On Gifting Art

 

When I was a new faculty member, I was asked (directed really) by some senior faculty members  to contribute $50 to a retirement gift, a painting, for a faculty member I barely knew. The faculty showed me the painting and I thought it was pretty awful, but I wasn't being asked my opinion, and in fact, it was pretty clear I was supposed to ooh and ah, which I tried, unsuccessfully I imagine, to do.

The thing about art, paintings in particular, is that it is so personal, you really should not give it as a gift.

It puts the recipient in the position of having to accept it and proclaim how pleased he is, when, in fact, it's entirely possible he will be appalled.

I've been given the occasional birthday or Christmas painting, but in one case it was by an artist I liked, although, as is true for most artists, there are paintings you may like less.

You are pretty safe giving me a Van Gogh, for example, even one I haven't seen before like this one,

but had you given me an early Van Gogh, when he was in his brown and dark potato eaters phase, not so much.

I have given paintings as gifts, but only when I knew the recipient could easily discard it or hang it in her garage and I'd never be the wiser.

In general, it's like presenting a woman you think beautiful and attractive to a man and telling him she is his new wife. Tastes differ.