Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Buy vs. Sell
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Author Richard Polsky (whose book I Bought Andy Warhol I give to anyone who asks why I do what I do) had another addition to Artnet recently. In it, he talks about the popular topic of contemporary collecting.
Here are his recent picks:
10 Short-Term Buys
Blue-chip contemporary artists who are undervalued, listed in alphabetical order, include Carl Andre, Richard Artschwager, John Chamberlain, Joseph Cornell, Sam Francis, Robert Gober, Ralph Goings, Howard Hodgkin, Frank Stella and Tom Wesselmann.
10 Long-Term Buys
Blue-chip contemporary artists who will continue to appreciate, despite prices that are already high, include Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol.
10 Holds
Blue-chip artists whose prices are maxed out but who are nevertheless worth hanging onto because of the high quality of their work include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, Maurizio Cattelan, Chuck Close, Lucian Freud, Andreas Gursky, Ellsworth Kelly, Joan Mitchell, Gerhard Richter and Ed Ruscha.
10 Sells
Blue-chip artists whose prices are maxed out and may actually sink at auction include Keith Haring, Robert Indiana, Alex Katz, Robert Mangold, Louise Nevelson, Kenneth Noland, Chris Ofili, Lucas Samaras, George Segal and Donald Sultan.
5 Sleepers
Mid-level artists who will eventually be considered Blue-chip include John Baldessari, Ed Moses, Ed Paschke, Ken Price and Richard Tuttle.
5 Wild Cards:
Blue-chip artists with narrow markets whose future prices are too difficult to call include Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Vija Celmins, Tom Friedman and Bruce Nauman.
What do you agree with? His short term and long term buys I pretty much agree with with the exception of Tom Wesselmann. To that I just need to ask why? Interestingly, and in keeping with recent blog chatter, they are all men.
Of his holds, I would put Cattelon, Kelly and Ruscha in the buy category. They are not maxed out IMO. They are a few of the greatest in recent history.
His 10 sells - I hope they are out of your personal collection already.
5 sleepers - Baldessarri will influence artists for generations, Paschke will be forgotten by next Tuesday.
Wild cards - again pretty spot-on except for Nauman. Don't call it a Hoosier bias, that's one hell of an artist.
6 Responses to “Buy vs. Sell”
September 27, 2006 at 5:06 PM
Do you believe the people who can actually afford these artists really care about investment potential?
September 27, 2006 at 10:29 PM
My limited experience with people with said finances are usually the people who think about investments the most. Perhaps that is why the saying goes, "the rich get richer..."
-Scott
September 27, 2006 at 10:30 PM
Uh...yeah, actually, of course they do. Do you think people only buy the work because they love it? Wake up. I think Baldessari's a bore and future generations probably won't get his work cause it's ALL context. Pashke's work is just ugly, so he's a goner, too.
September 27, 2006 at 10:32 PM
Oh and what a surprise that Cattelan came up AGAIN. Can we just cool it on the whole Cattelan thing? Isn't he just a little too easy and cute? He's the Charles Ray of the 21st century.
September 28, 2006 at 3:39 AM
I'll gladly write more later, but to answer the first question simply and concisely... "Do you believe the people who can actually afford these artists really care about investment potential?"
The answer is simple - YES! And we need to quit the provincial attitude. These people that pay these prices for these works are not foreign, they live amongst us and we need to think globally.
September 28, 2006 at 10:48 AM
I would surmise that many of the people who can afford these artists are ONLY interested in the investment potential, havn't a clue about art, and, in many cases, couldn't find their ass with magnifying glass and a flashlight but DO listen very carefully to their advisors.
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