Art collectors, old, new and future, can get a chance at some new acquisitions at Downtown Art Center’s Collectors’ Art Sale &Exhibition Fundraiser starting this weekend.
About 500 works by noted local and international artists will be on sale at the Chinatown facility, said Allison Wong, an art consultant and former executive director of The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu. The sale is a benefit for the center and the Jean Charlot Foundation, as well as Maui wildfire relief, she said.
Among the works on sale will be paintings by well-known Hawaii artists, such as Jean Charlot and Tadashi Sato, a sculpture by Satoru Abe, plus works by artists known overseas.
“There’s a few collectors here who collected works from the continent, so major artists like David Hockney and Doug Hall from San Francisco,” she said. The sale will include a print from Hockney, one of the most influential Western artists of the 20th century.
Most of the pieces have been contributed by collectors, 38 in all, who determine how the proceeds will be split, she said. “They would be able to get a percentage of the sale and then give a donation to the beneficiaries,” she said, adding that some 100 works have been designated as 100% of their proceeds going to beneficiaries.
An artwork gains cache and possibly value if it’s from a collector, she said, giving some tips on determining its worth.
“You can see the provenance from where the piece comes from,” she said. “Definitely if the dates are early on, you know it’s been in someone’s home for awhile. So the idea is to encourage seasoned collectors to the (sale) and possibly add to their collection, but then also encourage new people to start collecting.”
The sale will include prints, lithographs and paintings. Some will be unframed, making them more affordable, she said. In addition, the sale will also include works directly from 24 selected contemporary Hawaii artists, she said. Prices will range from $25 to $20,000 for the Charlot, a painting of a swimmer.
Eager collectors should plan to attend a $150 preview event from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Friday, where attendees get first dibs on the artworks. The event is not an auction, so once a price for a work has been met, it’s gone, and Wong said she might even let the buyer take it away immediately so that other works can get better display.
The sale officially opens with a free reception at 5 p.m. Saturday. The sale concludes Sept. 22.
Downtown Art Center is located at 1041 Nuuanu Ave. Visit downtownarthi.org/collectorssale for information and to see the artists and some of the sale items.
