There are a lot of articles on why you should buy original artworks as opposed to reproductions, copies, lithos or giclees. Those articles offer many reasons to buy original artwork – but they do not mention the single best reason to buy original art. I am going to mention it, then explain it fully, and then provide some examples of that single, all important reason.
The reasons to buy original art that other articles defend include these: not mass produced, less boring, ownership of the unique, expresses your individuality, expresses your personal taste, expresses your personal decor, bought from local businesses or artists, helps the art community or local artists, establishes relationships with artists, it’s affordable, you can negotiate price, buying original art is a better investment than lithographs and giclee’s, social status is higher with original art works, more business prestige with office and corporate collections of originals, custom ideas and requests honored with commissioned original works, original art is a better gift, original art is a purchase of history, to establish a legacy as an art collector and connoisseur.
While all of these reasons are true to some extent, none of them specifically addresses the point that a work of art is an original object. It was created as a unique work of art that has a mass, dimensions, it occupies real space in its presence. This real object has a form, size and three real dimensions as was originally created. This real, original object has real color, real texture. This color, texture, mass and dimensions are experienced by the owner and viewers as original in its artistic presence. Those feelings are taken from the visual sensations of the original. Those feelings are absent or incomplete in viewing a copy or a photo or a reproduction, no matter how accurately the copy was produced.
Is the sensation and presence of a real and unique object better than a copy? The answer to that question is also in the eye of the beholder. But, if I see a lithograph, made from a photo of an original work of art – no matter how many seals, registrations, acid free mattes, inserts, glass or plastic coverings, machine made textures to imitate brushstrokes or paint, mouldings used in the framing – then my question is where is the “feel”, the ambiance, the actual texture and colors, the real materials. And when I see some cheap imitation in a decor, no matter what frame, I know exactly how the owner answered that question.
Is a well-dressed fraud as good as the original? Can you sense the depth and contours of texture in the original paint when you see a litho or a giclee’? If you do not understand that an original art work is a unique object with the character of real materials that has been worked on by an artist in three dimensions, then the question is not important to you.
When that question is asked about music the choice is between your presence at a live performance of music or listening to a recording. They both have their place, but the recording cannot be asked to capture the presence, ambiance, spacial factors of live music. Live, original, unique musical performances are heard and felt in a more complex and natural way than recordings. And so it is with real objects of original art.
When you want to meet with a real person, how will a photo and a voicemail message work for you? If you want a strawberry tart will a strawberry jelly bean do the trick? How about a nice glass of bordeaux, or will a purple pop wine suffice? I could go on, but art is not a digital pattern to look at. It is a complex construction of materials, arranged and textured and colored. The finished original art work is based on its material presence with all the layers, pocks, slick and gritty areas, impastoes and daubs of a creator. For me this is the most important reason and the single best reason to buy original works of art.
- Giselle Borzov
