Art in a Collectors Market
Journal Entry: Sunday, August 28, 2022
Art in a Collectors Market
There are a lot of different kinds of value in the world and artistic objects in any medium embody many different kinds of values. To name a few, there is historical value, social value, cultural value, economic value, sentimental value and on and on. But when it comes to a self-sustaining creative lifestyle in a capitalist environment, the idea of economic value and market value have to be factored into an artist’s creative output. There are many different markets that artistic products fit into. All of these markets taken as a whole could be called a collector market. There are artistic artifacts and there are people who specialize in collecting them. Just like making art is a lifestyle so is collecting art.
There are many people who do not make art but are deeply interested in the art world and who collect things. And it is not just art objects that people collect, they collect all kinds of things: beanie babies, postage stamps, antique furniture, vintage cars, vernacular photos, historical documents, signatures, rocks, memories, correspondences, mail art, jewelry, stocks, NFTs, cryptocurrency, trivets, dishes, crystal animals, pottery, plants, cameras, records, radios, and every other imaginable thing. People love to collect things and virtually everyone collects something. Collections are as fascinating as being an artist, a poet, a writer, a musician, a composer or a maker of things.
Many artists are intimidated by or contemptuous of the idea of their art being a collectable thing for a collector market. But there is a market for virtually everything. As the artist, you are the most important collector of your work. You’re the only authority and expert on the topic. Interest in your work starts with you being interested in your work. If you respect your work others will come to respect your work as well. Every artist has a potential market. It is just a matter of how big that market is or could be by creating opportunities for your collector market to find you. There have never been more ways to do this.
Embrace the fact that just like you make stuff, so there are those who love to collect stuff and there is nothing wrong with that.
Thanks for commenting! Don't I remember Wegway from way back?
Yes, artists need to get over the worry of 'selling out'. It is not a sell out if your work is about your own inner trail and inner creative development. It is when an artist gets confused about making things they think other people want to buy that causes all the problems.
The kind of collectors an artist should think about are the ones looking for the hidden world that is particular to the artist's own vision of things. All an artist has to do is be authentic to him/her self when in the studio every day.
The representative's hat is the one you put on when you are out representing the private world of the artist in the studio with a sense of detachment. Your just looking for the people that resonate with your vision. Everyone else doesn't matter - they are not your people.
Those are wise words. Commodification Anxiety is a real thing for artists, extra real even, now that it has its own name. You have soothed my CA.