Rating: 
Summary: The author must be ...
Review: I read this book on the red eye flight from San Francisco to New York hoping it would put me to sleep. It kept me up like NYC garbage truck at 3am.The author is a snob, beyond belief. His tone is condescending at best. It is like a bad gossip column where he seems to ... on everyone else without ever taking a moment for self reflection. The common denominator in all his dealings is him so I suggest rather than point out everyone else's foibles take a good look in the mirror. And for god's sake where was his editor? There are moments that are funny but in general I felt embarrassed for this guy. Yes some of his observations rang true but his "insider" point of view is obvious at best. I felt like I was being told by a self proclaimed "expert" that the sky was blue. ..P>If you want an interesting read on the art world of the 1980's read Post-To Neo, The Art World of the 1980's by Calvin Tomkins. Now that was an interesting read that actually had some research in it. Also a good book on art and art making is Making It New: Collected Essays and Writings of Henry Geldzahler
Rating:
Summary: The author must be ...
Review: I read this book on the red eye flight from San Francisco to New York hoping it would put me to sleep. It kept me up like NYC garbage truck at 3am. The author is a snob, beyond belief. His tone is condescending at best. It is like a bad gossip column where he seems to ... on everyone else without ever taking a moment for self reflection. The common denominator in all his dealings is him so I suggest rather than point out everyone else's foibles take a good look in the mirror. And for god's sake where was his editor? There are moments that are funny but in general I felt embarrassed for this guy. Yes some of his observations rang true but his "insider" point of view is obvious at best. I felt like I was being told by a self proclaimed "expert" that the sky was blue. ..P>If you want an interesting read on the art world of the 1980's read Post-To Neo, The Art World of the 1980's by Calvin Tomkins. Now that was an interesting read that actually had some research in it. Also a good book on art and art making is Making It New: Collected Essays and Writings of Henry Geldzahler
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful lnsight into the Art World
Review: I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction because I find at times the text to be dry and boring but I was so pleasantly surprised when I read this book! As a student of art history, I knew very little about the actual dealings that go on behind closed doors in galleries and auction houses, so this book was a wonderful eye-opener. This is not just a book about Polsky's quest to purchase his own Warhol but it is about the crazy personalities and deals that go on in the art world.
This is a great book that gives a lot of information on Warhol himself and the kind of struggle one might face if thinking of buying a contemporary art piece. A must read for any art enthusiast!
Rating: 
Summary: Art is crass commercialism, isn't it?
Review: I've been on an Andy Warhol kick lately; I go through cyclical periods where I review his Diaries and read a book or two written about Warhol. This was my latest find and it was very enjoyable with a novel premise: Polsky's story is about his pursuit of buying an Andy Warhol painting. Polsky recounts meeting Warhol briefly in 1986, shortly before Warhol's death when he purchased a "minor" painting. With engaging prose, Polsky details the ups and downs of the art market in the 1990s. I have to admit that some of Polsky's anecdotes and comments about the art world's top dealers and celebrated artists were embarrassing. It somehow gets tied together nicely, though, as the ever elusive Warhol masterpiece darts in and out of Polsky's hands.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book!
Review: If you have ever wanted to work in the Art World, or better yet collect fine art, then this is the book for you! Polsky travels from San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York AND to Pittsburgh (home of the Warhol Museum) buying and trading Warhol's along the way. In one chapter he's at an Art Auction in NYC, in the next he's visiting an artist at his studio. His search for the perfect Warhol for his own collection makes the book exciting and quick paced. Read it and that's flat.
"Everything is beautiful. Pop is everything."
Andy Warhol
Rating:
Summary: The Profit Speaks
Review: In the Dark Ages, pilgrims wearing the cockleshell of St. James roamed Europe hoping to glance the true relics of Saints. Richard Polsky, an art dealer/collector who opened his first art gallery in the roaring 1980's makes his twentieth century pilgrimage in $300.00 Belgian shoes, burning up cash and frequent flier miles in his quest to purchase a Warhol Self-Portrait, a prize equivalent to a skull of St. John the Baptist. Along the way, he visits the toilet stall where St. Jackson Pollock once did pennance, is baptized in the Pacific by art dealer James Corcoran, and even scores a brief audience with Pope Andy. Polsky, whose art market guides rate artists like blue chip stocks (buy, sell, hold) is a shrewd observer of capitalist systems, and a nice guy: a rarity in the often cut throat world of art dealing. This entertaining book chronicles and lovingly caricatures the author's quest for the seemingly contradictory goals of wealth and transcendence in a material world.
Rating:
Summary: Picaresque to a fault
Review: Richard Polsky is an endearing clown who is constantly taken advantage of and browbeaten by sharper operators. His book details his ten year search of the perfect Warhol, and is fairly persuasive regarding the artisric merit of the late self-portraits he calls the "Fright Wigs." There's a particularly virulent one on the cover of his book. The antics of the art dealers he encounters are fit for "The Bonfire of the Vanities," and you will want to slap a few of them silly should you run into them shortly after being introduced to them in the pages of Polsky. Most people, he tells us, suffer from low self-esteem, but to a man (or woman), gallerists suffer from "high self-esteem," i.e. they think they're better than they actually are. Polsky paints himself as a man in over his head, and comparisons to Woody Allen have been made, but a better comparison might be Larry David . . . it's as if "Curb Your Enthusiasm" was set in the high-priced world of contemporary visual art . . . just as vulgar, crass and profane.
Rating:
Summary: Picaresque to a fault
Review: Richard Polsky is an endearing clown who is constantly taken advantage of and browbeaten by sharper operators. His book details his ten year search of the perfect Warhol, and is fairly persuasive regarding the artisric merit of the late self-portraits he calls the "Fright Wigs." There's a particularly virulent one on the cover of his book. The antics of the art dealers he encounters are fit for "The Bonfire of the Vanities," and you will want to slap a few of them silly should you run into them shortly after being introduced to them in the pages of Polsky. Most people, he tells us, suffer from low self-esteem, but to a man (or woman), gallerists suffer from "high self-esteem," i.e. they think they're better than they actually are. Polsky paints himself as a man in over his head, and comparisons to Woody Allen have been made, but a better comparison might be Larry David . . . it's as if "Curb Your Enthusiasm" was set in the high-priced world of contemporary visual art . . . just as vulgar, crass and profane.
Rating: 
Summary: A Man With A Blue Chip On His Shoulder
Review: Self-absorbed and superficial, Richard Polsky travels from coast to coast in search of people to annoy and complain about while trying to come off as a serious art dealer. His big "insider" anecdotes are so dull and removed from the art world action of the last two decades that you almost feel sorry for him. But how can you feel sorry for anyone so idiotic that they would take the time to travel to the Jackson Pollock Foundation and sneak into the upstairs private toilet, so he could drop his pants and experience the sensation of sitting on Jackson Pollock's "personal" toilet? It's You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again as written by George Costanza.
Rating:
Summary: Reading it right now.....slowly
Review: This is a great book! I am in the process of reading it right now and taking my time because I don't want it to end. This is a must for anyone who is a collector of contemporary art - or anyone that is hoping to soon become a collector (like myself). Thanks for the insight and enjoyment Richard!
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