Art is about your love for the piece, not how much money it will make you. At least according to the representatives of THE EKARD COLLECTION who recently visited Bucknell, it is.
On the night of Thursday October 11, representatives of THE EKARD COLLECTION visited the Samek Art Gallery to give a presentation about their art and their history of collecting.
The representatives of THE EKARD COLLECTION began the presentation by stating that walking into the gallery and seeing her art was like seeing her children again. One of the most important themes of their presentation was that collecting art is more than a financial investment with the hopes of making money on the art in the long run. Instead, you should have a relationship with your art. You should love the art for what it is, not for how much it may be worth in a few years.
They were both brought up with art. Originally from South Africa, the first representative grew up with a mother who was both a painter and sculptor, so she was exposed to a lot of great South African art growing up. Her parents also collected antiques, so she was brought up with a taste for art of all types. The second representative grew up in America with avid modern art collectors as parents. They both grew up with a background in art, but neither studied it in school; the second representative was an animal behavior major when he attended Bucknell.
Education is very important to both representatives of THE EKARD COLLECTION. The first representative currently teaches english as a second language. They believe it very important to have a first hand view of art in order to learn about it, which is why they lend pieces so often, almost every time a museum asks them to.
Both representatives of THE EKARD COLLECTION prefer to meet the artist before they purchase their work. They want to form a relationship with the artist, understand where the art is coming from before they purchase it. They also enjoy purchasing art from up and coming artists and seeing the artist develop, as they did with Matthew Day Jackson.
The EKARD COLLECTION includes art of all mediums, they also don’t have any boundaries on where their art/artist comes from either. A lot of artists come out of rough backgrounds, and those elements of their backgrounds show in their work, making it that much more interesting. They gave the example of and artist in Saudi Arabia, where everyone is wealthy, and where you can’t photograph or paint people. However, even with these strict religious restraints, an artist wanted to make a portrait of his grandparents. He had to be very creative and think very differently in order to make this piece. He took X-rays, painted around them, and then gave them an elaborate frame. Voila, portraits of his grandparents, albeit slightly unorthodox portraits, they are still portraits.
They had interesting stories like this for many artists and pieces, which revealed how involved they truly were in each of the pieces which they own. They encouraged this relationship with your art throughout the entire talk, and encouraged the buying and collecting of art. They knew their audience too (college students who don’t have enough money for a textbook let alone a piece of art) so they recommended the Affordable Art Auction. There, you can buy good art for only a few hundred dollars, with the highest price allowed being 5 thousand dollars. In terms of collecting art, that isn’t very expensive. They encouraged us to cut back on our trips to the Bull Run, and save up to buy a piece which we love.
When they walk into a gallery considering a new purchase, they both point at an image that they like, and if they agree on a piece, they buy it; however, they have to both like a piece, otherwise it will not be purchased.
They began collecting with expressive glass, then they focused on Dutch art, then the Romantic period, then Chinese Contemporary Art. Their story with collecting Chinese Contemporary Art is quite interesting. In 2004 the second representative of THE EKARD COLLECTION had a venture capital idea to buy a lot of Contemporary Chinese Art for five years, then sell it. His reasoning was that China has such a large population, and the country has been growing a lot, so in a few years there will be plenty of chinese people who will be able to afford art. What type of art would they buy? He believed that it would be art depicting their culture, and he was right. The value of the contemporary Chinese Art which they purchased years ago is worth 20 to 30 times more now. Even though the market is perfect to sell, they haven’t sold any of their art. They fell in love with it, and the venture capitalist idea they had been working with for the past five years went out the window.
Every story which they told revealed their love for their art (they haven’t sold a single piece, they couldn’t stand to part with it) and the importance of education of art and the world of art. I know that I wasn’t the only student who left the talk feeling inspired to find a way to start collecting. I now pass the challenge on to you: try to find a way to purchase the art that you love, and do it because you love it, not only because it will make you money if you sell it in five years.