This time, I want to talk about two equally important collectors from different times-Lorenzo de' Medici of medici family and Peggy Guggenheim of Guggenheim family.
Lorenzo Medici is an Italian politician, diplomat and artist, and also the actual ruler of Florence during the Renaissance. Known as "the Great Lorenzo" by contemporary Florentines, he lived in the climax of the Italian Renaissance and tried to maintain peace among the Italian city-states. His death also represented the end of the golden age in Florence.
Lorenzo was born in 1449 in medici family. Lorenzo's mother, Lucrezia, is a poet. She tried to instill in Lorenzo her love for art and beauty, which greatly influenced Lorenzo's adult life. At that time, Lorenzo lived in his grandfather's home in Cosimo, and a group of exiled Greek scholars formed a small-scale "Plato Academy", in which Lorenzo grew up.
From 1469 to 1492, Lorenzo ruled Florence for 23 years, and his sponsorship of humanism and art reached an unprecedented peak (in the language of Strahn). In painting and sculpture, there are not only teenagers Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, but also Botticelli, verrocchio, Girandayo, perugino and Boleyuoluo.
His artistic sponsorship is also different from other members of the family. His grandfather Cosimo likes to invest his wealth in projects that can be seen by the public, so he likes to sponsor architects best. Lorenzo, on the other hand, has become a Bole among artists with high appreciation, guiding artists to give full play to their unique talents. His personality charm also attracts talented artists to gather around him. Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and other later masters all grew up under the sponsorship of Lorenzo. In the biographies of George vasari's famous painters, sculptors and architects, Lorenzo de' Medici's name often appears as Bole.
At the age of 20, Leonardo da Vinci's talent attracted Lorenzo's attention and he was invited to enter the Medici Palace. Lorenzo helped Leonardo da Vinci get the commission of painting the church in Santonato, and Leonardo da Vinci created "Doctors Come to Worship" for this purpose.
Lorenzo founded a sculpture school, hoping to recommend young sculptors to his St. Kyle Square Garden for training. As the best recommender, Michelangelo walked into the garden of St. Kyle Square. Since then, his contact with medici family has never been interrupted until the end of his life.
Giovanni Medici, Lorenzo's second son, was elected Pope in 15 13, and was called "Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici". Many works sponsored by the Pope are familiar to us today. For example, Raphael's Athens Academy, Michelangelo's medici family Mausoleum Statue. Raphael's Academy of Athens, written in 15 10 to151year, is an important part of the Vatican Apostolic Palace. This work is funded by Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici.
After the Renaissance, medici family continued the tradition of art sponsorship until the last moment of medici family.
But for the ruler medici family, art is not just their personal hobby. Sponsoring art makes them gain more public attention, which is one of the means for them to gain political recognition. Medici family died for lack of hands. The last person in the family was a woman, and it was she who donated all the property in the family, in exchange for all the works of art in the family to be kept intact in Florence, avoiding the fate of being sold and displaced.
Investment in the arts will undoubtedly bring endless glory to medici family. They are titled as "the biggest patron of European art", "the godfather of the Renaissance" and "the protector of art", and the public discussion about them will never stop because the works of art they funded are permanently preserved in Florence.
Peggy Guggenheim was born in Guggenheim family on August 26th, 1898, and her uncle is the famous Solomon R. Guggenheim. Guggenheim family is a famous metallurgical industrial family in the United States in the early 20th century, and family fortune 19 18 ranks second in the United States. But Peggy, who grew up in this big family, recalled: "My childhood was not happy at all, and I didn't even have any happy memories."
Peggy's father, BenjaminGuggenheim, is one of the eight brothers of the Guggenheim family and often does business overseas. 19 12 February 14, Peggy's father was killed on the famous Titanic. Because of his habit of spending money like water before his death, he left almost no property and no family at all. It was not until1919,21year-old Peggy inherited property from her grandfather that she finally achieved economic independence. After that, Peggy worked in a relative's bookstore and came into contact with avant-garde knowledge and art, so she met a group of avant-garde intellectuals from Europe and began to understand modern art. It was in this bookstore that Peggy found her yearning place-Europe.
Peggy was only 23 when she came to Paris. /kloc-Paris in the 0/920s was full of bohemian temperament, and artists and writers who went out to party every night rendered Paris a vague prosperity after the war. Life in Paris gradually integrated Peggy into the circle of artists and writers who were very active at that time. Her good friends include Constantin Brancui, marcel duchamp, James Joyce, Andre Ma Song and so on. Peggy's life in Paris is full of bohemian customs. She bought a skirt from paul poiret, a famous fashion designer at that time, and then asked photographer man ray to take her picture. In addition, she has close ties with artists of surrealism and Dadaism.
From 65438 to 0937, Peggy's uncle solomon guggenheim set up the Guggenheim Foundation in new york to collect modern art. 1938, Peggy also set up her own gallery-"Young Guggenheim Gallery" in London, from which she really embarked on the road of art.
At this time, Peggy made no secret of her ignorance of modern art. At the beginning of the establishment of the gallery, she once said frankly, "I can't even see the difference between abstraction and surrealism." Because of her good relationship in the art world, two famous figures in the history of art became Peggy's advisers-French avant-garde artists jean cocteau and Duchamp. Peggy became a fanatic of modern art. She bought many artists' works, especially Kandinsky's.
After World War II, Peggy rushed to the artist's studio every day and took all the works she was interested in for herself. Her collection also includes all the representative artists of European modernism at that time, such as Kandinsky, paul klee, mondriaan, Miro and giacometti.
