Philip Hook takes the lid off the world of art dealing to reveal the
brilliance, cunning, greed and daring of its practitioners. In a
richly anecdotal narrative he describes the rise and occasional fall
of the extraordinary men and women who over the centuries have made it
their business to sell art to kings, merchants, nobles, entrepreneurs
and museums.
From its beginnings in Antwerp, where paintings were sometimes sold by
weight, to the rich hauteur of the contemporary gallery in London,
Paris and New York, art dealing has been about identifying what is
intangible but infinitely desirable, and then finding clients for whom
it is irresistible. Those who have purveyed art for a living range
from tailors, spies and the occasional anarchist to scholars,
aristocrats, merchants and connoisseurs, each variously motivated by
greed, belief in their own vision of art and its history, or simply
the will to win.
The cast of characters includes Paul Durand-Ruel, the Impressionists'
champion; Herwath Walden, who first brought Modernism into the
limelight; 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 the auction
room theatre.
Philip Hook's history is one of human folly, greed and duplicity,
interspersed with ingenuity, inspiration and acts of heroism._ Rogues'
Gallery_ is learned, witty and irresistibly readable.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781782832157
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Profile Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter