The $12 Million Stuffed Shark

Author: Don Thompson
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0230341934
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock's drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million? Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored. This book is the first to look at the economics and the marketing strategies that enable the modern art market to generate such astronomical prices. Drawing on interviews with past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the reader on a journey of discovery through the peculiar world of modern art. Surprising, passionate, gossipy, revelatory, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark reveals a great deal that even experienced auction purchasers do not know.

Seven Days in the Art World

Author: Sarah Thornton
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393071057
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
A fly-on-the-wall account of the smart and strange subcultures that make, trade, curate, collect, and hype contemporary art. The art market has been booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion. In a series of beautifully paced narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami's studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the competition behind an important art prize, life in a notorious art-school seminar, and the wonderland of the Venice Biennale. She reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life. A judicious and juicy account of the institutions that have the power to shape art history, based on hundreds of interviews with high-profile players, Thornton's entertaining ethnography will change the way you look at contemporary culture.

The Supermodel and the Brillo Box

Author: Don Thompson
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1137279087
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description
A look at the contemporary art market and the economics and psychology that first produced a market crash, and then two years later resulted in astronomical prices

Art of the Deal

Author: Noah Horowitz
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069115788X
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
Art today is defined by its relationship to money as never before. Prices of living artists' works have been driven to unprecedented heights, conventional boundaries within the art world have collapsed, and artists now think ever more strategically about how to advance their careers. Artists no longer simply make art, but package, sell, and brand it. 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. He takes a unique look at the globalization of the art world and the changing face of the business, offering the clearest analysis yet of how investors speculate in the market and how emerging art forms such as video and installation have been drawn into the commercial sphere. By carefully examining these developments against the backdrop of the deflation of the contemporary art bubble in 2008, "Art of the Deal" is a must-read book that demystifies collecting and investing in today's art market.

Takedown

Author: Farah Nayeri
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
ISBN: 1662600569
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
Farah Nayeri addresses the difficult questions plaguing the art world, from the bad habits of Old Masters, to the current grappling with identity politics. For centuries, art censorship has been a top-down phenomenon--kings, popes, and one-party states decided what was considered obscene, blasphemous, or politically deviant in art. Today, censorship can also happen from the bottom-up, thanks to calls to action from organizers and social media campaigns. Artists and artworks are routinely taken to task for their insensitivity. In this new world order, artists, critics, philanthropists, galleries and museums alike are recalibrating their efforts to increase the visibility of marginalized voices and respond to the people’s demands for better ethics in art. But what should we, the people, do with this newfound power? With exclusive interviews with Nan Goldin, Sam Durant, Faith Ringgold, and others, Nayeri tackles wide-ranging issues including sex, religion, gender, ethics, animal rights, and race. By asking and answering questions such as: Who gets to make art and who owns it? How do we correct the inequities of the past? What does authenticity, exploitation, and appropriation mean in art?, Takedown provides the necessary tools to navigate the art world.

Boom

Author: Michael Shnayerson
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610398416
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 484

Book Description
The meteoric rise of the largest unregulated financial market in the world -- for contemporary art -- is driven by a few passionate, guileful, and very hard-nosed dealers. They can make and break careers and fortunes. 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. This kaleidoscopic history begins in the mid-1940s in genteel poverty with a scattering of galleries in midtown Manhattan, takes us through the ramshackle 1950s studios of Coenties Slip, the hipster locations in SoHo and Chelsea, London's Bond Street, and across the terraces of Art Basel until today. Now, dealers and auctioneers are seeking the first billion-dollar painting. It hasn't happened yet, but they are confident they can push the price there soon.

Fine Art and High Finance

Author: Clare McAndrew
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1576603334
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Book Description
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 The black-market art trade Clare McAndrew has a PhD in economics and is the author of The Art Economy. She is considered a leading expert on the economics of art ownership.

Shark and Bot

Author: Brian Yanish
Publisher: Random House Graphic
ISBN: 0593173376
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 49

Book Description
A shark and a robot are unlikely friends. But in this hilarious young graphic novel series, what makes you different makes for an EPIC friendship. Can a shark and a robot really be friends? What makes us different also makes for EPIC friendship in this hilarious new graphic series, perfect for reluctant readers, and fans of Narwhal and Jelly and Bad Guys. Shark loves water. Bot short circuits if he goes near water! Shark recites poetry. Bot recites facts. Can these two really be friends? They're both a little awkward... They both love comics... And just wait til you see their dance moves when they confront a playground bully. Readers won't just laugh along, they'll identify with real-life issues of making friends, accepting differences, and dealing with bullies in the best way possible.

The Orange Balloon Dog

Author: Don Thompson
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1781317852
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
"Really good. Highly recommended." Andrew Marr, Radio 4: Start the Week From the author of the internationally bestselling The $12 Million Stuffed Shark comes a fresh and provocative look at the high-end art market and whether it is a bubble about to burst. Within forty-eight hours in the autumn of 2014, buyers in the Sotheby’s and Christie’s New York auction houses spent $1.7 billion on contemporary art. Economist and bestselling author Don Thompson cites this and other fascinating examples to explore the sometimes baffling activities of the high-end contemporary art market, examining 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 fortunes are tied up in stainless steel balloon dogs – Thompson also warns of a looming bust of the contemporary art price balloon. A fascinating explanation, through the field of behavioural economics, for the phenomena that is behind the incredible value of contemporary art.

Sharks

Author: Ted Rechlin
Publisher: Sweetgrass Books
ISBN: 1591522137
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 98

Book Description
Action! Science! Amazing Art! Epic Showdowns! Experience the history of planet earth as seen through the eyes of the coolest sharks of past and present in this thrilling graphic novel adventure!

From the mind of Ted Rechlin, author and illustrator of Jurassic and Dinosaurs Live! comes the thrilling new epoch-spanning adventure Sharks, a life-science graphic novel adventure. Sharks have been cruising our planet's waters for millions of years. They were here long before humanity and even pre-date the dinosaurs. Rechlin weaves a captivating history of strange and ancient shark species while sharing insights into the distant past of life on Earth. The amazing and action-packed art teaches readers of all ages how these legendary ocean dwellers got their start - and how they developed into the sharks we know today. Educational, fascinating, and beautifully produced, this is the perfect book for budding marine biologists, comic fans, and enthusiasts of these ancient apex predators of the deep.

> Newest installment in series of educational, IMAX-style adventure comics that includes Tyrannosaurus Rex, Bears, Jurassic and more.
> 96 Action-packed pages featuring Megladon, Helicoprion, Xenacanthus, Great Whits, and more!
> High Plains Book Award nominated author/illustrator
> Author available for interviews, presentations, and singings upon request
> Full-color illustrations engage readers ages 6 and up in a beautiful hardbound format.