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Books
A comprehensive selection compiling the most relevant publications on gallery management, the art market and the whereabouts of the art business at large. Books listed act as essential guides for both gallery staff and curators, scholars and students, curators and other arts professionals as well as anyone looking to deepen their knowledge on gallery practice and the art industry.
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1
“Dark Side of the Boom: The Excesses Of The Art Market In the 21 Centry”
Georgina Adam
Lund Humphries, 2017
This book scrutinizes the excesses and extravagances that the 21st-century explosion of the contemporary art market brought in its wake. The buying of art as an investment, temptations to forgery and fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and pressure to produce more and more art all form part of this story, as do the upheavals in auction houses and the impact of the enhanced use of financial instruments on art transactions. Drawing on a series of tenaciously wrought interviews with artists, collectors, lawyers, bankers and convicted artist forgers, the author charts the voracious commodification of artists and art objects, and art’s position in the clandestine puzzle of the highest echelons of global capital. Adam’s revelations appear even more timely in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations, for example incorporating examples of the way tax havens have been used to stash art transactions – and ownership – away from public scrutiny. With the same captivating style of her bestselling Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century, Georgina Adam casts her judicious glance over a section of the art market whose controversies and intrigues will be of eye-opening interest to both art-world players and observers.
2
“Art as an Investment – A Survey of Comparative Assets”
Melanie Gerlis
Lund Humphries, 2014
Aimed at collectors and investors, this user-friendly guide explains art’s value as an asset through comparisons with more familiar investments, including property, shares and gold. It draws on extensive research and interviews with key players in these other markets, as well as the author’s own experience, to clarify the specifics of art as an asset class. This timely book considers the growing importance attributed to art as an investment, testing the validity of claims about art’s capacity to generate returns that outweigh its risks. It offers jargon-free explanations of how the characteristics of blue-chip art can be seen to coincide with and diverge from the fundamental features of more established types of asset. Key issues addressed include the role of subjectivity in the perception of value; the failure of attemps to establish stock markets for art; the risks and shortcomings of art funds; banks’ reluctance to lend against art; and the art world’s distaste for selling and speculation. This thorough but accessible text from a respected art-market professional is essential reading for art investors and prospective art investors.
3
“When Art meets Money – Encounters at the Art Basel”
Stephan Egger + Thomas Mazzurana + Franz Schultheis + Erwin Single
Walther König, 2015
Art Basel is more than just a fair in the commercial sense of the word, more than a concentrated gathering of dealers offering their goods for sale to interested buyers. It is the site of display of holy goods in the presence of thousands and thousands of believers, a mecca for the ritualized adoration of modern and contemporary art. It is also the decisive witness of the upheaval marking a radical change in the relationship between art and money, with all of the consequences–not least, the evaluation of what is to be regarded as “genuine” art. When Art Meets Money offers a sociological study in the vein of Pierre Bourdieu, the result of several years of field work, attempting to draw a picture of this change as perceived by the participants, fair organizers, gallerists, collectors, curators, art consultants and artists as a central problem of the contemporary art scene.
4
“Leo & His Circle – The Life of Leo Castelli”
Annie Cohen-Solal
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
Leo Castelli reigned for decades as America’s most influential art dealer. Now Annie Cohen-Solal, author of the hugely acclaimed Sartre: A Life (“an intimate portrait of the man that possesses all the detail and resonance of fiction”–Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times), recounts his incalculably influential and astonishing life in Leo and His Circle. After emigrating to New York in 1941, Castelli would not open a gallery for sixteen years, when he had reached the age of fifty. But as the first to exhibit the then-unknown Jasper Johns, Castelli emerged as a tastemaker overnight and fast came to champion a virtual Who’s Who of twentieth-century masters: Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Warhol, and Twombly, to name a few. The secret of Leo’s success? Personal devotion to the artists, his “heroes” by putting young talents on stipend and seeking placement in the ideal collection rather than with the top bidder, he transformed the way business was done, multiplying the capital, both cultural and financial, of those he represented. His enterprise, which by 1980 had expanded to an impressive network of satellite galleries in Europe and three locations in New York, thus became the unrivaled commercial institution in American art, producing a generation of acolytes, among them Mary Boone, Jeffrey Deitch, Larry Gagosian, and Tony Shafrazi.
5
“Art of the Deal – Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market”
Noah Horowitz
Princeton University Press, 2011
Art today is defined by its relationship to money as never before. Prices have been driven to unprecedented heights, conventional boundaries within the art world have collapsed, and artists think ever more strategically about how to advance their careers. Art is no longer simply made, but packaged, sold, and branded. In Art of the Deal, Noah Horowitz exposes the inner workings of the contemporary art market, explaining how this unique economy came to be, how it works, and where it’s headed. In a new postscript, Horowitz reflects on the evolution of the trade since the book’s original release in 2011, shining light on the market’s continued ascent as well as its most urgent challenges.
