Anita Klein
Collecting art can be as creative as making a drawing, sculpture or painting. When we draw we are, in essence, selecting: what medium to choose, what information to describe and what to leave out, and which type of mark will best express our purpose. What we end up with when we draw, and when we select things that we like, is a kind of self portrait. The best collectors, like the best artists, create with their selection an intriguing and exiting whole that is more than the sum of its parts. I believe that all good art tells us more about the artist than that artist may wish us to know. Art should not be just a demonstration of ability, although ability is essential. Really good art exposes the artist, and by doing so reaches out to other people, communicating shared emotion. As well as exposing the artists, the works I have chosen for the ING Discerning Eye say something about me, as does the music I listen to, the books I would recommend and the friends I choose. Each picture or sculpture expresses the artist's own particular vision and was chosen because it touched me in some way. There are some works by artists who have long been an inspiration to me, some by good friends, some that immediately stopped me in my tracks and made me have another look, and many that I wish I had done. If I could afford to this is what I would have on my walls at home. I hope that visitors to the exhibition will share my joy in these pieces, maybe even enough to take a couple home with them.

Anita Klein studied at Chelsea and the Slade School of Art. She is a Fellow and past President of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and has work in many private and public collections in Europe, the USA and Australia, including the Arts Council of Great Britain.