Introducing the Intelligence Report: The Mid-Year Report 2025

Cover illustration by Kristina Reischl

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with journalist Eileen Kinsella about the Postwar best-seller list from the past 6 months.

This year’s spring auctions may be best remembered “not for the disappointments at the very top but for the coherence in the middle,” advisor Megan Fox Kelly said. The $5 million-to-$15 million range “has become the new center of gravity—where taste, connoisseurship, and value converge,” she added. “It’s no longer just a volume segment, it’s where seriousness resides.”

Read the full report from Artnet here.

Julia Pedrick
Ruth Asawa Is Having a Massive Museum Moment. How Will Her Market Respond?

Ruth Asawa, Untitled (S.361, Wall-Mounted Tied-Wire, Open-Center, Four-Branched Form Based on Nature), 1994. Artwork © 2025 Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc., Courtesy David Zwirner

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Eileen Kinsella at Artnet News about the increased exhibition of Ruth Asawa’s work and the growing demand among collectors.

For much of her career, Asawa was “peripheral to the mainstream narrative—dismissed as a ‘domestic’ or ‘craft’ artist and working far from New York’s center,” art advisor Megan Fox Kelly said. “We saw increasing prices and increased interest 10 to 15 years ago, but everything shifted when David Zwirner took on her estate in 2017, with carefully curated exhibitions and presentations on a very different platform.” She added that the current touring retrospective has “repositioned her within the postwar canon.”

Read the rest of the piece here.

Julia Pedrick
Robert Rauschenberg at 100: Legacy, Experimentation, and the Art of Influence

Courtesy Rauschenberg Foundation

This year marks the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth, a fitting moment to reflect on an artist whose vision not only changed the trajectory of postwar art, but continues to shape the ways artists work, think, and collaborate today.

As someone who has advised on major Post-War and contemporary collections—as well as artist-endowed foundations—I often return to Rauschenberg as a case study in both creative innovation and legacy stewardship. His work and example are not simply historical; they remain instructive for collectors, curators, and artists navigating today’s global art world.

Enduring Influence and Market Positioning

Rauschenberg’s influence is everywhere—in the embrace of hybrid forms, the collapse of hierarchies between “high” and “low” materials, and the conceptual openness that defines so much contemporary practice. From early Combines like Bed(1955) to later works with fabric, metal, or found objects, Rauschenberg challenged traditional boundaries of painting, sculpture, and photography.

The market has long reflected this, although it’s worth noting that Rauschenberg’s experimental works, especially from later periods, have not always been valued with the same consistency as his Combines. Centennial years often bring renewed institutional attention—and with it, shifts in market visibility. With the Five Friends exhibition and related programming, we may see a broader reevaluation of his lesser-known bodies of work, particularly those made abroad or in collaboration.

Lessons in Creative Community: The “Five Friends” Model

The current “Five Friends” exhibition—focused on Rauschenberg’s relationships with John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, and Cy Twombly—offers a reminder that great art often emerges from community, not isolation. These were friendships that blurred the lines between influence, collaboration, and competition.

Collectors today can take inspiration from this model. I often encourage clients to look beyond single-artist acquisitions and consider how artistic communities shape the meaning and trajectory of a work. This could mean collecting a group of artists from a shared movement or time period, or paying attention to who an artist was in dialogue with—whether through teaching, collaboration, or shared geography.

Collecting Across Experimental Periods

Rauschenberg’s output defies easy categorization. His willingness to shift materials—from combines and silkscreens to cardboard, fabric, and reflective metal—means that no single period defines his oeuvre. This creates a challenge and an opportunity for collectors.

Advising clients through these varied periods requires both historical knowledge and market insight. Provenance, condition, and exhibition history play a major role in evaluating experimental works. But I also stress the importance of understanding intent. Rauschenberg wasn’t working with new materials to shock; he was chasing ideas—and often anticipated the concerns of today’s artists: sustainability, cultural hybridity, political engagement.

Global Vision Ahead of Its Time

Through the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), the artist traveled to politically complex and culturally rich locations—including China, Chile, Cuba, and the USSR—to share work and collaborate with local artists. His belief in cultural diplomacy through art now seems prophetic in an age of globalized collecting and biennial culture.

