Art World - The Collectors

The collector's position within the art world is probably the most comfortable of all, since s/he is unlikely to act under any pressure from any part of the AW (Art World). He or she is the shaper and mover, the blessing and the curse for art in general. Despite having often a little or no artistic background or competency the collectors due to the sheer power of their social status and money make the AW what it is and what it is going to be.

Nowadays, the collectors are likely to treat their occupation as a professional sport and an (one of many) investment. They will engage actively in the dynamics of the AW- being, in fact, the stockholders of 'goods' on a highly risky market, where artists (artworks) are their portfolio and their actions (buying/selling - especially considerable amounts of works) influence directly the entire AW. Being the main clients of galleries and museums they are able to carve art accordingly to their taste channeling paths for a particular trend and discouraging the evolution of an another. Like in any sport (and investment) the good collectors display a well-built, competitive 'body' of the collection with the quality/quantity of works especially taken into account; they also take an active part in a public life of the AW and beyond it promoting and educating, curating and supporting the public institutions.

The good collector would comply with un-written code of ethics of the profession:

- to take the responsibility for the AW - especially the artists in his/her collection and those not yet included; take care for the healthy development of the AW as a whole

- to avoid abusing his/her status within the AW; this includes pressurizing artists, dealers or curators to comply or showing 'empty' interest in a work (without any serious intentions to buy)

- to support emerging artists and art colleges

- to avoid any pretense and deception games - the best art collectors are art lovers and investors; yet (since nobody is perfect) the ethically correct 'shoppers' will admit their predominantly commercial interest in art

- to foster the freedom of speech in art-related media and topics

Some famous art collectors:

• Bernard Arnault - French billionaire businessman and the richest man in France
• Alan Bond - Australian entrepreneur
  
• Eli Broad - Eli Broad Biography - Jewish American billionaire businessman and philanthropist
• Walter Chrysler - founder of the Chrysler Corporation
  
• David Geffen - Founder of Geffen Records, listed on Forbes Rich list
• Steve Martin - Famous comedian, actor, writer and art collector from the United States
• Charles Saatchi - Founder of the advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi
• Sakip Sabanci - Billionaire Turkish businessman and famous philanthropist
• Kerry Stokes - Australian billionaire media magnate
  
• Steve Wynn - Las Vegas Casino and Resort Developer

Exuberant struggle for integrity - Burkhard Held

Flicking through the last issue of ARTFORUM I came across this not known to me German painter. Burkhard Held (b. 1953) lives and works in Berlin. He's been exhibiting persistently and widely for the last few decades.

His "Roter Berg" from 2008 - oil on canvas, conventional size, yet another application of the neo-expressionist language. Yet, it has the potential to catch the attention, not merely due to the exuberant, affirmative palette which looks confident comparing to many other propositions from the same trend. The portrayed scape conveys the impression of stability, self-assurance despite of the patchy construction and nervously wobbly marks - the imposed, inner discipline puts a form and an order on this would-be pictorial anarchy.

Held's work seems to explore the phenomena of a form and formlessness, integrity and a collapse, an existence and a hypothesis - and while some of his paintings appear to be deliberately suspended on the verge of 'melting down' (in a very fashionable today pictorial 'explosion' of shapes, spaces, meanings) there is a struggle to be appreciated - a fight for a structure and a sense; which both remain an endangered species in the contemporary art in general and in painting in particular.

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To see artist's page (in German) - Burkhard Held

Till February 21st, 2009 Michael Schultz Gallery in Berlin hosts the exhibition of the latest paintings of this artist.

Art Forum International is a well-edited monthly magazine featuring tens of oncoming and current art exhibitions and shows from around the world. Recommended to buy from time to time for the record-value, to visit online - ARTFORUM.

Modern Art by Louise Bourgeois

Art is a privilege, a blessing, a relief. (...) Privilege entitles you when you deserve nothing. Privilege is something you have and others don't.

Art was a privilege given to me and I pursue it even more than a privilege of having children. (...) It's a fantastic privilege to have access to the unconscious. I have to be worthy of this privilege and to exercise it. It was a privilege also to sublimate. A lot of people cannot sublimate. They have no access to their unconscious. There is something very special and very a painful in the access to your unconscious. But there is no escape from it and no escape from an access once it's given to you, once you are favoured with it, whether you want it or not...The life of an artist is basically a denial of sex...

(...) I'm not interested in art history (...) Art is not about art, art is about life and that sums it up (...)

Modern art(...) is about the hurt of not being able to express yourself properly, to express your intimate relations, your unconscious, to trust the world enough to express yourself directly in it. It is about trying to be sane in this situation, of being tentatively and temporarily sane by expressing yourself. All art comes from terrific failures and terrific needs that we have.

It is about the difficulty of being a self because one is neglected. Everywhere in the modern world there is neglect, the need to be recognized, which is not satisfied. Art is a way of recognizing oneself, which is why it will always be modern.

Louise Bourgeois in an interview with D. Kuspit; excerpts from her Destruction of the Father, Reconstruction of the Father: Writings and Interviews 1923-1997, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998

What can be said more? Perhaps, being a bit bold - that art is not a therapy alone. Art is not an introspection only. Art is about the Other, about the conscious, real, about the self-rejection of the sublime and about cherishing sex. Because sex means to cherish the Other. The Other can be and is your Sublime. No one sane could possibly claim - I'm the only source of my art, of the sublimity, of the privilege and - of the pain my unconscious implies and my art excavates...