Every holiday season, we love creating our list of some of our favorite art books for holiday gifting. This year, we are excited to share our list on Giving Tuesday as we will be donating proceeds from any book sales to Read To Grow, a not-for-profit whose mission is to promote language skills and literacy for children.

Which books will you add to your gift list?

Van Gogh's Cypresses

By Susan Alyson Stein

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press, Van Gogh’s Cypresses is the first book to study the artist’s fascination with the “tall and dark trees.” This richly illustrated exhibition catalog tells the story of van Gogh’s initial investigations to his full realization of the motif in paintings such as The Starry Night.

Why I picked this: The book, like the exhibition, tells the story of the last years and months of Van Gogh’s life, and how his return again and again to the motif of cypresses continued to fascinate and sustain him.

Manet/Degas

By Stephan Wolohojian and Ashley Dunn
With contributions by Stéphane Guégan, Denise Murrell, Haley S. Pierce, Isolde Pludermacher, and Samuel Rodary

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manet/Degas is the first book to consider the two artists’ careers in parallel—how their decisions overlapped, diverged, and shaped each other's artistic choices. This richly illustrated, in-depth study offers an opportunity to reevaluate preeminent artworks such as Manet's Olympia and Degas's The Absinthe Drinker.

Why I chose this book: Quite simply, a landmark exhibition and landmark book on arguably two of the greatest artists of the 19th century.

Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence

Edited by Claudia Schmuckli

Published by DelMonico Books and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (FAMSF), Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence features a new body of work by American artist Kehinde Wiley. The sculptures and paintings highlighted in this exhibition catalog expand on the artist’s 2008 series of a group of large-scale portraits of young Black men inspired by Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521–22).

Why I chose this book: Underlying the beauty and complexity of Wiley’s masterful images are powerful messages about social injustice that should awaken all of us.

Helen Frankenthaler: Late Works, 1988-2009

Preface by Elizabeth Smith.
Text by Douglas Dreishpoon, Suzanne Boorsch.
Roundtable with Katharina Gross, Pepe Karmel, Mary Weatherford.

Published by Radius Books in conjunction with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, this book is the first to explore the late period of Frankenthaler’s art and life and features over 90 plates and archival images from 1988 to 2009. In these later years, Frankenthaler’s practice evolved through the use of mixed media and diverse processes.

Why I chose this book: Like so many artists, Frankenthaler’s early work dominated the conversation about her career; yet her late work demonstrates an aesthetic confidence that is now being fully appreciated.

Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape

By Elliot Bostwick Davis

Published by Rizzoli Electa, Edward Hopper & Cape Ann illuminates the history of Edward Hopper’s years in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts in the 1920’s. This period is when Hopper first began to explore watercolor painting outside, and discovered one of his favorite subjects: houses and vernacular architecture.

Why I chose this book: The beautiful story of Hopper and his artist wife Josephine Nivison and her role in his burgeoning career is evidenced in this remarkable collection of early works.

Joseph Stella: Visionary Nature

Edited with text by Stephanie Mayer Heydt. Edited with illustrated chronology by Audrey Lewis. Foreword by Rand Suffolk, Thomas Padon. Text by Ellen E. Roberts, Karli Wurzelbacher, Ara H. Merjian

Published by DelMonico Books, High Museum of Art and Brandywine River Museum of Art, this exhibition catalog is the first major monograph of Stella’s nature paintings. The exhibition and book provide an overdue spotlight on the artist’s wide-ranging body of work that ranged from strikingly realistic to poetically visionary in its unique expression of the natural world.

Why I chose this book: Stella’s pure paintings of the natural world are pure joy—rapturous Modernist creations.

Catalogue Rothko Retrospective

Published by Fondation Louis Vuitton and Citadelles & Mazenod, this exhibition catalog highlights the first retrospective in France of Rothko’s art, bringing together 115 works from major institutional collections, including the National Gallery of Art, the Tate and the Phillips Collection, as well as from major international private acquisitions, including the artist's family collection. The works are exhibited in a presentation that closes resembles the artist’s wishes.

Why I chose this book: This once-in-a lifetime exhibition in Paris and accompanying book show us why we can never stop looking at and thinking about Rothko’s work.

