Vital Insights for Investing in Contemporary Art | Seed Gallery

Investing in contemporary art can be challenging, particularly for first-time buyers, novice collectors, or even seasoned art investors. To avoid making costly mistakes, it is crucial to understand a key element that significantly influences an artwork's value.

Assessing The Quality Of The Artwork

While it’s important to emotionally connect with an artwork, from an investment perspective, it is wise to seek out and purchase works of the highest quality.

Instead of making an impulsive purchase at a gallery, art fair, exhibition, or online, take your time. If possible, arrange a private viewing to reassess the work. The initial excitement may have faded, allowing you to focus and remain objective.

Seeing the artwork in person or multiple times does not reflect indecisiveness; rather, it’s crucial to process what you initially saw. Compare it with what you have at home, or visit similar works in museums or other galleries.

If you are familiar with the artist’s work or already own pieces by them, consider scheduling a virtual tour and requesting multiple images from the gallery. The more you look, the more confident you will become in your initial impression and gut response.

Repeatedly viewing an artwork hones your visceral response mechanism. Examining a work by an artist you admire increases your ability to discern intrinsic qualities in their paintings, drawings, sculptures, etchings, or prints.

Powerful instinct for great artworks grows with deliberate, careful, and patient scrutiny. The longer you look and the more questions you ask, the more you will notice the unique merits of each piece and appreciate the outstanding works. Conversely, lesser works reveal their deficiencies over time.

Examine every detail of the artwork, view it from different angles, and under various lighting conditions. Compare it with other pieces in the gallery, especially those by the same artist. Note the artist’s brushstrokes, use of color, materials, and other unique elements.

When making a significant investment in a contemporary artist, consider hiring a professional art advisor experienced in the art genre of your interest. Their role is to objectively assess the craftsmanship and identify the sublime elements that make the artwork a rare masterpiece.

Rather than choosing an "important" work based on the artist’s status, it might be financially beneficial to invest in a high-quality piece by an emerging artist who is still relatively unknown.

If purchasing online, research the artist thoroughly, request multiple images and close-ups, and ask for a video of the work. Inquire about materials used, especially for mixed media, and methods for preserving the work’s integrity. Find out who else has bought the artist's work and what independent art critics have said about the artist’s work.

Experience brings confidence and excellence. Learn how long the artist has been creating in their particular style, and as a novice collector, don’t hesitate to ask the gallery to connect you with seasoned collectors who have acquired works by the same artist.

Due diligence is crucial when choosing an artwork. A high-quality piece will always maintain its value and desirability over time.

Join our Mailing list to receive tips, guidance and information on Contemporary Art Investment, Art Preservation, Building and Managing a Contemporary Art Collection and Buying and Selling Artwork on both the Primary and Secondary Art Market.

Learn more at https://bit.ly/art-investing-risks

#artist #contemporaryart #art #artgallery #education #culture #collector #artcollector #artcollectors #artmarket #knowledge #invest #artinvestment #seedgallery #gallery #history #arthistory #economics #arteconomics #artmovement #design #artanddesign #interiordesign #graphicdesign