Strolling down Madison Avenue decades ago, I had an interesting interaction with a mega- snooty Manhattan gallery. An interesting painting caught my eye as I walked by the upscale business, so I tried to walk in and check it out. The door was locked, so I knocked and waited.
“What do you want?” an elegant woman asked through an intercom.
“Just wanted to come in and look around,” I replied.
“We are not interested in people who just want to look around!” she replied curtly, walking away from the door.
I don’t know what the art scene is like today in New York, nor do I much care. Thankfully, things in the Pikes Peak Region are quite different – our galleries are affordable, friendly, welcoming, unpretentious, accessible, diverse and (best of all!) filled with extraordinary art.
“We want everyone to feel welcome and at home in our gallery,” says Reed Fair, who with his spouse Emily, owns 45 Degree Gallery in Colorado Springs. Here you are encouraged to “just look around.” – Even, Boyd the friendly gallery dog welcomes you right in.
Such informality makes the art-buying process uniquely stress-free. Local galleries carry works by many artists in every price range–ranging from simple ceramic mugs for a few bucks– to major paintings for a few thousand. It’s fun to wander around and browse from gallery to gallery – but watch out! Pretty soon you’ll want to buy something, and then something else. By doing so you may become part of a beneficent ecosystem of artists, galleries, and collectors.
Buying art doesn’t require any special expertise, as long as you’re dealing with an honest, reputable gallery. Yet if you see something you like hanging on a gallery wall, it makes sense to understand if what you’re looking at is a singular original piece, a multiple or a photomechanical reproduction.
“Works on paper, canvas or other ‘support’ are originals if they are the one and only first to have the touches of oil, watercolor, pastel, gouache, ink, etc. on them,” explains Gallery 113 owner Karen Standridge. “They may be ‘original drawings,’ but they aren’t ‘prints,’even though sometimes they are on paper. They are usually signed by the artist, and there is no number after the signature.”
Limited edition multiples, such as lithographs, woodcuts and etchings, are individually created by the artist. According to the Washington Printmakers Gallery,“Such printmaking processes allow the artist to create multiple images.” “The entire process, including pulling the print, has been planned and brought to completion by the individual artist. In most cases the artist has also pulled the print. There are some exceptions, such as when an artist who is physically unable to lift and run a large lithographic stone through the press has relied on a master printer to work ‘as the artist’s hands’ under the artist’s close supervision.”
Photomechanical reproductions are just that – images produced in large numbers with a variety of techniques on almost any surface. Evaluating such art can be tricky. For example, an original poster from the 1920’s might be worth thousands of dollars, but a reproduction made last month would have only decorative value. Provided it’s priced accordingly, that shouldn’t dissuade you from buying it.
But be careful of fakes and forgeries. One famous scam involved Salvador Dali, who literally faked his own work by signing thousands of photomechanical copies of his original prints. The dealers who sold them as originals paid him a fixed sum for each signature, so Dali created a production line. One assistant would place a print before Dali, and another would remove it when signed, enabling the great man to sign hundreds an hour. As world-renowned art appraiser Bernard Ewell noted a few years ago, “The art market is where the intent to deceive meets contributory negligence and willful ignorance and most of those who have been defrauded don’t even know it.”
So how do you avoid being similarly defrauded? Stay away from the big names and the lofty pretensions of coastal elites. Don’t buy art as an investment. Purchase art that gives you joy, not funds your retirement. There are dozens of galleries in the Pikes Peak Region, from which we have acquired several works many from Colorado Fun Guide advertisers. So, enjoy – but watch out for those Dali prints!
