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TALKING PRICES: SYMBOLIC MEANINGS OF PRICES ON THE MARKET FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
Olav Velthuis
Princeton University Press, 2007
Softcover
288 pages
20 b+w illustrations
ISBN: 9780691134031
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| Excluding GST A$40.91 |
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A$45.00 |
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How do dealers price contemporary art in a world where objective criteria seem absent? This publication is the first book to examine this question from a sociological perspective. Olav Velthuis shows how contemporary art galleries juggle the contradictory logics of art and economics. In doing so, they rely on a highly ritualized business repertoire. For instance, a sharp distinction between a gallery's museumlike front space and its businesslike back space safeguards the separation of art from commerce.
Velthuis shows that prices, far from being abstract numbers, convey rich meanings to trading partners that extend well beyond the works of art. A high price may indicate not only the quality of a work but also the identity of collectors who bought it before the artist's reputation was established.
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