Top 5 Rules to Collecting Art

1. MAKE IT PERSONAL

Steve McCurry, Boy in mid-flight, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India, 2007, Ultrachrome print, 40 × 60 in

Choose pieces that don’t just speak to you, but sing to you. When the beauty of the art touches your soft spot, then you know it’s yours. Artwork chosen in this way will become the cornerstone of your home, and will just get better with time.

R.C. Gorman, ‘Gossips’

2. FORGET WHAT’S “IN STYLE”

There will always be trends in the contemporary art world. For your collection, though, your taste comes first. Let the art scene serve as inspiration, not instruction. 

Jacques Grange’s Paris Apartment; Photography by François Halard

3. DON’T MAKE IT MATCH

There’s no need for your artwork to “match” the style and decor of your home— or even the artworks that you already own. As you collect what you naturally gravitate towards and appreciate, a style and theme will organically appear in your collection.

4. CHOOSE QUALITY

The price tag on an artwork does not always reflect its quality. Getting to know the artist’s individual practice is essential. When a work of art is made well, it will last for hundreds of years. 

Bertrand Lavier, ‘Silence’, Appartement 27bis, Paris

5. THINK OUTSIDE THE SQUARE

The most interesting collections incorporate multiple mediums in differing shapes and sizes. Think beyond painting into wood carvings and bronze-cast sculpture, etchings and drawings, ceramics and photography.

*IMAGE: Home of Jacques Granges; Photography by François Halard for Architectural Digest