Review by Choice Review
Robson's study of the mid-century American art market provides invaluable coverage of all major aspects influencing the buying and selling of art for the period. For example, in the two major sections of the study, Robson discusses the role of museums as consumers and tastemakers as well as presenting the expected investigation of dealers and their roles as "gatekeepers" to the market. No study of the art market would be complete without a discussion of collectors, and Robson provides this in a third section. A helpful feature of all three sections is the classification of these key players into types based on when, how, and what kind of art they sell or purchase. This general scheme makes at least part of the material accessible to undergraduates; the wealth of hard data documenting purchase prices for specific works of art (included in one of the useful appendixes), although perhaps overwhelming to the beginning student, will be a boon to scholars of the period. Studies of the art market are few and far between, and this is the only one of this scope for this period. Upper-division undergraduate through professional. A. Pappas; University of Southern California
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
