One day last week I drove up to Provincetown, Massachusetts to visit the art galleries as I do at least one day every summer. I love this trip because the galleries there have something for everyone, from traditional paintings to contemporary sculpture and everything in between. The best part of this trip is that the prices of most of the artwork you will find in P’town are reasonable. I began this trip by looking for artwork for a client, but I ended up finding new favorites for myself. Let me share with you some of the stand-outs (although there is plenty of good work there that I can not detail here).

Rice Polak Gallery had incredible pieces on display by Vico Fabbris, an Italian artist who splits his time between Florence, Italy and Boston, MA. He paints what look, at first glance, like botanical prints, but are actually beautiful imaginary landscapes with fanciful flowers in the center of each composition. The skies and landscapes are finely done and the strong colors of the central flowers are sumptuous.

At Egeli Gallery there were a variety of works by three generations of the Egeli family as well as works by other gallery artist. One piece in particular stuck with me — John Ebersberger’s “Bottled Light” — it is a still life of vibrantly-colored glass bottles in the glimmering sun. I understand it sold shortly after my visit this week.

The William Scott Gallery has a painting by John Dowd entitled “At Night” that captures that which I have always loved about two of my favorite painters: he captures the fun of peeking in an open window, that natural and innocent voyeurism, that we learned from Edward Hopper’s paintings of homes and offices as well as the fabulous contrast of a house in the dark with brightly lit windows that Rene Magritte mastered. The house is just visible through the dark night but its brightly-lit, open windows suggest just a hint of what is happening inside, leaving the details to the imagination.

I was thrilled to see Ann Hartley’s “Pansies” — my mother’s favorite of her subjects — at Kiley Court. Her elegant still lifes are timeless.

A trip to the Packard Gallery never fails to impress me. Cynthia and Anne Packard’s works, though very different from one another in style, co-exist beautifully in this light filled church-turned-gallery space.

I picked up a pair of gorgeous drawings by Ilona Royce Smithkin, nude studies, for my own collection at Wohlfarth Galleries. I am looking forward to unwrapping and hanging them.

For those who like intensely warm, colorful, sun-drenched impressionistic paintings Hilda Neily is the answer. She runs her own gallery on Commercial Street where she shows her vivid landscapes, seascapes and still lifes.

I was disappointed not to have the time to run into the Provincetown Art Association’s current exhibition on Edwin Dickinson but it is on view through September 23rd, so I hope to make it back.

If you are in the area be sure to stop in at these and other nearby galleries to see for yourself.

Most people have a limited amount of time to spend in art galleries which can make gallery tours difficult, especially in a city like New York where there are so many art galleries to cover. However, there are some things you can (and some you should not) do to maximize your gallery visiting experience when you do get there.

Do:

• Purchase and save gallery publications and catalogs if you are interested in an exhibit.
• Visit a gallery numerous times to get a feel for the kinds of work they show.
• Attend gallery openings and talk to artists and collectors about the exhibition and gallery.
• Give your name and address to be placed on the gallery mailing list.
• Inquire about art fairs in which the gallery participates.
• Ask questions – don’t be shy.
• Read the wall text or information about the exhibit on the front counter.
• Feel free to ask for a price of a particular work and to write it down or keep it in your records so that you can keep track of not just the artwork you like but also of how much it costs.
• Negotiate in purchasing a work of art. You may be able to get a discount.

Don’t:

• Be intimidated by the people behind the front desk. They are usually young and just doing their entry-level jobs.
• Discount a gallery simply because you don’t like what you see on one visit. Galleries have huge inventories of material that you do not see hanging in their exhibition space, and often you will find that by visiting during a future exhibit or by making a private viewing appointment you will find some artwork you like in your price range.
• Feel that you must visit a gallery whose programme does not appeal to you, or one in which you don’t feel comfortable, even if that gallery is popular or well-known. There are many other galleries out there and one to suit every personality or particular taste.
• Make strong, derogatory comments about the artwork unless you personally know everyone in the room. It can turn out to be terribly embarrassing when the artist whose work you have just criticized is standing right beside you!
• Though the gallery would like to give each visitor personal attention one should not assume that the gallery director or salesperson has endless time to discuss the merits of a work of art. After all, they are there to sell as well as to educate. Be respectful of their time.
• Ask a dealer what he or she paid for the piece now up for sale at the gallery. They will generally not tell you, and it just creates ill will. You may, however, ask where the dealer purchased the work of art and the ownership history (provenance) of the piece.
• Try to negotiate delivery or shipping charges. Galleries are not trying to make money on these items — it is simple a fixed cost. You should assume it is part of the cost of the item you are purchasing.
• Look at art based solely on the prices. A client once announced in the middle of a gallery that he did not care who did the paintings, but that he was just going to walk around the room and point out things he liked and the gallery director was to just read off the prices. This was ignorant behavior on the client’s part as the value of a work of art is largely determined by the name and reputation of the artist. As well, this was offensive to the gallery director who is an art professional and spends his or her life studying works of art. Art collecting is about more than a price tag.