In advising clients on emerging markets or international artists, I often point to Rauschenberg’s ethos: cultural exchange rooted in mutual respect, not exoticism. His model reminds us that the best collectors are often curious travelers, deeply interested in where ideas come from and how they evolve.

Stewardship and Legacy Planning

Having worked with the Rauschenberg Foundation and other major artist estates, I’ve seen firsthand how long-term vision and organizational rigor can sustain an artist’s presence well beyond their lifetime. The Rauschenberg Foundation has combined scholarship, market stewardship, and grantmaking in a way that continues to support both the artist’s work and broader artistic communities.

This is not only a model for artists but for collectors and philanthropists as well. Whether you are planning to donate works, establish a collection trust, or support the legacy of an artist you love, it pays to study how estates like Rauschenberg’s balance visibility with integrity.

How to Engage During the Centennial Year

For those who want to go beyond the headlines in 2025, I recommend:

  • Seeing the “Five Friends” exhibition (or its digital counterpart) to appreciate the rich creative crosscurrents that defined Rauschenberg’s early years.

  • Looking closely at underappreciated periods of his practice—particularly his international works and later innovations in materiality.

  • Reading Calvin Tomkins’ essays on Rauschenberg, or revisiting Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective (MoMA, 1997).

  • And, for collectors, taking this opportunity to review what’s in the market—not only to acquire, but to consider how your collection can reflect a broader story about artistic innovation and influence.

https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/news/centennial

Julia Pedrick
Selections for Summer 2025

Every summer, I compile a short list of art books worth spending time with—not necessarily to throw in a beach bag, but for those slower, quieter days when you can actually read and look and think. Summer tends to create just enough of a pause that we can go deeper into something substantial. Whether you’re lingering indoors to escape the heat or savoring time at your desk before heading out of town, these are books that reward attention.

This year’s selections span painting, photography, memoir, and art history, and several are tied to museum exhibitions you can see now or soon. I featured a longer list in my recent article for The Observer, but here are the seven I selected to feature on the latest episode of Reading the Art World, my podcast about books and ideas in the art world.

 
 
 

By Michelle Young, published by HarperCollins.

This book reads like a thriller, but it tells the true story of Rose Valland, who secretly tracked Nazi art looting while working at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. Author Michelle Young brings a journalist’s eye to this vivid and atmospheric account. It’s a compelling story of resistance, moral courage, and the protection of cultural patrimony during war.

 

By Norman Rosenthal, published by Thames & Hudson in association with the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris.

This lively book explores Hockney’s restless experimentation across media—from painting and photography to iPad drawings. It was published alongside his current exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. If you’re traveling to Paris this summer, the exhibition is an immersive experience and a perfect companion to the book.

 

Text by Quentin Bajac and James Welling, with an interview by Sarah Meister, copublished by Aperture and Atelier EXB.

Barney’s large-format photographs of families are theatrical and intimate, capturing vulnerability and self-consciousness in equal measure. The retrospective is now on view in San Sebastián, Spain, following its debut at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. The accompanying book spans over four decades of Barney’s career and offers a poignant meditation on family and image-making.

 

By Robert Fucci, published by The Frick Collection in association with Rizzoli Electa.

Centered on three Vermeer paintings of women with letters—held at the Frick, the Rijksmuseum, and the National Gallery of Ireland—this book is quiet and beautifully focused. It invites you into the intimate world of Vermeer’s interiors without over-explaining. One of the paintings is currently on view at the newly renovated Frick in New York, making this a great pairing of reading and looking.

 

By Guy Trebay, published by Knopf.

Written by the longtime New York Times fashion critic, this memoir captures the gritty, magnetic energy of downtown New York in the 1970s. Trebay's account is unsentimental and sharp, with great insight into the cultural forces at play during a period of both collapse and creativity.

 

By Prudence Peiffer, published by HarperCollins.

This is a smart, art-historical narrative about Coenties Slip, a small street near the East River that became home to artists like Agnes Martin, Ellsworth Kelly, and Robert Indiana. Peiffer brings together geography, biography, and the forces that shaped mid-century modernism. It’s especially rewarding if you’re spending time in New York this summer—the street is still there.

