E-Book Overview
Roger Fry, a core member of the Bloomsbury Group, was involved with all aspects of the art market as artist, critic, curator, historian, journalist, advisor to collectors, and gallery operator. He is especially remembered as the person who introduced postimpressionist art to Britain.
Reprinted in this volume are seventeen of Fry's works on commerce in art. Although he had no formal training in economics, Fry addressed the art market as a modern economist might do. It is therefore fitting that his writings receive here an original interpretation from the perspective of a modern economist, Craufurd D. Goodwin. Goodwin explores why Fry's work is both a landmark in the history of cross-disciplinary thought and a source of fresh insights into a wide range of current policy questions.
The new writings included contain Fry's most important contributions to theory, history, and debates over policy as he explored the determinants of the supply of art, the demand for art, and the art market institutions that facilitate exchange. His ideas and speculations are as stimulating and provocative today as when they were written.
"A fascinating selection of essays by one of the twentieth century's most thoughtful and stimulating critics. Goodwin's introduction sets the stage beautifully, providing useful links to Veblen and Keynes." --D. E. Moggridge, University of Toronto
"Art and the Market uncovers new connections between aesthetics and art in the Bloomsbury Group. . . . Goodwin adds significantly to the understanding of cultural economics in the work of Fry himself as well as J. M. Keynes and even Leonard and Virginia Woolf." --S. P. Rosenbaum, University of Toronto
"All those interested in the arts and economics, and their connections, will be delighted by this collection, as will be students of Bloomsbury." --Peter Stansky, Stanford University
Craufurd D. Goodwin is James B. Duke Professor of Economics, Duke University.
E-Book Content
Art and the Market Art and the Market Roger Fry on Commerce in Art Selected Writings, Edited and with an Interpretation Crazifurd D. Goodwin Foreword by Asa Briggs Ann Arbor Copyright © by the University of Michigan I998 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press @) Printed on acid-free paper 200I 2000 I999 4 3 2 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A ClP catalog recordfor this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fry, Roger Eliot, I866-I934. Art and the market: Roger Fry on commerce in art / selected writings, edited and with an interpretation by Craufurd D. Goodwin p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-472-I0902-2 (cloth: alk. paper) I. Art-Marketing. 2. Fry, Roger Eliot, I866-I934. I. Goodwin, Craufurd D. W. II. Title. N8600 .F78 I999 70I' .oJ-ddc2I Frontispiece: Roger Fry by Duncan Grant, chalk c. I9I5. Estate of Duncan Grant. (Courtesy of Henrietta Garnett.) ISBN13 978-0-472-10902-9 (cloth) ISBN13 978-0-472-02342-4 (electronic) ,,4I_-~" To analyse, to explain, to theorise had for him an irresistible fascination. -Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry: A Biography [His] mind was invincibly experimental and ready for any adventure, however far it might lead him beyond the boundaries of academic tradition .. the impulse to theorize, to expound ideas, was rooted in his mind. - Kenneth Clark, introduction to Last Lectures by Roger Fry Roger Fry was what Bacon calls "a