Abstract
How do micro processes of learning and motivation evolve among players? This chapter presents two mature, male art collectors who have built culturally important collections without benefitting from professional support or the advantage of ‘big’ money. Both began from scratch, financially and otherwise, and both wish to give something back to society. The chapter gives a detailed account of how each has related to his field of interest throughout the years. Finding ways of transferring art to posterity can be surprisingly difficult. The two are not necessarily ‘old school’. In a world of increasing inequality, the popularity of art collecting is growing, and surveys among the well-to-do reveal that a wish to give something back to society is not exceptional.
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Notes
- 1.
There are certainly different opinions about the appropriate role of art institutions. According to Levitt (2015), some professionals in the field strongly believe such institutions are about ‘creating citizens’, about crafting identities, values, competencies, and projects among people who are part of nations, regions, cities, or local communities. Others think institutions should abide by the essential enlightenment principles, that is, preservation of high-quality items, presented in view of the period’s artistic, cultural, or political allegiances, and arrange displays for the benefit of present and future generations.
- 2.
Only some reach this level of expertise. However, it is not fun to participate without intimate knowledge of the field, so those who stay in the game for a long time, tend to stretch their efforts.
- 3.
The inter-war compilation is primarily concentrated on a representative sample of paintings, prints, and drawings by the Norwegian artist Reidar Aulie (1904–1977), but also on works by Aulie’s teacher and friend Henrik Sørensen (1882–1962) and his peers Bjarne Naess (1902–1927) and Søren Steen-Johnsen (1903–1979). Other contemporaries are represented, such as Erling Enger (1899–1990); Alexander Schulz (1901–1981); Kai Fjell (1907–1989); Arne Durban (1912–1993); and especially Erik Harry Johannessen (1902–1980). For personal reasons some older artists are included, August Eiebakke (1867–1938) and Nikolay Astrup (1880–1928), and some younger, for instance, Per Ung (1933–2013).
- 4.
The concrete and geometrical collection contains works by a large number of artists from several countries and continents, among them Josef Albers (1888–1976), Olle Bærtling (1911–1981), Paul Brand (1941–), Eduardo Chillida (1924–2002), Carlos Cruz-Diez (1923–), Jean Dewasne (1921–1999), Burgoyne Diller (1906–1965), Emile Gilioli (1911–1977), Jan Groth (1946–2014), Gunnar S. Gundersen (1921–1983), Alberto Guzman (1927–), Terry Haass (1923–2006), Arne Malmedal (1937–), Lars Nordström (1937–2014), Takashi Naraha (1930–), Paul Osipow (1939–), Victor Pasmore (1908–1998), Aase Texmon Rygh (1925–), Ludwig Sander (1906–1975), Jesus Rafael Soto (1923–2005), Kumi Sugai (1919–1996), Victor Vasarely (1906–1997), and Tone Vigeland (1938–). When the prestigious Henie Onstad art gallery filled its rooms with these works, its director chose to do so because it offered a ‘unique’ presentation of ‘key pieces from the movement’ (Hellandsjø 2011, p. 7).
- 5.
For the reader’s quick identification of who is talking, I have marked the quotes (C) for the collector of concrete and geometrical art, and (I) for the collector of inter-war art.
- 6.
He has also assembled a large assortment of radios, loud speakers, etc. Being ‘the antiques of tomorrow’, a floor in his office building is dedicated to this ‘museum’. He used to collect chairs, but gave this up because ‘the fun was lost when it became fashionable’.
- 7.
‘Festspill’ is a yearly festival of international acclaim in Bergen, Norway, mostly featuring classical music but also some theater and visual arts.
- 8.
Aulie sold well at the time, his mind was probably more on an object-based epistemology than on income. A selection of well-chosen samples would improve future documentation and interpretation of his production. Both kept their words. Long after the artist’s death in 1977, the couple made numerous efforts to trace and acquire works that had gone astray.
- 9.
By 2011, 6 textiles were included, in addition to 11 crayons and 2 bronzes from Groth’s hands.
- 10.
U.S. Trust is the private wealth management arm of the Bank of America, which sponsors exhibitions, lends money to collectors against their art assets, and handles the finances of various American museums. 808 ‘high-net-worth’ and ‘ultra-high-net-worth’ Americans answered a questionnaire, 60 percent males and 40 percent females, and some were contacted for qualitative interviews. As many as 20 percent looked upon themselves as art collectors, and another 16 percent were interested in starting a collection.
- 11.
Limitations in gallery and storage space and the added demands that every object places on budget and staff are considerations that speak against acceptance. A study of attempted donations and sales to Norwegian museums between 1770 and 1970 shows considerable difficulties (Stenseth 2005).
- 12.
A few years later, the couple transferred their gift to the local community in the shape of an equally generous monetary donation for other purposes.
- 13.
From interview with Dani Arnold, a Swiss who became famous after having ascended the 1800 meters of the northern wall of Mount Eiger in two and a half hours, a wall that had previously claimed more than 60 much better secured lives (Mangelrød 2017).
- 14.
A not entirely unprecedented combination, though the communist Icelandic Nobel laureate Halldor Laxness preferred a white Jaguar.
- 15.
Both passed through years of serious illness in pre-school childhood. Is an inner core of pain a common impetus for the two we have met in this chapter? Alternatively, can feelings of gratitude for having survived in good health have had its effect? Answering such questions is way beyond any sociological inquiry. Based on patient material, psychiatrists have sometimes interpreted the ‘unruly passions’ of collectors as repercussion of difficult experiences in early life, such as feelings of being marginal or having experienced shock (McDougall 1986 [1982]; Muensterberger 1994). Briefly , the involvement, intensity, and refuge an adult can find in a separate world of objects can be seen as analogous to the comfort, support, and protection a child can find in beloved toys: ‘[…] it is not enough to escape to this world only once, or even from time to time. Since it represents an experience of triumph in defense against anxiety and the fear of loss, the return must be effected over and over again’ (ibid., pp. 15–16).
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Kjølsrød, L. (2019). ‘Well, I become very fond of these works and have to touch, stroke and feel—sculptures and everything’. In: Leisure as Source of Knowledge, Social Resilience and Public Commitment. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46287-9_6
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