Rick and Yvonne Pilgrim: African Art Collectors for Over Twelve Years

How large is your entire collection?
Rick: We don’t have a total number of how large our collection is: probably an estimate of over one-hundred pieces.

What inspired you to really start collecting seriously?
Rick: My cousin wrote an article, and in it she stated you have to like what you collect; and that it is not always profitable; and that art is very subjective. We also had to figure out just because we like it, it doesn’t mean it’s a good investment. So we had to pick the bronzes, the ebonies, and the stones which are difficult to bring in [import].

What was the first piece of art you bought and can you describe that experience?
Yvonne: The first piece we bought was a mahogany piece. A curator would come by and had an array of African Art, but we couldn’t find anything that moved us. He kept coming and coming until finally he hit on our niche—on things we like—things we could start collecting. He had a whole genre of items in African Art (masks, tusks, all kinds of stuff), but the first one we bought from him was a mahogany—a statue of a woman reading a book. We fell in love with it, and we still have it. We have bought several pieces from the same artist: We were attracted to style of the figures.
Rick: We were a little confused about what to buy, or how to go about what to collect. So I called my cousin in NY who is an art dealer, and I asked her what are the most collectible items she knew of in African Art. She told me to collect Benin Bronzes—they will always appreciate because of the complexity in the work and the lost wax art. So we started calling curators and asked them if they had the Benin art, and sure enough they started coming by and bringing us Benin. Yvonne started to fall in love with the Benin – she became a Benin fanatic. Right now we have twenty-one pieces of Benin art ranging from the very expensive to the inexpensive.

Are there any other types of art in your collection besides Benin?
Rick: Actually we collect three types of art: bronze—Benin Art—made by the Ido people; stone: serpentine, green-gold verdite, and butter jade (which is rare and expensive)—Shona Art—from Zimbabwe; Mahogany and Ebony—both are good because they don’t cut down ebony trees that are large anymore [from Africa], and anything imported now is rare. Shona pieces are very heavy and difficult to import—this happens with most African art that is valuable—the bigger it gets, the more fragile it gets, it becomes harder to import into the country in tact because it is fragile. The artists that do Shona Art are dying maids [young women]. There is war in Zimbabwe, which takes a lot of casualties. We were told there were four-thousand artists in 2000, and now there are four-hundred artists.

What would you say is your most sentimental piece?
Yvonne: It was the first Benin piece I bought. All my pieces are bought on emotion: The piece has to say something to me before I buy it. Each piece I have, I was attracted to it; I was drawn to it. Typically when I buy art, it is something I enjoy looking at everyday; and every time I look at it, I see something new. The Benin pieces are special to me because I am drawn to them spiritually.

What made you buy the ebony pieces?
Rick: The ebony trees are no longer getting cut, and we knew we would double our money in a few years—that was more of an investment than anything else. We like it, but it was an investment buy.
Yvonne: We try to buy what is tasteful. We visit lots of art festivals, galleries—typically what we buy is what is not common or unique.
Rick: After starting to collect, we did a little bit of reading. A lot of the pieces we bought are now published. We didn’t buy [art] with that intent, it just happened that way. We bought a book and ended up seeing our pieces in there; even the Shona pieces we have were published.

What advice would you give to a budding art collector?
Yvonne: You have to like what you buy. If you’re going to get a piece and spend a substantial amount of money, make sure you seek professional advice, make sure you deal with someone reputable.
Rick: The person should really study the work. I have bought lots of books. I have books that talk about the Zimbabwe people, Benin museum collections, and the Yoruba culture.
Yvonne: We talk to artist all the time. We watch artist grow.

Are there any future plans for your collection?
Rick: We are putting together a book. The book was started as a preparation for the insurance company. I was told that we could take pictures of the work over to the museum for exhibiting, so we’re preparing our collection for exhibitions. It is not about showing this to get paid; we want to share this art.
Yvonne: There is still a financial gain in exhibiting the collection. We can use that money to invest in more art; the key is to seek museum quality work.

Published by Clarke Art Consulting © 2009