6
“Understanding Art Markets: Inside the world of art and business”
Iain Robertson
Routledge, 2015
The global art market has recently been valued at close to $50bn—a rise of over 60% since the global financial crisis. These figures are driven by demand from China and other emerging markets, as well as the growing phenomenon of the artist bypassing dealers as a market force in his/her own right. This new textbook integrates, updates and enhances the popular aspects of two well-regarded texts – ‘Understanding International Arts Markets’ and ‘The Art Business’. Topics covered include: Emerging markets in China East Asian, South East Asian, Brazilian, Russian, Islamic and Indian art, Art valuation and investment, Museums and the cultural sector.
7
“Women Gallerists: In the 20th and 21st Centuries”
Claudia Herstatt
Hatje Cantz, 2009
With the exception of Peggy Guggenheim, little has been written by or about the astonishingly influential women who have built their careers around art and artists. In a selection of 30 portraits, this book presents three generations of women who have pursued their ambitions in the gallery business, starting with the pioneers and the established and leading up to the new generation. They include: Juana de Aizpuru, Helga de Alvear, Ilona Anhava, Catherine Bastide, Ellen de Bruijne, Chantal Crousel, Sorcha Dallas, Barbara Gladstone, Antonina Gmurzynska, Marian Goodman, Bärbel Grässlin, Karin Guenther, Annely Juda, Atsuko Koyanagi, Ursula Krinzinger, Pearl Lam, Hyunsook Lee, Michele Maccarone, Giti Noubakhsch, Maureen Paley, Eva Presenhuber, Janelle Reiring, Denise René, Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Elena Selina, Suzy Shammah, Filomena Soares, Ileana Sonnabend, Monika Sprüth/Philomene Magers, Luisa Strina and Helene Winer.
8
“The Artist’s Estate: A Handbook for Artists, Executors, and Heirs”
Loretta Würtenberger
Hatje Cantz, 2016
Andy Warhol memorably said that ‘death can really make you look like a star,’ but death in itself is not a guarantee of the relevance of an artist. What is of crucial importance is the proper management structure for the posthumous preservation and development of an artist’s estate. ‘The Artist’s Estate’ presents the possible legal frameworks and appropriate financing models available in this situation, as well as the proper handling of interest from the market, museums and academia. (…) Based on numerous international examples, the author explains the different alternatives for maintaining an artist’s estate and makes recommendations on how best to handle work, archives and ephemera following the death of an artist.
9
“Seven Days in the Art World”
Sarah Thornton
Granta Books, 2009
Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. Sarah Thornton’s shrewd and entertaining fly-on-the-wall narrative takes us behind the scenes of the art world, from art school to auction house, showing us how it works, and giving us a vivid sense of being there.
10
“Management of Art Galleries”
Magnus Resch
Phaidon Press, 2016
The art world is tough, the rules are a mystery, and only the lucky few make money, so how can galleries succeed? What makes a commercial art gallery successful? How do galleries get their marketing right? Which potential customer group is the most attractive? How best should galleries approach new markets while still serving their existing audiences? Based on the results of an anonymous survey sent to 8,000 art dealers in the US, UK, and Germany, Magnus Resch’s insightful examination of the business of selling art is a compelling read that is both aspirational and practical in its approach.
11
“Breakfast at Sotheby’s: An A-Z of the Art World”
Philip Hook
Particular Books, 2013
Breakfast at Sotheby’s is a wry, intimate, truly revealing exploration of how art acquires its financial value, from Philip Hook, a senior director at Sotheby’s. When you stand in front of a work of art in a museum or exhibition, the first two questions you normally ask yourself are 1) Do I like it? and 2) Who’s it by? When you stand in front of a work of art in an auction room or dealer’s gallery, you ask these two questions followed by others: how much is it worth? How much will it be worth in five or ten years’ time? and what will people think of me if they see it hanging on my wall? ‘Breakfast at Sotheby’s’ is a guide to how people reach answers to such questions, and how in the process art is given a financial value. […] Comic, revealing, piquant, splendid and absurd, ‘Breakfast at Sotheby’s’ is a book of pleasure and intelligent observation, as engaged with art as it is with the world that surrounds it.
12
“Daniel Templon. Une Historie d’Art Contemporain”
Julie Verlaine
Flammarion, 2016
Daniel Templon opened his gallery in April 1966, when New York and American art made its debut in the world of French art. He became a defender of avant-garde artists and emerging French painters and reinvented the merchant profession. The program of his gallery reflects the profound changes of contemporary art, but also of its artists, critics, merchants and collectors over the last fifty years. This historical survey puts in its artistic, economic and political context the journey of a French art dealer emblematic of his generation, immersed in the heart of artistic creation and privileged witness of the transformations of the world of art. Julie Verlaine’s essay is enriched by the words of Daniel Templon who narrates his encounters with the greatest contemporary artists (Donald Judd and Carl Andre, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella and Ellsworth Kelly, Helmut Newton, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Arman, Ben, Daniel Buren, Caesar, Gerard Garouste, Jean-Michel Alberola…) while describing the backstage of the French art scene.
