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Savvy art lovers are shunning fashion and hype and adorning their walls with contemporary classics
Have you ever wondered what experimental art rockers put up on their walls? It’s not what you think, to judge by the sample of Bryan Ferry’s collection being exhibited at the London International Fine Art Fair (LIFAF), which opens today.
The avant-garde Roxy Music frontman, who studied art at Newcastle University, may have stirred up the music scene in the 1970s, but when it comes to art to hang on his walls, he likes it to be attractive, accessible and even homely.
“The modernism goes into his music, not his collection,” says Richard Shone, editor of The Burlington Magazine and curator of the display. “He has collected purely for enjoyment because he wanted to have nice things around him. His paintings add a colourful background and warmth to his domestic life in his Sussex house.”
According to Shone, Ferry has spent the past 30 years ignoring fashion and hype, picking up works by prominent British artists of the early 20th century solely because he likes them. The 15 paintings on loan to LIFAF are only a tiny portion of his overall collection. Among them you will find a dark “old masterly” portrait of a brooding Wyndham Lewis by Augustus John and much brighter works by the Bloomsbury artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. They are contemporary but not threatening, modern but not cutting edge — exactly the sort of thing that most of us now want on our walls, if the current mood of the art world is anything to go by.
Although these paintings are not for sale, organisers are hoping that the collection will jeuge-up the upmarket art and antiques fair, better known for peddling Old Masters, Chinese ceramics and traditional English oak furniture. This is where you would expect to snap up John Constable’s View of East Bergholt House (£300,000) or a dainty brown-ink-and-pencil drawing by William Turner (£29,000). Less predictable, however, is the eye-popping Birth of Venus by the fashion photographer David LaChapelle (about £76,000).
Other unusual offerings from some of the 200 top British and international galleries exhibiting here include Crying Girl by Roy Lichtenstein, Trincomali Harbour by Julian Schnabel and a poster advertising the 1979 Muppet Movie. Fossil lovers will also find the skull of a Mongolian dinosaur and the truly eccentric will delight in the 16th-century German footman’s armour.
The mix of ancient and modern is intended to appeal to London’s new breed of international billionaires, whose tastes may not be conventionally British.
Sir Timothy Clifford, chairman of the fair, explains: “There is no reason why contemporary art cannot be integrated cleverly with antiques. Many contemporary decorators are now demonstrating this at LIFAF.”
It’s a wise move in today’s market. Peter Wetherell, managing director of Wetherell estate agents in Mayfair, says that he is more likely to find works by Gilbert and George at top London homes than Constable or Turner. Changing tastes have also prompted a change in his marketing style. “In the 1980s and 1990s we used to do up show flats with Old Masters by the square foot. Now we go for far lighter and brighter contemporary pieces,” he says.
Aspiring collectors with big ambitions but smaller pockets should not be put off. If nothing at LIFAF suits your budget, you would do well to wait for the next Affordable Art Fair (AAF) in October. Buyers will find 120 galleries under one roof, but prices are capped at £3,000. And though most buyers spend between £700 and £1,000, you can purchase a print for as little as £50.
Don’t expect to find a David Hockney here, but it is the perfect hunting ground for emerging and mid-career artists. Works by Jane Perkins, the artist from Devon who uses random buttons, toys, beads, jewellery and shells in her collages, are “selling like hotcakes”, according to Nicky Wheeler, the fair’s director.
“She simply can’t produce enough to meet the demand,” Wheeler adds. Buyers can expect to pay about £2,000 for her work, but not for long. Peter Monaghan, previously a favourite at the AAF, is now too expensive for the show.
Wheeler says that after a difficult few years, sales have started to head back towards pre-recession levels. But what we buy has changed. “This is the age of considered consumption. People are thinking much more deeply about what they buy,” Wheeler says. “Before, we may have seen a lot of people going for pieces that were considered fashionable simply to impress their friends. Now they are no longer swayed by trends. They are thinking about longevity and buying what they love.” That’s probably not a bad approach. After all, it worked for Bryan Ferry.
This article was published by The Times on 4th June 2010. Please click here to view
