Where to Buy Your Wine-Related Art—Good and Bad

Posted by Tom Wark on Jul 19, 2018

Among the online retailers that have worked to corner the market on particular products, Art.Com certainly needs to be counted among them. You’d be hard-pressed to find another online art retailer that offers up the same kind of massive selection. Founded in 1988 and offering somewhere around 2 million pieces, Art.com is a particularly fertile resource for wine-related art.

Do a search for “Wine” at Art.com and you see returned 6,500 items. The results include decorative art, posters, fine art, vintage art and photography. And the subject matter is considerable, including vineyards, maps, cellars, advertisements, drawings, barrels, human, etchings, etc, etc, etc.

For wineries, retailers or any wine-related business looking to shine up their bare walls it’s a pretty fine resource.

The most expensive wine-related piece at Art.Com is the 39″ x 28″ “Graues Stilleben/Weinflaschen” by Andreas Scholtz at $1,592.99. (not my cup of tea)

The most popular wine-related piece at Art.com is a $40.00 18″ x 12″ piece on canvas entitled “Oak Casks Wait for the Grape Juice after the Vintage of Port Wine-Grapes” by Ferenc Kalmandy — confirming that the taste in art by the average wine drinker is similar to the average wine drinker’s taste in wine.

In the category of “Wine Signs and Advertisements,” the most popular item at Art.com is a 7″ x 17″ double-sided print poster entitled, “More Wine” by graphic artist Lauren Gibbons. What you get is muddy white words on a black background that read, “IF IT DOESN’T MATTER IF THE GLASS IS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL THERE IS CLEARLY ROOM FOR MORE WINE.” Ms. Gibbons clearly has a philosophical perspective to convey in her art that is likely lost on those who have purchased the poster in order to indicate their approval of the idea that more wine is good under any circumstances.

The iconic “Welcome to Napa Valley” sign is offered too and is the 9th most popular print in the “Wine Signs and Advertisements” category. That’s interesting and somewhat surprising.

The most popular item in Art.com’s “Wine Maps” category is a straightforward depiction of France with its most famous wine regions highlighted. The 36″ x 24″, $132.00 poster would, framed in black, be serviceably hung just about anywhere. (I’m a big fan of maps and maps as art and have purchased a few such items from Art.com, but their wine map selection is really quite limited.)

For those that like their wine art literal, Art.com has a selection of posters and prints that simply portray wine labels. The 12″ x 8″ print of the 1988 Chateau Lafite label at $45.00 might satisfy. I have to admit that I’m a bit offended that among their wine labels, Art.com only displays a single California-related label. A label depicting a Zinfandel wine produced by Maisano Romano. I’ve never heard of such a brand.

Much of the wine-related art available from Art.com is really quite unmemorable. But it is fun to browse through the collection. There are some genuinely interesting pieces with a history behind them, that intrigue and that possess visual appeal. The “Vintage Photography” selection of wine-related art available is, though small, particularly interesting.

For the record, I have no affiliation with Art.com. They are not clients, they do not pay me. In fact, they insist I pay for my purchases.