OUR
COLLECTING
PHILOSOPHY
STRIVE FOR
MASTERPIECES
There are very few definitive masterpieces — they are quite rarified, just to the left hand of miracles. The dictionary might call them wonders, gems, or paragons of sorts, but masterpieces, for me, are timeless to the human experience, telling multiple stories of what we make, who we are, and what we would like to be.
The finest works of art are like masterful Cycladic marble — objects that can perhaps be equaled within their corpus or canon but cannot be excelled. The greatest beauty is found in simplicity that is well rendered.
EXPAND YOUR
KNOWLEDGE
Nothing can ever replace the long years of handling objects, learning personally from masters, and intimately studying the cultures that produced any given type of art. In one serving, digital platforms can show us an immense amount of related material. Connoisseurship begins with comparisons and knowing exactly where the masterworks currently reside.
Study art history and time-honored literature. Invest in building a robust and varied reference library. Visit the museums and countries where iconic works are housed, displayed, and celebrated. An informed buyer becomes the best collector because they understand the rationale and common sense behind superior objects.
CULTIVATE YOUR
TASTE PROFILE
In regards to fine art, simply liking something should not be the sole reason to embrace it. Call upon masters and specialists to prove its merits and lasting significance to you. Conduct your own detailed research to understand the origins and symbolism of what you are compelled to acquire.
As your collection evolves, arrange your works of art so they can both breathe and speak to one another and to us. Great art is alive. It is animated, and it possesses a historical pulse. Angle, incidence, communication, music, and ambiance all play a role in bringing an abundance of beauty and intelligence into our lives.
HONOR WORLD CULTURES
& AESTHETIC TRADITIONS
Learn about the world’s cultures and civilizations. Travel widely and seek knowledge and experience. Consider the ways in which subjective predilections condition ideas of value and impose hierarchies with regard to creative mastery in the realm of fine art.
Each society or civilization has a distinctive rationale or coherence to its creations. Familiarize yourself with the artistic canons of particular groups or traditions by immersing yourself in the existing corpus of documented artworks. Participate in the celebration of the extraordinary and the unexpected.
DIVERSIFY & MANAGE YOUR ACQUISITIONS
Pursuing and acquiring art that crosses cultural boundaries into the realm of universal beauty continues to be my raison d’être.
Beyond aesthetic considerations, fine art is also an asset class and an arena where time, thought, and capital is deployed.
Identify your collection focus. The axis or centerpiece for every area included within a collection should be a definitive masterpiece. Then surround it with worthy radiant spokes and you've built one exquisite wheel!
PURSUE
EXCELLENCE
In the end, nothing else matters. Prudent investments of time, thought, and resources ensure that worthy art acquisitions appreciate in value over time.
One can live surrounded by treasure and magic while enjoying the privilege of having and holding tangible works of enduring mastery. Excellence is an immutable virtue.
For nearly half a century, Steven G. Alpert has been recognized as a leading collector, curatorial consultant, author, and philanthropist in the world of fine art.
A graduate of Wesleyan University with a dual major in Anthropology and Art History, Mr. Alpert was mentored by David P. McAllester, a pioneer in the field of ethnomusicology. Through study abroad at Auckland University in New Zealand, he received training from acclaimed scholars including Dr. Peter Bellwood, Professor Emeritus, an archaeologist known for his work in Southeast Asian and Pacific prehistory, and Sir Sydney Moko Mead, a prominent anthropologist, and Maori elder.
At the close of the 1960s, Mr. Alpert was inspired to explore numerous remote islands in the Malay Indonesian Archipelago. Traveling by vintage World War II airplanes, traditional sailing crafts, dugout canoes, on horseback and foot, he immersed himself in the natural beauty and dynamic culture of Island Southeast Asia before the advent of mass tourism. In Indonesia and Sarawak, Mr. Alpert was privileged to befriend a few of the last true warrior-headhunters and their counterparts, women of insight and ability, supreme weavers, who had been born and lived beyond the hardened imposition of European colonialism and the encroachment of modernity. On myriad journeys through the region, Mr. Alpert cultivated an intense appreciation for the traditions of the peoples he encountered and for their emblematic artistic canons. These transformative experiences formed the foundation of his expertise as a connoisseur and collector of 'ethnographic arts.'
For decades, Mr. Alpert has participated in stellar museum exhibitions and fruitful collaborations with exceptional area studies specialist scholars. In 1983, The Steven G. Alpert Collection of Indonesian Textiles was inducted into the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). This acquisition led to a series of shows at the DMA including a major collaborative exhibition entitled "Power and Gold/Woven to Honor," which featured remarkably pristine examples of Island Southeast Asian textiles paired with the groundbreaking Indonesian, Malay, and Filipino gold jewelry collections of Jean-Paul Barbier-Mueller.
Masterworks from the Steven G. Alpert collection have been acquired and situated in distinguished museums and institutions including The British Museum, Musée Barbier-Mueller, Musée du quai Branly, Yale University Art Gallery’s Indo-Pacific Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Australia, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Asian Civilisations Museum, and The Fowler Museum at UCLA.
In concert with legendary scholar, Dr. Reimar Schefold, Professor Emeritus of cultural anthropology and sociology at Leiden University, Mr. Alpert edited the book, Eyes of the Ancestors: The Arts of Island Southeast Asia at the Dallas Museum. Upon its completion in 2012, this work was launched with a sequence of exhibitions and artistic performances in Dallas, Texas, honoring the DMA's long-standing commitment to collecting and displaying Island Southeast Asian treasures. Described as “Simply the best book ever published on this subject” by Sir David Attenborough, the tome garnered an illustrious PILAT International Tribal Art Book Prize the following year.
In 2017, Mr. Alpert reunited with Dr. Schefold to assist in the production of an expanded and revised English language rendering of the marvelous work, Toys for the Souls: Life and Art in the Mentawai Islands. Recently, Mr. Alpert has completed a chapter for another seminal book, War Art & Ritual: Shields From The Pacific, exploring the lore and art of shields in Borneo. In tandem with notable area specialist, Dr. Antonio Guerreiro, he is working on a significant text focused on the finest antique sculptural arts of Borneo.