Last Light: How Six Great Artists Made Old Age a Time of Triumph

By Richard Lacayo

Published by Simon & Schuster, I recently spoke with Richard Lacayo on my podcast series, Reading the Art World, where we discussed the careers of six great artists, including Monet, Renoir, Pollock, Hopper and Nevelson, many of whom produced some of their best works in old age.

Why I chose this book: Each chapter on each artist tells the story of their transformative inspiration and creativity in their later years.

All the Beauty in the World

By Patrick Bringley

Published by Simon & Schuster, All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me provides an intimate portrait of the museum from the perspective of a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard. Readers follow Bringley as he guards delicate treasures, strolls the galleries, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care.

Why I chose this book: Bringley reminds us how visits to art museums can be transformative and inspiring experiences—-if we slow down enough to really look.

Your Brain on Art

By Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Published by Penguin Random House, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us illuminates the science of neuroaesthetics, which offers proof for how our brains and bodies transform when we participate in the arts. Authors Magsamen and Ross provide research that shows how engaging with art for even short periods of time reduces cortisol—ultimately extending your life and improving your health.

Why I chose this book: We know that art inspires our lives—this book shows us the science behind the experience.

Simone Leigh

Edited with introduction by Eva Respini. Foreword by Jill Medvedow.
Text by Vanessa Agard-Jones, Rizvana Bradley, Dionne Brand, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Malik Gaines, Saidiya V. Hartman, Daniella Rose King, Simone Leigh, Jessica Lynne, Nomaduma Masilela, Katherine McKittrick, Uri McMillan, Sequoia Miller, Steven Nelson, Tavia Nyong’o, Lorraine O'Grady, Rianna Jade Parker, Yasmina Price, Anni Pullagura, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Christina Sharpe, Hortense J. Spillers

Published by DelMonico Books and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Simone Leigh is the first major monograph of the artist’s sculptures, videos, installations and social practices exploring ideas of community, Black feminism and the African diaspora.

Why I chose this book: Multiple writers, scholars, artists, sharing their perspective on Simone Leigh’s multi-faceted work.

Vermeer

Edited by Gregor J M Weber, Pieter Roelofs and Taco Dibbits (all of whom work at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

Published by Thames & Hudson,Vermeer was created to accompany the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The book is the first major authoritative study of Vermeer's life and work for many years, shedding light on all thirty-seven of his paintings. Richly illustrated using thoughtfully chosen printing materials, Vermeer is the definitive volume for any admirer of the Dutch masters.

Why I chose it: I love it for everyone, including me, who was unable to see the once in a lifetime exhibition.

Sotheby's Modern Evening auction in New York on November 13, 2023. Image courtesy Sotheby's.

Journalist Angelica Villa spoke with Megan Fox Kelly about her thoughts on the fall marquee New York auctions. Kelly shares that the “sober” environment—where prices are fair and bidding doesn’t climb to stunning heights—is good news for some.

Serious collectors often leverage such a “softer” auction environment as an opportunity to access works previously beyond their reach, said New York art adviser Megan Fox Kelly. She emphasized that a more tempered marketplace can put some buyers at a strategic advantage when they’re calculating acquisitions with mind-bending values. “It’s a buyer’s market,” she said.

At Christie’s, Monet’s Le Bassin aux nymphéas (1917-19) went for $74 million during a 20th-century evening sale. “Whoever bought that painting, the guarantor, bought it really well,” said Kelly. “It could have been a whole lot more.”

So, where is the market right now? Advisers downplayed the significance of short-term drops in overall auction sales as a metric for assessing the trade’s health. Compared to the 2008 recession, for instance, there is a far more global spread of buyers, said Kelly, meaning that the market’s recovery time from any given slowdown is now significantly shorter. The bottom line: “I think there is still a lot of discretionary money out there,” Kelly said.

Read Villa’s full coverage in ARTnews here.

Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

For this month’s episode of "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly interviews Richard Lacayo, author of Last Light: How Six Great Artists Made Old Age a Time of Triumph, published by Simon & Schuster. The book highlights the careers of some of history’s finest artists — Titian, Goya, Monet, Matisse, Hopper and Nevelson — many of whom produced some of their best works in old age. As Richard’s book reveals, the importance of much of this late-in-life work would not be fully understood or appreciated until decades later.

