Wieneke Archive Book 4h : Art Sales Presscuttings

women on this newly thriving market It's a new angle for investment WHO hasn't notice, that where the pro tests are loudest against the pace of modern liv- ing, you usually find the very people who are giv- ing a good share of their time to the pursuit of leisure and pleasure? So it is that as the rhythm o our daily round quickens, more and more of us find time to bring art into our homes. Or so it seems. Australians today are certain- ly buying paintings, drawings, ceramics, and even sculpture at a rate which would have been regarded as inconceivable only a few years ago. Last year, it has been estimated, some 700 art ex- hibitions were shown through- out Australia, mostly at private commercial galleries. This is at once an exciting and a sobering figure. Who then are the patrons who have brought about this happy and healthy state of affairs? While there evidently is, broadly speaking, a pattern among patrons, it is as well to remember that art galleries are as strongly individual in character as the works of art they exhibit. Galleries tend to attract people who enjoy the particular feel, the particular ambience created by a given gallery. This Is true all over the world. Yet, most of the gallery directors I talked to claimed their exhibitions were regularly attended by people from all walks of life. A few, perhaps more realistically, spoke of "a cross-section of the wealthy sttatum in our community," in a' word: the well-to-do. Few among us ever feel suf ficiently involved with a paint- ing to want to plump our 'money on it-if it means going without, say, a holiday, some sporting equipment, even a second car! Whether we recognise it 01 not, paintings have a way of returning both our pleasure and our investment many times over-if bought wisely and well Mrs Purves of Melbourne's Australian Galleries was one who confirmed this view when she told me, "we have clients who, over the decade since we started, having spent hundreds find today their collections art worth thousands." Investment is doubtless one a the factors which seems to jus tify many a purchase to man: a buyer. But it is by no mean the only one. Curiously, in Australia wome. have played a tremendously im portant part in our national e, fort to foster the arts. This is especially true of paintings. Could it be that wherever Au. trallan education is regarded a: "good", it is more liberal fo girls? Certainly girls are er couraged in acquiring knowledge and appreciation, and indeed in the performance of many ol the arts. So while we womei are given the chance to develoi our human sensitivities, Au: tralian boys, all too often, art subjected to the rigorous kin( of schooling that is bent upor crushing them out of awareness Women are significantly among the painters and potters and even among the sculptor at work in Australia today. Not a few of them have won con siderahle recognition as serious artists. For the unman who receives an invitation to an exhibition opening, it is as likely to signal an occasion of keen interest is one for joyously cavorting in witty glad rags. Most galleries stage an official opening for each exhibition. The best -patronised ones average a response of some 200-300 people. Some galleries show a distinct aversion to the opening, and nave instead a preview. There is a difference. It means less launching, less fuss and 'eathers. At least one gallery savoring previews has several limes attracted as many as 600 ?catle to them. This speaks rather for the exhibition and the gallery direction than for any kind of system. But one gallery in Melbourne has recently dis- pensed with any form of opening whatsoever. The buyers However the galleries set about it, word does get round. The bigger and better-known ones record an easy average of 1000 people coming to see any single exhibition. But looking is one thing. Buying is another. Who are the biggest buyers? Doctors! Now, who would have guessed it? This seems to be true whether at the galleries specialising in contemporary art, in abstracts, or in more conservative fields. One leading gallery director told me, "I find doctors are prepared to accept all the symptoms of a picture as they stand. Lawyers," he added, "are very hard to please." I was surprised to learn that architects are not, as an oc- cupational group, significant buyers. But in individual cases there are certainly architects who seek out the advice and help of some galleries in decorating say, the boardrooms, the chairman's office, or per- haps a foyer of an important new institutional building. I heard of some very happy associations between pro- gressive architects and pro- gressive galleries-even if they are sometimes frustrated owing to the smallness of funds allotted by big companies to buying "the icing on the cake" as one gallery man put it. Amusingly, though not sur- prisingly, I learnt that a simi- lar situation applies in art galleries as in the world of fashion. Among husbands and wives, one partner may well pass oft lightly an important purchase, suggest it cost less than it actually did. How many husbands know exactly how much their wives have paid for a particular gown, suit or hat? But around the art galleries this mild little marital game of "what the eye doesn't see . . .," when brought into play, is as likely to be practised by husbands as well as wives! Nearly all the galleries I asked told me the actual deci- sion to buy fell pretty evenly 50/50 among husbands an wives. Although at one import- ant private gallery, the director estimates that 75 per cent of the buying there is done by men. With buying active and fre- quent, exhibitions changing every two weeks, and the con- tinuing proliferation of galleries --what about the artists? Can they keep up the pace? Today, the established artist and the newcomer alike are both under pressure to hurry and produce enough work to fill an exhibition. Both his livelihood and his reputation - to be made or held - are at stake. He can't afford to ignore the pressure. With the welcome advent of the new galleries, the new patrons, it is inescapably there. Surely, then, it must deleteriously affect the quality of work of some of our artists, at least sometimes? NEXT WEEK: More about the people - especially the women - who are buying at our private art galleries, and what they buy. A look at the galleries themselves and at some of the women gallery - directors, what the galleries aim at, the images they pro- ject, and how they work. S An enthusiast examines wood carvings at Sydney's Hungry Horse Gallery,