Newbie question on lighting, softboxes or umbrellas?

I know nothing whatever about lighting beyond what I see when kiddies sit on santa's lap in shopping centres having photos taken.
If you were going to be taking primarily photos of paintings and possibly other artworks, with a limited to currently non existent need to take photos of people, which would be preferred? Softboxes, white umbrellas, silver umbrellas all do about the same job (or so I think) but is one preferred and why? Need to set something up on a tight budget so where do I start, the more I research this the more I realize I know nothing about it.

Any help hugely appreciated,

Hal55

Can you be more specif on the context? Is this a job, and if so who is it for? The artist (their site? A portfolio?) A gallery? A newspaper?

As Brandon said, it all depends on what you're doing...for artwork you would probably do fine by just bouncing the flash so there is no reflection on the work itself. Using a "black foamy thing" would do the trick for $0.50

It's doing photos of artists original paintings to either supply them with a canvas print of their work, or digital file, or copy on art paper either as a personal memento after they have sold the original or possibly even as a copy to sel in their home studio. These are people who don't have the cash to spend on a relatively large amount on a full colour matched print from a pro studio but want something better than what they could take and print out themelves (we do have an Epson 9890 - lovely large format printer).

Hal55