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Rule #1 Never Buy for Investment.

You must love your art and allow it to give you pleasure every day. If dollar signs are all you think about when you look at it, it's no good for your soul or for the art, which would be better off in another home. In the very unlikely case your art happens in increase in value, consider yourself lucky that you didn't have to pay more for the same pleasure.

  • 99% of all the art made never goes up in value Most pictures decline 50% in value the minute you walk out of the gallery. Dealers typically take 40-50%.
  • The art market fluctuates the same as every other market.Big collectors who bought at the top of the market in the late 80's were left holding the bag in the early 90's when the Japanese left the market and Wall Street tanked.
  • Art is not liquid. The dealer who sold you something, will not typically not take it back five years later. He has new work to sell by the artist, and doesn't want to deal with older works unless the artist has substantially appreciated in value.

Rule #2 - Do Your Homework

Learning about art takes time and effort just like learning about anything else - football, cigars or opera.

  • Look
    at art constantly and develop your eye, so that you come to know better what you like and why. The more you look, the more you'll come to understand the difference between what is good and what is not. Now this might not change the kind of art you like, but will help you distinguish the good of what you like from the bad.
  • Note the "Isn't it amazing" picture and how many there are
    For the uninitiated, a realistic oil that looks like a photo can be an amazing - How did the artist do that? Well, it's actually quite simple and anyone can learn if they have time and patience. The process is simple - project a photo you like on canvas with a projector, and fill in the outlines. If you learn the skill of airbrush on top of that, it really looks like a photo.
  • Note cliches.
    The more you look, the more you see that there are thousands of artists working in an "isn't it amazing?" style. The more you look the more you become aware of the cliche of using thrilling technique as the basis for artistic merit. An image must also resonate beyond technique. There are also hundreds of thousands of competent artists who are simply good craftsman-like illustrators. The work is fine, but you can't tell one from another and there is no true originality or unique way of viewing the world. This competent illustrative art also becomes more obvious as a cliche the more you see it.

Rule #3 - Trust Your Own Taste

At the end of the day, however, after looking and looking, you must trust your own taste. Good art comes with many different syles and subjects. Which style and subject matter really speaks to you, however, depends on how well your personality converges with that of the artist. You might have an eclectic sensibility appreciating many kinds of good art or you might just like the romantic landscape, or colorful expressionistic painting, or Zen-like minimalism. No matter what kind of art really grabs you, don't be afraid to mix different things in one space. Your general taste will wind up connecting them all.

Rule #4 - Look for VALUE

Although you are NOT thinking "investment potential" (you're not, are you?), you are thinking VALUE.

You do not want to be ripped off, and in the art world, it's easy to spend lots of money on junk. Again, you must go through the learning process. If you're spending under $700 for an original work on paper or under $2000 for a good - sized painting, don't worry. Buy anything that pleases you. That's cheap. Remember, artists have to make money too. A typical artist who makes one good watercolor a week and sells it directly for $500 each, makes $24,000 a year. And he probably has an expensive Masters of Fine Arts degree, plus the costs of postcards, supplies, paper, rent, framing, etc. He also has a day job and is caught in the classic artist-bind. He has to wait tables, work computers, free-lance somehow to make enough to live, and at the same time, find time to paint. It's a hard life, so give him a break and don't complain about his trying to sell an original work of art for more than $300. Pay him gladly.

Rule #5 - Buy from reputable dealers - But how can you tell?

When you are purchasing art for more than our limits, try to work with a reputable dealer. That's easy to say, but how can you - the uninitiated - tell a reputable dealer from a sleaze?

  • Avoid any dealer with who sells Salvador Dali, or Norman Rockwell. Other artists to avoid are Tarkay, Erte, Earle, Jiang, Chagall (late), Max, Neiman, Agam. They are all overpriced.
  • Avoid - like the plague - the "Limited Edition Print" and any dealer who sells them. They are nothing but overpriced, signed posters.
  • Avoid the dealer who talks investment and offers a "Certificate of Authenticity".
  • Avoid galleries located in shopping malls, tourist areas, and airports. For some reason I have yet to figure out, the average person only thinks about buying art on vacation, and although I'm sure there are exceptions, many galleries take advantage of that.
  • Avoid buying art from the framer in your local shopping mall. Again, I'm sure there are exceptions, but he's probably not the best person to spend any serious` amount of money with. He typically knows little about the general art market, but might have some good local people along with posters, etc.