Shopping for Art

As a curator for museums and a consultant to collectors for almost 30 years, I've had to judge the quality and value of art. In museums, galleries and private collections, I've sorted through the bad, the good, the better and the best. Whenever I look at a work, I consider how this new object measures in comparison to the hundreds of thousands I have already seen. I apply the same criteria to a work by an emerging artist as I do to an established master. The best artists have both technical mastery and the ability to connect us, through our appreciation of color, form, balance and other issues, with the essence of our humanity.

How do I apply this knowledge when I advise clients who are shopping for art? First, I encourage them to look for art wherever they are. Although serious collectors usually purchase art in the major centers of the art world, such as New York and London, they also like to investigate the local galleries wherever they travel because interesting objects often surface in unpredictable places.

I also stress that investing in art is different from shopping for objects to adorn your home. It is as complicated as investing in the stock market. Research is important to establish the artist's history

and place in the continuum of the history of art. You also need to learn about the local, national and international market for an artist's work. I have chosen many works of art because I like them. I have also looked for objects that, based on my knowledge and research, I believe will appreciate over time. But appreciation is hard to predict, and collectors should not make that their primary consideration. I tell my collectors they should buy because they like something. If they have developed their eye and done their research, they might find that some of the art they have bought will increase in value over the years.

I also suggest they support the artists living in their community with a percentage of their acquisition budget. There are many interesting artists who live in Southwest Florida. I have seen some who began selling at $500, raising their prices to $2,000 or more after a few years of exposure.

Without comparable years of experience, you can ask galleries to help you gather the information, do your own comparative research or call on the services of an art expert.

In all of Southwest Florida, Naples has the most galleries. A few are on the north Trail and elsewhere, but most are clustered on Broad Avenue South, Third Street South or Fifth Avenue South. (You can also find galleries in other parts of the region, including on Sanibel, Captiva and Pine islands. But for this story, I focused on shopping in Naples.) Although some galleries have Web sites to introduce you to their inventory, they cannot replace the experience of seeing the art in person.

What attracts me to certain works? I appreciate that each work of art is a moment in an artist's career, and some moments are more significant than others. I like to possess those significant moments. That means I look at a body of work before I make a decision. Dealers or the art consultants who work for them are anxious to help you find what you want, so it is smart to share your desires and your budget.

Most galleries in Naples sell art in different media such as painting, sculpture or photography. Some specialize in European, some in recent or contemporary art, and others in art from the 18th and 19th centuries. Many galleries offer art that is both realistic and abstract. Many try to offer something for every taste, and this can make the sorting challenging.

Part of the fun of shopping for art is that you never know what will be available at any one moment. Timing is always a factor. If you have to make a decision now, you must choose from what is currently available. If you have the luxury of a year or more, you can see more of an artist's work and get to know it better before you buy.

I spent several weeks browsing Naples' galleries, looking for works that interested me. (Remember, inventories are always changing, so this is just a snapshot of what was out there during that period.) Here is what I liked.

Shopping for art from $300 to $1,000

Finding interesting and good original work in this price range is a challenge. Matthew Moran was new to me, but after seeing dozens of his paintings, I think he has significant talent. He shows at Blue Moonstone on Fifth Avenue South. His small acrylic-on-canvas paintings are $375 to $475. The larger-24 by 12 inches-Teacher's Pet is $750. I liked that he pays homage to the 19th-century American artists Peto and Harnett with his trompe l'oeil approach, yet chooses a more contemporary subject matter.

Virginia Dauth's works also interested me; they're well-executed, small pastels of Florida flora at Galerie du Soleil on Broad Avenue South. Her Green Coconuts pastel is $400.

Shopping for art from $1,000 to $10,000

Native Visions Gallery on Fifth Avenue South has a great inventory of animal and bird images, including many large-scale works. But at 7 by 9 inches, Shirley Greene's Guinea Fowl is a precious realistic painting for $2,900.

At DeBruyne Gallery on Broad, I would choose from Don Mosher's small New England or Naples scenes, beginning at $2,400. Mosher likes to share his passion for painting with brushes loaded with color. He knows light and atmosphere and managed to put me in the locale he recorded.

At Gardner-Colby Gallery on Broad, I would choose Henry Von Genk's Hidden Sun, a 12-by-24-inch

oil-on-canvas that's priced at $4,200. This painting is jewel-like in its precision and fascinating in its convincing atmospheric light of a Florida landscape. At the same gallery, I like Michael Kahn's photographs of sailing vessels. Mariette Surfs places the viewer in the water, looking up at an oncoming ship. The view is suspenseful and a little unsettling, commanding interest every time you look at it. Framed at 32 by 28 inches, it sells for $1,950.

At Marianne Friedland Gallery on Broad I found internationally recognized contemporary artist Jeff Koons' Puppy sculpture for $2,100. This sculpture is based on the three-story-tall Puppy that Koons created with a frame and thousands of pots of flowers in 1998. Three thousand were released as a porcelain sculpture edition seven years ago. I wish I had purchased one then for $1,200.

If I were in search of a landscape, I would look at Wolf Kahn's paintings at Marianne Friedland, where his works begin at $6,000. Kahn has been exhibited internationally, and I like that he begins painting abstractly and then evolves the shapes and forms into what might be recognizable as a barn or hill or trees. He is a master of color and light.

I would also consider Thomas Gilfilen's Island Light oil-on-board, 30 by 30 inches, at Shaw Gallery on Fifth Avenue for $6,500. The painting shows the afterglow of a sunset-you can see the brushwork. It is well painted. Everything looks wet. The view is slightly out of focus, giving you the sense that you're looking through a very light mist.

I also like 32-year-old Eugene Paprocki's oil-on-canvas, Cushenden, Ireland, 46 by 60 inches, for $12,000 at DeBruyne Gallery on Broad. Paprocki has developed a mature style, with brushwork that's confident and assured. Paprocki can work on a large scale, and this painting convinced me that I was seeing the coast of Ireland.

At Lovejoy Antiques on Fifth Avenue South, I discovered a master­fully executed watercolor of an Irish landscape by the 19th-century painter John Faulkner

for $7,000.

The Englishman Art & Antiques on Broad has a wide selection of paintings from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. I was struck by pictures of horses and dogs and in particular by John Trickett's Pair of Black Retrievers for $7,600. I would recommend either of these to someone who wanted to bring something well-painted and traditional from Great Britain into his or her home.

Eckert Fine Art sells the work of important contemporary artists who've had museum exhibitions. My choice from its current inventory would be Robert Rauschenberg's Marsh (Stoned Moon), a one-color lithograph painted in 1969 and an edition of 60, 35 by 25 inches, for $8,500.

At Sheldon Art on Fifth Avenue South, I discovered Patricia Lambrecht-Hould's Georgia's Champion for $9,200. At 48 by 36 inches, this oil-on-canvas will hold a wall, and her faithful rendition of a horse is an interesting combination of abstraction and realism.

HW Gallery on Third has a wide selection of works by modern masters, including Norman Rockwell. Because I have seen many examples from his Glyptotek series that were inspired by his visit to the Pergamum Altar in Berlin, I would chose Jim Dine's 1989 lithograph from the series for $7,500. His inspiration was the face of a woman on a Greek marble relief sculpture, yet he makes the work his own in converting it to a print on paper.