As designers working in virtually every style, and on projects large and small, we find that just about every project is better with art. So we have become skilled at buying art, and we love to assist our clients with their art research and purchases.

The phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” is never as true as it is with art. Even educated and totally knowledgeable art critics can have different views on a particular piece of art.

This point is easy to illustrate especially with the contemporary art of the sixties and seventies. Lots of canvases were painted, some just all white or another color, and lots of stripes (The Washington Color School) or splatters of paint (a lá Jackson Pollock and Clyfford Still). It is easy to say, “I could have done that,” and lots of us could have. But, the artists did it first, and by doing it first, got credit for starting the trend, helping us see things in a new way.

In the upper echelons of art, technique becomes more important. Old Masters are celebrated because of breakthroughs in technique or style for their era. For instance, Vermeer used light in a new way, Renoir was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style, and Picasso is known for his founding role in the Cubist movement.

My advice is: buy the best art you can afford for whatever your strategy or for whatever your reasoning happens to be.