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“The Great Reframing. How Technology Will—and Won’t—Change the Gallery System Forever”
Tim Schneider
Kindle, 2017
In recent years, observers and participants alike have passionately debated technology’s prospects for altering the art industry, particularly the contemporary-gallery sector. By revealing the secretive and counterintuitive dynamics of the 21st-century art market as only a veteran of the industry can, Tim Schneider unpacks how and why this unique space dismantles many of digital innovation’s most dependable weapons of disruption. And by elucidating tech’s winner-takes-all effects on earlier-adopting cultural sectors like pop music and film, he foreshadows the unintended (and unsettling) consequences that e-commerce, data science, and other advancements are likely to unleash on a largely unsuspecting art industry. Through this double-barreled approach, ‘The Great Reframing’ blasts open the debate about how—and how much—contemporary artists, gallerists, and professionals alike need to evolve if they want to avoid being herded onto the industry’s scrap heap in the years to come, beginning right now.
14
“The Auctioneer – Adventures in the Art Trade”
Simon de Pury
St. Martin’s Press, 2016
Just as William Goldman, the ultimate screenwriter, took us inside Hollywood, Simon de Pury, the ultimate art player, will take us inside an even more secretive business, whose staggering prices, famous collectors, and high crimes are front page news almost every day. The former Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, the former owner of Sotheby’s rival Phillips de Pury, and currently a London-based dealer and advisor to great collectors around the world, Simon has one of the highest profiles of any non-artist in the art world. Even though he has an ancient title and the aura of an elegant Swiss banker, Simon is famous as an iconoclast and is known as “The Mick Jagger of Auctions” for his showmanship and exuberance. His whole life in art has been devoted to bringing art to the public and to the juxtaposition of high and low. Movie stars, musicians, and athletes compete with hedge funders and billionaires for the great art, and Simon is their pied piper; he wants to turn the world onto art and this book will be his message.
15
“How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery”
Edward Winkleman
Allworth Press, 2009
This is a comprehensive and practical guide to everything you need to know to set up and run your own commercial art gallery. The art industry is highly respected and enjoys a high profile the world over, but the day-to-day business operations of a successful gallery remain a mystery to many. As individual as those that own them, most galleries grow organically as practices are learned on the job or innovated over time. While there are some generally agreed-upon industry standards as to how a gallery should be run, there are very few hard and fast rules. This comprehensive volume is designed to demystify the day-to-day tasks involved in running a commercial gallery. Divided into two sections – covering the steps involved in setting up, and what’s involved in running a gallery – this book successfully combines a sound business approach with a recognition of the importance of passion and individuality in making a gallery a successful venture.
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“Ways of Looking: How to Experience Contemporary Art”
Ossian Ward
Laurence King Publishing, 2014
This book provides a straightforward guide to understanding contemporary art based on the concept of the tabula rasa—a clean slate and a fresh mind. Ossian Ward presents a six-step program that gives readers new ways of looking at some of the most challenging art being produced today. Since artists increasingly work across traditional media and genres, Ward has developed an alternative classification system for contemporary practice such as ‘Art as Entertainment’, ‘Art as Confrontation’, ‘Art as Joke’ — categories that help to make sense of otherwise obscure-seeming works. There are also 20 ‘Spotlight’ features which guide readers through encounters with key works. Ultimately, the message is that any encounter with a challenging work of contemporary art need not be intimidating or alienating but rather a dramatic, sensually rewarding, and thought-provoking experience.
17
“New Art, New Markets”
Iain Robertson
Lund Humphries, 2018
Originally published in 2011, Iain Robertson’s ‘A New Art from Emerging Markets’ introduced and examined three types of emerging markets for contemporary art: the very recently established, the maturing and the mature. This fully revised second edition not only updates the reader on this rapidly evolving market, but also adds important new sections on South America—focusing on Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Cuba—on Nigeria, South Africa and Qatar. Besides the temporal aspect, it discusses how size and speed of growth provide other means of establishing where the market is placed. As well as providing a survey of emerging art markets throughout the world, the book is concerned with looking at how value in non-Western contemporary art is constructed largely by external political events and economic factors rather than aesthetic considerations. The book also considers whether it is better to let a new art market grow organically, driven by commercial imperatives, or for the government to step in to construct a cultural and economic infrastructure within which an art market can be placed. Written accessibly and engagingly, the book presents emerging art-market scenarios that offer the collector, investor, speculator, observer and culturally interested individual an insight into where the new markets are and how they are likely to develop.
