Art Buying Can Be A Trip
There's a lot going beyond looking at art on the Internet behind the scenes with the Montague collection. The Montague family is committed to travel at least once per year on Art buying trips in 2025: Los Angeles , 2024: Japan, 2023: Italy, 2022: London, Paris & Vienna, 2018 Paris. We take these trips for art education, with the goal of expanding our taste, knowledge, and the art collection in a truly global way. On these trips we purchase, and do art commission business. We try to visit as many art museums, art galleries, and art creative spaces as possible on these trips. It is so helpful, to go to the museums of local art schools, the museums in the countries of the artist you collect. What they have in there collection may be influencing what the artist you want to collect is making. Sometimes we do not find anything that we want to add to the collection, but we do benefit by exploring art business, learning how they operate, and what challenges they face as they grow.
Other times we take care of art commission business that needs to be done in person. We really value meeting the artists we collect and commission from in person whenever possible. It is also really beneficial to go to international art galleries in person, many gallery’s do not respond to emails or answer phone calls and going in person is the only way to get in touch. Art collecting to The Montague Family is more than just buying art, it is a process of global searching, constant learning, and researching. Traveling to different countries is the best way of building an understanding of the cultural art traditions that artist from those regions you're considering collecting are working in, from, and are being influenced by. That understanding helps to create greater artistic appreciation, value, grow your collector understanding of the artist you collect beyond what you can see in the work itself. the global art market business, and reach outside of a Eurocentric art world view.
Western art has really had the greatest dominance in the art market for the last 500 years. If you study art history as we have in school as a major you have had cracked open for you a whole other world of artistic creation outside of the dominant western view of art. We have benefited greatly from taking classes about the Art of India, Art of Islam, Asian Art, African Art, and Latin American Art. It was amazing to learn the language of religious iconography in the Buddhist, Muslim, Shinto, Confucianism, and Hinduism art tradition. For those of you who have not had the chance to explore the artistic creation of others cultures, we strongly encourage you to research, take classes, and where your budget allows travel with an eye to seeing the artistic creation that has an is taking place in other countries.
Our Collection has art by Japanese, South Korean, Chinese, Canadian, French, American, Italian, British artists.