Collecting art on a budget

Depends on what you consider a reasonable budget or art worth collecting I guess. If you buy contemporary art from small galleries, and maybe buy prints (although this is more difficult to find with young artists), there are several options for $400-$5k. Buying directly from unrepresented artists will usually cost less too. In general I'd recommend not focusing on quantity. Owning a lot of art can be a burden and one or two well chosen pieces is much more interesting than several. I liked that doc

All about being in the right place at the right time. Also keep in mind that peoples taste change. That $100 bargain could be worth 1 million in 10 years. I was at an auction 2 months ago an no one was bidding on a piece I knew was worth $2k-3k. I didn't really want it but I knew it's value and bought it for $200. Sold it 2 days later for $1500.

I am getting married and planning to have kids so I am starting to sell off some of my collection. Actually I am auctioning off 9 pieces this Sunday. Wish me luck!

Having shitty taste helps.

What kind of art sells at auction for prices this low? Were they sold as antiques? +1

If you enjoy the piece, and are collecting for your own sake, it's not really shitty taste. If you intend to sell it off eventually, than "shitty taste" is a factor.

I am guessing you hate most of the artists that they bought btw. I know I'm not fond of a lot of them. Perhaps having a "good eye" is just as important as not having "shitty taste." You should save $200 a month and eventually buy a better piece. Most artists worth a damn won't sell out of their studio unless they aren't represented, in which case you would have to know about them by some other way, which would usually require more involvement in the arts community than you seem to engage in currently. I've heard the KCAI sale can be a cluster fuck but some good (though ignored) artists come out of that school. I'd be surprised if student works were that affordable.

Honestly, no. I'm not tuned in at all. The Plaza fair sucks HARD. There are some decent galleries in town, but you'll pay. You might try going to the First Friday next month and checking some out. I don't know anything about the KCAI fair, but there are some very successful and affordable fairs at other schools like the Ivies and some of the NY design schools. I just don't know how KCAI's talent ranks in comparison, but it's definitely worth checking out. Nothing to lose.

Here's a good article from the Washington Post on buying art on a budget. Much of the article is DC-specific, but it contains a lot of good general information. If you google the article, a PDF of the actual article will be one of the first hits.

I endorse the idea of spending more than $200 on a piece.

I didn't see the movie, but I've seen my fair share of "affordable art" in people's homes on Apartment Therapy, or in Dwell & other living magazines. I think bad artists usually have a common characteristic in that they really treat their subjects as sacredly profound. They really fetishize beauty and tragedy in the same way emo chicks in high school do. The best affordable art pieces I've seen are humble, mundane, and unapologetically mediocre.

One thing to keep in mind is that within the world of artists and galleries, there is a very small subset of either that will sell a product that appreciates in cultural or economic currency as "legitimate" artwork, rather than decorative artwork/antique. This is related to how those artists and galleries market themselves, to whom, and whether that audience is receptive to them. A $500 piece bought from an undergraduate student that does not go on to get an MA or pursue their career in other ways will probably not ever be worth more than $500. Art bought from galleries or auctions with a decorative focus also have mostly embalmed value. On the other hand, that "legitimate" work has to appreciate to an often absurd amount before it can command any attention in the secondary market. I own a few pieces that I bought for $50 (my first purchase was at 16, with interest from my bar mitzvah money; the artist has amazingly achieved a small amount of fame) - $500 that now sell at galleries for much more, but that does not mean that I can find a buyer for them. The Vogels were buying from the right galleries at the right time. There was a major factor of luck mixed in with their passion, which is what makes their decision to donate, rather than sell their collection so interesting and perhaps admirable. IIRC, when my house was on Apartment Therapy you liked the big piece in my living room . Bolded is not a bad point.

Herb and Dorothy is a great story. They did it for love, not really for investment. They could cash out and be quite wealthy.

I guess you could go to MFA shows / open studios. You might be able to find something you like,, you can talk with the artist a bit and it'd be in your price range.