The Debatable Land: Probable Hiatus

November 14, 2008

Probable Hiatus

Another mini-break: I'm heading north to visit my sister. I've said it before, but it deserves saying again that she's the person to contact if you need or even just feel like commissioning a painting. As a rather eminent Fund Manager said to me the other day, "Art may well be a safer investment than anything in my portfolio." And you can look at paintings too...

14 Nov 2008 16:13:00 | Family

3 Comments

Art as investment? I dunno. Rather depends on the art in question, I think. The Asian art market seems to be sinking as rapidly as it rose and one suspects that much of the contemporary art market is a bubble. Always buy because you like!

I collect 20th century American prints (Stow Wengenroth, Jackson Lee Nesbitt, Lynd Ward etc.) and I've been in hog heaven the last couple of years because of the fact that one could acquire things from the USA at around two dollars to the pound. With the abrupt and apparently continuing slump of the pound against the dollar I've found myself increasingly unable to afford to fund acquisitions. On the other hand, if I wanted to sell I'd be turning a very tidy profit.

Problem is that I'm one of those people who'd only sell if the alternative was to be out on the streets. And maybe not even then...

Posted by: Anthony | November 14, 2008 at 06:04 PM

Thanks for the link, Alex. The paintings look cracking.

As an aside, my bank manager was annoyed to learn that my Betfair account is more profitable in percentage terms than an ISA I have.

Posted by: Rob Marrs | November 17, 2008 at 01:07 PM

They are very good, actually. Both the rural landscapes and the urban stuff seem to me to have a very strong sense of place. Very evocative. And as a print fiend I'm notoriously pissy when it comes to contemporary oils. I was at the Affordable Art Fair in London a few weeks back and I think they're better than most of what was on offer there. At the risk of sounding like a Daily Mail columnist, it's astonishing some of the stuff that people seem to think merits having a £3000 price tag stuck on it.

Not that I'm panning the AAF in itself, it's worth a visit if you get the chance when it's on, especially if you can nobble one of the galleries into giving you a free ticket.

Posted by: Anthony | November 17, 2008 at 02:33 PM

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The Hillbilly Vote The day after the Presidential election Matt Yglesias spotted this map that shows the counties across the country which swung towards John McCain this year. As you can see, there aren't that many of them. But what's interesting is where they are: Matt quipped that, "You can see why John McCain’s principled stand against higher taxes on the wealthy would have a special resonance in this region. Liberals who thought race had something to do with those appeals should be ashamed of themselves." Andrew Sullivan agreed with Matt: "Ah, yes, Appalachia and Arkansas. Obviously concerned about marginal tax rates for those earning over $250,000 a year, I suppose." Now, clearly, it would be absurd to pretend - and I do not so pretend - that race had nothing to do with this. But I think this map rather more interesting than that. For that matter, I think the nature of the Appalachian and "Highland" vote is more interesting than this map might initially suggest. What the map shows is that McCain did better than Bush in south-western West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, northern Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. (One ought to remember that the map is also distorting: some of...

Sign of the Times Spotted at Edinburgh airport recently. Just in case, like, you weren't sure how to use a staircase.