Bodies of Work & Collecting

It has been a week and a half without a blog, slap on the wrists for me, however had a slight rest in Revolving Gallery terms before we hit the one month to go mark. Artists and images are starting to go up over the next few days so keep checking in on www.revolving-gallery.com.

But to the Blog title for today, Bodies of work.

Bodies of work are important in art; they are good thing for collectors to look out for. I have decided on this topic as the question 'what is a body of work' came up on twitter the other day and since then it keep cropping up. So I am going to give my answer to that question. Bodies of work are sets of art by an artists that are linked in some way, this very often is by the idea and can transcend medium. Sometimes however it can be as simple as the materials use, e.g. a body of oil paintings as opposed to a body of etching which might not link up.

For a collector it is important to look for consistency, a body of work built around an idea is a great starting point. Sometime bodies are more obvious retrospectively often reflecting a time period but with a little research you can spot an artists who has a 'scatter gun' approach and if you are look for potential investment this can be detrimental.

One thing all collectors should want in a work of art (whether for pleasure or investment) is passion and this comes through dedication and drive. This can be seen through dedicated research into an idea or materials, a disparate approach from an artists means they have not found there passion yet. All this however is not to say a body of works need to be a repartition but rather a development and from time to time artists will move on to a new body of work.

So keep your eyes open and do your research.

Nathan