Posted January 5, 2006
Is it possible to become a serious art collector if you’ve got less than, say, $100 to spend? Absolutely. Just head over to 195 Tenth Avenue, site of the new Printed Matter store. Opened last month, this brand-new space gives the venerable artists’ bookshop more room for exhibitions and inventory, which includes more than 15,000 titles by some 5,000 artists. Many of them are limited edition or very hard to find anywhere else in town—like Wako Book 3, the new Tokyo-published book from celebrated photographer Wolfgang Tillmans ($25). There are pricier items for sale—like a signed Edward Ruscha catalogue raisonne of paintings for $350—but generally Printed Matter sells amazingly affordable stuff, which, depending on the vagaries of the art market and the relative hotness (or notness) of individual artists, can wildly appreciate in value over time, if recent history is any indication. Most of the items on sale are in book form, but you’ll also find lots of open-edition unbound merchandise, like Yoko Ono’s “Imagine Peace” buttons ($1) and Jenny Holzer’s truism t-shirts (such as the one shown here, $25). Your purchases support not only individual artists, but the exhibition and reading programs of Printed Matter, now in its fourth decade and still one of New York City’s most important, and quietly influential, non-profit visual arts organizations. (FYI: Printed Matter is open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m to 7 p.m. It’s closed Sundays and Mondays. Its excellent website, though, is open 24/7.)
195 Tenth Ave., between 21st and 22nd Sts.; 212-925-0325; printedmatter.org.