 

by Adrian Clark and Richard Calvocoressi, Foreword by David Hockney, published by Yale University Press.

Cooper was a brilliant, difficult, and deeply influential figure in the mid-20th-century art world. This biography doesn’t shy away from his contradictions: he was a champion of Cubism, a collector of major works, and a provocateur in nearly every arena. For those interested in the personalities behind the scenes of modern art, this is a compelling and dramatic read.


You can find the longer Observer list here, and the new episode of Reading the Art World on Spotify and Apple

Happy reading—and if you find a book that stays with you, I’d love to hear about it.

Julia Pedrick
The dos and don’ts of donating art to museums

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Kathryn Tully at The Financial Times about the considerations and process of donating a work of art to museums.

New York-based art adviser Megan Fox Kelly says she is working with the owners of a very large collection who want to donate it to a museum that already owns some of the same artists, so does not want the collection in its entirety. “We’re having conversations about whether the owners would entertain another institution, even an institution that they haven’t been involved with before, or breaking it up between different institutions,” she says.

Read the rest of the piece here.

Julia Pedrick
“Sargent and Paris” at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Before John Singer Sargent became the preeminent portraitist of the Gilded Age—synonymous with elegance, surface, and society—he was a young painter in Paris, steeped in the traditions of the Salon and the innovations of Impressionism. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Sargent and Paris offers a rare chance to explore the artistic formation of this American painter during the years he spent in the French capital between the late 1870s and early 1880s.

This is not the Sargent of stately English portraits or aristocratic bravura. This is Sargent learning to see. The exhibition reveals how, long before Madame X caused a scandal and sealed his reputation, Sargent was absorbing the influence of Velázquez and Van Dyck, studying under Carolus-Duran, and walking a line between academic precision and painterly innovation. He was ambitious and searching—experimenting with composition, gesture, and light.

What’s remarkable here is how modern the young Sargent already was. Works like The Luxembourg Gardens at Twilight and his daring early portrait of Carolus-Duran capture a sense of atmosphere and immediacy that anticipates his later brilliance. And yet these are not merely exercises in style. Sargent's early Paris paintings reveal an artist attuned to human presence and emotional undercurrents—even when portraying scenes of leisure, fashion, or music.

 
 

At the heart of the show is Madame X—reunited here with studies and related works in a room that lets us re-examine the painting not just as a cultural flashpoint but as a declaration of artistic intent. Sargent’s decision to submit the portrait to the 1884 Salon, knowing it might provoke, speaks to a painter who understood the power of perception and the tensions between beauty, reputation, and artistic freedom.

Sargent and Paris is more than a biographical chapter—it’s a study in ambition, refinement, and risk. For anyone interested in the evolution of a major artist, this is essential viewing. It reminds us that mastery doesn’t appear fully formed. It’s shaped—in the studio, in the streets of a city, and in the eyes of those who dare to see differently.

If you visit, take time in the galleries—hopefully without crowds. Spend time with his surfaces, his compositions, the confidence and restraint, the subtle influence of Velazquez, Van Dyck, Manet. This is history, yes—but it’s also a reminder of how an artist uncovers his own voice.

The exhibition is on view through August 3, 2025: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/sargent-and-paris

Julia Pedrick
Reading the Art World: Ian Wardropper

Photograph by Richard Renaldi

Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Ian Wardropper, author and former director of The Frick Collection and author of The Fricks Collect: An American Family and the Evolution of Taste in the Gilded Age, published by The Frick Collection in association with Rizzoli Electa.

Wardropper traces the remarkable journey of Henry Clay Frick, who evolved from a hard-edged Pittsburgh industrialist into one of America’s most discerning collectors. He describes how Frick spent two decades developing his eye—beginning with contemporary American paintings before advancing to the rarefied world of Old Master acquisitions at the highest level of the market.

Our conversation delves into Frick’s distinctive collecting philosophy: a relentless emphasis on quality over quantity and a clear vision for creating refined settings in which masterworks of painting and decorative arts could coexist. For collectors and anyone curious about the making of great collections, this episode offers rare and valuable insights.

