Credit Sarah Illenberger
In The New York Times Book Review’s first-ever Art Issue, Holland Cotter reviews four new books and surveys the 21st-century art world. Mr. Cotter writes:
Everyone says the art world has changed, which is true, though your view of how, and how much, will depend on your entry point. Mine was long ago, in the early 1970s, when New York City was utterly unlike the High Line town of today. It was on the verge of bankruptcy. Physically, Manhattan was unraveling at the seams, and “urban renewal” had trashed vast stretches of the other boroughs, leaving working-class residents, many of them new immigrants, marooned.
The commercial art world, confined to Manhattan, was small. Galleries numbered in the high dozens to very low hundreds, with the newest ones in a still raw SoHo. A critic could do a comprehensive sweep in one hard-working day. Rents in Manhattan were doable. Most artists lived there, sometimes upstairs from the galleries they showed in. The social pool was small. You could pretty much fit the whole demographic into two downtown bars on a Saturday night.
On this week’s podcast, Mr. Cotter talks about his review; Alexandra Alter has notes from the publishing world; Jonathon Keats discusses two new books about art theft and forgeries; questions from readers; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.