Charles Conkright Will Advice You to Develop Your Own Taste and Invest in Art That You Really Like

“Growing up in Caracas, art was a Sunday thing. Our house was always full of artists my mom was representing or was interested in”,- says third generation art dealer Charles Conckright.

INTERVIEW WITH ART DEALER CHARLES CONKRIGHT

Charles Conckright

LES COULEURS: How did it come about your enthusiasm for art?

CHARLES CONKRIGHT: My enthusiasm for art comes from my childhood. As a third generation art dealer, I have been exposed to the arts from a very early age. I grew up in Caracas, Venezuela. My mother was the owner of an art gallery at a time when art was blossoming there. Sunday was a day dedicated to museum and gallery visits and anytime there were openings, I would always be there, meeting the artists and seeing their exhibitions. Our house was always full of artists my mom was representing or was interested in.

LC: Give us a day in your life!

CC: As a private dealer, I work from home and my day mostly consists of reaching out to both private clients, dealer friends and finding out if they have any specific requests for artworks that they may be looking for. Following that, I may do research on the web to see if any of those works may be available from other galleries as well as looking up client contacts and seeing who may be the owner of a specific piece. If I find someone to whom I have sold such work in the past, I would give them a call and give them a current evaluation and see if they’re interested in selling. Other activities may include gallery, museum and art fair visits to remain current on the happenings in the art world. The most important thing of all is arranging visits to private collectors’ homes and learning about their collections and their specific needs and taste.

LC: Favorite cultural pursuit outside of the art world?

CC: My favorite pursuit outside of the art world involves listening to live music. I love rock, jazz, latin or classical music.

LC: Best sale you've ever had?

CC: The best sale I’ve ever had was done in 2020 and involved a unique sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. The sales price was $1.600.000. 

LC: Successes you have had this year? What about challenges?

CC: So far this year business has been slow, although 2020 was very good. In the art business availability of the artwork is the key. Success many times depends on me being able to bring specific artworks to the market. Early in the pandemic, auction houses were forced to cancel their live auctions and transitioned to online auctions. Many consignors at this point decided to approach dealers such as myself as an alternative. As a result, I was able to procure some very good material which resulted in sales. 

LC: What is your take on the art fairs?

CC: Art fairs evolved from the gallery model and a reaction to the rise of auction houses. In today’s world, there is very little foot traffic in galleries around the world and this has forced galleries to look for retail clients elsewhere. Normally in the past, an art dealer would sit in his gallery and wait for his potential clients to come and visit him, mostly on the weekends, to look at the artworks. Art fairs provide a retail setting where you have a lot of different artists available in a short period of time. Dealers do like art fairs because they introduce an element of urgency that is the result of competition. Art fairs also provide a way to take the temperature of the market and see changes in the pricing for artists outside of the auction houses.

LC: Do you collect art yourself?

CC: As an art dealer, most of the art in my private collection is intended as a mid to long-term investment. I don’t own the stock on Wall Street and prefer to make my personal investments in art, as I have much better opportunities and chances of higher returns.

LC: What is your advice to young and fresh art collectors? 

CC: My advice to young and fresh collectors is to first and foremost buy what you really like. If you are purchasing art as an investment there is no guarantee of positive results. Therefore, it is important that you have an emotional and aesthetic connection to your art, so that you never regret having made a purchase. Before you go out and make a purchase, I think it is important to educate yourself about art, not only about what makes good or bad art but your own personal experiences and how you react to the artwork. There are many different styles in art and your personal preferences will dictate the direction in which your collection will follow. Develop your own taste and collect what you like! Sometimes young collectors ask me what they should collect and my answer is that I am not the one who is going to live with it! Living with a piece of art that you don’t like is bad for your mental health! In many cases, art is collected by two people who are in a relationship, and in my experience, the best collections are those in which most of the purchases are made by mutual agreement with a small number of pieces collected just by the insistence of one of the parties. This brings the richness to the collection that over time will grow in its overall quality.

LC: What is your happiest moment being involved in art?

CC: My happiest moments involve handling works of art of tremendous quality by the artists that I admire greatly. Not being able to afford a lot of the work that I sell, I take vicarious pleasure in being able to live with it, even temporarily, while I’m looking for a new owner.

LC: What is your art world pet peeve?

CC: Who has not heard the words “my child could do that!” That’s probably the most annoying thing you can hear, because your child can do that and once he is able to market, sell his artwork and make a career of it he will be an “artist” and not just “your child.” Another pet peeve involves artists or dealers who make fun of and ridicule their clients by selling them artwork of dubious worth. A recent example involves the work by Maurizio Cattelan “Comedian”, also known as the banana on the wall. Three different versions of the banana on the wall were sold for $120,000, $150,000, and $180,000 during the Art Basel Miami 2019 by his dealer Emmanuel Perrotin. Although all types of precedents exist for this type of artwork, it tends to put a light on the idea that “the emperor has no clothes” and that art has no intrinsic value, notions which as an art dealer and art lover I appreciate, but dislike.