“Frick was much more careful, studious, looked for the great work coming on the market, did his research and was willing to spend quite a lot of money to get something if he really believed that it was by one of the best artists of great quality, good provenance and good condition.

These were the factors of particular interest to him.”

– Ian Wardropper


Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple

Order the book here

Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.


About the Author

Ian Wardropper served as the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director of The Frick Collection for 14 years, leading the institution through its most transformative period, including the first comprehensive renovation in nearly 90 years and the innovative Frick Madison project. Previously, he held curatorial positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Chairman of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts and at the Art Institute of Chicago for twenty years. A specialist in European decorative arts and sculpture, Wardropper oversaw ambitious exhibitions, a major capital campaign that raised $242 million, and pioneering digital initiatives including the acclaimed "Cocktails with a Curator" series. He holds a Ph.D. in art history from NYU and was named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Minister of Culture.

Amid uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs, many collectors pause purchases while others ‘hold their noses and pay’

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Daniel Grant for The Art Newspaper about the market impact (or lack thereof) of the Trump tariffs.

“The only conversations I’m having with clients right now are about whether they want a particular work of art, whether it is the right fit for their collection or overall collection plan, and if so, what is the right amount to pay ‘all-in’.”

Read the rest of the piece here.

Julia Pedrick
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime” at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Mama Has Made the Bread (How Things Are Measured) (2018), If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it (2019), Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (2018)

When I first encountered Amy Sherald’s portraits, I was struck by their quiet power—the way her subjects, painted in grayscale against vibrant backdrops, command attention with a presence that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. Seeing American Sublime, her first major museum retrospective, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, is an opportunity to experience the full arc of her artistic vision.

Sherald’s evolution is fascinating. From her early works in 2007 to her most recent paintings, her approach to portraiture has expanded in complexity, balancing meticulous realism with painterly abstraction. One revelation in this exhibition is how she subtly shifts between intimate storytelling and broader cultural narratives, exploring Black identity, leisure, and representation in ways that feel both timeless and urgent.

Since her portrait of Michelle Obama catapulted her into international recognition, the market for her work has soared. But beyond its market significance, American Sublime arrives at a crucial moment—offering a profound meditation on contemporary American life and who gets to be seen in art history.

For those visiting, take your time with this show. Certain works invite extended contemplation—Sherald’s large-scale portraits have a way of revealing more the longer you look. Think about what draws you to certain works and how Sherald's approach to portraiture might shift your own perspective on the people she so devotedly depicts.

https://whitney.org/exhibitions/amy-sherald

My Reading the Art World podcast interview with curator Sarah Roberts is now live on Spotify and Apple.

Julia Pedrick
Reading the Art World: Sarah Roberts

Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Sarah Roberts, curator of the landmark exhibition Amy Sherald: American Sublime, and editor of the accompanying catalog published by Yale University Press in association with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

In our conversation, Sarah reflects on the distinctive formal and conceptual qualities of Sherald's portraiture—from her considered use of posture and gaze to the symbolic role of clothing, props and settings. She deliberately turns the focus from outward racial identities to her subjects' interior lives. Sarah discusses how these elements in Herald’s paintings operate together to invite a deeper, slower form of looking, where each subject is rendered with quiet dignity and strength.

We discuss the meaning behind the exhibition’s title, "American sublime" in Sherald's work, and how Sherald’s paintings expand our understanding of who deserves to be seen—and remembered—in American art. Sarah Roberts offers insights into her inclusion of Sherald’s portraits of Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor in the exhibition, placing them in the context of the artist’s broader practice and showing how they remain consistent with her vision while subverting conventions of official portraiture..

“I think something similar is at work in Amy's portraiture, the stillness of the bodies, the stillness of the faces creates an expectation that we will bring our own thoughts, preconceptions, associations, to the act of looking.”

– Sarah Roberts


Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple

Order the book here

Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.


