How I've Built my Art Collection
The artists in my collection and what I think about when I'm buying art. Also: favorite resources, follows, and sources for affordable art
If you ask me, collecting art should be exactly that. Collecting. Adding in things you really love, bit by bit, one by one. (Emphasis on one by one.)
I feel that way about my furniture too. I could never be that person who moves into a house and furnishes it all at once. Everyone is different, but that would feel so impersonal to me. I’ve bought some really nice things, one at a time. My Marcel Breuer Cesca chairs from the sixties. The robot bar replica I searched high and low for. My Design Within Reach platform bed and leather recliner. All purchased slowly, over the years . . . things I’ll never part with. Art should be collected in a similar manner.
You don’t need to have a giant budget, be a gazillionaire, or even know a lot about art to start collecting. You do need to want to learn, to be curious, and be willing to spend time looking and learning. It’s something I really enjoy doing, but it has taken a lot of time to get to a point where I would call myself a burgeoning collector or even someone who knows a little bit about art. Art is a rabbit hole. You learn about one artist and then find five more to get curious about. It can take over your life if you aren’t careful! I try to learn a little bit every day, even if it’s just reading one quick article or a quick google search.
This post was a big reader request, and it took me a long time to write (I started the draft in November). I really hope it’s helpful. To be honest, I feel a little bit pretentious writing about art. I’m still a beginner! I wanted to frame this post as about my own collection and the resources that have helped me learn more.
I purchased my first “nice” piece of art in 2015 (that was only ten years ago in my early thirties, when I started to have more disposable income): a Slim Aarons photo titled Monocled Miss. The photo shows a woman sitting upright in bed, looking like the pinnacle of ease and luxury. I loved the subtle pop of primary colors and found her inspiring: I wanted to channel a little bit of her glamour into my everyday life.
I was still living in my Murray Hill Studio and didn’t have the wall space for it, so it hung out in my closet for a little while, carefully tucked away, until I moved to Brooklyn. Back then, my gallery wall comprised mostly prints from Etsy that I’d framed myself and a couple of small Gray Malin pieces I’d saved up for (and also framed myself—professional framing was still alien to me). The Slim Aarons piece felt really special, and it is!
I bought my first piece of original art in 2017. Again, this was just eight years ago; I’m still very new to this!