18
“The Orange Balloon Dog: Bubbles, Turmoil and Avarice in the Contemporary Art Market”
Don Thompson
Douglas & McIntyre, 2017
Within forty-eight hours in the fall of 2014, buyers in the Sotheby’s and Christie’s New York auction houses spent $1.7 billion on contemporary art. Non-taxed freeport warehouses around the globe are stacked with art held for speculation. One of Jeff Koon’s five chromium-plated stainless steel balloon dogs sold for 50 per cent more at auction than the previous record for any living artist. A painting by Christopher Wool, featuring four lines from a Francis Ford Coppola movie stencilled in black-on-a-white background, sold for $28 million. In The Orange Balloon Dog, economist and bestselling author Don Thompson cites these and other fascinating examples to explore the sometimes baffling activities of the high-end contemporary art market. He examines what is at play in the exchange of vast amounts of money and what nudges buyers, even on the subconscious level, to imbue a creation with such high commercial value. Thompson analyses the behaviours of buyers and sellers and delves into the competitions that define and alter the value of art in today’s international market, from New York to London, Singapore to Beijing. Take heed if your millions are tied up in stainless steel balloon dogs Thompson also warns of a looming bust of the contemporary art price balloon.
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“Big Bucks – The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century”
Georgina Adam
Lund Humphries, 2014
This highly readable and timely book explores the transformation of the modern and contemporary art market from a niche trade to a globalised operation worth an estimated $50 billion a year. Drawing on her personal experience, Georgina Adam describes in fascinating detail the contributions made by a range of people and institutions to these recent development of auction houses into globalized, often cut-throat ‘art business’ firms; the emergence and modi operandi of mega-dealers and middlemen; the new frontier of selling art on the internet; the radical changes in the profile of art collectors; the phenomenon of the branded artist and the explosion of art fairs. It addresses the negative side to the art market’s expansion, particulary its lack of transparency and light regulation. Engagingly written, this informative text will be ideal for collectors, students, and anyone interested in learning more about the evolution of the unprecedented market for art which exists today.
20
“Fine Art and High Finance: Expert Advice on the Economics of Ownership”
Clare McAndrew
Bloomberg Press, 2010
Art and finance coalesce in the elite world of fine art collecting and investing. Investors and collectors can’t protect and profit from their collections without grappling with a range of complex issues like risk, insurance, restoration, and conservation. They require intimate knowledge not only of art but also of finance. Clare McAndrew and a highly qualified team of contributors explain the most difficult financial matters facing art investors. Key topics include: appraisal and valuation, art as loan collateral, securitization and taxation, investing in art funds, insurance and the black-market art trade.
21
“The Art Dealers, Revised & Expanded: The Powers Behind the Scene Tell How the Art World Really Works”
Laura De Coppet + Alan Jones
Cooper Square Press, 2002
The Art Dealers’ sheds new light on what people in the business of art do, what skills they rely on, and how dealers have changed modern ideas of what art is. Major figures from the past five decades of art dealership speak out in this collection of in-depth interviews, discussing their relationships with artists and revealing the significant role dealers play in establishing artists’ careers. Included are interviews with legends like Betty Parsons, who early on brought the works of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko to the public, and Leo Castelli, who championed Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol. Also having their say are more contemporary dealers such as Mary Boone and Annina Nosei, both of whom helped start the careers of Julian Schnabel and Jean Michel Basquiat. The dealers hold forth on their individual enthusiasms for art, the economics and psychology of selling art, the trends the art world has seen since World War II, and much more. The candid interviews reveal gossip, rivalries, and some closely guarded professional secrets. (Back cover)
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“Contemporary Art and Its Commercial Markets. A Report on Current Conditions and Future Scenarios”
Olav Velthuis & Maria Lind (eds.)
Sternberg Press, 2012
Contemporary Art and Its Commercial Markets. A Report on Current Conditions and Future Scenarios maps and analyses the complex and contested entanglements of contemporary art and its commercial markets. Contemporary art as an asset category and celebrity accessory, the rise of the art fair, and the increased competition of auction houses are among the phenomena, which are discussed by academics, theoreticians, and artists. While some of the contributions show how the market’s globalization and commercialization both reflect and propel the way art is produced, presented, and perceived, others downplay the impact of these developments and argue that the market’s structure has essentially remained the same. All the essays trigger the question, what will art look like in 2022, and how will artists operate? This book is published as part of the curated project ‘Abstract Possible: The Stockholm Synergies’, taking place at Tensta konsthall, the Center for Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, and the auction house Bukowskis.
