The $5,000 Question

NEW YORK—So there’s this guy I know, Charles. He’s decorated his home, he’s got all the furniture, electronics, books, CDs and videos he can think of, and he's bought a car that costs him a fortune to garage.

Even after all that, he still has $5,000 of disposable income, and, as he enjoys an occasional Saturday touring New York’s galleries, he’s decided he wants to start collecting art, to bring some of that work home.

Trouble is, he doesn’t know where to begin. How on earth does he get started?

Charles isn’t even sure whether $5,000 is a reasonable amount to start with. It’s more than he spent on the flat-screen TV, but a lot less than he spent on the car. He’s talked to his friends and colleagues, but none of them really seem to have much idea.

Auctions, he knows, are out of the question. Giving it a bit of thought, Charles takes out the latest Gallery Guide and decides to take the plunge.

He knows he wants to go somewhere respectable, somewhere where he’ll get some good advice so that he doesn’t throw away his money, but makes a decent investment.

So he decides he should try to start at the top, with a gallery with an excellent reputation. They might laugh at his $5,000, but who knows? He decides to start with Knoedler and Co. They’re uptown. They’re just off Madison. They’re in one of the world’s most esteemed shopping districts. They seem a safe bet.

He meets Ann Freedman, president of Knoedler and tells her the amount he is looking to spend. Her first response isn’t too encouraging. “Five thousand dollars? Oof!” But she stops and thinks.

“Well, actually we could have something here for that amount of money. Big quality, small-size, intimate works by Jules Olitski [a central figure in color-field painting]. That’s one way to go.

“Or,” Freedman continues, “you could even get a very small John Walker for $5,000.”

As Charles is encouraged by this, he asks Freedman whether she thinks he’s going about this the right way. What’s her advice?

“I feel the best advice that I could give you is to stretch a little bit and go for something of quality, even though it might be small. This is advice that I didn’t take when I was younger—my husband and I sometimes bought lesser works by bigger names because that's all we thought we could afford. It's better to stretch your budget as best you can to get a one-and-only.”

Charles has another question. “What about these things increasing in value? At this level, am I making a good investment?”

She answers, “I tend to steer away from too much of a market [approach]. I try to teach people how to look at art, and appreciate it, and come to feel at one with an art experience. It’s really not about how their work will grow in financial value.”

What is it about then? “The best way to start someone off is to teach them the language of art. Most people can learn; it’s a process. Some [buyers] are more point-and-shoot than others, they can make decisions quickly. But if you start them off as if they’re buying chips and playing an investment game, then it’s all the wrong thing.”

But is $5,000 enough to start with? “It’s a more interesting question to ask what you can do with $5,000 than what you can do with $50,000. Because then you know what it is to be on a tight restriction and to have to work to find good things. When you have more resources, you have many more choices. But by starting with $5,000, you’ve learned something: You know how to make a decision with your gut and your heart and not just with your pocketbook.”

So Charles takes a look at the little Olitskis. There’s one that he likes, February Dream Lavender and Yellow, that’s actually $4,000, and another, January Dream, Purple, for $5,000.

He also looks at the little Walkers. They’re rather bigger, and they’re $5,000 each as well. And he’s greatly encouraged. Not just by finding himself looking at real art by acknowledged artists that he could own, but because he’s going to make a decision “with his gut and his heart,” as Ann Freedman said.