The theme for this month’s Book Club at the McBride Library was “Art and Artists”. I chose the book An Object of Beauty written by Steve Martin. This is what I had to say about it:
A couple of days ago, a painting by Gustav Klimt sold at auction for $32 million dollars. Think about that, not $32 thousand, but $32 million dollars. That is the world that Steve Martin lets the reader view in his novel, An Object of Beauty.
This novel, written by Steve Martin, the well known comedian, is a serious work of fiction, it isn’t, as you might expect, “wild and crazy”. It is set in the art districts of New York City, during the years, 1990 to about 2010. While It is written in the first person through the eyes of a rather strait-laced person named Daniel, the novel is mostly about his female friend Lacey, who he had met in one of his university art classes.
Lacey, a fellow art student, was very attractive, flirty, spirited, ambitious, and fun to be with. The two continued their friendship after graduating university, when they both ended up in the art district of New York City. Daniel becomes a writer for the Artnews magazine, and the two would occasionally meet for lunch to catch up on each other’s life. The novel is basically Daniel telling the story of what Lacey was up to.
Lacey’s career in the art world started with a low level job at Sotheby’s, the famous art auction house, but that first job was anything but glamorous. It was a low paying job doing research in in the dingy basement of the business, but Lacey’s cleverness and good looks, soon enable her to move to a position upstairs, where she began working with the ultra-wealthy art buyers who streamed into the auction house, looking for the paintings that were to be auctioned off.
Lacey was a fast learner and became very effective in her work, schmoozing with the wealthy customers. It enabled her to climb higher in the art house business. Each advancement, increased her income. As she came to understand the art trade and its wealthy customers, with her extra money, she began to dabble herself in purchasing some of the less expensive art.
She left the Sotheby’s job to begin working for a private art dealer who had noticed her at Sothebys. This new job sometimes sent her on international trips to arrange art deals, giving her more knowledge of the art market, increasing her income, and allowing her more interaction with the very wealthy art buyers.
Eventually, with the nest egg she had saved, Lacey was able to set up her own gallery and be in business for herself. Things really began to look up for Lacey, but soon the boom and bust cycles of the art industry began to complicate her life.
I found the descriptions of the extremely wealthy art buyers and the fluctuations of the art business, one of the most interesting parts of the novel. At one point, Lacy was sent on a commuter train with a $150,000 painting to deliver to a buyer, but as she got out of the taxi at the purchaser’s house, the owner come running out, telling her not to come any closer, and to go back to New York City with the painting. It seems that if she had delivered the painting to the new owner’s house, he would have to pay $10,000 in sales tax, whereas if it was shipped by a reputable carrier, the sales tax would not apply.
It was interesting to see how fickle the price of art is. Early on, Lacy bought herself a small rather uninteresting, Andy Warhol print of some flowers, for $16,000, Sometimes later, after Warhol’s famous print of Marilyn Monroe sold for $11 million dollars, all of the other Warhol’s prints, including Lacey’s, skyrocketed in price, even though her’s really wasn’t very attractive, and was exactly the same print it was when Lacey purchased it.
Shortly after Lacy bought her gallery, which really strained her finances, and days before her grand opening, 911 happened, and all of New York City and its art market was stopped in its tracks. Lacy really struggled, but fortunately the art market rebounded rather quickly and she began to do well.
Years later, she decided to upscale and move her gallery to a better location, again pushing her finances to the brink. This time, just as she was about to open, the 2008 stock market crash occurred. which dried up the art market.
Midway through the novel, Lacey had asked Daniel to come to one of Sotheby’s art auctions and keep bidding on a painting, until she signaled, Daniel questioned whether it was legal, and Lacey assured him that it was, so he did it. However, later in the novel, the FBI became involved, investigating the bid, and as a result, Lacey’s reputation as an honest broker dissolved, destroying her business, and Dan, because of his involvement, felt Lacey had betrayed their friendship, and also caused his relationship with another woman, who he who he really loved, and had hoped to marry, to come crashing to an end, because she no longer saw Dan as an honest person.
The storyline of the novel was rather slow moving, but I did really enjoy all of the insights into the high-level art market, which was fascinating.
View my paintings: davidmarchant2.ca
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