High Price: Art Between the Market and Celebrity Culture (Sternberg Press) Paperback – April 3, 2009

Despite some unfortunate turns into opaque art-academic vocabulary(well,she is German) this is a detailed and powerfull critique of the modern art world which deserves to be taken very seriously. For someone so embedded in this world, Graw takes no prisoners and does no favours.....she is unlikely to be on Damien Hirst's Christmas card list anytime soon!Her critique of his diamond skull-weak art given weight by it's huge cost of manufacture-is true of much of his work!I got my copy for free but it's worth buying!!!!!!

This is easily the most important book on the market right now for anyone that is immersed in the field of contemporary art, whether as a dealer, artist or collector. Isabelle Graw delivers a fascinatingly rich and highly astute take on current and driving forces of art, covering a broad range of territory. I don't know how she managed to pull together something so succinct, compelling and readable (yes, it may have a slight academic tone to it but it's really very, very well constructed), it really stands as a singular work that defines what the business of has evolved into today. I don't know how much traction she's managed to attain with the book so far, I imagine it's not been super visible, but it really stands above almost all of the recent literature that has come out in the last decade that attempts to explain various aspect within the realm of contemporary art. I couldn't put it down.

This is an excellent book. I'm having my students read it.

The topic is fascinating and the book looks well constructed in terms of areas covered but something appears to have been lost in translation from what I can assume from the author's background is a book originally produced in her native German. This is going to be a long but hopefully worthwhile read if I can get past the somewhat clumsy and overly complex grammar.

Perfect for my essay, very interesting. Arrived in great condition as promised.