Good news for an emotionally challenging time: there’s hard evidence that simply looking at art you find beautiful can trigger your endorphins, invoking the same feelings of pleasure associated with romantic love, certain drugs and desire.

So here is my humble offering to all the coronavirus whiplashed warriors. It was challenging picking art that everyone will find beautiful. There is no such thing, of course, but I had a soul lifting time trying.

Even if you’re already familiar with these images, try to really look with fresh eyes. See how that feels . I’ve shared one interesting fact about each work to guide your entry into the art.

Gustave Klimpt, The Kiss, 1908

Originally rejected as scandalously erotic, Klimpt’s The Kiss is now deemed by some to be the greatest painting ever created. “If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please a few” he said. Smart man…

Van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889

Proof that great art sometimes comes from great pain, Van Gogh painted Starry Night at the asylum of Saint Paul de Mausole, France, while suffering from epileptic fits and declining mental health. How do you think that affected his palette choice?

Henry Rousseau, The Dream, 1910

The Dream, huge at almost 7 by 10 feet, was Rousseau’s last painting, and the masterpiece of his 25 jungle themed works. How many animals can you find? I’m at 8 and counting…

Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948

Looking out the window of his Maine summer residence, Wyeth saw Christina Olson, a neighbor who suffered from a neuromuscular disease, crawling across a field picking blueberries. “The challenge to me was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless.”

Morris Louis, Dalet Kaf, 1959

Using a soak stain technique he learned from Helen Frankenthaler – see below – Louis went ginormous, as here at over 8 x 10 feet, and created visual cathedrals of feeling.

Helen Frankenthaler, Flirt, 1995

Nobody does more gorgeous color. If I could choose my next life, it would be to paint like this. I saved the best for last.

• Introducing Free Fridays:
• Send your art questions, including photos, to jacqui@beckerfinearts.com. Every Friday I will answer the most interesting question on Instagram @jacquibecker.

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In a recent post I offered a few guidelines for the art buyer intent on investing in art. While I generally encourage clients to buy art for the love of it, and invest elsewhere, if you want to invest in art those tips were offered to help put you in the right direction.

Now let’s test your art market smarts about three current art market facts which shed a bit of light on the world of interior design and the global art market.

What was the top style of artwork sold at auction in 2019?

1. Abstraction
2. Representation
3. Surrealism
4. Impressionism

This one really surprised me. The top ten most expensive works of art sold at auction worldwide in early 2019 were representational works of art. While these sales were at auction and at the higher end of the market, what does this mean for the rest of us? Hard to say, but my guess is a return to the known and tangible in a time of rapid and often unsettling global change.

Do uncertain times explain the return of representational art as the most desirable?
Nicole Hogarty Interiors, Michael J Lee Photography

What was the single largest motivation art collectors site when buying art?

1. Investment
2. Personal inspiration
3. To decorate their home
4. To build a collection

Interior designers will not be surprised with this answer: today’s buyers most often site the desire to decorate their homes as their motivation, followed very closely by the desire to be inspired. But an artwork’s visual appeal is frequently a gateway to a deeper dive into the artist and their career. From there, most buyers will be motivated more by the specific story behind an individual work of art than by the artist’s over all career.

Art is often among the most personally meaningful objects in our homes,
serving to both enrich décor and fill our souls.
Interior Design Kristi Will Home + Design

What single obstacle do today’s art collectors report most often?

1. Wanting to know they can resell art at a reasonable price if they needed to divest
2. Feeling that art work was simply not affordable
3. The lack of easy access to artworks’ price
4. Lacking confidence in their artwork selections

If you guessed 3, the lack of easy access to artworks’ price, you are probably familiar with the unpleasant experience of needing to ask an art dealer the price of a work of art. One of the strongest drivers for online art work sales is the perception that price information is easier to find and free of any discomfort. It’s interesting to note that it is high end art buyers, not entry level newbies, who are most likely to find the lack of easily available pricing off putting.

Art exhibitions lacking signage and pricing, like a recent Miami Basel art fair, above,
can be intimidating to prospective art buyers.

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What are the factors that govern whether or not fine art becomes a valuable investment? Should you buy fine art simply because you love it, or because of its future value?

I frequently encourage my clients to set aside the investment aspect of art buying and concentrate simply on selecting art that feeds their soul and completes their space to perfection.

A visitor studies Andy Warhols ‘Dollar Signs’ in Sotheby’s London showroom. Photo by Mary Turner, Getty Images.

But if you’d like to also factor in the investment potential of art, here is a check list of the most important considerations:

1. What would you like to collect? Are you eager to become expert in that art, or will you be engaging a professional to guide your purchases? Do not invest without first doing your homework.

2. How much can you afford to invest? In 2017, the average price for a piece of contemporary fine art was $27,900. If that’s out of your budget, you may wish to consider low cost, up and coming artists, and aim to spot the next Picasso rather than invest in established fine art.

3. Sobering news: from a return perspective, art returns 7.6 percent each year, while the S&P 500 delivers an average 9.8 percent return. Mutual funds anyone?

4. Once you’re ready to invest in art, how do you assess if the price is correct? Art is a commodity, so sometimes fads will inflate prices on hot artists. But most art prices are based on more concrete criteria: the artist’s education, exhibition history, reviews in important art journals, which galleries carry their work, and important collectors who own their work.

5. If you are buying art with a proven track record, you can access auction records that will vet prices. But auction prices may be much lower than those from established galleries. Auctions are the wild west of art sales, where a ‘buyer beware’ ethos prevails. Sometimes auctions actually drive up prices when multiple buyers are hell bent on owning the same art.

6. Reputable galleries or consultants will charge standard retail prices, but your purchase comes with the guarantee of authenticity, and a host of other support services including personal advising. As you may have guessed, I’m big on buying art you love, and investing in financial assets. There are no shortcuts to developing the expertise required to making successful fine art investments. So feed your soul, and just maybe, you will fall in love with the next Picasso.

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