CollectorsArt.com

Kevin Temple has a thought-provoking article in this week's NOW Magazine. It's about a CollectorsArt.com art 'show' which happened last month at the Hudson's Bay Company. Y'know, the oil on canvas paintings that are the visual art equivalent of Muzak.

"From lively abstracts to classic florals full of rich color; from Tuscan landscapes to renditions of old masters, each painting is chosen for its exceptional value. Our keen eyed buyers travel the country and the world searching for quality art with a tenacity that can often be mistaken for obsession." quoth collectorsart.com.

I'm searching for a refined way to say 'Bullshit!'. Temple strikes at the heart of the matter:

"To be fair, customers who want an oil painting but lack the confidence to march into a dauntingly hip commercial gallery and pick one out can relax with Collectors Art in the knowledge that: 1) they will not feel out of their element, and 2) the painting will match the drapes."

Note the intimidatingly hip gallery sophistication.

Temple's second point doesn't hold up as all you need is the colour of any painting to match a room's colour scheme. His first point is all too true. It's hard for many people to tread the gallery's Sacred Ground, often not as lively and diverse as shown in the photo above. There is a definate snob factor present in many of the higher-end galleries which I attribute to:

• Mild tolerance for most visitors who are truly ignorant of art history and contemporary art.
  
• The huge gap between the number of visitors and potential buyers. Go to enough opening receptions and it becomes pretty obvious - to the discriminating eye ;) who's who.
  
• Trying to understand the academic speak of many artist statements written for art curators stuffed full of $5 words. Who wouldn't feel stupid reading those instruments of torture? "Bullshit boggles brains" goes the saying and was never truer than in the world of hustling art.
  
• The human psychological association of the snob pose with exclusivity and special privilege. For some art buyers, the snob factor helps to justify the price in the absence of reason.

The good news is that, in my observation, the best gallery owners and artists are some of the most welcoming, gentle people you can hope to find at an art opening. It's just good business. The opening, to my mind, is the best time to experience new art. While guarding against buying on a whim, you can at least enjoy the food and drink, take in other people's impressions of the art, and learn to discriminate between artcollector.com product and fine original art.