Starting Your Own Art Collection
Nja Mahdaoui 1989. Tunis. Equalizer's Collection (click to enlarge)I have always wanted to start a meaningful art collection. A collection that with time adds both artistic and monetary value to my space, may it be my room, house or shalaih. My taste is very diverse and its very difficult to display a mishmash of paintings ,sculptures, photography etc. without creating a potential clash. I chose arabic calligraphy as my first peice not because I wanted to, but because its one of those moments when you fall in love with something you get it (if you can afford it). Art to me is always an investment.
What would your art collection be like? and what would be your first purchase?
" Mahdaoui studied at the Academy Santa Andrea, Rome, and the Department of Oriental Antiquities, Ecole du Louvre, Paris. His varied work comprises paintings, prints, tapestries, designs for fashion designer Amel Sghir, book covers and book illustrations. In addition, he was selected by Gulf Air to design the external decoration of one of its fleet, 2000, and, in 2005 won a UNESCO Crafts Prize for the Arab States with a stained-glass creation. He has received many awards and has been on the committees for a number of international artistic events. Mahdaoui lives and works in Tunisia while participating in numerous conferences worldwide." The British Museum
www.nja-mahdaoui.com
What would your art collection be like? and what would be your first purchase?
" Mahdaoui studied at the Academy Santa Andrea, Rome, and the Department of Oriental Antiquities, Ecole du Louvre, Paris. His varied work comprises paintings, prints, tapestries, designs for fashion designer Amel Sghir, book covers and book illustrations. In addition, he was selected by Gulf Air to design the external decoration of one of its fleet, 2000, and, in 2005 won a UNESCO Crafts Prize for the Arab States with a stained-glass creation. He has received many awards and has been on the committees for a number of international artistic events. Mahdaoui lives and works in Tunisia while participating in numerous conferences worldwide." The British Museum
www.nja-mahdaoui.com
posted by Equalizer at 8:40 PM
9 Comments:
your post is so related to what I'm thinking about recently. Starting my own.
My first items will be historical coins (8th & 9th century).
I'm not sure about what my next step/purchase will be, but I'm sure it'll iclude some photographs, notes & sketches. Paitings are not a priority, unless I found a piece that will keep me thinking about it day & night.
The itmes I'm more into are "collectables", like coins, pins, badges or postal stamps that are/were made for a certain event.
I have another collection, that I showed a part of in my blog. It's not "art", but some old newspapers & magazines.
for more:
http://idip.blogspot.com/2006/01/archives-idip-1.html
http://idip.blogspot.com/2006/01/archives-idip-2.html
http://idip.blogspot.com/2006/02/archives-idip-3.html
iDip: Amazing collection of old news clips! Reading those takes us back in time. It certainly will have value when your collection reaches that critical mass. I think you already have started a collection, regardless whether it is art or not. Postal stamps are art by the way :)
Hmm nice but I don't "feel" Islamic art but I appreciate its intricacy.
Purchase? I'm more into the "going in for the steal" i.e. Ocean's 12 Erzulie style with backflips and wires and swinging from ceilings to grab that "Sleeping Bather" in Oskar Reinhart's Collection.
Or make my own piece :P
Erzulie: seems like an adventure! count me in ;p
LTEC: I know exactly what you mean. i'm currently in India and you can't imagine the amount of valuable vintages I find here, its amazing!
I've got Eclectic pieces, whatever paintings I like I try to buy from cubist to abstract art,, It does not matter to me who the artist is, of course I would love to own a painting by one of the masters, (inshalla one day)
I loved the piece you have one .. show us more pls
I like Hassan Massoudy's work - he does modern Arabic calligraphy. I'd love to own something by him. My dream is to one day have a Sandy Calder mobile hanging in my future home. And while we're at it, if he hadn't died in 2000, I would have had Hundertwasser design my home for me. :)
As far as realistic collections go, my life's dream is to build up my own Gulf archives collection. Buy original copies of all the travel writings, the full Records of Kuwait series edited by Alan Rush and other bound volumes like that, plus as many old newspapers, ads, etc. that I can accumulate. I'm slowly working on it, but they're too expensive for a grad student's budget! Maybe once I'm done and move back to Kuwait iDip and I can pool our collections together.
Kleio: Hassan Massoudy is good but too in your face. I like it when text is appreciated in its pure form and not written into something meaningfull to accentuate its importance. Sandy Calder, wow! Hundertwasser, well I think I can't stand a minute in such spaces hehe
as for your collection well i think its worth seeking those historical records. There is alot that needs to be learnt about our history. Atleast the true version of it.
mosan mosan: Well, it doesn't have to be a famous artist. In fact it would be interesting to discover talent, that you think has a potential. So you might have something of potential value ;) As for my collection, well this is my first purchase, so I will post once I find anything else worth purchasing. Actually I wanted to purchase works by Brahim Dhahak, actually I might go ahead and do so, once my budget allows it.
Nja's work is capitivating the first time I set my eyes on it, I walk out of the store with one of his limited edition prints.
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