Collecting modern & contemporary art

Fascinating contrasts in collecting were on show tonight during the Artist's evening held at the Wallspace Gallery.

The current gallery exhibition shows highlights from the Methodist Collection of modern and cotemporary art. This collection was established in the early 1960s by John Gibbs, an art collector and Methodist layman, who found the artistic quality of much 'religious art' and church furnishings very poor. He created a touring collection of work by contemporary artists exploring themes from the life of Christ to encourage a more imaginative approach to the commissioning and buying of paintings, sculpture and church furnishings. Gibbs invited the Rev. Douglas Wollen to create the Collection and gave him a largely free hand to decide the nature of the Collection and the artists and works to be included.

Similar freedom was given to Stuart Evans, who spoke during the evening on 'Obsessive Collecting', by the law firm Simmons & Simmons, of which he was a partner, in building up their collection of contemporary art primarily focussed on the YBA's. At the time, for a company to collect art by seeking out work early in the careers of contemporary artists was to break new ground and led to Evans building friendships with many of the artists whose work he collected, both corporately and privately. Simmons & Simmons differentiated themselves in their market by collecting contemporary art and their collection brought potential clients to the company. Evans emphasised that, although art collecting is not necessarily a great investment strategy, he is not embarrassed by the commercial side of the collections including his most recent work, together with a club of 12 members each investing in the venture, the Lodeveans Collection which is focussed on modern and contemporary Latin American art.

Although the Methodist Collection has returned in more recent years to a practice of buying and commissioning new work, it has remained primarily within the parameters of figurative work relating to the life of Christ. Therefore, there is little connection between the artists and the styles of work in the Methodist Collection and the collections which Stuart Evans has built. While there is undoubtedly room for and value in both, the contrast raises the question as to whether Church commissions of artworks are genuinely contemporary or actually reflect the tastes and styles of earlier generations.

This question may be answered by the autumn exhibition at Wallspace which will examine contemporary Church commissions.

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Television - Guiding Light.