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The Art of Buying Art: An Insider's Guide to Collecting Contemporary Art
 
 
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The Art of Buying Art: An Insider's Guide to Collecting Contemporary Art [Hardcover]

Paige West (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 22, 2007

A contemporary art expert demystifies the process of finding, appreciating, and collecting contemporary art on any budget.

Contemporary art is often misunderstood as intentionally controversial, obnoxiously self–indulgent, or painfully obscure. In this book, contemporary art expert and gallery owner Paige West guides readers toward the understanding that contemporary art can be just as original, tasteful, and breathtaking as traditional paintings. West draws from her experience as a professional art dealer to break all these misconceptions and allow readers to begin developing and enjoying a private collection.

Beautiful full–colour illustrations and smart layout accompany the humor with which this book explores the current art scene. Dealing with everything from the outrage surrounding Chris Ofili's Sensation, to Salvador Dali's rampage through a department store, this book will appeal to the artistically minded individual as well as the potential art buyer.

Beginning with what constitutes original art, the book moves on to discuss how to start collecting, where to find modern art, and what are reasonable prices. With gorgeous photographs of representative pieces used as examples, the book is as much a fashionable tool for home decorating as it is an open door into the world of contemporary art. This book educates readers to take those gilded–frame, poster–size wedding photos off their living room walls, or those college poster art sale finds, and put up interesting pieces from limited editions by current artists – without breaking the bank.


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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paige West studied the business of art at Christie's Education and NYU Arts Administration programs. She has since promoted and supported artists by curating a major private collection comprised of more than three thousand works by emerging and contemporary artists. In 1999 she started Mixed Greens, a company that sells original contemporary art both online and in its New York gallery. She lives in New York City.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Design; 1 edition (May 22, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060794593
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060794590
  • Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 10.4 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
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30 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Train Wreck, June 9, 2007
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This review is from: The Art of Buying Art: An Insider's Guide to Collecting Contemporary Art (Hardcover)
This book was a huge disappointment. It was an embarrassingly simplistic infomercial for the conventional narrow gallery system, her own gallery, and the art of her art world buddies. It was simplistic to the point of being misleading (particularly the Living with Art chapter.) There are some whoppers here-"Today I can only recommend three point of sale websites." The only redeemable content could have been covered in a pamphlet. Give it a miss.

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27 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, June 4, 2007
By 
Queequeg (West Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Art of Buying Art: An Insider's Guide to Collecting Contemporary Art (Hardcover)
This book is so light on information it's almost insulting. Buy what you like, go to museums? I didn't need to spend $26 for that. I love contemporary art, but pictures of goldfish are not grand statements in asthetics. They're goldfish. This book seems filled with artists from the author's own collection. I guess if we buy her book and her advice, those artists are promoted, their prices rise with the newly hyped demand, and the author is then "proven" as a great artistic sage. This type of self-promoting hucksterism is shameful.

Lisa Hunter's "The Intrepid Art Collector" is still rather frothy, but it's a better place to start for a beginning collector. Lisa doesn't attempt to dictate taste in the same way as Ms. West.

The Intrepid Art Collector: The Beginner's Guide to Finding, Buying, and Appreciating Art on a Budget
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Book, January 8, 2011
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This review is from: The Art of Buying Art: An Insider's Guide to Collecting Contemporary Art (Hardcover)
This is really more of a picture book than a genuine guide to buying art. It is a good-looking and nice to thumb through book though, worthy of any coffee table.

If you're really trying to learn more about collecting art, I know there are more appropriate guides on the market.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
digital photographic print, recommended galleries, chicken skull, chromogenic print, contemporary art collection, gelatin silver print, prominent collectors, emerging art, most galleries, mixed greens, buying art, gel medium, collecting art, studio visit, oil pastel
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, The Armory Show, Los Angeles, Vik Muniz, Miami Beach, Ken Weaver, Mixed Greens, The Procession, United States, Alessandra Exposito, Gagosian Gallery, Joan Linder, Leah Tinari, Lee Stoetzel, Lucas Reiner, Mark Mulroney, Mary Temple, Megan Whitmarsh, Recommended Galleries, Tim Davis
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