Painting by numbers

Song of the Grey Ghost, by Maryrose Crook. Photo / Supplied

Even thinking about writing a book which effectively judges an entire generation of artists is asking for a bruising. So Warwick Brown might be well-advised to nip out and buy himself a good disguise, quick smart.

But it seems this Auckland-based art collector and former lawyer can't help himself, he is a listmaker of High Fidelity proportions, even if his bent is more toward art and those who create it than Nick Hornby's music obsessives.

He began in 1987, warming up with an ambitious column, "121 New Zealand artists you should get to know" for the Dominion Sunday Times. The subsequent reaction did nothing to prevent him from releasing his first book, 100 New Zealand Paintings in 1995 and its companion piece Another 100 New Zealand Artists the following year. Now, he's launching the even more ambitious Seen This Century: 100 Contemporary New Zealand Artists; A Collector's Guide.

The idea is that everyone he has featured in the book has popped up since 1999, has featured in at least two shows which have won them good reviews and respectable sales, could earn you a bit of cash if you buy their work early, and Brown likes them. Just don't go looking for anyone into performance, video/DVD, craft or any of the sundry other, shall we say, temporary arts.

So, it's a personal view, feel free to disagree with him, but he's so far put forward 321 different names and is apparently already working on a new list. What's going on here? Are we churning out boho, beret-wearing artists by the gross or is Brown going to keep going until he thinks he's got it right? Neither.

Our compulsive lister is using his book as a means of getting back up to speed. He'd nodded off there for a while and woke to find the galleries were crammed with art made by by people he'd never heard of. If he's discovered anything it's that we're flush with artists. We've never had so many working, nor so many paying their way through art classes.

According to Arts News publisher Dan Chappell, the number of galleries in Auckland has jumped from around 25 to at least 70 in the 13-odd years his magazine has been going. That's serious growth for what remains a niche market, even if to some degree it's been about replacing the losses following the 1987 stock market crash - the virtual cash created as Auckland was demolished and rebuilt as a hall of mirrors saw huge sums being spent on wall candy only for the valve to disappear overnight.

Possibly the most important driver was recognised in the applause that used to greet Helen Clark at any art-related function - as the prime ministerial Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage she attracted the media spotlight wherever she went while also pumping government money into a sector that had been struggling well before Dunedin band The Knobz tried to lecture Rob Muldoon on the meaning of culture. Grants, allowances and the feelgood factor they provide have helped create the unexpected situation where we now have people considering art as a viable career. And that must be a good thing, if one with big caveats.

Art consultant and patron Trish Clark wonders if the shift has encouraged a dumbing down, a selling out of sorts: "There is a greater sense of market these days, and of the desirability of producing for that market, that just wasn't there when people were more interested in art as exploration.

Of course it's always a two-way process, art affects the market and the market affects the art, but I do find it worrisome that we now seem more interested in wanting artists to decorate spaces rather than to provide a different perspective." She says this can be seen in a growing conformity within the arts, although she does expect us to grow out of it. "Give it a century," she says.

Maybe the recession and a hopefully brief return to the days of the 'poor, starving artist' will do everyone a power of good? And woe betide anyone planning on making Brown's next book by pandering to the masses. Approach Auckland's Oedipus Rex Gallery director Rex Armstrong for advice on what style of painting is most likely to make you money and you'll get a simple answer: "House painting". "If everyone felt like we should be painting everything two feet square because that's all the market can afford, then we may as well stop, lock up the shop and go away; there is no market, there is only quality."

But he sees no downside in the growing numbers studying art - even if the students don't stick with it they will help form an educated audience of future buyers. But there may be another very simple reason for the scale of the cohort featured in Seen This Century. Aside from those such as Brown, the people attending the young artists' exhibitions are the same age. Ben Plumbly, the director of art at Art + Object auction house, says there is an easy connection when the artist is referencing the same life experience as their audience.

The values placed on their work have nothing to do with how difficult the art was to create, the materials used, or even the quality, it's about the comment they make about society today. But in the end it's all about the beholder, so if you're planning on heading out and grabbing a copy of Brown's book, don't use it to decorate a small slice of your bookcase.

Put it in your bag, take it to a gallery and see what these artists do first hand.

* Seen This Century: 100 Contemporary New Zealand Artists; A Collector's Guide by Warwick Brown (Random House, $55) is released on April 17.