23
“Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space”
Brian O’Doherty
University of California Press, 2000
When these essays first appeared in ‘Artforum’ in 1976, their impact was immediate. They were discussed, annotated, cited, collected, and translated -the three issues of ‘Artforum’ in which they appeared have become nearly impossible to obtain. Having Brian O’Doherty’s provocative essays available again is a signal event for the art world. This edition also includes ‘The Gallery as Gesture,’ a critically important piece published ten years after the others. O’Doherty was the first to explicitly confront a particular crisis in postwar art as he sought to examine the assumptions on which the modern commercial and museum gallery was based. Concerned with the complex and sophisticated relationship between economics, social context, and aesthetics as represented in the contested space of the art gallery, he raises the question of how artists must construe their work in relation to the gallery space and system.
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“The Market”
Natasha Degen (ed.)
The MIT Press, 2013
Drawing on a wide range of interdisciplinary sources, in dialogue with artists’ writings, this anthology traces the historic origins of these debates in different versions of modernism and surveys the relationships among art, value, and price; the evolution and influence of patronage; the actors and institutions of the art market; and the diversity of artistic practices that either criticize or embrace the conditions of the contemporary market.
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“Art Collecting Today: Market Insights for Everyone Passionate About Art”
Doug Woodham
Allworth Press, 2017
Grounded in real-life stories, ‘Art Collecting Today’ is the essential practical guide to today’s art market. A lightly regulated industry with more than sixty billion dollars of annual sales, the art market is often opaque and confusing to even the most experienced collectors. But whether a seasoned collector, an uninitiated newcomer, or an art-world insider, readers will learn within these pages how the art marketplace works in practice and how to navigate it smartly. Those who may have been put off by art-world practices will finally feel they have the knowledge needed to participate freely and fully, and collectors will be able to pursue their passion with more confidence. Informed by close to one hundred interviews with collectors, lawyers, art advisors, gallerists, and auction specialists in the United States and Europe, as well as by the author’s own experiences, ‘Art Collecting Today’ offers a lively and thought-provoking analysis of the day-to-day workings at play today in the fine art marketplace.
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“Galeries d’Art a Catalunya”
Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals (ICEC) (ed.)
2018
Edited by the Catalan Institute for Cultural Companies (ICEC), a public institution attached to the Catalan Government’s Ministry of Culture, this publication acknowledges the valuable task of galleries in the Catalan context and allows to contribute to the promotion of the art gallery sector both in Catalonia and abroad. The four sections that make up this book correspond to four central elements of the activities taking place in an art gallery. Continent (space), conceptualization and preparation tasks, packaging, mounting, and dismantling of an exhibition (under construction); the people that make this activity possible, from the moment of creation until the public exhibition (protagonists); and finally, the museums, art centers, exhibition spaces and private collections, the final stage of the art works (destination).
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“TG Notebook #6”
Talking Galleries (ed.)
2018
The sixth issue of Talking Galleries’ Notebook series collects the world-class talks and panels that made up the programme of the 6th Barcelona Symposium, which was held at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) from 22 to 23 January 2018. The topics discussed during the two-day event will interest a broad readership. Surely, the knowledge and generosity of our keynote speaker and panellists are second to none. Curators, collectors, art advisors, auction houses, fair organisers and, most of all, gallerists will find along these pages rigorous, thought-provoking perspectives on the latests developments of the art market. For those who could not make it to the symposium, as well as for those attendees who would like to go over the talks again, this notebook is packed with ideas and data.
The digital version of Notebook #6 is available to download here for free.
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“Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Gallerists But Were Afraid To Ask”
Andrea Bellini
JRP|Ringier, 2009
The massive expansion of the art market in recent decades has aroused much intrigue about how galleries operate, particularly as critics, artists and independent curators take the lead in opening their own spaces, enhancing the appeal of the gallerist’s role. The primary function of the contemporary gallerist continues to be the one established by D.H. Kahnweiler over a century ago: that of a “traveling companion” to artists, one who nourishes the work’s development, recording it and ensuring its optimum passage into the world. But in today’s economy, the gallerist as cultural entrepreneur and arbiter exercises a professional hybridity far removed from Kahnweiler’s day. Here, Andrea Bellini interviews figures from 51 galleries, including Gavin Brown’s Enterprise (New York), Massimo De Carlo (Milan), Greene Naftali (New York), Hotel (London), Kurimanzutto (Mexico), Franco Noero (Turin), Eva Presenhuber (Zurich), Johann König (Berlin) and Vitamin (Beijing), eliciting their views on the complexities of art culture worldwide.
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“Owning Art. The Contemporary Art Collector’s Handbook”
Louisa Buck and Judith Greer
Cultureshock Media, 2006
This sharp, practical look at the contemporary art market declares its irreverence early with a full-page, large print citation of Jenny Holzer’s truism, “Money creates taste.” Louisa Buck and Judith Greer’s analyses of buyers’ interests and responsibilities (including a section on how artists see the market and how collectors should treat them) make Owning Art a guidebook of interest to armchair travelers as well as its ostensible target market–it’s not just collectors who seek to understand more about dealers, auction houses, art fairs, selection, pricing and conservation.
