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Hoarders or collectors?

Hoarders or collectors?

The US is a nation of compulsive collectors –at least if responses to an exhibition at New York City’s New Museum are anything to go by. The keeper is a collection of collections, a survey of the collecting passion in art and beyond that finds room for everything from a […]

A profile of the elusive Art Collector

A profile of the elusive Art Collector

This migratory species regularly congregates in Switzerland in June, in Britain and France in October, and in Italy every second summer. More recently, it has gathered in Hong Kong in the spring. Generally black in plumage, and most frequently seen in habitats with bare white walls, contemporary art collectors have […]

Women in Art: 7 Collectors

Women in Art: 7 Collectors

Many women in the art world believe if more women began collecting art as well as supporting women artists, there would be a drastic change in how women are viewed and respected in the art world. Unlike their boisterous and boastful male counterparts, most female collectors are very discreet in […]

Engraving’s collector: Why? How?

Engraving’s collector: Why? How?

Some personal thinkings in the perspective of the exhibition “Contemporary Catalan Artists”-Works of the Gelonch-Viladegut Collection,  at the American University of Paris: The current context for a citizen engraving’s collector. The humanities remind us where we have been and help us envision where we are going. Emphasizing critical perspective and […]

Gender parity in art collecting

Gender parity in art collecting

The next time you visit an art museum, look around — not at the paintings, but at the people in the galleries. It’s a fair bet that women will outnumber men; even government statistics say so. More women than men study art, too, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Art […]

Crossed conversations

Crossed conversations

In the occasion of Montolieu’s exhibition, and for the catalog, Mr. Mestre and I prepared these crossed conversations. If you are near a swimming pool or in the beach or walking in the mountains, I hope these conversations could be a good summer lecture. In any case, enjoy! 1) What […]

Art / Money

Art / Money

To the question ‘what is there in common to artists, gallery owners and collectors?’ some people will answer ’art’, others say ‘money’ and everybody will be right. Both books of Anne Martin-Fugier ‘Collectors’ (Actes Sud, 2012) and of Judith Benhamou-Huet, ‘Artists always loved money ‘ ( Grasset) have a common […]

The artist as collector

The artist as collector

Not all artists are collectors per se -many are simply gifted works by other artists in their circle, but some, like Tom Phillips (with an encyclopedic collection of African goldweights), are accomplished at both pursuits. At last year’s ‘Paris Tableau’ we saw a special exhibition of works from the collection […]

Museums and prints (2): The British Museum example

Museums and prints (2): The British Museum example

Last week, our article presented the example of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of New York, a brilliant example of the place which prints have in this world-class museum. But I don’t want to give the idea that prints only have a good place with in modern art. Therefore […]

The collector’s role

The collector’s role

As can be seen in the exhibition at the Grand Palais, in Paris, when Gertrude, Leo and Michel Stein settled in France at the turn of the 20th century, they became Picasso and Matisse’s patrons, buying the artist’s first works. Does this avant-garde mentality and intellectual complicity between collectors and […]