The Artist as an Investment

"With so much financial uncertainty in the US I bet art trading will be seeing a spike as investors look to capitalize in different ways, some even willing to sell under the table to grow their capital tax free." -Angel Leon,  professor of economics.

This quote reminds me of a cocktail party some twenty years ago. A friend of the host was a successful bond trader and expressed his opinion that poor and middle class were basically stupid because they were always willing to buy collectables instead of bonds.

At that time the bond trader had a investment fund that projected a 6% growth per year after taxes with a $10,000 minimum balance.  Not bad for the times but I had mentioned that a box full of collectibles could return 100% or more on investment without a $10,000 minimum investment and usually without taxes. Of course shopping for inventory and selling it at yard sales and flea markets is real work -often time consuming work. Still for somebody with time on their hands and very little spare cash this is a viable way to make money. The bond trader was impressed.  

The markets in collectibles are affected by the same forces as any other market. Prices on things like ordinary baseball cards and commemorative plates of Elvis in Las Vegas have flatten out. But that hasn't stop people from buying other investments in physical objects they can tangibly held on to and enjoy.

The market in art is very undervalued. Art like wine can be intimidating. Both come with their own language, some snobbery and almost counter intuitive sense of values. With wine I know there are several wine cellars that act like mutual funds where once modestly priced bottles from fine vintage years have grown in value at a rate of 20% and more per year. A well to do consumer of wine can buy a case of Bordeaux one year, sell a single bottle ever so often and end up with 3-6 bottles paid for. It must be nice to drink goods wine for free.

One local artist who also trades in art had met and befriended Keith Harding back in the 1980's. He owns six Harding paintings. If you don't know Keith Haring, he was famous for The Radiant Child and his work can be found in the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as several other equally prestigious museums in Europe. The six Harding paintings this local artist purchased for less than $1000 are now worth over $100,000.

Like any investment you can guarantee extraordinary returns on any single purchase.  A collection of art can be satisfying just because you like it. Actually with any collection, it should be something you're interested in and willing to research and investigate. The more you know  about your collection the more you'll be able to optimize each purchase.

In the world of up and coming artists, last weekend I met Will Ursprung . He works in mixed media and collage. Collage itself goes back to the earliest days of cubism with artists like Pablo Picasso and eventually became its own branch of modern art.  The word comes from the French verb, to glue. The idea is to assemble from parts a new and different image. Anything from cloth, printed material, portions of other canvases and found objects can be included. It's all fair game with the only boundaries being the artist's imagination. 

One person compared collage to playing the Theremin, where the Theremin is one of the most accessible instruments to play but also one of the hardest to master.

It easy to think of collage as a child's activity. On rainy days I would give my two sons a stack of old magazines, poster board, scissors and white glue.  Neither of them are going to become collage artists but they said projects like that have helped them with their photoshop skills.

Will Ursprung is a member of the National Collage Society and has exhibited in their Signature Member show at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum. Will also has an upcoming exhibit in Savanna Georgia this spring. He's one of the many artists that represent a wise investment.  Artists who are accessible and affordable.

The Nation Collage Society's website is www.nationalcollage.com