Collecting Contemporary Art

Whether you're an art fan, aficionado, or collector, this book should be on your required reading list. Like a textbook for a class given by all of the world's leading experts, 'Collecting Contemporary Art' will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the contemporary art market.

Twelve distinguished curators discuss the questions & challenges faced by museums in acquiring & preserving contemporary art.

Collecting the New is the first book on the questions and challenges that museums face in acquiring and preserving contemporary art. Because such art has not yet withstood the test of time, it defies the traditional understanding of the art museum as an institution that collects and displays works of long-established aesthetic and historical value. By acquiring such art, museums gamble on the future. In addition, new technologies and alternative conceptions of the artwork have created special problems of conservation, while social, political, and aesthetic changes have generated new categories of works to be collected. Following Bruce Altshuler's introduction on the European and American history of museum collecting of art by living artists, the book comprises newly commissioned essays by twelve distinguished curators representing a wide range of museums. First considered are general issues including the acquisition process, and collecting by universal survey museums and museums that focus on modern and contemporary art. Following are groups of essays that address collecting in particular media, including prints and drawings, new (digital) media, and film and video; and national- and ethnic-specific collecting (contemporary art from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and African-American art). The closing essay examines the conservation problems created by contemporary works--for example, what is to be done when deterioration is the artist's intent? The contributors are Christophe Cherix, Vishakha N. Desai, Steve Dietz, Howard N. Fox, Chrissie Iles and Henriette Huldisch, Pamela McClusky, Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, Lowery Stokes Sims, Robert Storr, Jeffrey Weiss, and Glenn Wharton.

Owning Art offers an informative, authoritative and richly anecdotal route through the minefield of the contemporary art world. This entertaining and easy-to-use handbook is set to become every collector's indispensable companion.

"This book offers clear advice on how to navigate the contemporary art world, from assessing sales information and dealing with galleries to discovering new talent and accessing the best work."--P. [4] of cover.

Whether you're an art fan, aficionado, or collector, this book should be on your required reading list. Like a textbook for a class given by all of the world's leading experts, 'Collecting Contemporary Art' will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the contemporary art market.

"Over the last several years, collectors have come to the forefront of the art scene, becoming key figures, if not stealing the spotlight from curators and institutions. But speculation, stratospheric prices, opinionated leadership, and the spectacle of collecting are only some of the many facets of the current reality. For many collectors, contemporary art is essentially an aesthetic and intellectual adventure - thus the construction of each collection a personal journey and a singular statement. In an attempt to map the contours of this archipelago, the present volume gathers interviews with 40 collectors from Europe, the Americas, and Asia, revealing some recurring motivations while emphasizing differences of approach." --Book Jacket.

A contemporary art expert demystifies the process of finding, appreciating, and collecting contemporary art on any budget. Contemporary art is often misunderstood as intentionally controversial, obnoxiously self–indulgent, or painfully obscure. In this book, contemporary art expert and gallery owner Paige West guides readers toward the understanding that contemporary art can be just as original, tasteful, and breathtaking as traditional paintings. West draws from her experience as a professional art dealer to break all these misconceptions and allow readers to begin developing and enjoying a private collection. Beautiful full–colour illustrations and smart layout accompany the humor with which this book explores the current art scene. Dealing with everything from the outrage surrounding Chris Ofili's Sensation, to Salvador Dali's rampage through a department store, this book will appeal to the artistically minded individual as well as the potential art buyer. Beginning with what constitutes original art, the book moves on to discuss how to start collecting, where to find modern art, and what are reasonable prices. With gorgeous photographs of representative pieces used as examples, the book is as much a fashionable tool for home decorating as it is an open door into the world of contemporary art. This book educates readers to take those gilded–frame, poster–size wedding photos off their living room walls, or those college poster art sale finds, and put up interesting pieces from limited editions by current artists – without breaking the bank.