Amsterdam’s Young Collectors Circle series “Art of Collecting” brings to light the personal relationships between a collector and their favorite artwork.

THE COLLECTOR

Emilie van Dijk is mother, or rather a “family manager”. She lives with her husband and two sons.

The Artwork

This work is titled “Jungle”, 2009 and was created by William Monk. With the purchase of this piece at Galerie Grimm at the end of 2016, a few things coincided. We were actually looking for a smaller work for one specific empty wall in our home and we’d been admirers of William Monk’s work for quite some time already. A friendly playground mum and owner of the gallery called one day and said “we got a Monk in again, but it’s a bit larger than what you were thinking…” . So naturally we went to look at the piece and were immediately sold. It is amazing handwork with layers upon layers of paint and to this day we keep on seeing and discovering new things it. Once we got it home we had to find a place for it, and we decided that another artwork had to move to the original bare wall to make room for this giant!

It feels good to always be surrounded by beautiful things. It’s there, you look at it in passing, and it makes you happy.

EMILIE VAN DIJK

The Collection

In addition to this painting we mainly own lots of photographs, in particular by Levi van Veluw and David Verbeek for example, with my favourite photograph being “Cuba”, 1967 by Ed van der Elsken. We started our collection by collecting photographs but decided to not have a theme running throughout; it’s all about the photograph itself and in particular the colors. We are always aware of what’s missing in the collection and that’s why we also started looking at paintings. Photographs are wonderful, but because they’re behind glass they can also have a colder feeling. A painting, like Monk’s, gives off a warmer feeling in the home.

Art adorns my home: it feels good to always be surrounded by beautiful things. It’s there, you look at it in passing, and it makes you happy.

I currently have my eye on a photograph again, this time by Hendrik Kersten, a modern old master. I saw the work at a friend’s house and loved it. I would love to own the photograph of his daughter with the paper towel bonnet, but the series of paintings of trees and trunks by William Monk would find a good home with us as well.

Tips & Tricks

The best way to buy art is to save up and wait until you can afford the work you have your heart set on.

The “Art of Collecting” series is an initiative of the Young Collectors Circle and Laura Hein.