By the turn of the 20th century, Paris was the capital of the art world.
While this is usually understood to mean that Paris was the center of
art production and trading, this book examines a phenomenon that has
received little attention thus far: Paris-based dealers relied on an
ever-expanding international network of peers. Many of the city's
galleries capitalized on foreign collectors' interest by expanding
globally and proactively cultivating transnational alliances. If the
French capital drew artists from around the world-from Cassatt to
Picasso-the contemporary-art market was international in scope. Art
dealers deliberately tapped into a growing pool of discerning collectors
in northern and eastern Europe, the UK, and the USA. International trade
was rendered not just desirable but necessary by the devastating effects
of wars, revolutions, currency devaluation, and market crashes which
stalled collecting in Europe.
Pioneers of the Global Art Market assembles original scholarship based
on a close inspection of and fresh perspective on extant dealer records.
It caters to an amplified curiosity concerning the emergence and
workings of our unprecedented contemporary-centric and global art
market. This anthology fills a significant gap in the expanding field of
art market studies by addressing how, initially, contemporary art, which
is now known as historical modernism, made its way into collections: who
validated what by promoting and selling it, where, and how. It includes
unpublished material, concrete examples, bibliographical and archival
references, and appeals to students, academics, curators, educators,
dealers, collectors, artists and art lovers alike. It celebrates the
modern art dealer as transnational impresario, the global reach of the
modern-art market, and the impact of traders on the history of
collecting, and ultimately on the history of art.
