Age Appropriate?

Don’t Fence Me In © Scott Hunt

Does 'emerging' mean young? Should the age of an artist matter? ArtInfo addresses these questions in an article about a Spanish collector who canceled a sale after learning the artist was almost 50 years old.

My inclination is to conclude that the Young Spanish Buyer is like so many fairgoers today, acquiring art for reasons other than what it depicts, what it represents, how it affects him. If those were his criteria, the drawing would have to be his. I’m guessing that he sees his purchases as monetary investments, somehow linking youthful genius now to a windfall later. The idea is that if you buy immature talent in bulk, a few of the artists are bound to have long careers, and you’ll have a fortune on paper and canvas. It’s the art world equivalent of penny-stock investing.