About the Author

Sarah Roberts is Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Joan Mitchell Foundation where she oversees the Foundation's Artwork and Archival Collections and the Joan Mitchell Catalogue Raisonné project. Since 2004, she has served in progressive leadership roles in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the SFMOMA, and since 2020 as Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture. A specialist in post-war American art, Roberts has organized significant exhibitions including major presentations of Robert Rauschenberg, Louise Bourgeois, Frank Bowling, and co-curated the Joan Mitchell retrospective that traveled internationally. Roberts holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and Brown University, and has contributed to numerous publications on contemporary art.

Frieze Forecast: Will Jeff Koons’s Hulks Smash a ‘Cautious’ Market?

Jeff Koons, Hulk (Tubas), 2004-2018. © Jeff Koons, Incredible Hulk ™, and © Marvel. All rights reserved. Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNOstudio. Courtesy Palazzo Strozzi and Gagosian.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Brian Boucher at Artnet News about the upcoming spring New York art fairs, specifically Frieze.

“The broader economic climate feels distracting to a lot of people, more than necessarily disruptive,” said Kelly. “I am seeing more collectors being more thoughtful, more attuned to value or a long-term decision, maybe because there isn’t the pressure to act quickly. I’m not feeling that frenzy anymore. And that feels more appropriate. My clients have not retreated from the pursuit of collection building. It’s just more selective and discerning.”

Read the rest of the piece here.

Julia Pedrick
Art Abounds in New York This May Amid Market Uncertainty

The Park Avenue Armory, which will host TEFAF New York from May 9 to 13.Credit...Clark Hodgin for The New York Times

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Andrew Russeth for The New York Times about the spring art season in New York.

These days, the art adviser Megan Fox Kelly said, after art fairs, “it may take not just weeks, but sometimes months of follow-up to get things sold, and that’s a change.”

Read more of Megan’s thoughts and the rest of the piece here.

Julia Pedrick
Celebrating Richard Diebenkorn’s Legacy

Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park #41, 1971.

Critic Robert Hughes once called Diebenkorn's Ocean Park paintings “among the most beautiful declamations in the language of the brush.” Ocean Park #41 shows us why— a masterwork of restraint and revision, mood and structure, memory and sensation.

Ocean Park #41 is part of Diebenkorn’s celebrated Ocean Park series, a body of work he developed over nearly two decades while living and working in Santa Monica. With each canvas, he explored not just form and color but the act of painting itself—erasing, reworking, and layering until he arrived at a composition that felt, as he put it, “right.”

Here, you can see that process in motion: lines are drawn and redrawn, planes of color scraped and overlaid, all leading to a calm yet complex balance of geometry and atmosphere.  It’s a painting that remembers its own making—ghosts of earlier decisions shimmer beneath the surface—a visual map of thought, revision, light, and place.

To me, what makes Ocean Park #41 exceptional is how it captures both a specific light and a way of seeing. The luminous palette—grays, greens, soft blues, punctuated by vivid touches of red and gold—mirrors the wash of California light as if through the windows of Diebenkorn’s studio.

This work marks a shift in the Ocean Park series: away from crisp diagonals and saturated contrasts toward something more diaphanous, open, and meditative. Looking closely, the painting seems to build on abstraction, but it behaves like a landscape, one you sense rather than see. It’s an abstract painting with the sensibility of a place—a poetic rendering of how time and light pass through a room by the sea.

This painting, part of the estate of an exceptional private collector, was brought to auction by Megan Fox Kelly Art Advisory and sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2015.

Julia Pedrick
The Art of Legacy: How Collectors Can Preserve and Protect Their Collections

From gifting to trusts to building a private own museum, art collectors can keep the collection—and the peace—intact with strategic estate planning. Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images

Picture this: A dedicated collector, after decades of building a distinguished art collection, passes away, leaving behind an extraordinary group of artworks with no clear instructions. The family is left navigating a complex set of decisions: which works to keep, whether to sell (and if so, where and how) or to donate (and if so, to whom)? ⁠

Without a plan or an idea of the collector’s intentions and hopes, the art collection—carefully curated over a lifetime—risks being fragmented, undervalued or even sold under financial duress.⁠

Effective planning ensures that a collection remains an enduring part of a collector’s vision—whether through family inheritance, philanthropic gifting or strategic sales. ⁠

Read the full piece in Observer here.

