The Artists Nicole Junkermann Keeps Coming Back To
Some artists reward you for life. A reflection on what makes certain work worth returning to, and how a lasting relationship with art is built.
The art that matters most is rarely the art that dazzles once. It is the work that keeps giving, year after year.
Everyone who loves art has a handful of artists they return to. Nicole Junkermann is no different, and rather than name a fixed list, this piece looks at what those artists tend to have in common. The qualities that make work worth coming back to are subtle, and recognising them can deepen anyone's relationship with art.
Work that changes as you do
The first mark of an artist worth returning to is that their work seems to change as you change. Nicole Junkermann finds that the strongest pieces reveal something new with each visit, not because the painting has altered but because the viewer has. A work seen at twenty means something different at thirty, and again later still. That capacity to grow alongside a life is rare and precious, and it is the surest sign that an artist will stay with you. It is also why the slow looking described in how to look at a painting pays off so richly over years.
Depth over immediate dazzle
Some art impresses instantly and then has little more to say. The artists Nicole Junkermann returns to tend to work the other way: quieter at first, but with a depth that keeps unfolding. The immediate dazzle fades, while the slow rewards accumulate. This is why a first impression is an unreliable guide to lasting value. A work that puzzles or even disappoints on first meeting can become a lifelong companion, and one that thrills at once can quickly empty out. The quality worth seeking is not surface brilliance but a kind of inexhaustibility, the sense that the work has more to give than any single visit can take. Such art does not announce itself loudly; it simply keeps repaying attention, year after year, until you realise it has become part of how you see.
A whole world to live in
The artists who reward return tend to have built a complete world: a consistent way of seeing that runs across an entire body of work. Nicole Junkermann loves entering such a world and moving around inside it, following a sensibility from early experiments to mature mastery. This is one of the great pleasures of the career retrospective, as the piece on exhibitions worth travelling for describes. To know an artist deeply is to know not just their best picture but the whole landscape of their thinking.
Craft you can return to
Lasting work almost always rests on real craft, the kind that bears close inspection again and again. Nicole Junkermann never tires of looking at how a great picture is made: the handling of paint, the resolution of a difficult composition, the control of colour and light. Mastery of this sort is inexhaustible, because there is always another decision to notice. The same is true across media; the writing on why photography matters finds the identical depth of craft in the great photographers.
The pleasure of revisiting
Returning to a beloved work is one of the steadiest pleasures art offers. Nicole Junkermann compares it to rereading a favourite book or hearing a familiar piece of music played live: the familiarity is part of the joy, and yet something is always new. A painting you have known for years can still surprise you on the right afternoon. This is the deep reward of the regular, unhurried visiting that runs through the notes on this site and the notes from the galleries of London.
Giving an artist a second chance
Some of the artists Nicole Junkermann now treasures were not loved at first sight. A body of work can feel closed or difficult on an early visit, only to open up later when you bring more experience, or simply a different mood, to it. For this reason Nicole Junkermann is slow to dismiss an artist after one encounter. Returning with fresh eyes, perhaps years later, is often how a lasting relationship begins. The lesson is one of patience and humility before the work, the same patience that the slow looking in how to look at a painting is built upon.
Following an artist across a life
There is a special pleasure in following a living artist over many years, watching the work change as their concerns deepen and shift. Nicole Junkermann values this long companionship: seeing an early breakthrough, a fallow period, a late flowering, and coming to understand the whole arc rather than a single moment. It is the difference between knowing a song and knowing a composer. Collectors and patrons are especially well placed to follow artists in this way, supporting them across a career, a theme explored more fully in the piece on collecting and patronage.
Building your own list
The artists you return to cannot be prescribed; they are discovered, slowly, through a lifetime of looking. Nicole Junkermann encourages everyone to build their own list by paying attention to which works keep calling them back. Trust that pull, follow it, and let the relationships deepen over years. For more of the sensibility behind these reflections, the profile of Nicole Junkermann offers the wider portrait, and the reflection on collecting and patronage explores what it means to live with art for the long term.
The strongest works reveal something new with each visit, not because the painting has altered but because the viewer has.
Frequently asked questions about returning to artists
What makes an artist worth returning to?
Nicole Junkermann looks for work that changes as you do, that offers depth over immediate dazzle, that builds a whole world, and that rests on craft rewarding close inspection again and again.
Is a first impression a reliable guide to art?
Not always. Nicole Junkermann notes that work which dazzles at once can empty out quickly, while a piece that puzzles on first meeting can become a lifelong companion.
How do you find the artists you will keep coming back to?
Nicole Junkermann suggests paying attention to which works keep calling you back, trusting that pull, and letting the relationships deepen slowly over years of looking.
