Buying Art on the Cheap: Affordable Art Fair + Esquire

For me, "affordable art" would be well under a thousand bucks. My lone purchase, a Burtynsky print from his 2003 retrospective, cost less than $300. Apparently in the the art world (as opposed to the real world) the cut-off point is five grand. Starting yesterday, the Affordable Art Fair hits NYC with around 130 galleries showing art that sells for less than that magical number. I would assume there will be a great representation of photography, since it generally sells for much less than other media. Heck most even established photographers would be happy to sell a piece for $5000.

How to Buy Art (For $2,500 or Less)" is in the November issue of Esquire, which might come in handy for the Affordable Art Fair. Now, understand that it's Esquire we're talking about, so there's a fair amount of discussion of how collecting art, or pretending to, will impress the ladies. But the article has good tid bits on how to talk to gallery staff, bringing up the subject of money (especially if you don't have much to spend) and buying at an auction. Good stuff. What's not good is that Esquire has put most of their content behind some sort of premium subscriber wall, which you can climb over for 7 days if you are willing to cough up your email address to some company called KeepMedia.

With that article under your belt, you won't need to attend the Saturday panel discussion "For Love or Money: How to Build a Collection" with collectors Sue Stoffel and Richard M. Danziger; Jeremy Adams, Director of CUE Art Foundation and Suzanne Randolph, Art Advisor and Curator.