Messum’s London aim to simplify the process, however, with its annual Start a Collection exhibition. Next week (August 10-12) the gallery offers 174 works at discount prices, though pieces can already be found on the exhibition’s dedicated website (accessible via messums.com). Pieces can be reserved in advanced, but priority is given to buyers coming along in the first half hour of the Thursday opening day.
The gallery’s Sandy Mallet tells ATG that in the past people have queued up to bag bargains. He adds that it is “an amazing sight in Cork Street. We’ll be handing out sandwiches and coffee to people in the queue to keep them going”.
Among the artists whose works are on offer are Stanhope Alexander Forbes, Guy Taplin, Julius Olsson, Michael Finn and Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn. Visitors can view the pieces on the preview days, August 7-9.
This is the 14th edition of the show has taken place.
“It’s an event that has allowed people to start collecting who might not otherwise have got a foot on the ladder,” Mallet adds. “Some of the collectors who started with us years ago have become big collecting names now.”
