Curated Resources to Help You

I've always been an avid reader.  And there seems no shortage of books that help inform my appraisal practice .  Along with book titles I am also sharing tools of the trade that will help you start and manage your art collection.  Full disclosure: As an affiliate, I receive compensation if you purchase through the links below.

The Appraisal Foundation offers free consumer friendly brochures about the personal property appraisal process.

Let's explore Alan Bamberger's The Art of Buying Art: How to Evaluate and Buy Art Like a Professional Collector for a good overview to get started.  Also check out the case studies and reflections in Charles Moore's The Black Market: A Guide to Art Collecting.

My go-to text is Jean-Baptiste Bacquart's The Tribal Arts of Africa.  Accessible, seminal, and great photography. This book documents African American collectors of African art.

The evolution of my study in African American art began with it's history, African American Art (Patton) and Black Art: A Cultural History (Powell), and evolved to Collecting African American Art (Taha).  Today, you'll want to keep abreast of collections focusing on young black artists (Sargent) abstract art (Joyner Giuffrida) and leading museum collections (Studio Museum of Harlem).

I tend to stick with the survey text in American art for quick reference but this recent book on collecting and connoisseurship of American art is intriguing.

I continue to support the work of The Toussaint L'Ouverture Foundation whose Save a Museum project funds the repair of the Musee d'Art Haitien.  Recent surveys of the Afro-Atlantic include contemporary Haitian art.  The work of Haitian masters are firmly documented.  And publications on sequined drapo and artists from Potoprens are the focus of new scholarship.