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“From Manet to Manhattan: The Rise of the Modern Art Market”
Peter Watson
Random House, 1992
Watson’s colorful, anecdotal history of the development of the modern art market opens with his behind-the-scenes account of the 1990 Christie’s auction that saw the sale of a van Gogh portrait for a record $82.5 million. His theme–that auctioneers and dealers have shaped the art market as arbiters of public taste–receives sporadic support, as in his account of the New York Armory Show of 1913 or a discussion of dealer Siegfried Bing, “godfather of Art Nouveau.” Art critic for the London Observer and the Spectator, Watson entertainingly covers art scandals, big deals and changing fashions, profiling such dealers as Ambroise Vollard, Daniel Wildenstein and the notorious Joseph Duvenn as well as collectors such as Gertrude Stein, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Louisine Havemeyer. He airs the fierce current rivalry between Sotheby’s and Christie’s and suggests that much of the recent art boom was artifically generated, involving shady purchases by Japanese buyers who used art to launder money for Japan’s political parties, corporations and organized crime.
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“The Spanish Art Market in 2017”
Clare McAndrew
Fundació Bancaria ”la Caixa”, 2018
This third report contributes to deepen the art market in Spain. It offers an increasingly clear image of a still weak market that requires many efforts to provide the necessary professional support to our artists, to be competitive in a global art system and to consolidate our artistic heritage.” This survey examines the size, structure and key trends in the Spanish art and antiques market. It showed that while the global market declined during this period, sales in Spain grew 19% to €385 million. However, its share of the global art market remained relatively small at just less than 1%.
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“The A-Z of the International Art Market: The Essential Guide to Customs, Conventions and Practice”
Tom Flynn
Bloomsbury Business, 2016
In 2014, there were over 300,000 companies involved in the world’s art market, employing around 2.8 million people, and applications to undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses are at an all-time high. But the language used by market insiders can be alienating and confusing to those new to the art market. ‘The A-Z of the International Art Market’ not only clarifies useful terms and definitions, but also represents a significant contribution to the fast-developing processes of transparency and democratisation in the global art business.
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“Soledad Lorenzo: Una vida con el arte”
Texts by Antonio Lucas and Mariano Navarro
Proyectos Utópicos SL / EXIT Publicaciones, 2013. Reprinted in 2017
This book, the first monograph devoted to a gallerist in Spain, “is not a biography of the person, but a biography of the gallery that transformed the idea of the contemporary art market in Spain. The history of a private gallery that became a cultural project, twenty-seven years of trajectory, the origins, the artists, the objectives and a memory that is part of the history of Spanish art. From a long conservation with Antonio Lucas, journalist and poet, and an essay full of anecdotes and testimonies of the artists who worked in the gallery, written by the art critic, Mariano Navarro, ‘Soledad Lorenzo: A life with art’ draws a very personal portrait of the gallerist and allows an analysis of the work she has developed throughout her more than forty years of work.” The publication of this book was made with the award that the Arte y Mecenazgo Foundation (Fundació Bancaria ”la Caixa) granted Soledad Lorenzo in 2012.
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“Rogues’ Gallery. The Rise (and Occasional Fall) of Art Dealers, the Hidden Players in the History of Art”
Philip Hook
The Experiment, 2017
Philip Hook’s riveting narrative takes us from the early days of art dealing in Antwerp, where paintings were sold by weight, to the unassailable hauteur of contemporary galleries in New York, London, Paris, and beyond. Along the way, we meet a surprisingly wide-ranging cast of characters—from tailors, spies, and the occasional anarchist to scholars, aristocrats, and connoisseurs, some compelled by greed, some by their own vision of art—and some by the art of the deal. Among them are Joseph Duveen, who almost single-handedly brought the Old Masters to America; Paul Durand-Ruel, the Impressionists’ champion; Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, high priest of Cubism; Leo Castelli, dealer-midwife to Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art; and Peter Wilson, the charismatic Sotheby’s chairman who made a theater of the auction room. ‘Rogues’ Gallery’ bursts with unforgettable anecdotes and astute judgments about art and artists, honed by Hook’s more than forty years in the art market—making it essential reading for anyone interested in the hidden history of art.
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“Art Business Today. 20 Key Topics”
Edited by Jos Hackforth-Jones and Iain Robertson
Lund Humphries, 2016
Art Business Today: 20 Key Topics is an accessible and comprehensive companion to the business of art written by leading experts in the field, many of them based at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. It is an essential reference book for students in the areas of art business, arts management, the creative and cultural industries, art history, and general business and management. The key topics covered range from larger-scale questions about the globalisation, funding, and ethics of the art market, to entries more focused on art objects themselves, such as connoisseurship, authenticity and conservation. Providing an up-to-date entree to the processes, structures, trends and peculiarities of the global art business, this book will fascinate all those unfamiliar with its opaque practices and traditions.
