Expert Opinion: Art collecting

Elaine Erickson has been a fixture of Milwaukee’s art scene since 1994, when she opened a small and welcoming gallery. Today Elaine Erickson Gallery in the Third Ward’s Marshall Building is home to contemporary works in a variety of media. Paintings and sculptures from both local national artists share space with African pieces. Clearly, Erickson is an expert when it comes to art collecting. Before giving a talk Wednesday at the Humphrey Scottish Rite Center on collecting prints for the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network, Erickson offered her expert opinion to The A.V. Club about how to get started with this potentially expensive hobby.

1. Collect art because you like art.

"The most important reason is that you really love it and you want it in your life. Personally, I couldn’t imagine walking into my home without any art on the walls. You just want it in your life. You enjoy it, and it’s something that will last forever, and you can get—in perpetuity—enjoyment out of it."

2. Don’t buy it hoping to get filthy rich.

"People buy art for investment. I never advise that, and I have never done that. When people do that, you know, they’ll buy something and put it their closet. And they wait, and they speculate. I want it up. I want to look at it. I don’t want to get rid of it, because I really like it. The value is to me, not in what money I can make on it."

3. Find out what you like before you start buying.

"Every time I can, every place I go, I go to an art gallery, and I’m constantly looking at different art. If you don’t have an art education, you have to determine what is good art. I think by your constant looking at it and reading about it, you’ll learn that. It will come to you. And then you kind of decide how you want to collect. I have customers that will only buy dead Wisconsin artists, whereas personally, I’m very eclectic. If I like it, I want it."

4. You don’t need a ton of money to be an art collector, but you do need to be smart.

"The money issue is always there, and one of the types of things that you can collect is prints. Usually it’s more affordable, but it’s important that it’s original. If you decide to go that route, and you want to collect prints, you have to learn what is original. A lot of times people will sell a print that is not an original print, but people don’t know the difference. I’ve seen atrocities, people paying exorbitant amounts of money for these horrible things that are just awful. And you know, they’ll be triple-matted and have this baroque frame on it, and they’ll think they have this beautiful piece of art when actually the piece of art itself is probably not worth any more than $20—the price of the paper it’s printed on."