Reading the Art World: Melanie Gerlis

For our first ‘in-person’ interview for Reading the Art World, recorded in Miami during the Art Basel Art Fair, I talk with Melanie Gerlis about her book The Art Fair Story: A Roller Coaster Ride, published by Lund Humphries.  The return of the annual art fairs in Miami— after a year’s hiatus due to the pandemic—are the perfect backdrop for our conversation.

The one theme that runs throughout this book—and it is the story of art in the past 60 years and the story of art fairs these past 60-plus years—is how much new money has been made and how fairs are mapping where new money has grown. You can almost follow where a fairs land based on where the wealth grew. Over centuries, new money has always wanted new art. They want the art of their time. —Melanie Gerlis

Listen to the podcast on Spotify and Apple

Leading art-market journalist for The Art Newspaper and Financial Times, Melanie Gerlis is at the very forefront of charting and analysing the course of the art fair’s progress. In this definitive account, she masterfully analyses the art fair’s amazing journey of expansion, a phenomenon very much linked to the transformative globalisation of the art world and of the art market. The recounting of this journey leads us across multiple continents and introduces us to a truly fascinating cast of art-world figures and personalities. 

The art fair can be seen as the greatest of blessings for the global gallery community and the artists they represent, offering artists both international exposure and an unparalleled visitor footfall. However, they can also be seen as the greatest of burdens owing to the massive demands they make upon economic, environmental, and indeed human resources. The art-world calendar created by the seemingly endless round of art fairs imposes a punishing schedule, most heavily experienced by the emergent galleries. So how sustainable is this art fair model? 

In The Art Fair Story: A Rollercoaster Ride, Melanie Gerlis engagingly sheds new light on the origins, the triumphs, and the pitfalls of the art fair, and casts a wise and insightful eye on the challenges and innovations on the horizon. 

Learn more about Reading the Art World here.