ART PURCHASES:How do you know 'good' from bad? Buy what you like is the answer, writes GEMMA TIPTON.
WHEN YOU think about it in terms of prices, buying contemporary art can be like buying a handbag, a car, or even putting money down on a house. The investment levels are the same, but the difference is that art seems much more mysterious, and the ways of its world arcane. And from the outside, it seems very complicated. For a start, there's such a lot of art out there, and while some of it is very appealing, some is just plain awful. Some art seems to reflect its owner's amazing taste, while other art works (often inexplicably) serve to show just how little discernment the person displaying it actually has. So where do you start? And how do you navigate such a minefield? It isn't always so easy.
Take Graham Knuttel: we see his work in restaurants around Ireland. Sylvester Stallone buys his paintings, and yet to art world insiders, he is not "the thing" at all. It gets more complicated when you find out that Bank of Ireland has an early Knuttel in its collection; a wonderful wooden cabinet, that opens to reveal intriguing things - so is Knuttel a "good" artist, or isn't he? The answer is (annoyingly enough) that it's up to you. If you find that you love a particular painting by Knuttel, and that leaving the gallery you can't bear to be parted with it; if you wake up the next morning thinking about it, then that painting is, for you, a good painting. If, on the other hand, you're only buying it because you've heard he's good, and the person in the gallery said that famous people like him, then you're probably making an expensive mistake that you will regret having on your walls.
Buying art may be, in fact, a lot like handbags and cars (at certain price levels anyway). When you're planning to purchase, you shop around, look at what else is on the market in that price bracket. You probably know something about the maker, whether they have a good reputation, what owning that brand says about you. And, crucially, you decide whether of all the handbags or cars for sale, this is the one you want. The problems come when you realise that you can't just swan in and buy, say, a Hermès Birkin, or an Aston Martin DBS, or indeed a Sean Scully painting. There are waiting lists for such things, and pecking orders as to who gets what, and when.
Even though this only happens at the very highest level, it can be off-putting, as can the environments of our top galleries. Those white walls, and the reverential atmosphere, have the dual effect of making the art look more amazing, but also more out of reach and somehow "not for the likes of us". So how do you go about dealing with that? The first thing to do is get to know the territory. Go to galleries, make comparisons, speak to art dealers, ask to be on the mailing lists, and chat to artists at openings. But always, always, take what everyone says with a pinch of salt. It's just opinion, and the more you get around the art world, the more you realise how much opinions vary.
Making those comparisons is easier still at Art Fairs, and there's a good one coming up next week. Art 08 (at the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, from May 16th to 18th) hosts 22 of Ireland's leading contemporary galleries. Walk around, peruse the stands and you'll soon start to differentiate between the pretty, the cool, the attention seeking, the shocking, and those works of art you could really, really love on a long-term basis.
So what about auction houses? Well, while galleries sell (usually taking a commission of between 30 per cent and 50 per cent) works by the artists they represent, the auction houses (also called the secondary market) sell works to the highest bidder. They do set reserves though, and may even take bids "off the chandelier" (that is, out of thin air) until they reach them, so you won't necessarily pick up something for nothing at auction.
But with all the talk of works by artists such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons selling for millions, can you make a similar killing? Is this a good time to buy? As is so often the case, the headlines hide the less spectacular facts. The only people likely to make a fortune out of art are those who already have fortunes. Speculators such as Charles Saatchi can manipulate prices on the market with what they choose to buy and sell. And when the news gets out that Saatchi is buying, prices go up, so (once again) it's much better to follow your own taste and judgement. Contemporary art is often gorgeous, it's exciting, it can be sexy, it's a lot of fun and, just occasionally, it even appreciates in value. But in the meantime, you have to live with it, so always, always buy what you love.
Gemma Tipton gives talks with art collector Patsy Tsouros on buying contemporary art. Their Art Salon evening, hosted with Gloss magazine, is on May 21st in Dublin. See www.artsalon.ie or call 01-2755130 for more details