The $5,000 Question, Part III

NEW YORK—Let’s continue our adventures with Charles, our New York friend who has $5,000 to spend on art and who has much to learn—and to teach us—about buying works at this price range.

To his great surprise, Charles is discovering that his biggest problem isn’t finding work he can afford; it’s deciding what to choose. As a result, he’s even started doing what he had promised himself he wouldn’t do: wondering whether he can stretch his budget just a little bit further, so that he can buy more than one of the works he has seen.

As you’ll remember from our first visit with Charles, he loved some small painting from Jules Olitski available at Knoedler & Co. But he was equally taken last week with prints by Ellsworth Kelly for sale at Gemeni G.E. L. at Joni Moisant Weyl.

This week, Charles is going to Chelsea, epicenter of the contemporary art market. A bit daunted by Chelsea’s reputation for attracting collectors who think nothing of writing six- or even seven-figure checks for art, Charles is curious about what sort of reception his $5,000 budget will encounter in this pricey neighborhood.

To begin, he has a good look at his Gallery Guide and—realizing that there are so many galleries in Chelsea that he can really only sample a tiny fraction—he decides to begin in the same way that he did when he was uptown: he’ll choose a gallery where he’s seen work that’s impressed him and that seems to have the best sort of reputation.

So he’s going to start with Danese, on West 24th Street. He rides up in the elevator, and when he emerges into the gallery, he finds himself surrounded by an exhibit of beautiful geometrical paintings by Susie Rosmarin.

He introduces himself at the front desk, and he meets Carol Corey, the director. Rather nervous again, Charles explains his budget, and why he decided to try Danese. Ms. Corey takes this in her stride. “Well,” she says, “obviously you go to galleries whose reputations you have some kind of confidence in, and hopefully we are one of those galleries.”

Charles decides to bite the bullet. “Can you help someone with my sort of budget?” he asks.

“Well,” says Ms. Corey, almost to Charles’ shock, “I’ll show you work that’s in your price range, and we’ll start from there.”

For the first time, Charles begins to realize that his situation isn’t so unusual after all, and that galleries are used to—indeed, even eager about—working with this sort of budget.

“I’ve worked with people before who have great passion but limited funds,” she tells him, “and we’ve worked out a long pay-out period with them. Sometimes people have committed $500 a month, whatever they can spare. That’s something we’re generally happy to work with them on. We have to check it with the artist and make sure that they’re all right with waiting, but it’s nice to work with clients who, even if it really is a stretch for them, have that degree of commitment.”

Charles is beginning to enjoy himself, and he can’t wait to see some work. He’s delighted when Ms. Corey gestures toward the work on the walls.

“We have small Rosmarins in this show right now that are $4,000, like this beautiful green one, (#360) V Study – GHL.”

Charles is really taken with these works and their optical shimmer, but Ms. Corey hasn’t finished. “We have works on paper by Theresa Chong, we have small paintings by Emily Evileth …” She pauses for a moment, “Actually, I have a Zebedee Jones that’s in your price range. Bill Jensen’s black and white works on paper are $4,000, and Warren Isensee’s works on paper are between $1,500 and $2,000. We have quite a lot,” including some works by Susan Hartnett for $4,000.

In fact, it’s almost as though she has just gone through the whole roster of Danese’s artists. So for the next hour or so, Ms. Corey shows him a dizzying range of possibilities, from Jensen’s gestural Drunken Brush #33 at $4,000, to a lovely little colored pencil piece by Isensee, Untitled 98, at only $1,400.

He becomes very comfortable with the sense that he’s not going to find himself buying anything, here or anywhere else, that he’s the least bit uncertain about. “We’ll give you information and reviews and bios and whatever research information we can to help you. We’ll back it up,” Ms. Corey assures him.