Pioneers of the Global Art Market: Paris-Based Dealer Networks, 1850-1950

Description

By the turn of the twentieth century, Paris was the capital of the art world. While this is usually understood to mean that Paris was the center of art production and trading, this book examines a phenomenon that has received little attention thus far: Paris-based dealers relied on an ever-expanding international network of peers. Many of the city's galleries capitalized on foreign collectors' interest by expanding globally and proactively cultivating transnational alliances. If the French capital drew artists from around the world-from Cassatt to Picasso-the contemporary-art market was international in scope. Art dealers deliberately tapped into a growing pool of discerning collectors in northern and eastern Europe, the UK, and the USA. International trade was rendered not just desirable but necessary by the devastating effects of wars, revolutions, currency devaluation and market crashes which stalled collecting in Europe. Pioneers of the Global Art Market assembles original scholarship based on a close inspection of and fresh perspective on extant dealer records. 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 expanding field of art market studies by addressing how, initially, contemporary art, which is now known as historical modernism, made its way into collections: who validated what by promoting and selling it, where, and how. It includes unpublished material, concrete examples, bibliographical and archival references, and should appeal to academics, curators, educators, dealers, collectors, artists and art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.

Christel H. Force is an independent scholar, formerly Associate Research Curator in Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2005-2018). Prior to this, she held positions at The Museum of Modern Art (1990-2005) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Force obtained an art history degree from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, completed her MA at McGill University in Montreal, was a fellow of the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program (Curatorial), and received her PhD in 2001 from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her areas of expertise are Impressionist and modern art, the history of collecting, the historical art market, and Holocaust-era provenance. Force frequently contributes to international conferences and symposia; she is a founding member of The International Art Market Studies Association, a trustee of Christie's Education New York, and a Steering Committee member of the German/American Provenance Research Exchange Program for Museum Professionals.

Without losing touch with the intimate, collaborative relationship of artist and dealer, Pioneers of the Global Art Market dissects the market for modern art to reveal the complex transactional networks that spanned the globe from the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. In a series of authoritative studies, authors address central players in the market for contemporary European art, such as Paul Durand-Ruel and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, as well as less well-known figures like Paul Guillaume, whose cultivation of ties with French colonial officials opened markets for African art in Europe and America. * Michael FitzGerald, Professor of Fine Arts, Trinity College, USA * Through its emphasis on dealers' strategies, working in cooperation across national borders, this wide-ranging collection of essays makes an original and significant contribution to our knowledge of the processes through which art from France came to dominate the international canon of modern art. * Malcolm Gee, Visiting Fellow, Department of Arts, Northumbria University, UK * Drawing together an international team of scholars working across an impressive range of archival materials, this volume offers fresh and compelling analyses of the role of the art dealer in fostering the market for contemporary art produced in Paris c. 1850-1950, as well as the arts of Africa prized by modernists, revealing how dealers wove a transnational web of relations to create and sustain demand and value for this new art. For anyone interested in the fate of modernist art or strategies that have powered the global art market, this book is a must read. * Anne Helmreich, Associate Director, Getty Foundation, USA * The art market is not only driven by visionary dealers, it also relies on highly active networks that evolved in the course of an increasingly international exchange. Contrary to widespread assumptions, such networks are not a recent phenomenon: Pioneers of the Global Art Market unites a superb selection of engrossing case studies on how, between 1850 and 1950, dealers and other players in the art world forged and strengthened increasingly far-reaching personal and business connections. The volume's intelligent focus on Paris-then the pre-eminent hub for the trade in avant-garde art-leads to particularly revealing insights into the market's complex nervous system. As such, this highly stimulating book provides an excellent point of departure for a deeper understanding of the history of globalization. * Johannes Nathan, Chair, The International Art Market Studies Association (TIAMSA) * Its novelty lies in contesting the widespread cliche of a 'winner-takes-all' environment riddled with merciless competition. Instead, it places a fresh emphasis on pragmatic, tactical, sometimes ad hoc cooperation between dealers, in particular across national borders. ... This is a fascinating perspective which is developed over fourteen case studies ... built on serious archival research. * The Society for the History of Collecting *