Collect Call: Exploring Art Patronage offers us a view into 8 collections in the Twin Cities. We're spotlighting a collector a day during the week of the exhibition.
Today we have the pleasure of spotlighting Tom Arneson.
Tom Arneson:
"I grew up in Fairmont, MN and went to school for a very long
time, receiving a BA from Harvard, MD from Mayo Medical School, and MPH from
the University of MN School of Public Health. I have lived in Minneapolis since 1988 and have worked in
health care quality improvement and population health research. I’m a member of Hennepin Ave. United
Methodist Church, which has an amazing collection of 16th-19th
century European religious paintings, given by T. B. Walker; a set of the 240-plus
“Roberts Lithographs” from the mid-19th century, documenting travels
by English artist David Roberts in the Holy Land and Egypt; a fine collection
of sculpture by local artists; and more.
I serve on the church’s Fine Arts Committee. I am also a Trustee of the MN Museum of American Art, which
has a terrific collection, but for the past several years has had no home. That is about to change, however, as
plans proceed for the creation of the “Art Block” in downtown St. Paul, centering
on the Pioneer and Endicott buildings at 4th and Robert. The MMAA will occupy a large portion of
the ground floor, including the corner where the MMAA “Project Space” is now
located."
When did you start your collection? What was the inspiration?
"My great-grandmother was an accomplished amateur potter and
my grandmother worked with ceramics as a hobby. She was interested in design (studied with the Goldstein
sisters at the U of MN) and encouraged creativity in me. Perhaps she inspired my early interest
in ceramics and my first passion for created things: artisan-made goods. For several years during the 1990s I
travelled around the state meeting artists across the state who made beautiful,
useful things and I created and published The
North Country Artisan Directory (i.e. a “Yellow Pages” for artisans). For several years I had a booth at the
Minnesota State Fair displaying pieces I had bought (my first “collection” I
guess!) and selling copies of the book.
In the late 1990s I started paying more attention to fine art, and I was
particularly interested in vintage pieces. My adventures in buying vintage art by Minnesota artists and learning about
the artists and their times started in earnest around 2000."
Roughly how many pieces of art do you own?
"576 pieces as of October 11, 2013: 344 vintage and 232
contemporary.
By medium:
114 paintings on
canvas/board
120 works on paper
(drawings, watercolor or other painting on paper, collage)
223 prints
103 ceramic pieces
(functional and sculptural)
13 metal or wood sculpture/other
3 photographs"
Is there a theme or focus in your collection?
"I collect work by Minnesota artists from 1900 to
present. When I started collecting
fine art my focus was on work from the 1920’s through the 1950s. My interest was both in the created
object and in the life of the artist and the social context of their work as an
artist: where art students studied, where they showed and sold their work, how
national trends in art expressed themselves in Minnesota, etc. I bought fairly voraciously for a
while, as I learned about many artists.
Over time, the collection had work by many of the artists who have been
part of the Minnesota art community, generally with one piece per artist or, if
they had multiple distinct periods, one from each. Or, if I really like an artist’s work, I have several pieces
(no hard and fast rules!). In more
recent years I have increasingly bought work by contemporary local artists. For a collector, this is a rather
different enterprise than buying vintage art. Through the passage of time, certain artists of the past
become fairly well known with work available to be seen and bought (with
market-tested prices) and, generally, robust information to be found about
them. Others, whether fair or not,
recede into obscurity and it is unusual to be aware of them or find information
about them. So there is a relatively
small range of artists for the emerging collector to focus on, at least at
first (for more advanced collectors, vintage artists that history has slighted
are an enticing focus!).
Contemporary local artists are legion – and many are very good. For me, galleries end up being very
important, as that is usually my first contact with an artist’s work and I
appreciate the great value good gallery directors provide to the artist, to the
local art scene – and to me! My
strategy on the contemporary artist front is still emerging, but in general I’d
say I tend to buy one piece of most artist’s work, and for a small number of artists
who particularly interest me, I follow the development of their work over time
and buy pieces periodically. Over
the past several years my historic interest in ceramics has re-emerged as I
have come to realize what a rich area for ceramics Minnesota has become. I am now an
avid fan, buyer, and user of functional and sculptural pieces by Minnesota
clay-workers."
Have some questions for Tom?
Please join us for a talk with some of the collectors this Thursday, November 14 from 6-8 pm at SooVAC.
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