"I wanted artists who, in their long life, did some of their most powerful art in their seventies and eighties. It doesn't have to be, by any means, their only powerful period. But, we all recognize now, they went out on a high note." — Richard Lacayo

Richard is one of the world’s leading art critics and he was a longtime writer and editor at Time Magazine. From 2003 to 2016 he was the magazine’s art and architecture critic. Richard has also written on art and architecture for People, Foreign Policy, and Graydon Carter's new online publication, Air Mail. In 2013, he delivered a lecture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on the late careers of artists, the topic of his latest book.

Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple

Order the book here.

Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.

Ed Ruscha, Securing the Last Letter (Boss) (1964). Image courtesy Sotheby's.

Journalist Eileen Kinsella spoke with Megan Fox Kelly about her thoughts on the November New York auctions. Kelly provides insight into the slower, more cautious pace of collecting, and highlights that the quality of works coming to the auction block are noteworthy.

“I would say that collectors are being more selective, more discerning in the last few months; thinking carefully about what they wish to add to their collections, whether this is the right artist, the right work, the right time to acquire,” said advisor Megan Fox Kelly. “And that is not a negative—I’m seeing a more thoughtful approach. Collectors are taking more time. There is less pressure for them to make quick decisions because the market in general is less frenzied.”

Fox Kelly underscored the quality of the material on offer. “There are really exceptional examples at each house: the great Joan Mitchell and the Monet Nymphaes, the Cézannes and Gorky at Christie’s, and the extraordinary material from the Landau collection at Sotheby’s,” she said. “The fact that there are fewer estates being sold this season is more a matter of circumstance than a reflection of a retracting market.”

Read Kinsella’s full coverage in Artnet here.

For this episode of our podcast "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with art historian and author, Diana Seave Greenwald, about her recent book, “Isabella Stewart Gardner: A Life,” was published by Princeton University Press. The book is a fascinating new biography about legendary art collector and philanthropist Isabella Stewart Gardner, who remains somewhat of an enigmatic figure. Diana seeks to separate fact from fiction with her in-depth research and what emerges is a multifaceted portrait of a trailblazing collector and patron of the arts—from Italian Renaissance paintings to Chinese antiquities—who built a museum unprecedented in its curatorial vision.

“ I hope they'll understand that Isabella Stewart Gardner is someone who was often at the vanguard of her time, and that her museum is continuing to try to do that, that part of her legacy is to be bold and to be out in front. I think often people think of the Gardner Museum as a place that's frozen in time, and we're not. And we try to honor her legacy in that way, and I hope it's a fun read for them." — Diana Greenwald

Diana is an art and economic historian and is the William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. She received a D.Phil. in History from the University of Oxford. Before doctoral study, Diana earned an M.Phil. in Economic and Social History from Oxford and received a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from Columbia University. She is considered an expert in nineteenth-century American and French art.

This new biography inspired the exhibition “Inventing Isabella”, which opened at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA on October 19th and runs through January 15th, 2024.

Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple.

Order the book here.

Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.

Journalist Brian Boucher compiled the definitive list of the world’s top 75 art professionals for ARTnews. Within this list, he named Megan Fox Kelly Art Advisory one of the top 10 art advisors in the world.

“Having advised since 1989, New York’s Megan Fox Kelly began her career as a curator, and describes her work as curating collections ranging from vintage photography to postwar and contemporary art. She has served numerous institutions and estates, including the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. She’s a frequent go-to expert on the art market for papers like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.”

Read the full list here.

For the 20th episode of our podcast "Reading the Art World," host Megan Fox Kelly speaks with Susan Davidson, author of the new book “Robert Motherwell: Pure Painting,” published in August by Hatje Cantz. Reading the Art World. The book accompanies an exhibition at The Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth and the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien in Vienna— the first presentation in more than a quarter century to fully examine the mastery of Robert Motherwell (1915–1991), a major figure who shaped postwar art.

“It was a wonderful opportunity for me to delve into an aspect of Motherwell's work that I hadn't really thought of beyond the Elegies which everybody knows. And so, I became really focused on showing the complexity and the development of the work and taking us away from what everyone thinks they know and presenting works that hadn't been seen quite so often or other series " — Susan Davidson

As an art historian and curator, Susan Davidson is an authority in the fields of surrealism, abstract expressionism and pop art. In her previous role as Senior Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Susan oversaw the stewardship of the institution's collection in addition to organizing notable exhibitions that include Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, John Chamberlain, Jackson Pollock's Paintings on Paper and Peggy and Kiesler: The Collector and the Visionary. Prior to joining the Guggenheim's constellation of museums, Susan was collections curator at The Menil Collection in Houston. Susan has deeply engaged with the work of Robert Rauschenberg, serving as their curatorial advisor to the artist from 2001 until his death in 2008 and as a board member to the Rauschenberg Foundation from 2009 through 2014.