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“Sotheby’s Maestro. Peter Wilson and the Post-War Art World”
Edited by Katherine McLean and Philip Hook
Sotheby’s, 2017
Bringing together a collection of candid interviews with the friends and peers who knew him best, this illuminating book charts the rise of Wilson throughout his early career in the art world, and his eventual role as chairman of Sotheby’s. Wilson revolutionised the profile of the auction house and has played a significant role to the shape of the art market as we know it today. His visionary approach, enthusiasm and unrivalled expertise set him apart in a world steeped in tradition and hierarchy. Contributors to the book include Lord Rothschild, Julian Agnew, the Countess of Rosebery and David Nash.
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“A History of the Western Art Market: A Sourcebook of Writings on Artists, Dealers and Markets”
Edited by Titia Hulst
University of California Press, 2017
This is the first sourcebook to trace the emergence and evolution of art markets in the Western economy, framing them within the larger narrative of the ascendancy of capitalist markets. Selected writings from across academic disciplines present compelling evidence of art’s inherent commercial dimension and show how artists, dealers, and collectors have interacted over time, from the city-states of Quattrocento Italy to the high-stakes markets of postmillennial New York and Beijing. This approach casts a startling new light on the traditional concerns of art history and aesthetics, revealing much that is provocative, profound, and occasionally even comic. This volume’s unique historical perspective makes it appropriate for use in college courses and postgraduate and professional programs, as well as for professionals working in art-related environments such as museums, galleries, and auction houses.
38
“Art Crossing Borders – The Internationalisation of the Art Market in the Age of Nation States, 1750-1914”
Edited by Jan Dirk Baetens & Dries Lyna
Brill, 2019
Art Crossing Borders offers a thought-provoking analysis of the internationalisation of the art market during the long nineteenth century. Twelve experts, dealing with a wide variety of geographical, temporal, and commercial contexts, explore how the gradual integration of art markets structurally depended on the simultaneous rise of nationalist modes of thinking, in unexpected and ambiguous ways.
39
“The Value of Art: Money, Power, Beauty”
Michael Findlay
Prestel, 2014
This fascinating and critically acclaimed book explains the market for art–and art’s value for all of us. In straightforward prose that doesn’t mystify art or deny its special allure, prominent art dealer and market expert Michael Findlay offers an up-close and personal view of almost a half century in the business of art. He engagingly explains art’s three kinds of value: commercial; social; and what he terms its essential value–the range of responses to art that we as individuals have depending on our culture, education, and life experience.
40
“Art and the Global Economy”
John Zarobell
University of California Press, 2017
Art and the Global Economy analyzes major changes in the global art world that have emerged in the last twenty years including structural shifts in the global art market; the proliferation of international art fairs, biennials and blockbuster exhibitions; and the internationalization of the scope of contemporary art. John Zarobell explores the economic and social transformations in the cultural sphere, the results of greater access to information about art, exhibitions, and markets around the world, as well as the increasing interpenetration of formerly distinct geographical domains. By considering a variety of locations—both long-standing art capitals and up-and-coming centres of the future—‘Art and the Global Economy’ facilitates a deeper understanding of how globalization affects the domain of the visual arts in the twenty-first century. With contributions by Lucia Cantero, Mariana David, Valentin Diaconov, Kai Lossgott, Grace Murray, Chhoti Rao, Emma Rogers and Michelle Wong.
41
“Selling Contemporary Art: How to Navigate the Evolving Market”
Edward Winkleman
Allworth Press, 2015
A sophisticated examination of today’s contemporary art market from an art dealer’s point of view, this new book focuses on recent changes in the quickly evolving market. With an emphasis on how the market responded to the global recession that began in 2008, gallery owner Edward Winkleman moves from an examination of the factors beyond the individual dealer’s command to those that the dealer can control. Sections cover: “The rise of the art fair;” “The rise of the mega gallery;” “New online competition;” “Models of post-brick-and-mortar art dealing;” “Art dealers as art fair organizers” and “Collaboration in a new era.”
42
“High Price: Art Between the Market and Celebrity Culture”
Isabelle Graw
Sternberg Press, 2010
Today, the art world is not dominated by a small group of insiders. According to Graw, the art economy has been transformed from a retail business into an industry that produces visuality and meaning. This book questions the assumption of a dichotomy between art and the market, as well as the notion that market value is equal to artistic value. While examining the intrinsic connection between artistic production and its market conditions, Graw also insists that art is a commodity unlike any other. High Price claims that art and the market have to escape each other precisely because they are so deeply entangled.
