Buying an Abstract Painting: What to Look For

Abstract painting is the most popular choice for the home. The reason is clear: with no fixed subject it settles into a room easily and does not wear thin.

But when buying, most people ask the same question: how do I know whether this is any good?

Is liking it enough#

Largely, yes. For a work going into your home, the soundest test is whether you want to look at it every day.

Even so, there are concrete things to check when money is involved, and seeing them strengthens the liking.

Look at the composition#

With no subject in an abstract, arrangement is all that is left. Step back and squint.

• Does the eye travel across the surface, or get stuck at one point?
• Is the weight bunched in one corner?
• Is there space left empty, or is everything equally filled?

In a good abstract the eye enters, travels and stays a while. The rules of composition apply directly here.

Look closely at the surface#

In abstract work the surface takes the place of the subject. It is also exactly what a photograph does not show.

Does the paint thickness vary, or is it uniform? Are there layers, is something coming through from below? Does the brush or palette knife mark carry a decision, or is it arbitrary?

A single-layer surface of even thickness with no decisions in it usually means the work was rushed.

Look at how the colours relate#

If the colours support each other the work reads as calm. If every colour is fully saturated the surface is noisy and becomes tiring in a room.

In accomplished work most areas are broken colour and only a few points are left pure. That is what tells you where the painting wants you to look.

Look at the artist's other work#

Judging from a single piece is hard. Look at what else they have made.

What you are looking for is consistency: a language, a recurring interest, a direction that develops. Ten works with nothing in common may mean a language has not formed yet.

That does not make the work bad, but it is worth knowing when you decide.

What to compare the price against#

An abstract is priced by size, technique and hours, exactly like a figurative work. How prices are set is covered separately.

There is a common assumption that abstract work should be cheaper. In fact a large-scale abstract can be far heavier in materials and labour than a small portrait.

Watch out for prints#

It is easier to pass a print off as an original in abstract work, because buyers do not think to look for brushwork. Ask for detail photographs; on an original the paint thickness shows, on a print the surface is entirely flat.

Prints on canvas are sometimes worked over by hand and called mixed media. That is a different thing and should be stated plainly. You can read more on the difference between an original and a print.

How it will sit on the wall#

An abstract settles into a room more easily than a figurative work, but orientation matters. Some abstracts change completely depending on which way up they hang; ask which the artist intended.

For colour, working from the smallest accent in the room is a good method. The piece on choosing a painting for the living room goes into that.

Try the points above while looking at the abstract works in the collection; each page also carries a note on how the piece came about.