The book and exhibition highlight the abstracted-figurative works that dominated Motherwell’s first decade of painting as he emerged in the New York art world in the early 1940s. The exhibition will travel to the Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna on October 12th and runs through January 14th, 2024.

Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple.

Order the book here.

Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.

On the occasion of The Armory Show 2023, Megan Fox Kelly was invited to participate in Artnet News’ panel, The Future of the Art Market, which was also published as an episode of Artnet’s podcast, The Art Angle.

The panel included Megan, Susanne Vielmetter (Owner and Director of Vielmetter Los Angeles), and Alain Servais (Collector and Founder of Servais Family Collection). The panel was moderated by Eileen Kinsella, Senior Market Editor of Artnet News.

Listen to the episode below and read more here.

Image: Village Green.

Artnet News’ inaugural half-year edition of the Intelligence Report paints a clear picture of today’s art market by the numbers, with a wealth of eye-opening data points. Megan Fox Kelly contributes to the report’s ‘Marketplace: The Best Seller List (Impressionist and Modern)’ category.

In the Impressionist and Modern category, the Artnet News team reports that “Rarity and freshness are the names of the game in this segment of the market, which encompasses work by artists born between 1821 and 1910. The five best-performing paintings had never appeared at auction before.”

In the Imp-Mod category, as in many others, “we are clearly moving into a period of correction following the turbulence in the financial markets,” said art advisor Megan Fox Kelly. “Not a sharp swing, but some price sensitivity and more discretion in buying.”

Read the full Intelligence Report here.

In the 19th episode of our podcast, Reading the Art World, we are speaking with Nora Burnett and Amy Whitaker about their latest book, The Story of NFTs: Artists, Technology, and Democracy, published this year by Rizzoli Electra and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.

The authors explain the concepts of NFTs in the art world and the underlying technology of blockchain, including their origins, their surprising connections to the history of artmaking and art collecting, and their potential to radically reshape the art world.

"I think on a structural level, we're definitely going to see more and more artists getting behind some of the aspects of blockchain with regard to retaining ownership and having some equity stake in their work. But then on the creative side, I think that's also a place for experimentation.” — Nora Abrams

Amy Whitaker, is an an Associate Professor at New York University, as well as a prolific writer, artist and thinker who's focused on the relationship between art and markets and the impact that emerging technologies are having on the art market. Amy holds a BA from Williams College with honors in political science and art, an MFA in painting, an MBA, and a PhD in political economy. 

Nora Abrams is the Mark G. Falcone Director at Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. She's among the youngest museum directors in the country, coming to that role after nearly a decade as the museum's Lead Curator and Director of Planning, organizing over 30 exhibitions. She's written and spoken about the relationship between NFTs and conceptual art in the 1960s and '70s. Nora earned her BA at Stanford University, her MA at Columbia, and her PhD at NYU's Institute of Fine Arts.

Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple

Order the book here.

Learn more about Reading the Art World here.

In the 18th episode of our podcast, Reading the Art World, we are speaking with President and Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daniel Weiss about Why the Museum Matters, published by Yale University Press, as part of an ongoing series “Why X Matters,” in which prominent scholars critics and authors make the case for the importance of a single subject.

Since 2017, Dan has been at the helm of the MET, responsible for the overall leadership of the Museum, including establishing its key strategic, institutional, and capital priorities. There is currently a moment of reckoning for many museums, in which they're asked to respond to questions about diversity and inequality, their funding sources, their collections, exhibitions and programming, and how to meet the changing expectations of their audiences and communities. Dan makes a powerful case for why museums will continue to be essential to any society, why they matter as stewards of culture, places to generate new ideas, to build communities, advance learning and understanding, and create spaces of beauty and permanence.

“ There's something of a paradox… on the one hand, the popularity of museums — public support for them has never been higher — and at the same time, the public critique of museums has never been higher, and it caused me to think about, 'How do we find a way forward? What are the issues that are most central to what we do?'"— Dan Weiss

As a scholar of art history and seasoned leader, Dan provides a unique perspective on the issue of the museum. He received his BA in Art History and Psychology from George Washington University, MBA from Yale University, and PhD from Johns Hopkins University in Western Medieval and Byzantine Art, where he also was Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Through his various leadership roles, he’s seen how the role of the museum has evolved.

