How to Collect Paintings in the Digital Age?

There's a new meta-logic emerging around art that places painting close to digital devices. Painting has lost its tension with the expanded field and has become part of this new meta-logic of parallel wall surfaces. As such, how we collect paintings in the digital age might be different than what we've come to expect.

Art Spaces Will Have Their Apps

Many Art Galleries in Dubai already offer apps, but there are other ways to collect paintings through these mobile apps. For instance, some apps can recognize individual paintings from photographs taken on a smartphone. The app aims to complement a physical visit to a gallery by matching the images to a database of digitized artworks. However, securing permission from galleries is an uphill battle.

As more people access the internet, art spaces have been forced to adapt to the changing culture. The new art spaces have been forced to upload their permanent collections, find paid online platforms, and expand their boundaries. The new developments have changed how art is sold and appreciated. For instance, smartphone apps have made buying or selling art easier and can replicate the physical gallery atmosphere. These apps can help people with limited time and resources view and purchase artwork.

Art Sales Might Take Place On Other Platforms

Online art sales are not likely to succeed without human interaction. Online art sales should be considered an extension of traditional channels, as they provide additional opportunities for acquiring information and purchasing artwork. Nonetheless, most online purchases are made by people who know the artist and gallery. Galleries with an online store report this kind of sales as a part of their business, and the data do not necessarily reflect the real picture.

Online art sales may not be the best fit for every type of gallery. Some galleries fear blurring high and low quality and weakened gatekeeping roles. They typically only share prices when requested, and they only grant access to this information through personal contact with gallery staff. Moreover, if online art sales are not facilitated by personal contact, they risk being perceived as commercial and making artworks commodities.

Albert Oehlen's Process Of Collecting

After studying painting at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany, Oehlen rose to prominence in the early 1980s. He was associated with a generation of artists who questioned and subverted the dominant culture among his contemporaries. Like Kippenberger, Oehlen dismantled aesthetic conventions and built an entire coded lexicon. Today, his paintings have reached prices of more than $1 million.

Despite his early popularity, Oehlen began to experiment with large formats and collage techniques, and since the early 2000s, he's used these techniques in various contexts. For example, the 2004 collage Baume, part of the important exhibition Albert Oehlen at the Vienna Secession, features a painted tree interrupting two parallel rows of trees, each framing opposite sides of a road.

Frank Stella's 'pixel Paintings'

If you've ever thought about collecting Frank Stella's 'pixel paintings,' you've probably seen them on the Internet. These paintings are a brilliant representation of the human condition in an age when technology is at its most advanced. Stella is an American artist and a professor of poetry at Harvard University. His lectures have been published in English, Japanese, and French. However, there is a very specific way to collect them.

Many collectors consider these works as an essential part of their art collections. His paintings' flat, saturated colors create minute arrangements that give viewers a "quasi-hallucinogenic" experience of space. Unlike many other artists, Stella applies paint directly to canvas instead of applying a medium. This meticulous process distinguishes his works from those of other artists and lends them a matter-of-fact quality that recalls the discipline of Concentric Squares.