out the window. An unlimited edition by Julian Opie went for four times its price on Opie's webstore (to multiple high bidders!), while amazing pieces, like David Ording's portrait of Lady Agnew (shown here) went for almost half-price. There were no surprises with the usual crowd pleasers in the live auction- Laura McPhee, Abe Morrell, and Ambreen Butt, but downstairs was literally a bargain basement with the exception of a (very) few works that seemed to have been originally priced too low. These included a couple of interesting student works by Jonathan Lewis and Lisa Foti, which were both bought at 150% of suggested price through the "buy it now" option. Many really good pieces that should have easily sold closed without any bids. Some of us got great deals on specific pieces that we had targeted (like the Michael Mazur print I won), but the best strategy would have been to bought in volume, picking up all of the decent work that didn't have bids. How could the same audience overbid for an Opie wall sticker and not place any bids on paintings that could have been won for a fraction of those bids. Were they just unknowledgeable buyers? Is there some twist on charity that I am missing?

DIY

With frugalism becoming fashionable, consider participating in the trend (as painful as it is) by making your own art. For $30 and the cost of a box of crayons, you can have 72 works by Richard Prince with his recently produced coloring book, 3rd Place. If you want a more diversified collection, you could get another coloring book, Between the Lines: A Coloring Book of Drawings by Contemporary Artists (2007). Between the Lines contains drawings by Julian Opie, Sol Lewitt, Vito Acconci, Rita Ackermann, John Baldessari, Jeremy Blake, Will Cotton, R. Crumb, Keith Haring, Robert Longo, John Lurie, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jason Middlebrook, Laura Owens, Alexis Rockman, Kenny Scharf, William Wegman and John Wesley, among others.
If you don't want to invest in crayons and are more interested in three-dimensional works, you should get The Paper Sculpture Book (2003). Originally a show at the Sculpture Center in NYC, this book is essentially the exhibit. 29 artists created sculptures that could be created from sheets of paper and provided detailed instructions on how to recreate them yourself. Sarah Sze, Fred Tomaselli, David Shrigley, and Glen Ligon are some of the artists. I received that book as a Christmas present in 2003 (thanks, S!) and love it.
All of these books are available on Amazon.

Collect(ive/ions)

As we are gearing up for Art Basel Miami, I started to think about our collective buying patterns and how much overlap there is in our collections. Although none of us have the same image of an editioned print or photograph (except for benefit prints), we often buy work by the same artists, sometimes even part of the same series. It actually gives some depth to our personal collections, and the collective collection would probably make an interesting show- as much about the art as the social connections. Here is a list of artists that are in the collections of more than one of us (again, benefit prints aren't represented here). (If I left any out, please add them in the comments.)
Christiane Baumgartner
Erik Desmazieres
Lalla Essaydi
Claes Oldenburg
Julian Opie
Judy Pfaff
Stephen Sheffield
Doug and Mike Starn
Kate Sullivan
Kara Walker

Julian Opie, Everyday Art?

I just recieved a notice from Alan Cristea Gallery about the newly launched Julian Opie Online Shop and I'm torn. Many of the Boston Print Collectors are fans and I've certainly envied the nifty postcards and invitations, designed by Opie and sent to those who collect his work. But putting that same invitation (for a long past event that you weren't invited to anyway) on sale to the public, seems a bit odd. That said, there are many fun items on the site like refrigerator magnets and a flip book, that for only about $15, lets you experience the movement inherent in his installation pieces.


It will be interesting to see the reaction, as merchandising by artists is a slippery slope and sometimes negatively influences critics perception of the "real" art (though Murakami, seems to have made it work financially, if not always critically).