“The connection I was hoping to draw is that these people who lived so many thousands of years ago, who seem, in some ways, so alien to us, were not so alien, that in fact, they had the same kind of concerns we do, and that for them, as for us, art helps to provide a sense of their own identity. It helped to define their own culture, it helped to present the ways in which they made art and collected art, helped them to find a connection to the world around them in ways that isn't very different from what we do today, and if we know that and we can hold on to that, then maybe we have a little more humility about our own sense of where we fit into the grand sweep of human history.” — Dan Weiss

Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple

Order the book here.

Learn more about Reading the Art World here.

On the occasion of TEFAF New York 2023, Megan Fox Kelly was invited to participate in a panel titled Setting Standards for Art Advisors. Megan was joined by Sean Kelly (Owner, Sean Kelly Gallery), Colin B. Bailey (Director, The Morgan Library & Museum), and moderated by Sarah Douglas (Editor in Chief, ARTnews).

In this talk, the role of art professionals in the formation of private art collections are discussed from various angles. The three panelists shed light on their thinking from the perspectives of a public institution, a contemporary gallery, and an art advisor—how can these different players assist collectors in the building of their collections, and what standards should collectors expect from advisors?

Watch the panel recording here.

Welcome to Reading the Art World. Today we are speaking with curator, scholar, author, and my dear friend Ruth Fine, whose latest book Frank Stewart's Nexus: An American Photographer’s Journey, 1960’s to the Present, was published this month by Rizzoli. This is the first complete monograph and retrospective on Frank Stewart’s sixty-year career as a photographer. Since the 1960’s he’s captured spontaneous and sensitive portrayals of African American culture in many forms, including, art, food, dance and music—especially jazz.

“Jazz plays its role in Frank Stewart’s work even when it’s not about jazz. Issues of rhythm are very important to him, issues of a comprehensive conversation — that call and response. If you look at the photographs clearly, no matter what the subject is, you’ll very often find a call and response, and you’ll find a moment that feels jazz-like even when it’s not jazz-like." — Ruth Fine

Between 1972 and 2012, Ruth Fine served first Curator of Modern Prints and Drawings and later Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Among other shows at the NGA, Ruth coordinated the exhibitions and projects for Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, John Maron, Georgia O'Keefe, Crown Point Press, Gemini G.E.L Graphic Studio, and the collections of Lessing J. Rosenwald and Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. Additionally, Ruth coordinated the Gallery’s 1994 catalogue raisonné of Roy Lichtenstein's prints (revised 2002) and was co-coordinator of the 1999 Georgia O'Keeffe catalogue raisonné, undertaken with the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation.

Now based in Philadelphia, Ruth is chair of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and working on a print distribution project with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.

It was through Ruth’s role as curator of Special Projects in the Modern Art department at the National Gallery that Ruth first met Frank Stewart in early 2000. From that point on, they stayed in touch. Ruth shares a wonderfully compilation of stories from their lifelong friendship in our conversation today.

“The thing is — and this is what I tell all my students — you’re not making art for people you don’t like. You’re making art for yourself and the strangers that like it, whatever time or place they’re living in —  now and somebody 50 years from now, in China or Russia, as well as New York or Savannah." — Frank Stewart

The launch of the book accompanies the exhibition of Stewart’s work that will open in June at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. and then travels to The Baker Museum in Naples, Florida and The Telfair Museum in Savannah, GA through 2024. On June 3rd, Gallery Neptune and Brown in Washington, D.C. opens an exhibit of Stewart’s jazz photographs.

Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple.

Order the book here.

Learn more about Reading the Art World here.

Welcome to Season Two of Reading the Art World. For our first episode, we are speaking with guest, author and cultural strategist András Szántó, whose latest book Imagining the Future Museum:  21 Dialogues with Architects, was published in January by Hatje Cantz. This is my second interview with András, who spoke with me just last year about his book: The Future of the Museum in Episode 8.

