An art collector's views on collecting art

Dr. Oei Hong Djien: Indonesian art specialist and collector gives his views on art collecting

Indonesian art specialist and collector Dr. Oei Hong Djien.

Dr. Oei Hong Djien, was born and is based in Indonesia. He has been collecting art for nearly thirty years, focusing on modern and contemporary Indonesian art.
The collection comprises about 1500 works, a fraction of which is on
public display in his private museum, known as the OHD museum, where
he is the curator. A book about his collection by Dr. Helena Spanjaard was published in 2004: Exploring
Modern Indonesian Art: The collection of Dr Oei Hong Djien.

More open than most collectors, perhaps because he already has a large collection and has built a building to house it, Dr. Oei’s presentation was refreshing and candid. His “essence of collecting”
vocabulary should become the bible of collectors: money, knowledge,
passion, patience, courage, relation, quality, timing, luck and
experience. He expanded upon these words, giving sage advice, and
combined this with a showing of some of the best examples of modern
Indonesian art.

His insistence on courage was very telling, as he advised new collectors with limited funds to go after young artists, buy unpopular works that go against the mainstream, look up forgotten old masters and
get masterpieces that include unsuitable subject matter. This advice is
predicated on hard work, self-education and endless observing,
reobserving and observing again, to learn what quality art is and how to
buy it. Most importantly, he said not to be afraid to make mistakes
because that is how a serious collector becomes better.