Daphne King-Yao: No

The fact that Alisan Fine Arts is still thriving after 37 years testifies to the fact that the interaction of buying artwork is a highly personal experience.

At our core, art is a business of relationships: the relationship between the gallery and the artist, the gallery and the client, the client and the artist. A knee-jerk purchase over Instagram bypasses all three of these, which strips the collecting experience of its richness and depth.

On a mere surface level, it is nearly impossible to get a true sense of scale and texture, and most especially colour, over Instagram. An installation photo may approach these parameters, but to view a work in person is always superior to viewing through a screen or superimposed filters.

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We need to sense the impasto, view a canvas from several angles, engage in a conversation about the work with another person, and through these channels achieve that feeling of oneness that might lead to a collector adding an artwork to their collection.

Unfortunately, forgers have now reached a level of professionalism where even trained art appraisers can find it difficult to distinguish between an authentic work and a reproduction. Judging authenticity is even more problematic when buying art over social media.

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