Book of the Month November 2022: The Art Fair Story

Described as 'a scintillating read’ by Artnet News, Melanie Gerlis's The Art Fair Story: A Rollercoaster Ride is this month's Book of the Month, chosen by our friends at Hoxton Books / Tabula Rasa Gallery. Use the code MONTH20 at checkout to get 20% off during November.

‘We share our bookshop with the gallery, Tabula Rasa, whose director, Sammi Liu, has lately been very busy on the art fair train from Seoul to Paris via London while teeing up more over the next few months in Miami and Singapore. Naturally this makes Melanie Gerlis’s The Art Fair Story from the Hot Topics in the Art World series our obvious choice for November’s Book of the Month and a must read for those currently on that same art fair train. In this short but comprehensive book Gerlis traces the history of the art fair as far back as the trade fairs of medieval times but shows how in the last few decades this relentless intercontinental ferrying about has become a lifeline and a necessity to the art business.’
-- Richard Grossman, Hoxton Books, London 

Book contents: 1. Introduction: The art fair phenomenon; 2. Early Days: Europe, 1966 to 1976; 3. Markets new and old: The US and Maastricht, 1976 to 1995; 4. Golden Age: London, 1995 to 2008; 5. Brave new worlds: Asia and the Middle East, 2008 to 2011; 6. Everywhere: 2011 to 2020; 7. Nowhere: 2020 to 2021

Get your copy of the book HERE. Apply code MONTH20 for 20% off until the end of November! 

You can also read Melanie's regular art market columns in the Financial Times and The Art Newspaper.