Or: Once you start it, you can’t stop it.

I know it’s a local thing but since the exhibition “Flutung” by Luka Fineisen at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (link) has been recommended to me heavily by a fellow collector over at Independent Collectors and since my colleague here tells me that both the programme “Frischzelle” and the openings at the Kunstmuseum are good, I will spend an unusal Friday evening in Stuttgart. To see the thing and maybe talk to the artist, if I get a chance to do that.

Meanwhile, I had a look at the “Hacking Ikea” blast over at Platform 21, Eindhoven. (link) And I wonder whether to regard (at least some of) it as art or not. I have the same thoughts about an ad campaign by Leo Burnett India Mumbai, namely the one that one a Gold Lion for their Luxor campaign.

What you can’t see is that the three pages contain a biography of the respective person. You can read it top to bottom or you can read only the highlighted text. Both make perfect sense are are well written. Since these probably do not exist as shown (my questions by e-mail not have not been answered as I write this), I’m inclined to not call it art.

This follows a discussion I had and continue to have with Christian Schwarm, as to where to draw the line between art and advertising. No, we are not sitting there, discussing the nature of art. Who would want to do that? It’s more a matter of determining whether the context of a certain collection can justify the presence of items usually not regarded as art. The cover of FAZ for example, as seen in Schürmann’s “The Hole Collection” (link) makes perfect sense in that collection. This would mean that by consciously shaping a collection, the collector gains the freedom of including anything he or she likes.

Which in turn means that as an inexperienced collector you can find out what your collection will be even without spending a lot of money on art by famous artists. And of course you could argue that as a collector you can do what you want, anyway.

Still, I have to admit that I personally sometimes think more about what experienced collectors would think of my collection than about whether I want to live with something or not. I’m a newbie after all, trying to figure out the difference between unjustified intimidation by the market and justified doubt, between excitement caused by artistic quality and excitement caused by pure taste. And whether there is a difference at all.

Maybe I should think less and look at art more. Which is probably the only sane statement in this whole post.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 2:41 pm and is filed under All-Round Report.