So, when you say 'affordable', you mean ... what, exactly?

Driving home last night I noticed the banner on the overbridge advertising the Affordable Art Show. Every year when this event rolls around my blood boils a little bit. I find myself wanting to picket the venue with a sign that says For crying out loud, for $5000 you can buy proper art from a proper art dealer. In fact, you could probably buy 2 or 3 pieces of proper art. Maybe more. Sheesh.

But that's where I guess I get mixed up between what I feel it's appropriate to spend a couple of thousand dollars on, and what other people believe. An article in the Guardian by Jonathan Jones about collectors of unrespectable art illustrates this point nicely:

Rolf Harris is the Del Boy of the art world. He's lovable, people know him.

I saved up from my acting work to buy this - I won't tell how much I paid for it; it's sort of irrelevant, isn't it? There's a sense of pride, too. It was done by a bloke who painted the Queen. That's an honour. At the end of the day you'll always get critics saying what they say, but the Queen adored her picture and that, to me, says everything.

Better than a coffee table book

Today Over the net points out that you don't need the Affordable Art Show (or its door charge) to find budget-friendly New Zealand art.

To their list of galleries offering editioned work (most of which can be browsed online) , I'd add Papergraphica, offering prints by John Reynolds, Lonnie Hutchinson and Bill Culbert, amongst others.

If you do want a coffee table book, like Over the net I have to recommend the limited edition version of the Mike P book published by Michael Lett. An absolute snip when you compare it with Taschen's limited edition photography books.