First there are the wives
of wealthy Russians –
heralded ‘the oligarchettes’ by
The New York Times – who are
increasingly seeing art as the
ultimate pricey treat. Among
those helping to raise the profile
of the Moscow art scene are
Marianna Sardarova, an elegant
blonde with her own RuArts
Foundation, and Janna Bullock,
elected to the Guggenheim’s
board, as well as institutions
like the Ekaterina and Victoria
Art foundations – named after
the wives and daughters of
Moscow millionaires.
Then there are the celebrity
investors. Lily Allen’s a budding
collector, having dated gallery
owner Jay Jopling earlier this
year, as well as lunching with
Charles Saatchi and Damien Hirst.
Angelina Jolie is another. She’s recently
dropped a total of £240,000 on three
Banksy pieces, including a painting that
shows a white family of four enjoying
a picnic while 15 starving Africans look
on. Scarlett Johansson, Ashley Olsen
and Vivienne Westwood have also all
dipped their well-manicured mitts
into the art world.
IT’S CHIC TO COLLECT
The recent marriage of the fashion and
art world has helped to make art more
accessible to many women. Countless
fashion brands have collaborated with
artists in the last few years (Paul Smith is
the latest, having asked painter Craigie
Aitchison to design a line of accessories
Ellen Jarlett, from the
Affordable Art Fair says:
X Original etchings,
screenprints and lithographs
by renowned post-war
artists, such as John Hoyland,
Howard Hodgkin and
Norman Ackroyd, are a safe
bet and steadily increase in
value. They’re all available at
the Affordable Art Fair, 22–25
October, Battersea Park,
London; affordableartfair.com
X Try Jealous Gallery, TAG
Fine Arts, degreeart.com
and the AAF’s Recent
Graduates’ Exhibition for
work by emerging talents
whose art is likely to increase in
value. Gordon Robin Brown’s
work is very interesting – he’s
already been approached by
some big galleries.
����WWW�STYLIST�CO�UK
FRIDA KAHLO'S SELF PORTRAIT
WITH MONKEY. MADONNA (RIGHT)
IS A BIG FAN OF THE ARTIST’S WORK
that hits shops next
month), while other
fashion houses have
opened up their own
exhibition spaces.
Some fashion brands
display a serious
commitment to art.
Miuccia Prada has an
enormous art collection and museumscale
space in Milan, called the Prada
Foundation. Much like the clothes she
designs, her taste in art is not only
impeccable, it is also intelligent. The
artists she chooses to collaborate with
(such as Carsten Höller, who worked
with Miuccia on recent nightclub-cum-
art-project the Double Club in Islington)
trust her vision and dedication. It’s
Medeia Cohan-Petrolino,
University Curator at the
University of the Arts says:
X Look out for Royal Academy
graduate Alexander Hoda, who
will wrap up 2009 with a
whopping four solo shows
exciting; a far cry from the terribly
exclusive and cliquey world that some
people assume art to be.
If you do decide to join the growing
ranks of women investing in dart, you’ll
certainly be in good company. Madonna
is a huge fan of 20th-century art. Her
passion began in 1987, when the newly
minted pop star paid $1m for Léger’s Les
Deux Bicyclettes. And, these days, her
collection of around 300 pieces is
believed to be worth in the region of
£80m. She owns works by Dali, Man Ray
and Damien Hirst and paid $5m for
Picasso’s Buste De Femme À La Frange.
She is also the leading private collector
of works by the Mexican artist, Frida
Kahlo, and has said she can
relate to the pain the painter
embraced as a theme.
SOUND
INVESTMENT
But if you don’t have
Madonna’s millions or the
Black Amex card of an
oligarchette burning a hole in
your back pocket, how do you
go about investing wisely in
art? Your main agenda should
always be a genuine love for it
– after all, you’ve got to see it hanging in
your hall every day – but there’s no
denying women are increasingly viewing it
as a worthwhile investment opportunity.
internationally. His anamorphic
sculptures made out of tactile
materials now grace every
major collection in the UK.
Catch him quickly, though,
as several top galleries are
sniffing around him.
X Chelsea graduate and
Australian artist, Christine
Aerfeldt, was snapped up
by Charles Saatchi at her
degree show. Last year she
had a sell-out exhibition at
Wyer Gallery in south
London. Her first major solo
show will open at the Wyer
Gallery on 19 October. Her
renaissance-revisited
paintings often explore the
role women play at work.
X The cinematic
photographs of Central Saint
Martins graduate, Hana
Vojackova rival those of
Gregory Crewdson – but for
a fraction of the price. Her
Ridinghood In The East End
series was in practically every
show last year, selling the work
out in both sizes. Her latest
work, which was shot in
The first thing to do is research:
the Frieze Art Fair hits London on
15 October, and with more than 100
respected international galleries
exhibiting, you can be sure to see the
cream of current art production. During
Frieze, smaller satellite fairs have more
reasonably priced works for sale: the
Zoo Art Fair in particular is a great
place to discover younger artists who
have a good chance of getting their
work into Frieze in the future.
But even when the fair rolls out
of town, London has a wealth of
contemporary galleries that will more
than cater to an art-lover’s needs, such
as Time Out’s First Thursday initiative,
where galleries in the East End of
London (which is the focus of most
art production in the city, if not the
entire country) are open to the public
late into the evening on the first
Thursday of each month.
Another way to kick-start an art
collection is to begin with limited-
edition prints, which come at a fraction
of the price of an original artwork, and
are much more accessible to first-time
buyers. For many of us, a Jeff Koons
sculpture would be light years out of
our price range, but an editioned work –
such as those currently available at
the Serpentine gallery, where Koons
held a solo show this summer – come
in at a far more reasonable price. The
THE�NEXT�BIG�THING��INSIDER�INFORMATION�ON�THE�ARTISTS�TO�WATCH
ALEXANDER HODA’S PILE UNO
(AND THREE DETAILS),
“Art shouldn’t be intimidating, and
it isn’t about trying to catch you out.
Just find something that moves you”
RED RIDINGHOOD IN THE EAST
END BY HANA VOJACKOVA
Chernobyl, is based on the
French film The Red Balloon
and will show later this year.
Stylist says:
X We’ve heard from a very
knowledgeable source that
Susan Collis is one to watch.
She exhibits at Seventeen
Gallery in London and takes
everyday objects like brooms
and pans and subtly embroiders
them or incrusts them with
jewels. Not instantly noticeable,
the objects are beautifully
crafted and would make a
lovely interiors piece as well as
being a canny investment.
She’s showing at the Frieze
Art Fair this year and is tipped
for success.
X Pick up a copy of Owning
Art: The Contemporary Art
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