More First-time Art Collectors See Galleries as Commodity Brokers

With inflation in the con temporary art market at an all-time high, it is not just serious collectors who are looking to turn a profit on their investments.

According to several Los Angeles-based galleries, the lure of investment potential is trickling to people who are just beginning to buy and collect contemporary art. The Tamara Bane Gallery in West Hollywood, which has recently presented exhibitions by up-and-coming artists Aldo Luongo and Mark Kostabi, will be presenting a pop art show this summer featuring works by Kostabi and graffiti artist Keith Haring, among others.

“It’s unbelievable,” says Robert Bane, gallery president. “We don’t specifically sell for investment purposes, but our clients are definitely more investment-oriented now.”

Tamara Bane, gallery vice president, concurs with her husband’s assessment, pointing out that limited-edition art--lithographs and serigraphs--by Mel Ramos, expected to sell for $4,000 to $6,000, has been fetching $45,000 in the inflationary market. “People who have never been serious investors are realizing that modern art is a pretty secure investment,” she says, “and it seems to be escalating.”

“Today, investment potential seems to be the first thing on everyone’s mind,” says Jan Turner of the Jan Turner Gallery in Los Angeles. She recently curated a show of the works of painter Carlos Almaraz. Turner says that Almaraz’ works in the $3,000 range are appreciating by more than $1,000 a year--”and I don’t see an end to it. If the bottom drops out, it won’t be in just the modern art market, but in the economy in general.”

Candace Lee of the Saxon-Lee Gallery in Los Angeles concurs but adds, “It’s not really affecting us, because our business is in the secondary art market--art that sells for the second time.” Lee, who recently returned from the Chicago Art Fair, noted that this year the European galleries represented there had only brought investment-quality, blue-chip work for consideration, rather than works by new or emerging artists.

Even small galleries such as Contemporary Images of Woodland Hills are feeling the ripples from the inflation at the larger galleries. Co-owner Ruth Banarer says, “People are looking for names. They’re very careful in what they’re buying. Even if they’re purchasing prints, they’re purchasing collectable prints as opposed to decorative prints-- not so much things to hang in their home.

CALIFORNIA ROLL: After a year or so of inactivity, the Santa Monica Art Tool will finally be rolling down the beach from Ocean Park to the Pacific Palisades, beginning today at 9 a.m.

Sculptor Carl Cheng created a 9-by-12-foot concrete roller, similar to one used to pave asphalt, and installed it on the Santa Monica beach in the spring of 1988. It has a surface of indentations that, when driven over the sand, imprint a miniature landscape of Los Angeles. The mini-cityscape, titled “Walk on L.A.,” will be 2 inches high and 3 miles long.

The Tool will also roll down Santa Monica Beach at 9 a.m. this summer on June 11, July 3 and 23, Aug. 20, Sept. 4, and Oct. 30. For further information call the Santa Monica Arts Foundation at (213) 458-8350.

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CALIFORNIA DREAMINGS: The first museum exhibition of Australian aboriginal art to tour the United States, “Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia,” is on exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History through July 29. It is co-sponsored by the Westfield Group and the CAZ Gallery of West Hollywood.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the Westside Pavilion in West L.A. will be celebrating Australia through July, with banners throughout the shopping center and an information desk at the west end of the pavilion.

Shoppers who stop by the information desk and join the museum will be given a gift certificate to Koala Blue, Olivia Newton-John’s Australian boutique on the third floor of the mall.

For more information, contact the Natural History Museum at (213) 474-6255.