What does it take to become an art collector so significant in the world of artistic endeavor that the collection itself becomes as well known as the artist?
Is there a specific set of skills at looking at a particular piece and being capable of spotting art world trends before the average populace note the direction?
Unlike most people who buy art on a piece-by-piece basis, it takes a plan for formulating multiple acquisitions that result in the intelligent building of a collection. Skill set includes being able to research and evaluate an individual work and then form a meaningful grouping–a collection. The collection is the result of the ultimate purposeful purchasing of the emerging trend by the specific artist(s) that commands premium attention in that the work is as excellent as the balance in which it is presented.
Great collectors become as widely known and respected as the collection they present. Education may very well be part of the key accrued from the knowledge of well known experts, curators, and other collectors.
The art of collection can easily become a passion which may take on a life of it’s own as it did when high end and well known art collector Adam Sender mounted an exhibition of works in one of his Miami homes several years ago. The 70 works shown in various rooms of the home were culled from over 1,000 pieces in that collection and included a piece by Richard Prince called “Spiritual America”, a photograph of Brooke Shields as a child standing in a bathtub. The piece was artfully placed in a bathroom.
Adam Sender, in his middle 40’s, was well situated to begin a contemporary art collection following his success as a hedge fund manager and was in the unique position of gravitating towards artists well on the road to stardom. Sender discovered he was a skilled investor as well as gifted in knowing which pieces were worthy of being collected. He has been amassing his collection over the last two decades that include the conceptualism and minimalist movements. His trove includes the Cindy Sherman photograph known as Black Sheets. Indeed, one of the few collectors to mount an appreciation for women artists, he has also acquired works by Mickalene Thomas, Barbara Kruger, and Sarah Lucas and believes the work of women artists should not be discounted because of the artist’s gender.
Choice pieces from the Sender Collection continue to be offered in 2015.