43
“Photography and The Art Market”
Juliet Hacking
Lund Humphries, 2018
The first part of this essential handbook provides an art-business analysis of the market for art photography and explains how to navigate it. The second is an art-historical account of the evolution of art photography from a marginal to a core component of the international fine-art scene. In tracing the emergence of a robust art-world subsystem for art photography, sustaining both significant art-world presence and strong trade, the book shows the solid foundations on which today’s international market is built, examines how that market is evolving, and points to future developments. This pioneering handbook is a must-read for scholars, students, curators, dealers, photographers, private collectors, institutional buyers, and other arts professionals.
44
“Art And Authenticity”
Megan Aldrich & Jos Hackforth-Jones (ed.)
Lund Humphries, 2012
Art and Authenticity explores a range of questions around the ideas of authenticity, originality and replication in art. The authors move far beyond the fundamental question of ‘Is it genuine?’ to themes and definitions surrounding authenticity as a concept operating across different periods and contexts. The chapters consider empirical aspects of art analysis but also more conceptual and theoretical understandings of authenticity. For example, is there such a thing as authentic presentation and display of artworks? Can the idea of authenticity be applied to subject-matter and style? How do the art market and the art world respond to the perceived authenticity of artworks? This book addresses a wide range of topics within the arts and will appeal to a broad readership, from students and art specialists to art-world enthusiasts.
45
“A Buyer’s Guide to Prints”
Helen Rosslyn
Royal Academy of Arts, 2018
This straight-talking guide is the perfect companion for anyone interested in buying or collecting prints, whether Old Master or contemporary. Helen Rosslyn, a print specialist and Director of the London Original Print Fair, provides her expert insider advice, incorporating tips from artists, print dealers, paper conservators and picture framers. With an explanation of print-making techniques, a history of printmaking and a comprehensive glossary, this book answers all the questions a prospective buyer may have.
46
“The Ultimate Trophy: How Impressionist Painting Conquered the World”
Philip Hook
Prestel, 2009
Starting with its shocking novelty and confounding style, Philip Hook traces the impact of the Impressionist painting as it spread to Germany, America, Great Britain and Japan, polarizing modernists and conservatives. Drawn from the author’s own experiences with art collectors and dealers, this fascinating chapter in art history is narrated through the lens of today’s art market.
47
“Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art”
Michael Shnayerson
PublicAffairs, 2019
The contemporary art market is an international juggernaut, throwing off multimillion-dollar deals as wealthy buyers move from fair to fair, auction to auction, party to glittering party. But none of it would happen without the dealers-the tastemakers who back emerging artists and steer them to success, often to see them picked off by a rival. Dealers operate within a private world of handshake agreements, negotiating for the highest commissions. Michael Shnayerson, a longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair, writes the first ever definitive history of their activities. He has spoken to all of today’s so-called mega dealers-Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner, Arne and Marc Glimcher, and Iwan Wirth-along with dozens of other dealers-from Irving Blum to Gavin Brown-who worked with the greatest artists of their times: Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, and more.
48
“The Art of Forgery: The Minds, Motives and Methods of Master Forgers”
Noah Charney
Phaidon, 2015
The Art of Forgery: The Minds, Motives and Methods of Master Forgers explores the stories, dramas and human intrigues surrounding the world’s most famous forgeries – investigating the motivations of the artists and criminals who have faked great works of art, and in doing so conned the public and the art establishment alike.
49
“An Artful Life: a Biography of D.H. Kahnweiler, 1884-1979”
Pierre Assouline
Grove/Atlantic, 1990
The first biography dedicated to the one who was the greatest dealer of paintings of his time. Apprentice banker from Germany, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler finds his true vocation in 1907, when he opens a small gallery in Paris. He will be the most ardent propagandist of cubists. “His” painters are called Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger, de Vlaminck, Derain, Masson…Of him as of no other, one could say that he was “the man of the art”.
50
“I Sold Andy Warhol (Too Soon)”
Richard Polsky
Other Press, 2011
In early 2005, Richard Polsky decided to put his much-loved, hard-won Warhol Fright Wig, up for auction at Christie’s. The market for contemporary art was robust and he was hoping to turn a profit. His instinct seemed to be on target: his picture sold for $375,000. But if only Polsky had waited… Over the next two years, prices soared to unimaginable heights with multimillion-dollar deals that became the norm and not the exception. Buyers and sellers were baffled, art dealers were bypassed for auction houses, and benchmark prices proved that trees really do grow to the sky. Had the market lost all reason?
51
“100 Secrets of The Art World: Everything you always wanted to know about the arts but were afraid to ask”
Thomas Girst & Magnus Resch (eds.)
Koenig Books, 2016
What are the secrets of some of the most powerful individuals in the art world? This book contains exclusive anecdotes, advice and personal stories from contributors such as Jeff Koons, Zaha Hadid, Marina Abramovic, Larry Gagosian, John Baldessari and others.