Julia Pedrick
UK’s new sanctions reporting regime tightens screws on struggling dealers

Diverging routes: UK foreign secretary David Lammy (left) and prime minister Keir Starmer head to Washington, DC; Britain is strengthening its AML policies while the US takes a more relaxed approach. Photo: Simon Dawson/No 10 Downing Street; Crown copyright

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with Riah Pryor at The Art Newspaper about the UK’s new sanctions and the impact on the broader market.

“The announcement hasn’t had time for proof of any ‘real-world’ implications, but I expect there will be questions as the spring auction and art fair season gets under way.”

Read the rest of the piece here.

Julia Pedrick
The Best-Seller Lists: Experts Analyze Trophy Lots Across 6 Categories

Claude Monet’s Nymphéas goes on view at Sotheby's on October 4, 2024 in London, England. Photo by Michael Bowles/Getty Images for Sotheby's.

As part of the Artnet Intelligence Report, Megan Fox Kelly reflects on the Modern and Impressionist art market.

“Overall, the market remains dynamic, supported by a mix of public and private activity.”

Read the highlight from Artnet here.

Julia Pedrick
The Artnet Intelligence Report: The Year Ahead 2025

Image courtesy of Kristina Reischl and Village Green.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with journalist Eileen Kinsella about the Impressionist and Modern art market over the past year.

“The November auctions confirmed a stable but highly selective market for Impressionist and Modern art, with collectors focusing on works that combine rarity, quality, and strong provenance,” advisor Megan Fox Kelly said. “Overall, the market remains dynamic, supported by a mix of public and private activity.”

Read the full report from Artnet here.

Julia Pedrick
The Unique Challenge That Distinguishes Art From Typical Investments

Photo by Linda Nylind. Courtesy Frieze / Linda Nylind.

Megan Fox Kelly spoke with the CFA Institute about the delicate balance between emotional connection and financial value in art collecting. "Unlike with traditional investments, collectors are deeply influenced by their emotional connection to the works they purchase," Kelly explained. "The emotional satisfaction of ownership is a critical factor, which often makes it difficult to treat art like a purely transactional asset unless it is purchased solely for storage and future sale."

For those building or expanding collections, understanding this dynamic is crucial. "People want the works they love to also be good investments, and they hope the works that are good investments will align with their tastes. Unfortunately, that's not always the case."

The article addresses how collectors can approach this tension while considering various market segments. While trends fluctuate, the fundamental principles of thoughtful collecting remain constant.

Visit our Services to learn how we support both new and established collectors.

Julia Pedrick
Reading the Art World: Michael Findlay

Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Michael Findlay, influential art dealer, director at Acquavella Galleries, and author of Portrait of the Art Dealer as a Young Man, published by Prestel.

His memoir offers a captivating, firsthand account of New York's vibrant downtown art scene in the 1960s and '70s, when Findlay directed one of SoHo's first galleries. Through personal stories and vivid anecdotes, he shares his encounters with Andy Warhol, John Baldessari, Hannah Wilke, and numerous creative figures who defined this transformative era in American art.

Throughout our conversation, Findlay shares previously untold stories about the birth of SoHo's gallery scene and offers rare insights into how today's art market evolved from those experimental beginnings. For collectors, artists, and anyone interested in cultural history, Findlay's perspective on what made this era so distinctive is invaluable.

“The memoir is actually not so very different from [my other books, The Value of Art and Seeing Slowly]. It's perhaps telling the story of how I got to have the opinions or the feelings, or to put it pretentiously, the philosophy, that I expressed in the first two books.

That comes from active seeing, not from an academic background.”

– Michael Findlay


Listen to this podcast on Spotify and Apple

Order the book here

Learn more about the podcast Reading the Art World here.


About the Author

Michael Findlay is a leading art dealer who has directed Acquavella Galleries in New York since 2000. Previously, he was International Director of Fine Arts at Christie's and ran his own influential SoHo gallery. He introduced American audiences to Joseph Beuys and Sean Scully while launching the careers of numerous contemporary artists.