Browsing DVV’s Bookshelf
The Devon Vander Voort team knows the value of sitting down and taking the time to read about all things arts. Here are some nonfiction and fiction books about artists, art history, and the art world that we’ve been loving.
Nonfiction
How To Collect Art by by Magnus Resch and Pamela J. Joyner: Navigating the world of collecting can be a tricky process, especially for one just starting out in the art market. The world’s leading art market expert Magnus Resch explains the core principles of the art market and reveals the secrets of how to build and grow an art collection.
He answers questions such as:
• What art should I invest in?
• Where do I start?
• Which gallery should I visit?
• How do I get VIP tickets for Art Basel?
• Where's the best place to sell my art?
• Is this price fair?
Going Once: 250 Years of Culture, Taste, and Collecting at Christie’s: Going Once vividly brings to life the shifts in aesthetic trends, fashion, and design over the centuries, showcasing 250 of the most outstanding objects in its storied history - including some of the very first pieces sold at the auction house.
Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market: An eye-opening look at collecting and investing in today’s art market by Noah Horowitz: Art of the Deal 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 market’s continued ascent as well as its most urgent challenges.
A History of the Western Art Market edited by Titia Hulst: 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. 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.
The Value of Art by Michael Findlay: A work ARTNews hailed as “one of the best books ever published on the art world,” this fascinating 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 Findlay offers a close up 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.
Fiction
Parade by Rachel Cusk : A novel that demolishes the conventions of storytelling. It surges past the limits of identity, character, and plot to tell the story of G, an artist whose life contains many lives. Rachel Cusk is a writer and visionary like no other, who turns language upside down to show us our world as it really is.
Get the Picture by Bianca Bosker: Bosker throws herself into the nerve center of art and the people who live for it: gallerists, collectors, curators, and, of course, artists themselves—the kind who work multiple jobs to afford their studios while scrabbling to get eyes on their art.
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland: Vreeland focuses on a single painting, Auguste Renoir’s instantly recognizable masterpiece, which depicts a gathering of Renoir’s real friends enjoying a summer Sunday on a café terrace along the Seine.
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier: Set in 17th-century Delft, Holland, the novel tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius . . . even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.
How to be both by Ali Smith: A fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, and fictional gets real.