András is a widely published author and editor whose writings have appeared in the New York Times, Artforum, the Art Newspaper, and many international publications. He has directed the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University and has overseen the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Born in Budapest, András now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Throughout 2020, András conducted a series of conversations with art-museum directors to talk about how museums around the world were evolving. Those conversations, described how museums were adapting to a changing society that required new software, but also new hardware (referring to the physical space) that has led him to his latest book 21 Dialogues with Architects. In this episode, we discuss András’ findings from the interviews he conducted with 21 of the most iconic architects.

“Across the board, whether you talk to a Chinese architect, or a Latin American architect, or a European architect, is this idea of opening up... Really turning the museum from this citadel or this temple on the hill, into something that is woven into the city and which embraces all of the community and all of the civic complexity that is at its front door." — András Szántó

Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple.

Order the book here .

Learn more about Reading the Art World here.

Edward Berthelot/Getty Images. Illustration by Artnet News.

Artnet News Pro included Katya Kazakina’s report on the phenomenon of ‘Gmail Art Advisors’ and her conversation with Megan Fox Kelly in their The Back Room weekly recap.

The Artnet News team shares that “With the bubble for some ultra-hot ultra-contemporary artists deflating before our eyes, Gmail Art Advisors seem to be disappearing left and right. Historically, that’s par for the course when easy commissions dry up and the work of advising gets hard. Unlike, say, the 151 internationally approved members of the Association of Professional Art Advisors (APAA), the Gmailers have no interest in, or aptitude for, the less glamorous, long-term responsibilities of the trade. Think: carefully researching provenance, inspecting condition, dealing with the shipping and customs headaches that often come from buying abroad, and more.”

Founded in 1980, the APAA is the only standard-setting organization for the practice of art advisory. Quoted in Kazakina’s article, Megan Fox Kelly states, “Undisclosed commissions from a gallery are a big no-no for an APAA member, as is holding inventory. The key is to always act in the best interest of a client, and uphold the greatest transparency.”

Read the roundup list here.

A view at Paris+ par Art Basel 2022. Courtesy of Art Basel.

Art market journalist Katya Kazakina reports on the phenomenon of ‘Gmail Art Advisors’ and spoke with Megan Fox Kelly about the role and ethical practice in the art advisory profession.

In her article, ‘Gmail Art Advisors’ Are a Pestilence on the Market. Luckily, They Are Starting to Melt Away, One by One (February 23, 2023) Kazakina investigates the recent influx of highly transactional ‘advisors’, sharing that “There’s a way to ferret out bad actors and find good ones. The Association of Professional Art Advisors, for example, has 151 approved members internationally, up from 111 in 2013, with its ranks including curators as well as consultants.”

Founded in 1980, the APAA is the only standard-setting organization for the practice of art advisory. Quoted in Kazakina’s article, Megan Fox Kelly shares, “Undisclosed commissions from a gallery are a big no-no for an APAA member, as is holding inventory. The key is to always act in the best interest of a client, and uphold the greatest transparency.”

Read the full article by Katya Kazakina here.

A conversation with Courtney J. Martin, co-author of the first monograph on celebrated British artist Cecily Brown, one of the most influential painters of our time. In this podcast, Courtney talks about her conversations and studio visits with Cecily that led her to a deeper understanding of the roots of her art and the threads of art history and personal history that underlie her paintings.

I had studied British artists that Cecily had been looking at, and so, as soon as I saw her work, I could see those references. I could see that training. I could see where she was pulling from, both in terms of the medium, but also a kind of fearlessness. - Courtney J. Martin

Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple.

Courtney J. Martin is the Paul Mellon Director of the Yale Center for British Art. Previously, she was the Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Dia Art Foundation, taught at Brown University and the University of California, Berkeley and worked at the Ford Foundation. She sits on the boards of the Chinati Foundation, the Center for Curatorial Leadership, Hauser & Wirth Institute and the Henry Moore Foundation.

Brown's symbolic language, exuberant brushwork, rich palette, intense energy, and embrace of the erotic have redefined some of painting's historical canons. We chose this book for our deep appreciation for Cecily Brown’s work who beautifully references historical artwork, while creating something new, bold and fearless. She is a British-born, New York-based artist who rose to prominence in the late 1990s. She established her unique voice within the art sphere by investigating the sensual qualities of oil paint and challenging the conventions of abstraction and figuration.

Cecily Brown, published by Phaidon in 2020, includes art historical essays from Jason Rosenfeld, novelist Francine Prose, and an in-depth interview with Courtney J. Martin.

Order the book here .

