Pioneers of the Global Art Market

While Paris was the capital of the art world at the turn of the twentieth century, many of the city’s galleries expanded globally and cultivated international alliances, capitalizing on foreign collectors’ interest. If production was focused in the French capital, which drew artists from around the world – from Van Gogh to Picasso – the contemporary-art market was international in scope, and art dealers tapped into the ever-growing pool of discerning collectors in Northern and Eastern Europe, the U.K., and the U.S. Moreover, these traders were forced to counter the devastating effects of wars, revolutions, currency devaluation, and market crashes which stalled collecting in Europe and rendered transatlantic trade not just desirable, but necessary.

This book assembles original scholarship based on a close inspection of and fresh perspective on extant dealer records that have only recently become available to researchers. It caters to an amplified curiosity concerning the emergence and workings of our unprecedented contemporary-centric and global art market. This anthology fills a significant gap in the burgeoning field of art market studies in that it addresses how, initially, contemporary art (which has since become historical modernism) made its way into collections -- who validated what by selling and buying it, why, where, and how – complete with concrete examples, bibliographical and archival references, which should appeal to scholars, dealers, collectors, curators, educators, artists and art lovers alike. It celebrates the modern art dealer as transnational impresario, the global reach of the modern-art market, and the impact of traders on the history of collecting, and ultimately on the history of art.