If watching Antique Roadshow has taught me anything, it’s this: Buy art at garage sales. The tackier, the better. If you come across a shaky painting of a cat toying with a ball of yarn, buy it. If you stumble across a picture of a boy dressed in 1700’s attire, buy it. If you find a painting of a naked woman feeding grapes to her dog, it’s probably worth something…at least travel on down to Texas and make an appearance on Roadshow with it, because I wanna see that painting!
While people like me have to limit our art buying to Posters.com and the garage sale next store, there are a few lucky individuals who trade and buy art in a very exclusive market. It can be sleazy, buying and selling under the table, trading and borrowing on a wing and a prayer, and taking out insurance policies upwards of ten thousand dollars to secure the safe travel of a unique Monet or Pallock.
If you’ve ever been interested in the underworld of art dealings, you’ve got to check out An Object of Beauty, written by funny man (and art enthusiast) Steve Martin.
Lacey Yeager, Martin’s strong willed and sassy protagonist in An Object of Beauty, is a woman we all know. Young, captivating, sexy, and ambitious, Lacey stops at nothing to secure her spot at the top of her trade…doing anything and everything possible to take the NYC art world by storm. Through a mash up of successes and failures, Lacey works her way up the corporate ladder, charming men and women with her charisma and liveliness.
As Lacey continues to learn and grow, we begin to see the workings of this upper class society and come to learn that it may not be as glamorous as it seems.
Sprinkled with full color images of famous art pieces discussed in the book, An Object of Beauty is just that…a beautiful book to look at and read…and an interesting look into a way of life that, like most art, is never what it seems to be.
Looking for a new book to read? Check in every Friday for a “Bee Happy” post, where I share reviews of books I’ve read or other book-themed lists.
The Hob-bee Hive 