At this time, World War II has reached a white-hot level, and the whole of Europe is in chaos. Peggy, also known as this period, bought many works at a low price. During the German occupation of France, she spent $40,000 to smuggle these collections out of France to protect her works. 1942, 10 year 10 On October 20th, Peggy established the Art of the Century gallery in new york. Paul klee's works were exhibited for the first time, and the opening ceremony of the exhibition attracted many people. At the opening ceremony of the gallery, Peggy brought surrealist artists Yves Tanguy and Alexander respectively. The earrings designed by Calder show the same love for surrealism and abstract art.
Peggy provided a stage for a large number of unknown young American artists. Adhering to Peggy's good vision, most of the galloping horses supported by Bole became famous in the future, forming a famous school of abstract expressionism, and the artistic power of the United States gradually grew, laying the foundation for new york to replace Paris as a new art center.
From 65438 to 0943, she devoted all her energy to discovering young American artists. She paid Pollock a monthly fee in exchange for almost all his works, and held her first solo exhibition at 1943. When Peggy returned to France in 1946, she was the only person in the world who had the most complete collection of Pollock's works, especially Pollock's early "drip paintings".
After World War II, Peggy returned to Europe and came to Venice in 1947, where she lived permanently. The following year, the 24th Venice Biennale presented Peggy with a whole palace, hoping that she could show her collection there. The exhibition was a great success, and Peggy's collection became the most visited art museum. This also prompted her to set up her own art gallery. 1948, Peggy chose the unfinished Venice Grand Canal18th century Venereal Mansion as her residence. In this snow-white marble single-story palace, Peggy decorated her home and collected her works. Her bed was designed by artist alexander calder, all made of silver.
As Peggy said, "I'm not a collector, I'm an art gallery." Her collection covers almost all the works of important schools and artists in Europe and America in the 20th century, making the Peggy Guggenheim Art Museum in Venice one of the most important modern art galleries in Europe. As one of the most famous and farsighted collectors in the 20th century, her collection covers almost all the works of important schools and artists in Europe and America in the 20th century. She supported the new American painters and worked hard all the way, which played a decisive role in the development of surrealism and American abstract expressionism and pushed modern art to the peak.
The two men were separated by one hundred years, but they made great contributions to the development of art at that time. Lorenzo influenced the rise and fall of the Renaissance, and Peggy directly promoted the development of modern and contemporary art in the 20th century. They have the same title-"private collection", they are the "visionaries" in the art world of their time, and they are the "Bole" admired by artists.
The reason why I choose to talk about this topic is because artists want their works to really go to the market and bring fame, and "collectors" are indispensable. What kind of good collectors can influence artists and even the art circle is a topic that has been discussed all the time, and it is also an indispensable step for artists to become famous. From Lorenzo and Peggy, we can see the qualities that some collectors with "foresight" should have.
With the development of economy, many talented artists have emerged in China's art world, and their excellent works are waiting for "Bole" like Lorenzo and Peggy to explore and fund them. Domestic collectors seem to be more interested in collecting and auctioning the works of some "predecessors". Sometimes, once the artist dies, the price will go up. This trend has also led to the emergence of fake paintings. These fake paintings can often sell at high prices, but the works of "masters" who can make fake paintings flawless are ignored. Isn't this a very helpless situation? Market demand determines the development direction of art. If we just indulge in the paintings of the ancients, it will only lead the art market in China to a strange direction.
However, these situations are not caused by simple reasons. Analyzing the experiences of Lorenzo and Peggy, I think what China lacks is "a great collector with good artistic accomplishment" and "the channel and consciousness for the public to buy real oil paintings". I have done a questionnaire survey among 300 people. When asked if they would like to improve their aesthetics by learning relevant art knowledge, 75% people chose to do so. When asked what kind of art they are interested in, 50% people choose oil painting; Among the people who are willing to buy art, 97% choose to have a good sleep instead of paying more attention to fame; Finally, half of the people choose to bear the works of art below 500. This also shows that most people are still willing to learn about art and buy works of art that they can afford, but most of them still stay in simple art knowledge in primary and junior high school textbooks. Ordinary people who have not been trained in systematic art knowledge will have limited experience when they visit free and open modern and contemporary exhibitions, let alone appreciate various categories of modern and contemporary art.
This has also led many people to have a vague pursuit of aesthetics. For example, some young people are already very concerned about the decoration style of their homes, and they will also understand the works of art, that is, the works that "decorative paintings" in their eyes play a role in the decoration style of their homes. In the end, most of them choose cheap commercial paintings with large shipments and obvious commercialization as substitutes. These paintings range from hundreds to thousands.
However, I believe this situation is gradually improving. During this decade, a number of influential collectors have emerged in China. Some of them spend a lot of money to expand their influence, some quietly open their own private art galleries, and some choose their favorite works and artists by setting up galleries ... In recent years, high-quality exhibitions have emerged in an endless stream, and the feedback and social response received have been unexpectedly good, and more and more people are watching the exhibitions. Because there are more and more art students, this group can be regarded as a group with systematic art training. People who have entered the society, as well as their descendants after marriage, will also have a basic understanding of art, which will also play a certain role in improving the aesthetic of the people and increasing the demand for art purchase in the future. More and more collectors will appear. Perhaps, the next Lorenzo or Peggy has appeared in the art circle, waiting to bring the center of world art to China and set off a huge wave in the art circle of China.
A little humble opinion, share it here to discuss and communicate with you.