Let’s ReCollect Episode 9
With Independent Art Broker, Berenice Chef
PatronageDAO is diving into the fascinating world of collecting, and what it means to be a collector today. Behind every great collection in the world is a collector’s vision — and every great collector had to start somewhere! Most of us, usually as kids, had something that obsessed us — something we had to have — maybe it was baseball cards, maybe it was a rock from every place we visited, the latest football kit for your favourite team, or ticket stubs, autographed programmes, matchboxes… Many of us still feel compelled to own and collect certain things, and a few of us might go on to make it a life-long pursuit…. Likewise, most of us have been to a museum at some point and seen some amazing things gathered in one place — just to be marvelled at…
So our mini-series Q&A, Let’s ReCollect will invite collectors, art-lovers and art world professionals to share their memories and musings on unforgettable collections, how they got started with their own collecting, and the top three pieces they would love to own (or perhaps already do!). Answers will be posted on our social media for all to enjoy!
Welcome to Episode 9 of Let’s ReCollect with, Berenice Chef, Independent Art Broker
Hi Berenice, we’d love you to ReCollect what got you started…
What’s your earliest memory of collecting?
As a child, I was a “compulsive hoarder”: cards, little handwritten notes from my mom or my girlfriends, various small objects, shells. I patiently gathered them and organised them in notebooks, boxes and herbariums. I have kept this habit of never throwing away a handwritten note.
What was your first experience of a collection?
Savages flowers: every summer we went to the mountains in Austria and went on long hikes. My parents had bought me a book detailing the flora of the region and I went in search of specimens. After drying them in a herbarium, I would paste them in a notebook with the story of the walk that accompanied it and a small watercolour.
How did that lead onto what it is you collect now?
I can’t really call myself a collector! But everything I acquire, I do with passion. I buy a work for the memories it will give me: a happy moment, an emotion, an encounter with the artist.
What is your favourite thing about collecting?
Reliving an emotion every time I look at a piece and that feeling of urgency when I find “the” piece before I buy it.
If you could own any 3 works of art, what would they be?
Mark Rothko — from the early 50’s
Edouard Vuillard — female portrait
Calder — mobile
If you could spend a night in any museum, which would it be and what would you do?
At the Fondation Beyeler in Basel — enjoy the outdoors at sunset, picnic next to Monet’s Water Lilies
Become a patron and tell us what you love most about collecting!
