Bench, Aleya, Appraising Art: The Definitive Guide (2013) (IBSN: 978-1555953799). The fully-updated and color-illustrated soft-covered guide covers everything from theory and methodology, to legal and ethical issues, as well as over 50 connoisseurship areas. Available for purchase here.
Gerlis, Melanie, Art as an Investment? (February 2014) (ISBN: 978-1848221345). “Aimed at collectors and investors, this user-friendly guide explains art’s value as an asset through comparisons with more familiar investments, including property, shares and gold…It offers jargon-free explanations of how the characteristics of blue-chip art can be seen to coincide with and diverge from the fundamental features of more established types of asset.” Available for purchase here.
Huff, Corey, How to Sell Your Art Online: Live a Successful Creative Life on Your Own Terms (June 2016) (ISBN:978-0062414953). An essential guide for artist that teaches them how to skip the gallery system, find their niche, and connect directly with collectors to profitably sell their art. For years, galleries have acted as gatekeeper separating artists and collectors. But with the explosion of the Internet, a new generation of savvy, independent artists is connecting with buyers and making a substantial living doing what they love. Available for purchase here.
Loretta Würtenberger, The Artist’s Estate: A Handbook for Artists, Executors, and Heirs (October 2016) (ISBN 10: 377574133X). This is the first publication produced by the Institute for Artists’ Estates in Berlin, Germany. It has received the attention of critics worldwide and is now in its second edition. The handbook provides an overview of approaches for developing and maintaining an artist’s estate, from appropriate financing models to garnering interest from the art market and museums. Through several international examples, Würtenberger makes recommendations on best practices in handling work and archives following an artist’s death. Available for purchase here.
Van Laar, Timothy, Artworld Prestige: Arguing Cultural Value(January 2013) (IBSN 978-0199913985) After an initial chapter that develops a theory of prestige and the poignancy of its loss, the book looks at how arguments of prestige function in systems of representation, various media, and art’s relationship to affect. It considers twentieth-century artists who moved not away from, but toward figuration; looks at what is at stake in the recurrent argument about the death of painting; examines the decline and an apparent return of sensual pleasure as a central attribute of visual art; and concludes with a look at the peculiar function of prestige in outsider art. Available for purchase here.
