The Art Prophets
The Artists, Dealers, and Tastemakers Who Shook the Art World
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In The Art Prophets, Richard Polsky introduces us to influential late twentieth-century dealers and tastemakers in the art world. These risk takers opened doors for artists, identified new movements, and resurrected art forms that had fallen into obscurity. In this distinctive tour, Polsky offers an insightful and engaging dialog between artists and the visionaries who paved their way.
Table of contents
Ivan Karp and Pop Art
Stan Lee and Comic Book Art
Chet Helms, Bill Graham, and the Art of the Poster
John Ollman and Outsider Art
Joshua Baer and Native American Art
Virginia Dwan and Earthworks
Tod Volpe and Ceramics
Jeffrey Fraenkel and Photography
Louis Meisel and Photorealism
Tony Shafrazi and Street Art
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As art investing has been as much a topic in the news as the art itself, a book on the Warren Buffetts of the art world would seem to make perfect sense. The great disappointment of Polsky's book is that it fails as a primer on what it takes to be able to identify and exploit opportunity in the art world. Polsky (I Bought Andy Warhol) prefers to describe the 24 hours he spent naked in Walter De Maria's landscape installation Lightning Field than in plumbing the genius and motivations of Virginia Dwan, De Maria's generous yet mysterious patron. Polsky's reflections on what it takes to be an art prophet are fairly generic: "Sometimes a visionary dealer can simply be someone who possesses a master salesman's touch for getting the potential buyer emotionally involved with the work." Polsky's art prophets serve mostly as frames for describing some of the art movements of the past 50 years. This is not to say that chapters on comic book art, poster art, and ceramic sculpture largely unappreciated in the fine art world are not insightful. On the other hand, chapters on pop art, outsider art, and earthworks provide little more insight than other books on late 20th-century art. Photos.
