The Fall Art Season is in Full Swing

After a brief experiment last year, we've decided to get this blog back off the ground.  Fall brings the start of many art-related activities, so now seemed like a good time.  The MFA Museum Council kicked off its season with Art and Empires:  Treasures from Assyria on September 20th.   As usual, we had quite the crowd for cocktails, a lecture from the curator, a private viewing and dinner. 

That same weekend, South End Open Studios featured over 200 artists.  Before the event, I had been asked for advice about the best strategy.  Hard to say.  This year  I optimized around convenience since I was bringing my parents for the first time.  We focused on 450 Harrision, which had around 75 studios (and an elevator).  I haven't been to South End Open Studios in a couple of years and I was impressed with the overall quality  of the art (high) and prices (affordable).  With the broad range of media and styles, there was something for everyone.  

Sperandio and Grennan

I just bought a signed copy of the book, Kartoon Kings, at the Carnegie Art Museum in Pittsburgh. "Kartoon Kings" is the name of the collaboration between two artists, Christopher Sperandio and Simon Grennan, who create site specific-comic books as art.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston commissioned their first work for a musuem in 1998. They created a comic book based on real Bostonians' brushes with celebrity entitled, Dirt: The Essence of Celebrity. Malcolm Rogers, the Director of the MFA, is featured in the comic. Dirt is now part of the permanent collection of the MFA and is an affordable way to add something that the MFA owns to your own collection.

Three years ago, I started collecting their comic books. Although the comics are usually distributed at the site of the project for free or at the cost of a standard comic book, they can also be purchased from time to time at Printed Matter in NYC.
http://www.printedmatter.org/


More information about Kartoon Kings can be found on their website:
http://www.kartoonkings.com/

Corporate Art Collections

It is always interesting to see what experienced collectors are buying. Likewise, many corporations have deep pockets and employee experienced curators to help them build their collections. Deutsche Bank has a leading collection and focuses on emerging artists.

See this article
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=ankPqintmGO0&refer=germany
And the link to their website
http://www.deutsche-bank-art.com/new/en/

First Post

This blog will chronicle the research, travels and collecting interests of a group of avid print collectors.