Chapter 3: The Fair

• I really enjoyed the part where she talks about the relentless boom in the art Markey is a topic of conversation.  “When is the bubble going to burst?” “We can’t answer that question here?” Then an older collector said, “Nothing goes on and on” he then goes on to talk about how he has spent two million dollars in collecting. The one line that really resonated in my mind was, “A bubble misunderstands the economic realities,” “only a century ago, no one had a car. Now people have two or three. That’s the way it’s going with art.”  Which is very true to our times now. For example, back in the 60’s the new technology that was sweeping the nation was for a house to have one TV. Nowadays besides the 10 TV’s in your house and car, your phone is also a TV. Which just shows how commodity has been forced down the consumers throat to the point of no return
• I thought it was funny when she talked about how tight the security was that the Art Basel even had its own Jasper John in the form of Seglot. AN unmistakable Frenchman with the extravagant helmet of hair transformed himself, with the help of Hollywood makeup artist, into a bald man entered the fair on a shipper’s pass. Basically pulling a mission impossible scheme to slip into the fair. But it’s all rumors, according to the phone call she makes. 
• Another part I enjoyed was when she was introducing LA gallery collectors Blum & Poe. One of their artists used to call them “Double or Nothing” referring to their symbiotic relationship and the confused setup of the gallery’s early days. When I told Blum, a catholic boy from Orange County, that a rival dealer had complained that there was “way too much dude” in the gallery, he shrugged and said, “I guess they mean we’re macho, testosterone-driven, hard drinkin’. Yeah well, we’re raw.” This kind of makes me think of this art fair as like a total male infested Frat Party that advertises itself has a great time to meet girls. And when you get there, hoping to meet someone cute and nice, you are greeted by a bunch of Vienna sausages. 
• When she talked about Blum explaining the installation of Takashi Murakami’s 727-727 painting really made me believe this book as more fiction than just a non-fiction account of the art world. It was like she was foreshadowing the chapter about Murakami and how hard Takashi worked on the painting leading to many of his staff to quit. 
• I liked the part about how she talks about The Ruebells a Miami based collector group, and how beside the art they collected from the 1960’s they are more interested in “emergent” art. She says this is a term that is indicative of the changing times. I liked how people in the 1980’s got uncomfortable with the word avant-garde, causing them to use the euphemism cutting-edge. This makes me laugh that because they didn’t want to seem like old farts they needed to adapt to the basic theme of the 80s, which was to make up new and more interesting names to describe older movements to make them seem fresh. 
• I thought it was funny when she asked the couple if she could shadow them through the fair to observe their buying. They freak out at her screaming, “Absolutely not!” “That’s like asking to come into our bedroom” further supporting the thought that people are crazy about collecting art. 
• The part where she asked Poe who bought the Takashi painting and after he says he cant tell her she asks how much it was bought for. “One point two million, but officially one point four.” She then talks about the discrepancy between the real price and the PR price, which is, a embellishment compared to the shamless whoppers told by other dealers. It reminds me of the way that someone would advertise that there product grossed more money than it actually did or set their price at a ridiculous level, to either convince consumers to buy it because if they have the money they think they are part of an elite group or scare the competition into matching the price or just quit the race.