Museum Art On Loan

The beauty of borrowing

Museum rental programs let you bring home a painting or sculpture for about the price of a concert ticket. Undiscovered artists benefit from the setup too.

By Janet Eastman

Thursday December 18, 2003

SOMETHING is missing from Friday's opening night art exhibit in Los Angeles: anxiety. People who have never brought home original art are signing contracts for oil paintings and bronze sculptures. They're talking to the artists, not in reverential whispers but in loud party voices, while sipping white wine from plastic glasses and digging into bowls of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers. Unlike at private art galleries, where the uninitiated are afraid even to cough, there isn't a blip of intimidation at this exhibit, which is in the basement underneath the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's cafeteria.

Art novices and museum supporters wander the wide hallways of the Art Rental and Sales Gallery looking for the perfect piece to drive away with. Occupying the white walls in the hallways are hundreds of contemporary artworks: abstracts, figures, landscapes. Something, it seems, for everyone. They're for sale, or, for those shaky about making a commitment, for rent -- from $25 to $135 for two months

The museum's long-standing program attracts people who want to replace the posters on their walls with original art but aren't sure of their ability to choose something that will fit their budgets, tastes and homes. It's also a place for serious collectors to scout for new talent.

The beauty of renting art: It's easy to return, something unheard of at private galleries. While the private galleries may let you take a piece home for a day or two, they do not lend pieces long term.

Another major advantage of renting is that it allows novices to take chances on artwork they otherwise might shy away from, for fear of making an expensive mistake. And if a homeowner changes a space, he or she doesn't have to worry about a permanent piece of artwork not fitting in.

At LACMA, people arrive with tape measures and digital cameras to help them visualize what the art on the rental gallery's wall will look like at home. Museum volunteers offer suggestions while pulling out the overflow canvases stored in the sales office. The gallery featuring 450 pieces of available artwork is open during regular museum hours. Rentals and purchases can be made only when the sales office is open: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

"The artists apply by sending in slides and applications, then the selection committee visits the artist's studio," says Patti Howard, the gallery's director and an artist who has had her work in the program for 10 years. More than 200 artists currently have pieces in the program, she says.

Art-patron-in-waiting David Shevock of Los Angeles can't make up his mind. He and his friends stare for half an hour at a large acrylic painting of shadowy figures. They move in close to it, squint, then move back. Finally, Shevock shifts to one side, tips his wine glass in the direction of the unframed canvas and smiles.

When he returns with museum volunteer Allison Schenck, she places a blue "rented" sticker next to the canvas. To rent: $135 for two months. To buy (red sticker): $6,000. There are many more blues than reds.

"We'll see about buying it," says Shevock, who has paid $65 to become a member of the museum. Members can rent for as long as they like; nonmembers can only buy. Anyone can look at no cost. "I've never rented before, but I just bought a place with huge white walls and I fell in love with this piece. It has an urban feeling."

Overhearing him, artist Daniel Maltzman, who painted the piece titled "Homeless," shouts: "Did you take it?"

Shevock nods.

"Congratulations, man!"

The rental program was launched 35 years ago to boost Southern California artists when Los Angeles had few contemporary galleries. It is open to those without formal gallery representation. Most of the rental or sales fee -- 75% -- goes to the artist, who sets the purchase price, ranging from $300 for a photograph to $6,000 for Lester Berman's abstract painting or Ilana Bloch's urban landscapes. Howard says the gallery will bring in $800,000 this year, with the gallery's percentage going toward buying new art for the museum and hosting exhibits. Since some pieces have been rented for decades, "artists can end up making more money that way than selling," she says.

If a renter decides to buy, the artist's portion of the fees is deducted from the price. This option makes it easy for a renter to hold on to a piece. On the other hand, because the rental fees are so low, and therefore the buying time so long, it "encourages people to exchange it for something else," says Bibe Stockman, who runs a similar program at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach.

Many museums stopped offering rental programs in the 1980s and 1990s because they weren't bringing in enough money, they lacked a volunteer staff or the local arts community began supporting artists. Art consultant Edward Goldman, who hosts "Art Talk" on NPR, says, "once sophisticated art is more accessible, museum rental programs have completed their usefulness," since galleries are more-selective outlets for art.

The Los Angeles exhibit, which runs through Jan. 22, is one of seven held each year to introduce new artists. One or two of the four new artists taking part will be added to the permanent rental collection.

At the event, Jessica Schneider is struggling to make a decision about one of Ellen Castruccio's sculptures. The 14-inch-high bronze of a female could either go in Schneider's Los Angeles home or the Century City office where she works as an obstetrician. As a museum member, she doesn't need to worry now if she wants to keep it beyond her two-month commitment.

"I can't write out a check tonight for $1,775," says Schneider, "but I can rent it for $65 for two months. Then I'll decide."

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* Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Art Rental and Sales Gallery: 5905 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., (323) 857-6500; www.lacma.org. Rental fees from $25 to $135 plus tax for a two-month period.

* Laguna Art Museum, Art Rental and Sales Gallery: 307 Cliff Drive, Laguna Beach, (949) 494-8971 Ext. 213; www .lagunaartmuseum.org. Rental fees for four months are from $37.50 to $307.50.

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Research, then rent

We asked blue-chip art consultant Stuart Denenberg of Denenberg Fine Arts in West Hollywood to give us his expert opinion -- and advice -- about renting art, based on his 40 years in the business.

"It's a very sensible idea, because the art is pre-selected by curators. Connoisseurs have an eye, which the art critic Robert Hughes calls 'taste with wheels.' But you should prepare yourself first. The best way: Look. Look a lot. Go to museums and galleries. Compare what you're looking at with what you've already seen. It's like buying a house: When the right one comes along, you'll know. And read. One of the best books is by Hughes, 'The Shock of the New.' Use the Internet. www.Artnet.com is a fantastic site. You can see 50,000 to 60,000 works of art there, from 1,300 galleries -- all for sale. Take an extension course. If you prefer to work with an art consultant, the best way is to ask a museum for recommendations."