I have been asked numerous times lately to explain “art law” given that I practiced art law and commercial litigation before launching LPDM Fine Art Consulting. At first glance the two component parts of the term, art and law, seem incongruous. Art law, however, is actually a combination of legal concepts geared towards coping with the issues related to art creation, ownership and transactions. Art law is an amalgam of contracts law, trusts and estates law, litigation and statutory law at different levels.

In practice art law specialists are often litigators because many of the legal issues that arise relating to artwork are actually, at their core, adversarial legal disputes. Therefore, the art law group in law firms is often a sub-section of the Litigation Department. These lawyers represent buyers and sellers of artwork in authenticity disputes, for example, or in litigation relating to provenance (examples of this type of dispute include Nazi looted artwork and international antiquities). Other issues that frequently arise are those specifically relating to the artists themselves — art law litigators often represent artists whose work has been stolen (either physically or as a matter of copyright infringement) or who seek to prevent their prior work from being destroyed.

In other instances art lawyers provide more pre-emptive advice. They may advise art sellers how they may conduct sales and how to structure their art business transactions. For example, they may draft an art gallery’s consignment agreement or the terms of sale which appear on each sale invoice. They may also advise a museum as to whether or not it may deaccession a work of art from the permanent collection.

Other non-litigation art lawyers are trust and estates experts who advise visual artists and their estates on taxation and estate planning matters such as setting up foundations and donating works of art to museums.

The clients of an art law specialist range from art buyers or collectors to art dealers, galleries, auction houses, museums and artists themselves. Though many clients seek the advice of their general legal practitioner at first, many disputes are better handled by experts and those who deal with specific fine art related matters. Those matters are best referred to an art law specialist.

Having an art background such as I did before practicing law was incredible helpful to me in understanding my clients’ unique perspectives and the specific kinds of transactions they conduct. Works of art are valuable to people in ways that are not always calculated just as dollars and cents, and that makes the field and practice of art law unique. I am no longer a practicing attorney, having devoted my career full-time to art consulting, but I share this issue with you as it is part of my training.

When most people purchase works of art they simply bring them home, install them and enjoy living with them. When collections grow or tastes change an inevitable editing process occurs and some works wind up in storage or under beds and in closets. Most of us never take the next step to organize our art records, maintain accurate count of what we have and where it is located, photograph and document the works, gather information on purchase price and to regularly update our insurance policies to reflect the items we collect and amass in our lives. The larger a collection becomes the more unwieldy it becomes to start to organize and document the works.

Why do you need to catalog your art collection? There are some very good (and often overlooked) reasons to documents your collections. First, values of artwork change over time and in order to maintain the proper level of insurance coverage for a collection (even if it is for just a few pieces of art) it is important to have current appraisals or at least a current estimate of the proper level of insurance coverage. For purposes of estate planning, as well, a current inventory of your art collections can be invaluable. Often people do not realize what they have and what and how they wish to distribute it until they have an itemized list in front of them. There are often taxation issues that your estate planner may wish to consider once he or she has the benefit of a collection inventory.

How do you go about cataloging an art collection? Your goal should be to have a well-organized, systematic listing of the works. You want something that you can add to over time as you acquire new works of art and something which you can easily reference when you need a piece of information. For most people that means a physical hard copy of the documentation as well as an electronic version(s). You will need to keep multiple copies of the inventory and deposit them in various places for safe keeping such as on multiple computers and back-up disks, in a safe deposit box or vault, with your attorney, and/or in your home as well as your office. However you choose to organize the inventory you should be sure that it is complete and user-friendly.

For some people the task of organizing their entire art collection is daunting, and they wish to hire a professional appraisal firm, cataloger or consultant to document their art collection. Others prefer to organize their own materials and actually enjoy the process of detailing their artwork and simply call an appraiser on specific issues. Regardless of the approach you take you will need to gather the following information in order to accurately catalog and document your collection:

• good quality images of the pieces showing the front and back, top and bottom (where appropriate), details and images of the entire work;
• physical details of each work such as dimensions
• bills of sale or invoices from your initial purchase
• any subsequent appraisal for each piece
• copies of articles or excerpts from any books, magazines or essays in which the work of art has appeared
• information about where and when the artwork has been exhibited or on loan to a museum
• condition reports or restoration/conservation documentation

A few of the artists featured on my website will participate in a New York exhibition opening this Thursday, July 10th at Blue Mountain Gallery and running through July 28th. The exhibition entitled “Cape Cod at Blue Mountain” features the work of seven talented artists from Cape Cod including Jane Lincoln and Kate Nelson. The opening reception for the artists will be held on Thursday, July 10th from 5-8 pm at Blue Mountain Gallery, 530 West 25th Street, 4th Floor. The show is on view through Saturday, July 28. For more information see the Exhibitions page at: www.bluemountaingallery.org