Are you a budding art collector? Here's where to start

British modern and contemporary British art and craft is a great place to start for the beginner art collector, with plenty of pieces on offer that won't break the bank

By Thomas Barrie

8 September 2022

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The popular impression of the art collector – besuited, likely male and perhaps a little stale, anonymous on the end of an auctioneer’s phone line and wielding millions of pounds to secure a coveted lot – is both outdated and overly oriented towards the few high-end, headline-grabbing sales that take place every year. Though spending $100 million on a questionable Leonardo might make for good copy, collecting is possible and (obviously) more widespread at a lower and more casual level, where anything from £100 to £10,000 or £25,000 can buy a stunning work of art that you can hang in your own home – if you know where to look.

It turns out it’s surprisingly easy to buy works by very famous 20th-century British artists at auction. All you need to do if you have a limited budget, says Thomas Podd, a specialist in Modern British and Irish Art at Sotheby’s, is to keep an eye out for works on paper, or for prints.

You can visualise this approach by picturing a chart with two axes, one representing the level of acclaim and reputation of an artist and another representing the status of the physical media of the work that’s for sale (from pencil on paper to oil on canvas, small maquette to monumental bronze, et cetera) – the further along either axis you go, the more you can expect to spend on a piece. However, if you keep the media simple and go for relatively small works like studies on paper or prints, you can seriously consider acquiring work by blue-chip artists like Bridget Riley, John Piper, Augustus John or Damien Hirst.

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Thomas points to his auction house’s bi-yearly “Made In Britain” sale, launched in 2015 to cover a range of media and artists at relatively low price points compared to more specialist sales (the lowest estimates in the upcoming sale on 9 September are in the hundreds of pounds, though a budget of between £1,000 and £10,000 would open up more exciting bidding options). “It’s really supposed to be a celebration of the best of British creativity throughout the 20th and into the 21st century,” he says, explaining that the lots tend to be things “people want to decorate their homes with. It’s supposed to be a comfortable and relaxed starting point for people to dip their feet in the auction world.”

He points to an emerging trend for British studio ceramics as an example of affordable, collectible craft, with several pieces by the 20th-century ceramicist Dame Lucie Rie offered in the sale. These range from a cream jug and sugar bowl with a £600-800 estimate to a large, footed bowl Sotheby’s thinks will sell for £25,000-£30,000. Coupled with other pieces at price points in between, there are beautiful, practical ceramics (other Rie pieces for sale include coffee cups and a vase) in the sale which require different levels of commitment. “Her market has gone from strength to strength,” says Thomas. An angular vessel by Rie’s friend, protegée and professional partner Hans Coper is also included in the sale, as well as work by fellow ceramicists James Tower and Bernard Leach – all in the range of around £3,000 to £8,000.

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Even better known are the associates of the loose-knit St Ives community of artists that settled in the Cornish town over the 20th century – the likes of Leach, but also Patrick Heron, Ben Nicholson, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and others. In Sotheby’s sale, there’s a portfolio of ten Nicholson etchings of “Greek and Turkish forms” signed by the artist and dating to 1967-8, with an estimate of £6,000-£8,000. But there’s also a single etching on paper of Pisa by the artist with an estimate of £600 – far more affordable for a casual collector than the suite of ten, but by the same artist and just as desirable. Likewise, mixed media works by Barns-Graham can be snapped up at auction for between £1,000 and £6,000.

“Another thing that we’ve seen as a trend,” says Thomas, “is printed material by the big names of 20th century and 21st century British art – so I’m thinking about works by Bridget Riley, by Lucian Freud, by Damien Hirst. These are the sort of printed materials that allow people to have these iconic images at home.” He also highlights works on paper by Henry Moore, John Piper, Graham Sutherland and Elisabeth Frink. Again, while a monumental Henry Moore sculpture of a reclining figure could sell for £20 million (as they have done in the past), there are studies by the artist on the market for less than £10,000. While sculptures of animals and a bust by Frink look set to sell at the Made in Britain for around £30,000 to £50,000 each, her own studies sell for closer to £6,000 or £8,000.

Ultimately, says Thomas, it’s most important for people to buy what they like at auction. “Buying for investment can be very speculative.” Beyond that, though, he says “buying good names – printed material and works on paper by really good blue-chip names – is a great way to start a collection, and you can supplement that then with larger canvases and paintings by artists who you are naturally drawn to.” So grab an auction paddle or get on the phone – your collection will rival Charles Saatchi’s in no time.

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