Can we be classified as contemporary art collectors?

[King Darkness]

You shouldn't trust people who use big words.

Your post is both arbitrary and disingenuous drivel, thus precluding it from earnest consideration.

 

[fuzzylojiks]

The exact term is 'Mass produced stuff from China' collectors, or 'Polystoners'.

 

[devilof76]

Are prints of great paintings, or CD's of great symphonies not art because they weren't produced by the original artists?

I think pop art is a good term. It's still art.

Your post is both arbitrary and disingenuous drivel, thus precluding it from earnest consideration.

What else is new?

 

[King Darkness]

What else is new?

I heard prog and 'Nam are secrect lovers, but I dont know if there is any truth to that

 

[worstgamerever]

These collectibles are painted by employees on an assembly line in china, not by artists. Of course, if you own an A/P or a Prototype, that's an entirely different story.



This is more accurate.

But many of the pieces that fall into the art form category today were also hand-made or mass-produced at one time. Someone gave the example of the Ford T and how they are now museum items. That's modern-art, I know but even contemporary art items like the Mauser C96, the Luger P08 (AKA German Luger) and those classic WWII bolt-action sniper or standard rifles or the more recent SVD (Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova) rifle is already in some war/history museums despite bing manufactured en-masse post WII and right till today in newer forms.

Besides, you can't call what SS do mass production for a statue or bust series with 50-1000 pieces. Not to get too technical but I'm not sure that the size of the production runs should be classed more like batch or jobbing production, but certainly not mass. I'm not too sure about the early runs of Bowen Designs that produced over 5,000+ for some statues.

Today, and especially with SideSHow and ARH, their runs are small enough to not be considered mass-produced

Note that I'm not including Hot Toys here as those have far larger production runs, they are actually assembled, with hundreds of individual parts and they don't start from what artists would call "a lump of clay". To keep it simple I'm only including the likes of SS, ARH, BD here; even the goods works of Rommel also fall firmly into this category as well as maybe the "fine art" line of Koto

I'm not trying to criticise what you are saying and thanks for contributing

 

[Theokan]

If you're going to call a high end toy maker an artist, then obviously what they make is an art form. Most of us also tend to forget that we are really replica collectors; whether they are replicas of a movie prop or replica of the prototype sculpt, it's still a print of the original. I believe printing was a technique that gained popularity in the pop art movement back in the days and was widely accepted, so mass producing statues and figures should be no different. I would say that the subject matter in the toys we collect has a strong Pop culture influence, which would make it a form of today's Pop Art. It's probably not in the textbooks yet, but twenty years from now who knows, it could be included as part of today's pop art movement including toys, movies, games, comics, and especially the influences from 3D CGI..
Unlike a lot of Pop Art from the last centuries though, sculpting these human bodies and faces requires extensive knowledge of Science (anatomy, proportion, likeness, etc), hence there's a much stronger root to classical ideals from the Renaissance era than a lot of other forms of Pop art. Personally I think that's a great direction, I tend to dislike art that sways too far away from Science. I would say that while the subject matter is heavily Pop influenced, the actual style is more classical influenced with maybe a bit of stylize depending on the piece. A lot of times it's also called hyper-realism.
In a way, these high end collectibles are really job opportunities for traditional sculptors, and collectors like us gets to own a print of their work. There's a lot of job openings for Graphic Designers, but it's not like a good sculptor have many options to choose from. If you can call package design an art form, I don't see why high end figures and statue isn't an art form.

 

[Shai]

So much words in this thread for a poor frenchman like me... . I learned a lot more from King Darkness post.

 

[King Darkness]

So much words in this thread for a poor frenchman like me... . I learned a lot more from King Darkness post.

Words are hard

 

[**16k**]

Nope! They're just toys and nothing less! Their only worth is in your heart and in the pockets of the companies. Most will be totally worthless in a few years but for the niche collectors or the nostalgic kidults that we are!

Besides, when I see some of the crap they display in modern art museums, I'm glad this is not art!

 

[JosephCPR]

Toys, statues, posters,...merchandising...it doesn't matter, they are all mass-produced interpretations of popular culture (movies, comic books, etc) and as such, they are considered examples of POP ART, which is considered in its turn, the movement that began postmodernism in the 60's.

 

[EVILFACE]

They are just expensive toys. Nothing more.

 

[worstgamerever]

Nope! They're just toys and nothing less! Their only worth is in your heart and in the pockets of the companies. Most will be totally worthless in a few years but for the niche collectors or the nostalgic kidults that we are!

Besides, when I see some of the crap they display in modern art museums, I'm glad this is not art!

If so then why could flipping be so lucrative? I've seen a seller buy a statue on eBay, and relist the same thing for over $1,000 more after just a few days. It sold. That thread is somewhere here on this forum...