Learn more about Reading the Art World here.

Christie's James Bond charity auction raised £6m in October. Courtesy of Christie's.

Journalist Melanie Gerlis shares her art market insights on an an unprecedented year for charity auction sales and spoke with Megan Fox Kelly about recent auctions and opacity in market data.

In her article, ‘'The downside to art world altruism that no one talks about' (November 25, 2022) Gerlis reports on the recent philanthropic bent of the art market, reporting that “For the first half of this year, Christie’s reported that its charitable auctions had raised $440m, and confirms that 2022—taking into account November’s record-breaking $1.5bn auction of Paul G. Allen’s collection, whose proceeds are all earmarked for philanthropy—will be an unprecedented year for such sales.”

Quoted in Gerlis’ article, Megan Fox Kelly shares, “If a collector aligns with a particular charity then they can be willing to go a little beyond […] Buyers ultimately are still chasing the art more than the charitable cause and a philanthropic auction is an effective way to bring in donations from people who otherwise might not have supported their cause.”

Read the full article by Melanie Gerlis here.

A conversation with Jerry Saltz about his new book Art Is Life: Icons and Iconoclast, Visionaries and Vigilantes, and Flashes of Hope in the Night, published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Jerry Saltz is the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism and a 2019 National Magazine Award. He is the Senior Art Critic at New York magazine and its entertainment site Vulture. In his writings for the Village Voice, Vulture, NY Magazine, the NY times, his lectures, talks, videos and posts, Jerry champions artists that have been too-long overlooked and those who are long—celebrated and he doesn’t hesitate to call out the most pressing political, societal and cultural crises of our times.  The through line in his writing is art—and the ways it can inspire and change lives.

Jerry talks about creativity saying:

“Demons will speak to you. They speak to everybody. And my simple advice to everybody is ‘grow up, you big baby.’ You are going to hear these voices. Nobody can say anything worse to you than you didn't say to yourself today. Nobody can lay you lower than you do. So in a way, they got nothing on you. So I do think that every artist, every writer, every creative person has to become comfortable with being this uncomfortable."

And on beginning his career in art criticism:

“I taught myself to write by reading Artforum when I was a long-distance truck driver and I didn't understand one word of what I read. Still, I've never missed an issue. But I knew I couldn't write in that voice. I tried, and I sounded like an idiot because I don't know all that translated theory from the 1980s that had been written in the 1970s. I couldn't write like that, so I started writing in my own dumb, beautiful, quirky, generic, whatever voice I have. I want the art world to be like great, what we used to call, telephone conversations, or late night in a bar conversations."

Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple.

Order the book here .

Learn more about Reading the Art World here.

Reading the Art World episode thirteen: a conversation with Michael Findlay, Director of Acquavella Galleries in New York City. A private art dealer for more than four decades, and previously the International Director of Fine Arts at Christie’s auction house. Michael draws on his several decades of experience and shares his insights on art and his work with artists and with collectors in the new edition of his book The Value of Art.

“What we've seen, of course, is that the growth of the art market in NFTs is celebrated with zeroes. It is not celebrated because the advent of the NFT has produced great art — it actually hasn’t. And the advent of many, many more well-deserving artists of color now being given a more central position on the art market stage, by museums and by galleries, is often celebrated by the commercial value of the works that are achieving. The barometer is not quality. The barometer is the highest auction price for this or that artist — or this or that NFT, for that matter."— Michael Findlay

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Order the book here .

I chose this book because I find that so much of the conversation around art and collecting and the art market lately is about ‘value’—but value in terms of price and investment and financial return—while Michael talks about “Value” in terms of the inherent value of the art itself—in addition to addressing pricing and the market.  His newest book gives us thoughtful perspective on how to think about art beyond price. The book abounds with anecdotes  of collectors and artists from The 19th century through today and how those stories tell about the market, investing, collecting, amassing and loving art.  If someone thinks this is just an investment guide, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that it is not.

“I’ve given the same advice to students, adult and younger, to visit a museum and not look at the label. It’s very, very difficult to do: to go to a museum and walk into a room and choose something to look at — or let something choose you. And go up and look at it, and not read the label until after you’ve had a really good look. People tend to go to a museum and read the labels first — and if they recognize the name, then they look at the painting. No, if they recognize the name, they take a photograph of the painting.”. — Michael Findlay

Learn more about Reading the Art World here.