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The Art of Collecting
From the moment we create something - anything, a vase, an instrument, a sculpture, or a painting - we are potentially satisfying someone’s desire to own it. The inclusion of such items with what is already owned is called collecting. Collecting is an art form in itself. How many times have we visited the homes of friends and discovered a selection of items on display that took us by surprise, revealing a side of their personalities totally unknown to us? Under this new light, their true colors emerge, and they sparkle with newfound energy when they describe or show their precious finds.
My experience in visiting friends with sculpture collections is that the individual sculptures no longer carry what I interpret as their own distinctive messages from the sculptor’s hand but have taken on a new meaning that relates to the collection that their new owner has embraced. Each work carries the identity of the collector and the choices he or she makes - as seen in our articles on the collections of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, the Huntingtons, and Morton Swinsky.
Artists’ collections can also provide an insight into the artist. Before visiting the loft space of my sculptor friend Gonzalo Fonseca on Great Jones Street in New York, I knew his work through exhibitions and visits to his studio in Italy. His work spoke to me at a certain level - interesting effects that captured my curiosity. However, after I had seen his incredible, museum-quality collection of South American artifacts in his dusty loft, a third dimension was added to his creations, and his personality came into focus as never before.
Among all the collections of the past, I can’t stop thinking of the impact that the Medici collection had on the history of art. Collecting is a creative expression, in my point of view.
Giancarlo Biagi
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