The Black Market: A guide to art collecting

Charles Moore’s brilliant blueprint reveals the inner workings of the sophisticated moiety that make up the Black artists in the contemporary art world. Moore encourages collecting books, visiting exhibitions, and learning about art and culture before starting a collection. His revelations provide the blueprint to entering the elitist’s world of art galleries, art museums, art auctions, and art fairs. “Buy what you love,” is often the advice given to would-be collectors. Moore agrees but encourages collectors to understand the economics of owning art. He breaks down the importance of financial milestones like “Diddy Revealed as the Buyer of Kerry James Marshall’s Record-Breaking $21 Million Painting.” Stories include, dealers like Alitash Kebebe, round out some of the spotlights on the what it was like in the 80s and 90s for the art market of Black artists. Now collectors like Hill Harper, Keith Rivers, and Elan Nieves are rewriting history by building a legacy with their collection of art by Black artists and drawing on a series of mulishly constructed interviews with artists, collectors, art advisors, and artists; the author charts the voracious commodification of contemporary art and the position that Black art is forging in the history books.