ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the rising market value of Pop art against the falling value of European art in parallel to the “fall of Paris” as the world’s cultural capital. It cites the American critic Harold Rosenberg to support the idea that New York had taken Paris’s place. Paris, July—Paris has ceased to be the world’s center of painting, and the French, who were a little slow on the uptake, are now truly infuriated at the Americans for stealing their first place from them. Paris is not only in decline as center of creativity; it is losing its primacy as an art market, too. French art lovers have always been conservative in their purchases, even of Impressionist paintings, meaning that French art dealers’ best customers for modern works have always been American. Art is currently flowering in New York because New York is a kind of international city. It is a momentary coming together of Art from all over the world.
