Author – By: Michael Shnayerson
The meteoric rise of the largest unregulated financial market in the world-for contemporary art-is driven by a few passionate, guileful, and very hard-nosed dealers. They can make and break careers and fortunes.
The contemporary art market is an international juggernaut, throwing off multimillion-dollar deals as wealthy buyers move from fair to fair, auction to auction, party to glittering party. But none of it would happen without the dealers-the tastemakers who back emerging artists and steer them to success, often to see them picked off by a rival.
Dealers operate within a private world of handshake agreements, negotiating for the highest commissions. Michael Shnayerson, a longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair, writes the first ever definitive history of their activities. He has spoken to all of today’s so-called mega dealers-Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner, Arne and Marc Glimcher, and Iwan Wirth-along with dozens of other dealers-from Irving Blum to Gavin Brown-who worked with the greatest artists of their times: Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, and more.
This kaleidoscopic history begins in the mid-1940s in genteel poverty with a scattering of galleries in midtown Manhattan, takes us through the ramshackle 1950s studios of Coenties Slip, the hipster locations in SoHo and Chelsea, London’s Bond Street, and across the terraces of Art Basel until today. Now, dealers and auctioneers are seeking the first billion-dollar painting. It hasn’t happened yet, but they are confident they can push the price there soon.
Now with a new epilogue that speaks directly to the current energy crisis, The Prize recounts the panoramic history of the world’s most important resource: oil.
Daniel Yergin’s timeless book chronicles the struggle for wealth and power that has surrounded oil for decades and that continues to fuel global rivalries, shake the world economy, and transform the destiny of men and nations. This updated edition categorically proves the unwavering significance of oil throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first by tracing economic and political clashes over precious “black gold.”
With his far-reaching insight and in-depth research, Yergin is uniquely positioned to address the present battle over energy, which undoubtedly ranks as one of the most vital issues of our time. The canvas of his narrative history is enormous — from the drilling of the first well in Pennsylvania through two great world wars to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Operation Desert Storm, and now both the Iraq War and climate change. The definitive work on the subject of oil, The Prize is a book of extraordinary breadth, riveting excitement, and great value — crucial to our understanding of world politics and the economy today — and tomorrow.
About the Author
Daniel Yergin is an authority on energy and world affairs. Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and executive vice president of IHS, he is global energy expert for the CNBC business news network. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the Eccles Prize for The Prize, which has been translated into thirteen languages and was made into a much-acclaimed PBS/BBC series. His other books include Commanding Heights : the Battle for the World Economy, about globalization and its challenges, and Shattered Peace, a classic history on the origins of the Cold War.
Industry Reviews
“A masterly narrative…”The Prize” portrays the interweaving of national and corporate interests, the conflicts and stratagems, the miscalculations, the follies, and the ironies.” — James Schlesinger, former U.S. Secretary of Defense and U.S. Secretary of Energy