Burart Diary
Published every Monday morning: the Burart Diary.
In this column, the editor-in-chief of art on jots down thoughts on art, on daily favorites, and on whatever comes to mind, diary-style. Read at your leisure.
We’re now just two days away from the end of 2019. I used to think 2020 was still far off. That time flows shockingly fast is a truth hardly worth pointing out anymore, but this year, too, we heard of many passings. Turning that thought back on ourselves, we want to lead a life without regret.
The three-collector show, “Collectors’ collective”
“Collectors’ collective,” the collector exhibition I’m helping organize as one of the co-planners, has opened (running through January 12, 2020).
Thanks to everyone, we were blessed with a great number of visitors from day one. My sincere thanks to all who came.
Over two days at the gallery I was able to speak with many people. Such a wide variety of visitors came through, and I truly enjoyed myself.
What stood out most was that we had many people in what we had imagined as the “collectors relatively new to collecting” category. I’m delighted by that.
There were also many collectors without art friends, and I saw the show being used as a place to talk in a shared language. Some art fans came just to look without collecting themselves; a veteran collector with more than 30 years of experience showed us his own collection in a photo file; and one bold soul even brought works from his collection to share on the spot.
We also had visits from media, received some good conversations, and picked up a wave of new connections. When you actually take action, a lot comes into view and your field of vision widens. I had wondered whether there’d be all sorts of noise… but not a single such remark came up, which was a relief.
The Art Collectors’ Gathering
Entering 2019, I started hosting drinks for art collectors.
It began as a group of just three — HIRO and Maseki, whom I had teamed up with on Collectors’ collective, and myself — but the “Collectors’ Year-End Party” we held this past weekend gathered 25 people, our largest turnout ever.
We had also invited artists and gallery folk in the summer, and had media and student artists join in the autumn, but the year-end party for collectors only turned out to be an especially heated one.
Speaking for myself too, art collectors are, I think, an extremely solitary crowd. There are almost no companions in daily life with whom to speak in a shared language, so we tend to stay loosely connected through limited channels like social media.
The year-end party attendees freely shared their own collections, exchanged industry backstories and the latest information, and talked about artists to keep an eye on. What came up most often was the notoriously scarce topic of work prices. Everyone did seem to light up over talk that doesn’t usually flow through official channels.
Personally, I was drawn in and resonated with talk that compared Western and Japanese art cultures and offered proposals on how collectors should engage. I was also given plenty to think about by the idea that what Japan needs is a nonprofit art center that actively pushes contemporary art. Both topics were views on the fact that Japan lags behind the world in contemporary art.
Many conversations criss-crossed, and it turned into a heated gathering. I’d like to keep planning such gatherings at appropriate moments going forward.
Thank you for another year
The Burart Diary, which I started partway through this year, has reached its final post of 2019. Thank you for reading this site “art on” all year long.
At Collectors’ collective, too, many readers approached me saying they read the site, which made me truly happy. I’ve heard many stories of people connecting with collection works after seeing our exhibition information. It’s wonderful when connections form. And for me too, it’s precisely because of the network of fellow collectors that I can enjoy my own collecting activity so deeply.
Wishing all of you a wonderful year of art in 2020.
Have a happy new year.
art on
Mahiro Kobayashi