I've never sold a statue for less than I bought it and I'm sold most for several hundred pounds more. Point I'm trying to make is that if you are a shrewd collector, your collection will appreciate, not depreciate in value over time as as demand increases for certain pieces.

And this applies to every type of art--modern, contemporary, classic etc., not all the sculpts and paintings catch on. Sometimes you get lucky though and market demand for a piece soars... if you are lucky enough to have that piece in your collection (think Grey Hulk PF, Doom PF EX, X-Men Dio 1 etc) then prepare for a killing when you eventually decide to list it

meethinks the value of these pieces goes way beyond whats in our hearts... it's actually monetary. if you know what you are doing.

PS - I've still got that question I'm hoping more of us would address

 

[JosephCPR]

...
PS - I've still got that question I'm hoping more of us would address

If you have to write a paper for University, don't you think you will get better results if you do a little research (Internet, libraries, etc) instead of asking these kind of questions in a forum?

 

[LycosV]

If you have to write a paper for University, don't you think you will get better results if you do a little research (Internet, libraries, etc) instead of asking these kind of questions in a forum?

Whoah now, a "library"? That's just crazy talk!

 

[c00kies292]

I can consider Sideshow statues as a piece of art. It is true, in fact, that they are mass produced, however, Sideshow has mentioned that they are all unique since they are individually painted. Yes you can argue and say they all look the same but none of them will look exactly like the other piece due to some variation of colors. Art is also defined as a product or process that influences emotion. If a statue, in this case, Spider-man reminds you of the comic books you used to read as a kid it will build up a lot of emotion every time you look at it.

Then again, it also depends on each person, but I definitely consider mine art if it makes me happy and brings a lot of memories from my childhood characters.

 

[worstgamerever]

If you have to write a paper for University, don't you think you will get better results if you do a little research (Internet, libraries, etc) instead of asking these kind of questions in a forum?

I was wondering when someone would blow me up for that.. short answer is I've got all the boring research/journal/literature stuff covered. But I am (I hope) as avid a collector as most guys and gals here... I know this because my I deprive myself of most other things to afford this hobby, and I love it!

I'm asking the question here as I'm getting a lot more insight than what any journals can cover. Besides my actual paper is on how market prices affect demand/supply of contemporary art. It's dreadfully boring So I'm just trying to find out if we can actually be classed as contemporary art collectors , just so I can write something more fun and can justify putting a picture of the Black Cat LSB somewhere in my research

 

[worstgamerever]

Whoah now, a "library"? That's just crazy talk!

Do those relics still exist?

 

[Hulksmashed]

I think people are way too quick to dismiss these statues as not being an art form. Art is 100% subjective, and as such can not be classified into any particular form. I read the argument that "originality" is a requirement of art. To that I'd like to point out that ENTIRE genres of art is realism. How many brilliant artists painted/sculpted the human form??? The DaVinci's Mona Lisa and Rodan's Thinker are just two examples of a realistic form interpreted into an artistic media!

Further more, I would argue that mass production doesn't nullify the artistic nature of an item. I would argue that its originality/"artistic" interpretation of the ORIGINAL and not the copies that defines a place in the realm of Art. Let's face it, we live in a "mass produced" world! I have a print from a Kinkade painting hanging on my wall. Mass production doesnt lessen my appreciation of the artistic nature of the piece. You can buy replica's of DaVinci's, Michelangelo's, Picaso's, Rodan's art work, and its still widely appreciated as ART!! If you think for a second that had they had the capabilities to mass produce art in any of those artist's time that they would have refrained from doing so to make money you're insane! Would that have negated the artistry of their work?

Even TOYS that are bought for more then playing with by an adult collector become art. That's evident based on the money that some toy companies put into the sculpt and marketing of some "TOYS" to an adult crowd. For example 4 Horseman Sculpts of the DCU toy line put out by Mattel.

Short answer, yes, these statues are definitely and art form!

 

[JosephCPR]

...Besides my actual paper is on how market prices affect demand/supply of contemporary art. It's dreadfully boring So I'm just trying to find out if we can actually be classed as contemporary art collectors , just so I can write something more fun and can justify putting a picture of the Black Cat LSB somewhere in my research

Hey That would be great!

In that sense, I don't think you should consider these pieces as Contemporary art, because there is already a consolidated market for that kind of "art", whereas the pieces we collect, and even though there is an expanding market (god, there are even webs such as toytracker), are something relatively new and more limited, as I said in a previous post, to the Pop art category.

 

[eighthsamurai]

you can classify me as a badass mother____er, and anyone who calls me a "contemporary art collector" is gonna get a knock in the snout. now if you'll excuse me... i'm going to go redress my dolls.