Reading the Art World: Georgina Adam
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With the spring sales underway and the New York fair circuit just behind us, Georgina Adam's book on the next generation of collectors feels like essential reading right now.
Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Georgina Adam, editor-at-large of The Art Newspaper, discussing her new book NextGen Collectors and the Art Market, published by Lund Humphries in association with Sotheby's Institute of Art.
What the book makes clear, and what our conversation kept returning to, is that younger collectors aren't just buying different things; they're operating from an entirely different set of references. Younger collectors came of age with the internet as a native environment, which has reshaped how they discover art, who shapes their taste, and how broadly they collect. Where an older generation built knowledge through museum visits, dealer relationships, and sustained looking, today's buyers are as likely to consult a WhatsApp group as a curator—and they move across categories, from contemporary work to old masters to antiquities, in ways the traditional trade hasn't fully figured out how to serve.
Our conversation also takes up the book's geographic argument: that the entry of collectors from China, India, and Russia—populations largely excluded from the market for most of the 20th century—is already reshaping what gets bought and valued. These buyers bring different iconographic traditions, different relationships to institutions, and different motivations, and Adam is specific about what that means for the artists, dealers, and auction houses trying to reach them.
The art market does remain elitist, it does remain opaque. Galleries particularly, and auction houses—the traditional gatekeepers—are having a hard time catching up and producing an offer that corresponds to what younger people want.
– Georgina Adam
About the Author
Georgina Adam has spent more than 30 years writing about the art market and the arts in general. She was editor of the Art Market section of The Art Newspaper 2000-2008, then editor at large. She wrote a weekly column for the Financial Times for eight years, until 2016. In 2014 she published “Big Bucks: The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century” (Lund Humphries). She lectures at Sotheby’s and Christie’s institutes in London and participates in panels about the market: she is a board member of Talking Galleries, patron of the Association of Women Art Dealers and member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).
Neuberger Wealth is the sponsor of this episode of Reading the Art World, helping to bring conversations like this one to a wider audience. Neuberger Wealth is dedicated to championing living artists, a mission established by their founder Roy Neuberger that lives on today through their contemporary art collection. Their purpose-aligned story guides how they serve and advise individuals and families, providing them with comprehensive wealth advisory and investment management solutions that enable their unique financial journeys and purpose. Learn more at neubergerwealth.com