When the paint is as thick as blood

Clockwise from top: Kenny Schachter's collection includes Vito Acconoci's works Face on the Earth and Study I, and Zaha Hadid's design Face on the Earth. [Photo by Leon Chew/provided to China Daily]

Private collecting has thrived in the mainland over the past 30 years. More people are buying artworks for cultural appreciation, to showcase their wealth and social ranks and as a financial investment.

However, there is another important role art plays to which few collectors give attention: as a common language among family members and a glue that keeps them together.

"Art is beyond a thing to hang, but rather … a shared physical and mental means of communications between us," says the US art writer, dealer and collector Kenny Schachter.

"The family that arts together stays forever."

That is from a foreword Schachter wrote for Nuclear Family, a show at ART021, a contemporary art fair in Shanghai, held this year from Nov 8 to 12.

On display were selected works from Schatchter's collection that has accompanied him, his wife and their four sons for years. Featured artists included Vito Acconoci of the United States, Sigmar Polke of Germany and the Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid.

"I choose the artists that most prominently figured in my career, my life; art and artists that I have long studied, admired, loved, collected, written and taught about," Schachter says.

There were also works by family members. Schatchter's wife Ilona is an artist in her own right, his two oldest boys study at The School of Visual Arts in New York, and they all exhibit internationally.