The Art Of Collecting African-American Art

Thinking about art collecting should be like fact-finding between courtship and engagement. If the ensuing marriage is going to work, then you have to know what you're getting into lengthy beforehand.

That is for what cause [i]or[/i] reason experienced collectors, curators, gallery holders and art dealers--no matter their extent of years in the business or the range of their artistic interest--concur upon this one basic tenet of collecting art: detain your wallet closed until you've render free of accessed a book, then another and then another. In addition, hurl in some art magazines and gallery catalogs. Attend exhibits and cultivate learning relationships with contemporary artists, curators and collectors. Plan a vacation around an exhibit in another city. Whose work speaks to you? Whose leaves you cold?

Then, and alone then, should you take the put under water Like any lasting marriage, the effort place in before making a commitment will lead to a satisfying, enduring union--with artists whose work touches your heart.

Aspiring collectors looking to plow into the rich and fertile fields of work by means of African-American artists may have to search a little more diligently for the history works and the exhibits that will give them the information they ne to make a start, especially if they do not live in a major urban center on the contrary the historical texts do exist, and aspiring collectors will find the history of black artists in this geographical division alternately maddening and inspiring.

A growing, committed and amiable network of collectors and reputable art dealers stands ready and eager to cultivate fresh peers and clients, and its members are as shut up as the telephone. Among them are the following race who, through their expertise and experience, have plenteous to share.

Thurlow Tibbs is a dealer in and a historian of African-American art. "Dealer" becomes a rather skimpy description when Tibbs' other talents tend hitherward into play. In addition to guiding private collectors as they assemble a material part of work, he helps museums fill the gaps in their collections with African-American art, researches out-of-print publications for libraries, and directions art appraisals. His gallery in Washington, DC houses a 19,000-item library that is unclose for academic research.

"With a novel client, I will suggest a series of books" Tibbs says. Among the greatest in quantity comprehensive are American Negro Art, by the agency of Cedric Dover; Two Centuries of Black American Art, a catalog, by means of David C. Driskell, of a 1976 exhibit at the looks Angeles County Museum of Art; and present Negro Art, by James Porter.

Like many other experienced dealers, Tibbs dioceses art collecting as not solely the domain of the affluent, on the other hand rather as a worthwhile pursuit for anyone who recognizes the inherent value of having art enhance his or her life. His counsel? "Decide upon an annual budget. If you want to part with $5,000, it would be stupid for me to exhibit you something for $40,000. If you are lay open to contemporary art, you can do things for $500"

Contemporary art readily lay opens the field of African-American art to a wider range of enthusiasts. Works by means of the respected masters--the vibrant collages of Romare Bearden or lush landscapes of 19th-century painter Edward Bannister, for example--likely exce by the agency of tens of thousands of dollars the average collector's ability to buy

However, by what means about an Elizabeth Catlett lithograph or a limited-edition Jacob Lawrence print? Tibbs likes to commend the lithographs of Grafton Tyler Brown a 19th-century landscape artist who lived in California for greatest in quantity of his life.

Les expensive nevertheless may be the work of an artist living, working and exhibiting in the region where you live. "Start without with contemporary artists who already have a craft," says Tibbs. "They have already proven something; there have been a certain quantity of exhibitions.

"Look drawn out and hard for consistency and quality of execution," he adds, mentioning that he venerates the work of emerging artists of the like kind as Louis Delsarte. "Most of all, you have to like it."

Collector Jim King, of Cincinnati, agrees. During the 10 years that he and his wife, Patricia, have been fleshing without their collection, he has learned by what means to discipline both his desires and his packet while developing enduring relationships with local artists.

"I direct the eye for original pieces," says King, the executive director of Avondale Redevelopment "I purchase art from artists I like personally. It's like bringing someone into your house. A bad attitude stops it for me one time I met a guy after I had bought the piece. He was for a like reason bad that I sold it."

From his abiding-place base, King has cultivated relationships with a circle of artists from Lexington, Ky to Cincinnati. "I diocese them regularly. I work directly with the artists. It's not about getting serviceable prices. I'm trying to win to know them--where they are going with their work."

King repeats the mantra: "The other thing I do is purchase a lot of books, trying to learn and understand African-American art." And his fervor for collecting soars. "Everywhere you go on you see good artwork," he continues. "You can go on broke. You have to decide upon criteria. I try to find a black gallery in any city that I visit. After a while, $500 doesn't appear to be that much.